I was sitting in a hotel room in passing time when a story appeared on the tube of an interview with 80 year old woman.

I guess the reporter thought she would make some points by shoving a microphone into the face of the woman who was busy hoeing her garden.

“What do you think about the current economic situation in America today?” inquired the reporter. The woman looked up and quickly replied, “It’s the greatest thing that has happened to our country in decades.”

Stunned, the reporter changed her question slightly and asked again, “Seriously, how has this economic environment impacted you?” Without missing a beat, the woman stopped her garden work, wiped her brow and reiterated her earlier observation. “This could be the best thing that has ever happened in my lifetime.”

Now visibly frustrated, the indignant reporter demanded to know why the little old lady felt like this. This time the old lady rose to her feet, walked up to the woman reporter, took the microphone from her hand and said “Because maybe it will wake Americans to the reality that they must begin to take responsibility for their dumb decisions. It is called accountability!”

How deep is our hole in America today? In short, not one single “official” baby boomer has drawn a nickel of their Social Security retirement benefits yet, and the government tells us that the system is already in a negative cash flow situation.

Social Security’s unfunded liabilities are currently estimated at around $19 trillion and counting and that isn’t the only entitlement program that is in trouble. It is estimated that Medicare has around $89 trillion of unfunded potential liabilities and that the hospital portion is already functionally bankrupt.

This is on my mind lately because I’m coming up on the bewitching hour. In 2014, yours truly will be 65 years old and ready to enjoy those wonderful benefits that I thought would be there for me.

The good news… we’re living longer. The bad news… we’re living longer. Shortly, there will be more people riding in the cart (like yours truly) and less people pulling the cart (like my three sons and their children).

The fact is, health care reform, according to all the experts, has reformed nothing. IRS.GOV reports that 50% of American people earn less than $30,000 per year, which by definition makes them poor. Some 66% of all American people earn less than $50,000 per year. It’s estimated that 47% of all New York City residents are already on Medicaid, a welfare benefit.

Health care reform, according to all the experts, is still in its embryo stage and is already a $1 trillion entitlement… and growing. The new language that the folks in Washington will be shoving down your throats will be masked. The costs of these programs will be passed along in a multitude of ways. We currently call them taxes, but they will be veiled in a herd of new Trojan horses called fees, levies, surcharges, tolls, tariffs and other challenging burdens… you name it.

Guess who is backing all this funny money? The federal government- that’s who! Guess who is the federal government’s banker? Answer: the American taxpayer of today, tomorrow and generations to come.

It has been estimated that by 2018 that some 67.3% of the American people will be financially dependent on the government. No, this is not the end of the world and I really do not mean to be all gloom and doom. These are just the facts.

The truth is, for the first time in America’s history, we may be passing along a lower standard of living to our children and their children and their children unless the mess is fixed.

I confess; I am guilty. I complain about government, but the fact is, I have never been involved in it. I did run for the House of Representatives once, but the voters, in their wisdom, decided I was dumber than the guys in office, so they sent me back home with a sound vote of “no confidence.”

Where do we go from here? Honestly, I do not have answers. All I know is this. I am about to retire in the next five years and I better find a new vocation. My new goal in life is to write trash novels. People seem to bury their brains in that kind of nonsense when the going gets tough. When the going gets tough, us chickens bury ourselves in fiction.

My wife says that most of what I write is fiction anyway. She uses the acronym B-S, but you get my drift. I may as well charge for it and try to make a buck or two. Or perhaps I’ll become a Wal-mart greeter. Now there is a profession that suits my grumpy personality. Boy, are we in big trouble or what?