The Truth About America's Spending, Debt and Deficits

What's wrong with Kansas (guest post)

LJ WORLD: Opinion: Something’s wrong in Kansas

MAY 09, 2014

This year’s legislative session has come to a fitting end. Revenues in April fell substantially from those that had been projected; Moody’s bond rating service downgraded Kansas bonds, making it more expensive for the state to borrow in the future; the governor blamed the revenue shortfalls on the Obama administration’s fiscal policies; and the honorable members of the Kansas House and Senate approved the budget in spite of the shortfalls with several members stating that they would deal with any problems “next year.”

I am surprised that they weren’t playing Jimmy Buffet songs while they voted and that none of them made a public statement quoting the famous economic maxim “Don’t worry; be happy.” To quote William Allen White, “What’s the matter with Kansas?”

This past legislative session has made it clear that any proper sense of responsibility, fiscal otherwise, has left the capitol building and taken up residence far from Kansas. When I was growing up and forming my own ideas about politics, a political “conservative” was someone who respected the status quo and who eschewed radical change. Republicans were known for their fiscal responsibility, as in Pat Nixon’s venerable “cloth coat.” Senator Dole was known for his willingness and ability to make compromises “across the aisle” in order to ensure that government did its job of serving the people.

This is not what is going on in Topeka any longer. Instead we have legislators who believe that fiscal prudence means only one thing: cutting taxes no matter what the effect on institutions of government and on the public. Our legislators no longer seem to care about facts. Important legislation, like the school finance bill, included radical changes to teacher job security without any serious attempt at fact-gathering or public hearings. Our court system’s funding structures were radically altered, again without fact-gathering or adequate hearings and, very possibly, in contravention of the Kansas Constitution. And, of course, a budget based on inaccurate assumptions and bad economics was passed that very well may not work in six months requiring debilitating interim cuts in state agency budgets. But it’s OK; don’t worry, be happy.

If I sound rather angry, that’s because I am. The business of government is serious. The lives and welfare of Kansans depend upon the actions of the Legislature. Legislators hold office in trust, to serve the people. Legislators bear a heavy burden of responsibility, or at least they should. I have come to believe that a majority of the present Legislature does not care about their responsibilities to the people of Kansas.

Ideology has replaced politics. Ideology has replaced sound economic and fiscal policy. Ideology has replaced common sense. And the people of Kansas let this continue to happen. When will it end? What, indeed, is the matter with Kansas? I think, perhaps, it is time once again to ask this question and to apply some measure of accountability to our elected officials who seem to think that they may do whatever they want without reasonable thought or public input or factual basis for their actions. If we wait much longer to recognize that our legislators are not conservatives, but, instead, are radicals determined to undermine and destroy the social compact under which we have lived for generations, then it may well be too late to save our state.

— Mike Hoeflich, a distinguished professor in the Kansas University School of Law, writes a regular column for the Journal-World.

On the American National Deficit

...and responsible politicians, office holders, government representatives and political parties:

More?   Here you go:

Link: 

Federal Deficit Falls A Shocking 32% Under Obama

Didn't scream about Dubya' but screaming now

Sure, Dubya'--George W. Bush--took us into an unnecessary and nightmarish, arbitrary war and gave tax cuts to the wealthiest of the nation--the already-wealthy--and made it illegal for our government to negotiate lower drug prices for the nation from the pharmaceuticals and all the rest he did, but get a black man in the White House and all hell breaks loose.

Racist?

Nah.

Perish the thought.

FixtheDebt.org

It's time to get serious. It's time to work together. It's time to all be and stay Americans.

And yes, it's time to fix the debt:



If you would, please go to this website and sign the petition to tell Congress to fix the debt, literally: http://www.fixthedebt.org/

Additionally, if you'd contact both your member of the House and your Senators and tell them to get busy on this, it could also help. You can do that here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Congress--both the House of Representatives and the Senate--took an 8 week vacation, beginning last week, while, in the meantime, we face a "fiscal cliff" January 1st that they created. We need to have a budget so automatic cuts aren't put in place and our economy doesn't then go to heck in a handbasket.

This is no way to run a country.

