I am still waiting for President Trump’s remedy to fix Obama Care. He already delighted Wall Street with the possibility of reducing their corporate taxes of thirty-five percent to fifteen percent. I have no problem with that, it will encourage more factories coming back to the United States, which will definitely mean more jobs. However there are those in their later years of life see their income falter, and are at the mercy of insurance companies who determine the end costs for us struggling seniors. Right now I seeing my disabled spouse(Polio) still working so both of us can have affordable health care. It’s a shame that the disabled have to be subjected to a two year waiting period to be eligible  for Medicare. If and when my wife is force to retire, and the reduction of her income. I see no way the both of us can live on social security and the investments that we have. In fact, next year I have to start claiming long term distribution of my investments, thus a twenty five percent reduction.

Tossing and turning at night is not going to me any good. Maybe we can start by suggesting some alternatives, so all Americans can stay healthy, and still build their financial future. As Americans, we spend an estimated three trillion dollars on health care, thats roughly ten thousand dollars per our three hundred million population. I can’t believe that this is a realistic figure in the first place. We need to examine if this figure is real and not just inflated. Insurance companies payout about seventy five percent of the revenues that they receive, I have no problem with that, they are in business to make a profit. The problem I have, why aren’t every one paying their equal share.

Why isn’t President Trump giving his fellow Americans a tax cut like our American corporations. Most of us middle-class are paying about twenty five per cent federal taxes and about four percent state taxes. So here is my suggestion, I will gladly pay my twenty five percent federal tax obligation, but I want to be able to deduct all of my medical insurance bills, and all of my medical bills without having to see if they are over eight percent of my gross income. I also want to be able to deduct all of my credit card interest like I use to do. I am  not an accountant, but if I can save four thousand dollars a year, I think I can afford health insurance for my wife. If everyone tightens their belts, and make a better health care effort, President Trump has the right to say that he wants to make the United States Greater and Healthier. Let’s pray that he can do it.

The big vote in the Senate is the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as our nect Secretary of Education. Sure she has never taught school. or as parent sent her kid to a public school, however  she wants to see children in the United States get a good solid education. Look at our inner schools like Chicago, they are a Disaster. We have big educational problems, and it seems that to day schools are babysitters. Are we preparing our students to succeed  in there future years?

——to be continued——–

It was a typical Sunday for both me and my wife, Teresita. Ww had an early breakfast so we head over to our Holy Trinity in Westmont, Illinois for our choir practice before the nine o’clock mass. Our choir is very small to say the least, maybe we had twelve members to day, and most of us carry an AARP membership card in our wallet. We are dedicated to our lord Jesus Christ, and all what matters. The are more empty seats than singers, maybe this posting might attract some new members, well anyway it’s Super Bowl Sunday, a day we can put Donald Trump to rest for one day and route for our favorite team, or even better win a big Super Bowl Pool, no matter what most of us with the big game for the half time show and the commercials. A Big Yeah to the New England Patriots!

As I reached for the TV remote, I accidentally went to my local CBS station,  60 minutes, and for some strange coincidence they were broadcasting a segment on the Sistine’s Choir, better known as “The Pope’s Choir”, wow here we have one of the oldest choir in existence, consisting of twenty male adults (ten tenors, and ten bases) and thirty male youngster( tensors and sopranos), I was startled by their sound, as one person stated, all they were missing were their wings(angels), it was like Jesus telling that with a little more practice, hopefully if I get to Heaven, I might be able to sound like one of their bases.

Their sound and devotion are incredible., however I could not believe what was entering on my screen, a Viagra commercial, was this for real, or was this a joke, I almost wanted to call the TV station for showing such poor taste, if this was not to add injury to my Super Bowl Sunday, up came a CIALIS commercial. This certainly have been such a challenging month with  our new president wanting to build a wall around Mexico and ban seven Muslim countries from entering the United States, but  what I witnessed to day, certainly goes to the top of my list of being distasteful.

With all the news about changing the Dodd-Frank laws in our financial institutions, particularly to the banking sector, there is a sector that is very crucial for the every day financial existence for millions of Americans, are the equity loans. like myself with health issues, I literally had to be locked down as an over-the-counter camera salesman, for not very much money, for the pure sake to have health insurance that would cover all of my pre-existing medical conditions(Cerebral Palsy. The only way I could attain my American dream, owning a house in the suburbs, two cars, and a health club membership was to take out a pretty large size equity loan, I was able to get rid of a lot credit card debt, and start catching up on some sleepless nights.

