The Social Security Administration will stop sending us those paper statements in a money saving move. Good. I always found it depressing to look down the list and say how little money I made over the years. An economist says that the U.S. is going down the same deficit spending path as Greece and Portugal. Ruben Navarrette says the American people have more important things to worry about than a government shutdown. A massive debris field of flotsam that was carried out to sea by the Japanese tsunami is making its way across the Pacific. Some of it will eventually wash ashore on the West Coast. Check out the video of a press conference held in Wisconsin to announce that an entire city was left out of the reported vote totals on election night in the closely watched contest for a seat on that state's supreme court. The new totals give Justice Prosser a 7,000 vote cushion. Charles Krauthammer praises Paul Ryan for his leap of faith in putting together a truly radical document and risking the wrath of the left, like he is already receiving from Paul Krugman. Michael Walsh believes the Ryan budget plan re-opens the debate on the size and scope of the government.