Poor Detroit (literally and figuratively)

Thank goodness, Kansas City, we're not Detroit, Michigan, in so many ways.

The latest way is in their schools. This, yesterday, from NPR:

Detroit Teachers Mull Strike Over Imposed Contract

"The existing contract for Detroit teachers was ripped up and chucked into the trash by the school district's emergency financial manager. The teachers' union is angry and making noise about a possible strike."

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Public school teachers in Detroit have a new contract, one they didn't bargain for and didn't sign. It was imposed by the state-appointed official in charge of the district. And now, two months before the start of the school year, the teacher's union is considering going on strike.

This happened here in Kansas City, as I recall, a few years ago, under one of the Superintendents--John Covington, I believe, but would have to verify.

Anyway, there's the Detroit school district--broke, in debt--deep, deep debt and needing solutions so they tore up the old teachers contracts and want to start all over.

Wow.

The city's in trouble, financial and otherwise, and this, too, at the same time.

Then there's this:

Quinn Klinefelter (reporter, interviewer): "Decades of mismanagement and internal squabbles left Detroit schools hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. The state appointed an emergency manager to take over the finances in 2009 with the power to make sweeping changes. This year, emergency manager Roy Roberts is closing 15 schools. And with the state ending requirements that teachers be hired based on seniority, Roberts handed all 4,100 Detroit public school teachers a pink slip, told them to reapply for a job and says 800 of them will not be hired back."

That's tough.

And it stinks.

It seems to me Detroit is like this tiny, isolated country between Canada and the United States no one wants much, if anything, to do with and no one wants to help.

There's so much to this story, too. I want to be for the schools but they have to address their expenses, without doubt.

I want to be for the teacher's union because--well, just because.

I'm certainly for the teachers, sure, but cuts have to come from somewhere.

And you have to be for the kids, the students, whatever has to happen.

They have, apparently, far too many teachers and have to reduce the quantity somehow.

And you know that's not going to be pretty.

Whatever was bad about KCMO School District Superintendent John Covington's leaving us, at least he took care of the debt before it got any worse.

And before he dumped us.

Hey, at least we're not Detroit.

Link: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/16/156869052/detroit-teachers-mull-strike-over-imposed-contract

That "hopey-changey thing" is going okay, thanks

In answer to former Alaska Governor, Sarah "The Quitter" Palin's question, "How's that hopey-changey thing goin' for ya'?", I'd like to answer that there is yet one more good indication that it's going pretty well, thank you. And no, it's not him standing up for all American's equality this week. Instead, it's this from The Star and the AP today:

U.S. collected more than it spent in April

WASHINGTON -- For the first time in nearly four years, the U.S. government last month took in more money than it spent.
The surplus for April was a sign that the economy is trudging back to health.

And I'll say the same thing here I say any time I point out an improvement, rather like the President or someone in the administration would--is it where we want to be? Is it where we need to be? Are we finished? Is this good enough? All those answers are no, for sure.

Is there more work that has to be done?

You bet there is.

One thing Congress could and should do to help the nation is to do away with tax deductions and subsidies to companies for offshoring competition, again, as I've said repeatedly. That would, I believe, help bring some of those manufacturing jobs--and maybe some companies--back to the States. That seems like and obvious and terrific, simple idea. It's not happening but it could and again, should. Maybe if we push our Senators and Representatives enough, it will happen.

Anyway, at least there's some good news today.

Let's hope it continues, for all of us.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/10/3605654/us-collected-more-than-it-spent.html

Further proof: There will be no streetcars, no convention hotel

The Star evaluates Kansas City's past, present and, really, future, given our spending and lack of leadership and vision. It's a good article, really, a great interpretation:

KC is paying a big price for falling behind

It's a good, smart, brief read:

"Kansas City’s overall outstanding government debt of $2.32 billion works out to $5,028 owed by every resident. That’s the second highest load when stacked up against 10 other peer cities (see chart on link, below).

Could the Mayor's streetcar line and the convention hotel happen?

Sure, I guess. It could. Possibly.

Is it likely?

