Changes You Need To Consider

Stop buying from BP.  They may or may not be any worse than any other giant oil company, but they are the one that did the damage and will never truly pay the price for the clean up.

Transfer your $ to smaller, community based banks.  They know who you are and actually care about your business.  If you're using Citicorp or Chase or BOA, you are an insignificant number to them, with no clout and no voice.

Stop buying from Walmart.  In 2002/2003 they began a huge national ad campaign, "Buy American", at the same time they began to systematically transfer about 300 billion dollars in purchasing a year overseas.  Sure, they lowered costs, forcing others to follow -  the result is that they decimated manufacturing in this country to our detriment.  I'd rather pay $50 more for a TV and have 6% unemployment.

Stop eating fast food.  If you haven't seen the documentaries or read the books - do so immediately.  You'll never eat another McNugget or fast food burger again.  Read Michael Pollan.  Read Gary Taubes.  Change your diet and become healthier.  The best thing we can all do to combat health care costs is to become healthier.

Stop making excuses for the lunacy of the tea party.  Call it like you see it.  Stop pandering, stop excusing, stop feeling sorry for them, or guilty feeling superior to these dangerous fools.  The real crux of the tea partiers are Ted Kaczynski types, or the tax cheats that haven't filed in 20 years, or the militia members waiting for their chance to shoot some people over their stash of bottled water, or the klan members, neo-nazis, or john birchers - all whom cannot believe we have a black president.  They're a collection of fools, dolts, idiots, reprobates, and low intellect morons that vote against their own self interest.  It's Darwin at his finest - left up to their own devices, they would be extinct in no time.  

This is in no way a condemnation of true conservative philosophy.  People that believe in smaller government, low taxes, few regulations, aggressive foreign policy, etc. have a real basis for those views, and they are defensible positions.  There may be some true conservatives in that party, but they are simply using the fools to promote their agenda.  The problem is, there is no way to control or educate these idiots - so while they may seem to be on your team, they aren't.