I thought I was on the right path of financial stability, wrong, I took what look like a pretty straight thirty year loan with a low interest rate at first, perhaps a coup;e of more rate increases in the next couple of years. What I did not expect, and I swear that it was never pointed out that after ten years, 120 months, I would have to make accelerated payments, huh, for the next twenty years, 240 payments, thus doubling my loan payment. I have already have seen two quarter of a point increases. Sure I can refinance this equity loan, but it will cost me, if I can refinance at the age of seventy around $2500.00.

I wish some of our stock market gurus would keep their mouths shut about we need the Federal Reserve  to raise interest rates. Tell these money hot shots to stick to their Monday night foot ball analysis’s.

We need to have President Trump, who is also seventy years old, to have some compassion for us  “Old Geysers” , eliminate the accelerated requirements on equity loans after ten years, and also to eliminate distributions of retirement funds starting at the age of 70 1/2.

All I want to do is to enjoy my remaining years, blogging and hopefully leave enough money that can make a difference in my family’s future.

Hopefully pur country, particularly The Federal Reserve, and The Congress can think about a “Good Frank” Act for us deserving Seniors.

It’s enough that I spend most of my wakening life either on my cell phone, tablet and my Mac laptop, or should I just say I am hooked on the INTERNET? You would think that being at the age of seventy, I should either be swimming at my local La Fitness with many of my fellow old geysers, getting a job as a greeter at WalMart, or volunteer at hospital. Nope, I like to get up in the morning have a little bit of coffee, half of a banana , and a hard boiled, and power up my three electronic devices. I usually begin with my tablet, and play a little Candy Saga Crunch, it’s my new bowling league, cost me a few dollars each week, but at least I don’t have to rent someone else bowling shoes, at my age hauling a sixteen pound bowling ball, is no longer a treat, besides, I can brag that I reached level 1348 this week, maybe I can reach level 2000 and have that as my epitaph.

After my Candy Saga adventure, I go to my cell phone,check my messages, and then go to my audible library either on www.scrbd.com, or www.audible.com to listen to “Wall Street Journal”, and listen to a few listenings on “The New York Times”.Each month I try to listen to one of The New York Times Best Sellers, this month is John Grisham’s “The Whisper”.

Starting to get a little bit hungry, reach for some snacks before I see what’s on my Mac. Check my emails, [email protected], then go to my Facebook page at Howard Silvers, some postings, and birthday wishes, and maybe sneak in a couple more Candy Saga games, My Vegas, and QBet Casino. After that I check the stock market on Bloomberg, and Seeking Alpha. One day I am rich, the next is another story.

It’s lunch , and pill time. I wish someone would have warn me that the older you get the more pills that have to go into one’s body, oh yeah I already brushed my teeth, shaved and took a bath. fellow However I have a fellow seventy year old person that I have added to my daily ritual, President Donald J. Trump. To tell you the truth, I was not a really a Twitter person, but now I cannot get enough of “The Donald”, you never know what he is going to say, who is he targeting, and who is he going to piss off. Even right now as I am writing on my www.howiemaui.com blog, I see that President Trump just tweeted “Countries charge U.S. Companies taxes or tariffs while the U.S. charges them nothing or little. We should charge them Same as they charge us!” very cool to know the President is talking to me as his other 23.5M Tweeters, and not even costing him a single cent. Can you imagine how much money we could raise for health care each day if he had to pay a dollar to reach his 23.5M FELLOW TWEETERS, $165,000,000.00 a week for one Tweet, and $8.5Billion dollars for the whole year, wow, maybe we should make it mandatory that as President of the The United States, he must post at least fifty Tweets a day, that one way to come up with 400 Billion dollars to solve our health care problem. It sounds almost impossible, right, nope, if we put it to our elected officials that they do not pass our new Presidential Tweeter Bill, they will be required to pay one dollar for every Tweet, posting on Facebook, SnapChat or just sending or receiving an email, unless this bill gets passed.

For now I am going to enjoy my electronic toys, and most of all when I do go out, I can put my phone where it belongs. I am very contented that my cell phone, and President Donald J. Trump are in my back pants pocket.