Given the lack or weakness of leadership locally (and even nationally), I wouldn't put money on it.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/05/3594782/the-stars-editorial-kc-is-paying.html

Wisdom

I found this at a friend's page on Facebook, frankly, and checkd it out. I enjoyed it and found it to ring true. I thought others might like and enjoy it. We should think more about what we can live without, it seems, doesn't it?

Breaking as we slept: Bad news/good news

From the UK and their Daily Mail just last evening: U.S. debt now as big as entire economy America's national debt has reached a worrying milestone - it is now as big as the whole of its economy. The amount owed by the federal government to its creditors, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other schemes, now stands at $15.23 trillion. The government estimated the value of goods and services produced by the economy in a year at $15.17trillion as of September. This is decidedly bad news for President Obama, his administration and his re-election campaign. It's not insurmountable and the election is months away but this is not good, for sure. Then there's this, from the Gallup Poll people: U.S. Economic Confidence Rises to Seven-Month High Americans' outlook for the economy is improving faster than their ratings of current conditions Finally, we're going to heck in a debt handbasket but we're optimistic--how American is that?--just check out the Greek situation: Greek turmoil helps thieves steal a Picasso It seems that, with their debt problems, they had cut staff at the museum. Yikes. Link to original article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084353/Size-U-S-debt-entire-economy--15-23-TRILLION.html; http://www.gallup.com/poll/151958/economic-confidence-rises-seven-month-high.aspx; http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/thieves-steal-picasso-and-mondrian-paintings-in-athens/?ref=greece

Sen. Claire comes through again

Hoorah for Senator McCaskill. She's going after "earmarks" in Congress again. This out today: Toomey, McCaskill to call for permanent earmark ban Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) will announce their proposal Wednesday morning at a Capitol news conference. The move comes one year after McCaskill and then-Sen.-elect Toomey penned a joint USA Today op-ed supporting a temporary moratorium on earmarks. For a definition: "an earmark is a legislative (especially congressional) provision that directs approved funds to be spent on specific projects, or that directs specific exemptions from taxes or mandated fees." The really bad thing about earmarks is that they are so "under the radar" and virtually unaccountable to the legislation process. With all the over-spending we have and debt, this makes far too much sense and is long overdue. Links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/toomey-mccaskill-to-call-for-permanent-earmark-ban/2011/11/29/gIQAlZAu8N_blog.html; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earmark_(politics)

Okay, now that Thanksgiving's over...

The markets today, Friday, even with their shortened trading day, because of Thanksgiving, are all--and I mean all--going to go very far South tomorrow and for two reasons. First, there's this: Fitch Downgrades Portugal to Junk Status LONDON — Fitch Ratings Thursday dropped its credit rating on Portugal into junk territory and warned further downgrades were possible, as a recession in the country is increasing challenges for the government to comply with its austerity plans. Second, there's this: German Bond Windfall May Be Ending With Euro Crisis BRUSSELS — Someone, somewhere, usually makes money from bad news. With Europe’s debt crisis, that — at least until this week — was Germany. A failed German bond auction Wednesday may have brought to an end one turbulent chapter in the history of the Continent’s debt crisis, during which Berlin remained insulated from much of the fallout. But since 2009, Germany and a handful of other countries, like the Netherlands, have benefited significantly from cheaper borrowing as investors diverted cash from riskier assets and the bonds of southern European countries to debt issued by the Continent’s fiscal hawks. So that money-making party is over, in Germany. That's certainly bad for them but it's bad for all of Europe, too, since it's Germany whose been depended on to "save" the EU and the Euro. It's rough over there and getting rougher yet. Oh, well, all we can do right now is to think happy thoughts, regardless and enjoy your long, relaxing weekend. Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204630904577057743033166600.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/business/global/german-bond-windfall-may-be-ending-with-euro-crisis.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print; http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2011/11/european-bond-scare-germany-ed.html

Quote of the day--on our national debt

‎"The current debt under discussion is Republican debt, authorized by Congress and signed into law by former President George W. Bush. The debt in question covers bills that have come due from two unfunded wars, from unfunded tax cuts and tax loopholes that have benefited the wealthy and ravaged the middle-class, from gross mismanagement of the nation’s economy under Republican supply-side b*llsh*t." --Fay Esther

Founding Father James Madison, on war

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." ----James Madison, the essential author of Constitution.

