WASHINGTON, D.C. — Turns out, times are tough for everyone — even politicians.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., tells Politico that she’s saving money by shopping at bargain stores or just doing without.
And she’s not alone, according to the article, headlined “How pols are pinching pennies.” Apparently, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, are also feeling the pinch. Politico reports that Grassley is conserving gas by coasting the last mile and a half when he drives home while Chaffetz just refinanced his house in Utah and is sleeping on a cot in Washington.
How to survive hard times:
“Coasting down hill” when we’re coasting down hill economically as demonstrated by Sen. Grassley, is an old art revisited. But try telling a spouse when he’s racing for a stop light , to coast? Forget it.
Amy Klobucher isn’t spending as much. So? Wow. Sleeping on a cot in a friend’s basement like Rep Chaffetz seems like the greater sacrifice.
It was Woolworth’s Five and Dime, Clarksville, Tennesse in the late fifties (when blacks were still banned from those same lunch counters; yup, that sad time).
I was new to the area but exploring and noticed a couple of old men from the hills around who would come down about every two weeks (according to the lunch counter waitress) with gunny sacks over their shoulders; coming into town to load up supplies and always stopped in, ordered a cereal bowl of mashed potatoes with lots of gravy (sans beef sandwich). Plus a glass of water. They got it all for a quarter and ate slowly savoring, in order to sit a little longer I suppose; rest their bones so their spindly legs could muster the strength to carry them and their full sacks back into the hills.
Try it sometime. Order just mashed potatoes. Lots of gravy please. In one of the finer eating establishments of course. Enjoy the waiter’s response and savor the gravy. That’s not just coasting.
Put a sock in it:
Or I could suggest how some jobless entrepreneur could make a fortune, maybe. Start a new line of hosiery; three socks in a pack. Not two.
You always lose one or the washer chews it up and you’re left with one good sock.
Don’t have to discard it if you got three in a pack.
I bet somebody could make a bundle by simply repackaging, although, since most socks we wear are made in China…how do you convince a sweat shop manager to bag you three socks in a package instead of two? How do you explain you’re not selling your product to a tribe with three feet?…especially if you don’t speak Chinese? Interpreters, interpreters, I know…but then you have to sell it to the people. Better pass on that one.
How about a tin cup on the corner of Hennepin and 8th…or even Pennsylvannia Avenue? And hope for the best.