Very few of us want to talk about death, however it’s the one process of life that Everyone have in common. For myself I try not to figure out, and hope that Jesus will take care of me, and showed me that believing in him, his virtues have prepared me for eternity. I find it very hard that my seven decades of breathing and heart ticking has gone so fast. Like many, I mis my mom and dad, I feel that there was not enough time to learn about their lives, I was so anxious to grow up, graduate high school, and college, get a job, and finally get married. Unfortunately I do not have any children. For now, I have to accept the fact that I am retired, and many of my projects, should be classified as my hobbies. I have been very fortunate to be able to collect social security, have medical insurance, and some moderate investments. I have a beautiful wife, who is so devoted, and hopefully she can finally retire this year.  Every day I try to reflect on my life if I made better financial decisions, but I did find some one who is like my older brother, Ronald G. Wayne, the third founder of the Apple Computer Company, after twelve days trying to work with Steve Jobs, and trying to explain the right engineer procedures for making a computer, (and other financial considerations), he decided it was not the right path for him. Sure if didn’t leave the Apple Computer Company, he would of amassed a fortune of perhaps $125,000.00 dollars,(just guessing, he has shown me as the rest of the world, that money can’t buy living eternity of this earth. Mr. Wayne warned Steve Jobs not to go to India, you don’t speak the language, and most likely will get sick, probably where first got ill that eventually got sick, and led to his pancreas cancer. He also told him that he probably will get disappointed if he discovered who is father is(Jon Jandali-Syria). Steve did meet his biological sister, author, Mona Simpson.  It does not matter, to dwell on life. Many times I beat myself, and I accept it as being normal. even this morning talking to  Mister Wayne, he is in his eight decade of life, we talked about President Trump, had a few laughs, and both agreed that perhaps we should engrave on our tom stones.

—————————-“At Least We Tried”——————————–

To be continued.

About two years ago, a friend of mine bragged about that he didn’t to need health insurance, he eats healthy, exercises daily, and does not drink alcohol, besides he is only one year away from going on medicare. Sure guy, the one element you forgot to mention is the stress of going through a divorce, and not being able to spend enough times with your teenage children(STRESS). Two weeks later he suffered a stroke, and his life to a complete turn around. At first he couldn’t remember his name, he had limited motion in one arm, and had to learn how to walk all over again. He was right about one think, one of many years have gone by and did get to apply for Medicare, he had to change his life style, he had to sell his big suburban home, his experimental airplane, his car, his camera equipment, and most of all he has to learn his life all over again.

I am sure there many Americans thinking that they are healthy as a horse, do they ever stop to think that maybe healthy horses have enough sense to go to a Veterinarian. We don’t need to go to a doctor on a regular basis anymore, we just have to go to our favorite CVS or Walgreens and buy our over the counter medication, and maybe they might even have a blood pressure machine, to see how their tickers is doing. Being seven decades old I can tell you now, that I am taking more pills than ever, and even with good insurance, I am spending close to a thousand dollars a year for my meds. Every time I  have to spend over twenty dollars one one of my prescriptions, it gives me one reason to not go out to a restaurant.

The main point I am trying to make, is that with Donald Trump’s wanting to revamp Obama Care and our health care system, our country better start breaking into their piggy banks, or start helping their country by taking better care of them selves. Spend the money that you would spend on the to fix your automobile, going to the beauty parlor, going out to eat more than twice a month, buying new clothes every week at the mall, having to have a new cell phone every year, and maybe live at home for a coup;e of years longer, so you can save enough money to get healthy.

There are two facts that I finally I just recently got me start thinking about our failing heath care system, the first one is that we spend an average of ten thousand dollars per each of the three hundred million people that live in the United States, that a whopping three trillion dollar medical night mare, thats roughly twenty per-cent of the country’s GNP, the second thing that I think most American workers din’t realize, that the petty $300.00 a month that is deducted from your pay check just partially covers the fifteen hundred monthly premium that your employer also has to pay.

So how are we going to keep from going to a system of socialized medicine, and still keep a respectable portion of our pay checks? We need to go to a doctor more often, and make a better attempt to stay healthy, learn from your past family history. I am not a Doctor, just a seventy year old BLOGGER, however I would love to make it easier d for my prime family physician, and have him diagnose me or I should say when I am medically fine-tuned and a lot healthier for my annual checkup. Lets see if we can to our local Cosco, Meijer, and Walmart and see if they can  start having clinics staff with medical doctors and nurses to just to monitor our vitals, and direct us if we are taking  correct medical paths for staying healthy.  If my friend would of just visit a doctor and maybe just spend just a couple of hundred dollars for a check up, he would be living a normal life today, and saved the government the $100,000.00 they had to spend on his rehabilitation.

I hope we can get President Trump to start spending the money that he wants to spend around the Mexico borders, and think about spending some of this money at his local COsco, Meijer or Walmart.

I just read the credentials of President’s Trump Supreme Court Nomination, Neil Gorsuch, very impressive, University College, Oxford, Columbia University, University of Oxford, Harvard University, and Harvard Law School, an outdoor man, only forty nine years old, an American judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and even clerked for two years for Supreme Court Justice Byron White.  However his biggest deterrent is that he is being nominated by President Trump right after he executed a ban on Muslims from seven countries.

Why in hell is President Trump is not using his head? He is alienating so many of his fellow Americans, but for one forty nine year old judge, I think you better wait you turn to be a Supreme Court Justice, until your boss can put some smiley faces on many of his constitutionalists.