Quote of the day--on "continual warfare"

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." — James Madison, Political Observations, 1795

Are you paying attention? (Guest post)

A Still Moment

Tuesday 27 April 2010

by: James Howard Kunstler, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

George W. Bush was onto something in the fall of 2008 when he remarked apropos of the Lehman collapse: "...this sucker could go down."

It's my serene conviction, by the way, that this sucker actually is going down, right now, even as I clatter away at the keys -- perhaps in slow motion, so that not many other bystanders have noticed yet, and the few who have noticed are mostly too crosseyed with nausea to speak.

It's perhaps useful to define even what we mean when we say "this sucker."

Everybody knows what a sucker is, of course -- say, a Midwestern public employees' union pension fund snookered into buying a fat slice of equity tranche in a Goldman Sachs-engineered CDO. But "this sucker" is something else: a rather large cargo of commercial relations, entailed obligations, hopes, expectations, habits of daily life -- indeed millions of whole lives -- loaded onto the rather creaky vessel we call modern civilization. "This sucker" was such an apt term coming from someone whose understanding of civilization was like unto that of a boy who found a PlayStation under the Christmas tree.
It's also perhaps useful to define what we mean by "going down." To my mind it means an awful lot of money disappears and nobody can pay for anything and an awful of things that have kept going on promises to pay and to get paid will stop keeping going. I don't think that the idea of money disappears -- that is, paper certificates representing claims on future work -- but there will be a lot less of it to go around. Eventually the idea of money could go, too, at least in its current form as Federal Reserve notes. But mostly for some years it will just be a lot of people, companies, and governments who are broke.
"Going down" will mean a society with no money and an infrastructure for daily life that requires gobs of money to run, and a populace too dazed, confused, and inflamed to do anything useful in the way of organizing new infrastructures for daily life for their new circumstances. In retrospect, the Great Depression of the 1930s will look like "The Philadelphia Story" compared to what we wake up to ten years from now.

President Obama's speech at Cooper Union last week was a remarkable performance. It managed to appear forceful and serious without containing any really serious or forceful proposals to discipline a banking system that is running a hostage-and-ransom racket on civilization. If this is finally what the Obama Experience is all about than his detractors have been right all along: he is a tool. Finance reform aside, there are still plenty of laws left on the statute books that could be applied to the frauds and rackets that ran absolutely amok on Wall Street the past few years. I would still like to know why buying CDS "insurance" against your own issue of bonds deliberately engineered to default is NOT a form of insider trading, to put it as simply as possible.

The SEC action against Goldman Sachs is likely to open a Pandora's box of troubles for that company, and perhaps all of the Too Big To Fail banks. But even so, I believe this sucker is going down before 99.9 percent of it is sorted out. Anyway, there was a lot about the SEC action that seemed curious, to put it mildly, from the timing of it, to the brevity of the document, to the strange fact that it emerged at all from an agency whose principal activity the past few years has been the viewing of internet porn, and which has otherwise behaved so indifferently in the face of numberless offenses to common decency, not to mention the public interest, that it might as well have been staffed by a thousand head of Holstein cows rather than licensed attorneys and graduates of accredited colleges.

This sucker is going down because the train of bankruptcies underway has a remorseless self-reinforcing power to provoke more and more bankruptcies at every stop along the line as every promise to pay is welshed on. The mortgages will not be paid and securities will not pay their investors and the banks will choke on the bad paper promises in their vaults and the pension funds will not pay their beneficiaries and the states and counties and municipalities will go broke and not pay their employees and creditors, and the federal government will not be able to "print" new money in sufficient quantities fast enough to compensate for all the money not being paid up-and-down the line... and one morning we will wake up and discover that all those promises to pay were sham promises based on no productive activity whatsoever... and that will be a sad day. Perhaps the Dow Jones Industrial Average will hit 35,000 on that day.
Nothing can stop this chain of bankruptcy. It's already baked in the cake. There is probably some wish on the part of those in charge, like Mr. Obama, to try everything possible to postpone it. And there is likewise surely a huge effort underway in the banking sector right now to cream off as much cash as possible so that when this sucker does go down they will bethink themselves better positioned to survive the consequences.

