30K Per Household

The amount that the Obama administration (and Congress) has borrowed per household since the economic stimulus was signed into law two years ago (and no, I do not excuse the Bush administration which was no more interested in fiscal sanity than the Obama administration). Obviously this is unsustainable and will lead to serfdom for all but the ruling and financial elites. Welcome to the reign of Louis XIV.

Congress: We Will Have Strong Oversight of Bailout Money

Rats! We forgot to ask what they meant by "strong oversight!" Pretty much means following the money on Google. Hilarious and sad all at the same moment. If it weren't Congress, I wouldn't believe it.

On February 14, with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Congress shoveled $787 billion of stimulus money out the door. Now they're using Google to find out where it went.

Federal Government Turns into California

Leave it to Jennifer Rubin to speak the truth (must read). We've got two ways (actually three) to pay for the idiotic bill that just passed the inept, cringing, cowardly Congress. We can raise taxes ($8500 per year to cover a one trillion deficit), or we can cut spending (yeah, like that is going to happen). The only other way out is to print money to pay for it. Who knew any political entity could be as equally fiscally irresponsible as California?

But the options are clear: radically cut benefits or radically raise taxes. There is no mysterious solution to “assuring” social security’s future or to narrowing the budget gap. The problem was daunting before and we have now made it much worse, because we have widened the chasm between receipts and spending and because the large stimulus bill and increased debt, as CBO predicted, will likely slow economic growth.

Watch for politicians to be shocked, shocked! when their policies further slow/depress the economy, and then watch as they turn to a hodge-podge of regulations (price controls) to attempt to change things (all the while making them worse). The rest of my working life (if not the rest of my life) is going to be VERY interesting as we march down The Road to Serfdom.

Support Consumption At All Costs

Let me get this straight. The first "bailout" package did not work, so let's see, what should we congressman do? Um...something has to work. I know. Let's just have another "bailout" package. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. This is nothing more than a desperate effort to support consumption at all costs. In other words get us to buy more stuff we don't need so we can go even further into debt. Makes sense to me.

More (Possible) Nitwittery from the Administration and Congress

So...nothing is working thus far in repairing the damage that our overconsumption has caused. What is Congress and the Administration to do? I know, how about Stimulus Package II, since the first one worked so well (not). From the article:

"We have to prop up consumption," Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview in which he revealed some of the details the party leadership was discussing.

Earth to Barney. Earth to Barney. Over-consumption and over-spending are what got us here in the first place. Nice to see you learned something from the meltdown.

The rationale for another stimulus package, particularly one that helps the states and cities, is compelling for many economists. The nearly $1 trillion that Congress and the Federal Reserve are making available to the financial system is intended to make credit more available. That props up the supply side.

Is this writer serious? Does he understand history and/or economics. If you have to "prop up" something, you are propping it up only so that down the road it will collapse further. What you must do is return to balance, i.e. teach Americans to spend no more than they earn.

I expect that when this gets passed, Bush will go along as he always has because he is totally a fiscal conservative...except when he isn't.