———————–to be continued————————————–

I am not trying to be an anti-Trump Blogger, I respect the fact that President Trump beat the odds, and surprised many of us Americans and became our forty-fifth President of The United States(POTUS). However in the last two weeks he certainly has raises the eyebrows of many of us with his plan to build a gigantic wall around Mexico and stop the immediate entrance of many Muslims people fro seven countries, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, and Somalia, however it is almost like Hitler telling the German people that the Jews are the reason for their impoverished conditions.

President Trump probably thinks, that this immigration ban on Muslims, will keep the ISIS extremists from entering the United States, what he is really doing is putting more gasoline on their fire. Attack someone’s beliefs, will be many catalysts of violence through out the world. Is President Trump going to take the responsibility of a devastating act of violence?  We can only pray that this will not happen. By relieving his acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, who certainly has better educational credentials than President Trump, graduated magna cum laude, with a J.D. from the University of Georgia School(1986), just shows us that he didn’t first ask her that does he have the governmental right to execute a Muslim ban. Her denial of his order most likely was based on it’s legality foundation as well as the ethical obligation of the United States.

Our balance of trade with the rest of the world depends on the co-operation of every nation, trillions of dollars of trade is affected by what the United Staters does. You would think that President Trump and his Republican party would take this in consideration, before they tarnish our country’s image. Is he asking the right questions? If not, what is he trying to accomplish? I can see he wants to make America “Greater”, but it is already a Great country, a better country, I am afraid not, we don’t have to worry every day about what our President has done today.

I have been anxiously waiting for President Trump’s alternative to Obama Care. You would think that the Republicans would already have a plan ready to go, most likely they know that their health plan will probably put tens of millions of Americans in Harm’s Way. I surely hope not, at seventy years old I don’t think I can handle any more financial responsibilities.

Please President Trump, can’t you be more pragmatic? Put smiles on our faces. Help us preserve our futures, and most of all, let me have a couple of days off to blog about something that does not have to do with POLITICS.

During the early 1960’s when I was a teenager living on the south west side of Chicago, (Marquette Park), one of my big treats was to visit my local Sears Roebuck department store. It’s hard to believe it now some fifty plus years later, that I could live a normal teenage life without a cell phone or a computer. I think the combine income of my parents was just a little over three hundred dollars a week, my dad was a shipping clerk, and my mom was a shoe salesman. I was lucky to get an allowance of ten dollars a week. I did not date much, and what money I had went to my photography hobby.

Where I lived there was the Marquette Bank, the Hi-way Theatre, the Gossage Grill(great cheese burgers), Jack O’Day Shoes where my mom worked, and two blocks away a Sears Roebuck, a great department store that had practically every thing, bicycles, fishing equipment, a camera department, and a clothing department where I would buy that special long sleeve yellow shirt for one of my few dates. I think I paid $3.99 for that shirts. Sears was in essence my Amazon.com, all I had to do is to walk over, usually Friday nights were my favorite.

Recently I went to a Sears, and there were hardly anyone there, the selections were terrible, I was shopping for an electric tooth brush with a built in waterpik. The sales person quoted me a price, and said that they did not have it in stock, but they could UPS it to me. Ok I thought, I needed one for me, and one for my wife, wrong, the smile on my face changed when I saw the twenty dollar shipping charge. Out my cell phone, and I showed the sales person that I could save a lot more money if I make the purchase on amazon.com, she asked her manager about the shipping charge, and there was nothing they could do about it. Looking at my wife, I said I guess I will be making our first purchase on amazon.com.

So on Monday, I went on my computer and ordered my two WaterPik water flosser, with the Sonic Care electric tooth brush. Not only was the shipping was half that of Sears, there was a promotion that if I open up an Amazon credit card account, there would be a discount of close to sixty dollars, I figured it’s worth waiting a week to save that much money.

Close to a week later my Amazon order came, and I was a happy trouper until my electric tooth brush would not retain a charge any more. My wife reminded me that when something is too good of a deal, most of the time it sometimes back fire. Perhaps she was right, and should of just find a store that had it and if something did go wrong, I could take it back, get an exchange or a refund. I was very fortunate, I called WaterPik’s customer service, they very generously told me to keep my defective unit with the accessories, and within five days I would be receiving a brand new unit. My new unit came and I am a happy trouper. This experience saved me a lot of money, I suddenly wish I could have the best of the two worlds.

With the rumors that my childhood store, Sears might be resting on its last set of legs, Craftsman, and Kenmore, might not be able to keep it going. Most of my appliances are Kenmore, and you cannot not beat Sears warranty service. I know I am asking the “Impossible”, could Amazon.com buy Sears, and many other companies that we use to see at our local Malls? “The Amazon Mall”, the cheapest prices, quickest delivery, and a place we can relive our teenage years?