Personally, I believe that the damage was mostly done during the tenure of poor dim George W. Bush, and his predecessor Bill Clinton. I suspect that Mr. Obama learned at the height of 2008 election campaign -- during those days of the Lehman collapse and the TARP -- just how completely the government -- and the people of the USA -- were in fact hostage to the banking system, and that it has been his unfortunate role to pretend that there is some other fate to bargain for besides this sucker going down. It is probably why he continues to smoke so much. He must be lighting one Marlboro off the tip of another, one after another, in whatever inner sanctum he repairs to when the midnight chimes toll around the White House. It's sad to think of this graceful, still rather young man going down in history as the chump-of-the-century, a reincarnation of Herbert Hoover on steroids, with sugar on top.

Animosities brewing as they are among the white trash elements of the country, I just hope this sucker doesn't resolve into an ugly bout of attempted ethnic cleansing. Certainly Obama's racial make-up has inspired a revival of the Ku Klux spirit around the Nascar ovals. I'm sincerely worried that the misdeeds of people name Blankfein, Rubin, and Madoff could provoke a red-white-and-blue pogrom.

The big mystery for the moment is how come a few good men of stature in important places have not stepped forward to say the right thing or do the right deed. How come no US congressperson challenged the knavish behavior of Republicans who condone malicious idiocy that they know to be false like the so-called "birther" activity. How come no putative "progressive" has called the Democrats on their disingenuous failure to call illegal immigrants what they are. How come no state attorney general has filed charges against TBTF bank misconduct even if the US attorney general lies in state over at the US DOJ. How come no political figure of any stripe has called for the resignation of Summers, Rubin, Gensler and other Goldman Sachs "sleepers" infesting high levels of government. How come Dylan Ratigan is the only visible figure in any major newsroom willing to identify the precise nature of the meta-swindle.
When this sucker goes down, our primary task will be reorganizing American life on a much more local and de-complexified basis. It's a very big assignment and especially daunting against a possible background of political disorder. The losses will be epic and the changes severe, but it doesn't have to mean the end of recognizably American culture. There will be very little money around, and it may end up being a certificate backed by gold issued by a bank other than the Federal Reserve. Or maybe we'll just be swapping stuff for the makings of dinner.

So many forces are roiling around 'out there' now that it's hard to believe that the authorities in government and banking can keep the illusion of normality going a whole lot longer. The possible litigation against Goldman Sachs-style frauds by a thousand aggrieved victims is enough to paralyze the system. Meanwhile, trillions in credit default swaps are ticking away like dirty bombs. Greece is going down, with Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and the UK standing by to go next. Nobody can pay their bills. Before long, the old folks won't get their checks. Then the poor folks. Lately, I wonder if there will even be an election six months from now.
______________________

Sure, keep in mind it's James Kunstler (if you don't know of him, his work or viewpoints go to Wikipedia), but he's got some very valid points.

More--but from me--tomorrow.

Link to post:
http://www.truthout.org/james-howard-kunstler-a-still-moment58898

A bullet, dodged

Did you hear that sound?

It was the sound of all of us, here in the US, dodging a bullet.

I believe that was done this past long holiday weekend when the international markets tumbled on news of Dubai's default on their loans.

Actually, I guess it's technically not a default, they just asked if they could not repay their loans for 6 months. If you're the banker, it's a default, though.

Anyway, the markets tumbled Wednesday night.

Luckily for us and the world, it was our national Thanksgiving holiday so our trading markets were closed. Had they been open, I feel sure our markets would have emotionally, psychologically and, really, understandably reacted to this news and been set back with a down trading day. There's no telling how much it would have dropped, if at all, if I'm right.

Then, the next international trading day (our Thanksgiving night), the markets came back and were mostly up so by the time we had our partial trading day on Friday, all the bad news was buffered by this second round of better news.

A friend and I predicted a down day on the markets Friday and, as it turned out, we were right.

