How about if we get every elected congressional representative and senator in the USA to agree for a week that they are out of work (no accessing your bank account except for $100, and no trust funds, preppies). You have no clothes except what you’re wearing and no toothbrush or shaving kit. You must to go through the paperwork of COBRA/HIPAA, fill out your state’s unemployment forms and realize what a paltry sum you’d receive if you really had to be on it, also food stamps and AFDC. Effectively you have no health insurance so will have to go to a public hospital with a sore tooth or a heart attack.
If you agree to do this, you could stay in a one-star motel room on your dime. No car, no staff, no cell phone, no house keys or golf clubs. You would have to find a public phone – good luck. On the fourth day a down-on-his-luck constituent will drop a ten-dollar bill on the sidewalk in front of you and count the seconds ’til you pick it up. He’ll do it because we’ll pay him $20 to do so.
After this experiment is over, it’s on to the next one, working in a factory, but that’s not mine. But you will have to answer to your constituents and make things right after the regulatory debacle that has allowed our banks and manufacturers to fail and your constituents to be out of work.
Today I made the fourth meal out of one $6 chicken (there’s another left). We had soup with most ingredients from our pantry. We are not wanting government assistance, only good work. We are being judicious, I am as head of the household pantry and such, frugal and not profligate. I’m sure we can afford a bit more but it pays to work our way through the pantry if we’re to move quickly to another city and job for my loving husband.
I would like for the people who claim to represent us in government to do more than make speeches. Live our lives. Know what life many of your constituents lead who have lost jobs and can’t find new ones in this depressed economy. Thanks for listening. ‘night now, Dee
Cooking with Dee 
President Obama said today that it was 18.4 billion in bonuses from banks that received billions in taxpayer assistance. Honey, we and our neighbors just bought a trader a Ferrari! Let’s get together and have some velveeta to celebrate.