Chicago was in the news this weekend. The city hosted a huge convention of thousands and thousands of protesters. At the same time, a small group of NATO country leaders met there, too.

These protesters replaced Al Capone and the bootleggers in drawing attention to the city. But give the Chicago police credit; after eighty years of failure they figured out how to solve the problem. Every protester had his own cop.

In addition to these hoodlums, the nurses union was protesting. Now, nobody in the world is more deserving of praise than nurses, so I can’t exactly figure out what they were after. They claim they want a “Robin Hood” tax to be collected every time somebody trades a stock. And they want some of the loot to go into the nurses’ pension fund. So instead of Robin Hood, it should be the Florence Nightingale tax. But I don’t think it will pan out for ‘em because their pension funds are invested in those same stocks that they want taxed every time they are traded.

Bill Clinton jumped up and said reducing the federal debt should be the top priority for the president and Congress. But President Obama is not concerned with debt; remember a couple of years ago he asked Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles to come with a plan. They did and he ignored ‘em. Nobody likes to tell folks how bad their debt is, especially if they want to get re-elected.  I think you’ve got to get people’s attention and then inspire ‘em to solve the problem.

Here’s my plan. President Obama should announce that on July 1 the federal debt will be divided evenly among living Americans. Every man, woman, child, grandchild… everybody gets their share. That’s about $50,000. Ok, now he has their attention. Next he will say, “In October we need to raise it to $55,000. And if you re-elect me, it will soon go to around $70,000.”

You’ll hear a howl like a stuck pig, “What do you mean, I owe $50,000? And soon to be $70,000? If it’s my debt, I want it to go DOWN, not up.”  See, right there the President’s got the answer. He can call in Simpson and Bowles and Congressman Paul Ryan and Boehner and Pelosi and say, honestly, “These folks want their debt reduced. How can we do it?”

Of course the president won’t do that. And I wonder if  Mitt Romney would either. Ron Paul would, but it’s too late for most of these “debt holders” to change their vote.

With this kind of personal debt prospects, that fellow from Facebook would not be the only one moving to Singapore. You would be surprised how many thousands of families, many with unpaid student loans and underwater mortgages, would be planning a one-way trip.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“I was in Chicago. There was a few murders while I was there but not enough to keep up the town’s reputation.”  WA #280, May 6, 1928
“Just passed through Chicago. It’s not a boast, it’s an achievement.” DT #1079, January 9, 1930