What I'm saying is that, with the international markets taking a hit last Wednesday, if ours had been open the next day, we likely would have tumbled--and a good deal, I believe--and then, that night, there could was likely a strong chance those same international markets would have reacted to that, too, and negatively.

Of course this is all speculation but I will say that I'm not the only one that thinks that if there is one more big financial problem any time soon, the whole international deck of cards is in fairly precarious shape and it will be tough on this already-weak system.

Here's hoping we skate by.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091130/wl_time/08599194339200

Important reads and site for all of us

I decided some months ago to only put up my own writing--with some, few exceptions.
This is one of those.

If you don't read or watch the Alternet site, you should. They have great, important material out there--not just the current, temporary and hilarious antics and fights within the Republican Party and Rush "Porkulus" Limbaugh vs. Michael Steele vs. the Republican Party. (though those are some GREAT laughs).

The one that turned my head is this one:

We're in the Midst of an Epic Battle over the Direction of this Nation
By John Cavanagh, Foreign Policy in Focus. Posted March 5, 2009.

It really tells, very well, just where we are, what we're doing and where we might be going right now, as a nation and we could all use that information.

You can find it here:
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/130106/we%27re_in_the_midst_of_an_epic_battle_over_the_direction_of_this_nation/?page=entire

Here's another very good one from the same site and it speaks for itself:

What It's Going to Take to Stave Off Another Great Depression
By Dean Baker, The Guardian. Posted March 5, 2009.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/130155/what_it%27s_going_to_take_to_stave_off_another_great_depression/

Finally, here's a really good column also from Alternet.org that's both sobering and somewhat lighthearted, which is rare:

1/3 Of America Is Crazy: They Think Their Jobs Are Safe
By Jill Andresky Fraser, Tomdispatch.com. Posted March 5, 2009.

Link here:
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/130154/1_3_of_america_is_crazy%3A_they_think_their_jobs_are_safe/

I put these up because I think they are all 3 important reads and because I think the site may be overlooked by the "man on the street". I think they're too important to miss or overlook.

Have a great day, everyone (in spite of our outlook).

Are we, as a country, never going to allow a downturn in our economy again?

That's the question.

Are we never going to allow a downturn in our American economy again, no matter the cost?

There is word out right now, on the wires, that both President Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are both quoted, saying they'd be for another "stimulus package" for the American people, to push forward the economy.
(Link to story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081020/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown)

Holy cow.

You gotta be kidding me.

Let's get this straight.

We already had the largest debt, ever, in the history of the country, going into this year, thanks to this President and his direction (I can't call it leadership).

Then the nation's banks start tanking and we come up with, oh, what was it? 700 billion dollars to bail out the banks (that actually may end up already being a trillion dollars or thereabouts).

That boosted our debt even larger and deeper by a fewfold.

And now, like they're running for office themselves, George and Ben want to spit out more money to us so we can go spending.

They want to make it at least as large as the last boost we gave ourselves so it would be in the range of 168 million dollars.

But wait. There's more.

Some economists are saying it should be twice that size.

Talk about short-term, shortsighted vision.

The one who started this talk was Barack Obama and he's running for office.

Now, I'm an Obama supporter but this part of his platform never got my support. I thought it was just panerding to win votes. It is short-sighted and would only have a very brief benefit to the economy and country.

Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chimed in, saying she'd support it. I thought that was purely to help her friend and fellow Democrat Obama. I thought it would go away.

Now this.

So it gets me back to my original question.

Do we not have any patience or allowance any more for a downturn in the economy?

Do we not realize that there are business cycles that have to be gone through?

You know, the old "Chauncey Gardner" statements from the movie "Being There" about there needing to be a dying season, in order to create the space for new growth.

I don't think we get it.

We all know we'll have to borrow--yes, borrow--this money, only to loan it back to ourselves.

And we'll probably have to borrow it from the Chinese, of whom we have no fondness, other than their propping up our economy.


Am I the only one who thinks this is blatantly stupid?

2 kinds of people

There are a new "2 kinds of people in the world" today.

There are the people who realize that the United State's "best days" are behind them.


And there are the people who deny reality.