ObamaCare Needs to be Put on Hold: Government Revenue is Decreasing

Many of the new government spending programs need to be suspended until someone figures out how much revenue the government is taking in from income taxes and other types of taxes.

This includes suspending all plans to put Obama's health care nightmare into effect.

According to the Associated Press, tax receipts are poised to drop 18% from one year ago, which means the government needs to go on a crash diet immediately. They cannot keep spending more money than they actually have.

Congress ought to forget about health care reform for the time being until we are on firmer ground with the economy. We're already $11 trillion in debt, with another $12 trillion or more in debt on the way.

Stop this madness!

State of Michigan Should Reject 11% Rate Hike Proposal From Power Companies: Companies Shouldn't Be Raising Rates as Economy Flatlines

Power companies Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison want to hike the rates of Michigan customers by 11% in order to pay for upgrades to the electrical system to bring them into compliance for federal emissions standards.

The rate hike request has been sent to Lansing for consideration.

Michigan's legislative committee that approves or rejects such proposals should reject these rate hikes and the power companies should delay the projects.

Michigan has sufficient electrical power to handle the current needs of the state. While the upgrades are important, they don't have to be made all at once; it can be done a little at a time while minimizing the impact to families that are already having trouble paying for their winter heating bills.

As the economy improves, they can do more and ask for more money, but not when the economy is still in a nosedive and more people lose their jobs.

President Should Come to Michigan With His Advisers and Talk to People Standing in Unemployment Lines About Economic "Turnaround"

Looking out the window again, I can see the cue building up at the unemployment agency across the street, and the place doesn't open up for another couple of hours.

Perhaps President Obama and his advisers should come to Michigan and pay a few visits to these unemployment agencies--in Lansing, Flint, Grand Rapids and Detroit in particular--and tell the people standing in line that the economy has turned around. See what their reaction is to that tidbit of political good news.

Time for a reality check, Mr. President.

Obama Administration Says Economy's Turned Around? What Planet Are They On??!

The economy is sound, eh?

All I have to do is look out the front window of my house to the state unemployment office across the street and see the line extending out the front door to know that this economy definitely ISN'T sound. And the cars parked in front of my house with the drivers walking over there to join the line just reinforces this observation.

The economy is a LONG ways from turning around. What planet is the Obama Administration broadcasting from, because it certainly ISN'T this one!

Just because the stock market is up over the last five days doesn't mean A THING! It's still down 6,947 points from a year ago and down 3,000 points since President Obama took office. What's causing the stock market to rise is Obama not issuing press releases or having press conferences.

When the line isn't running out the door at the unemployment office and the cars aren't piled up in front of my house, and Michigan workers aren't losing their jobs left and right, THEN I'll believe his rhetoric, but not now.

What I'm watching out my own front window doesn't square with the rhetoric.

More Democratic Waste on the Way: Pelosi Says to Keep the Door Open on Second Stimulus

Not content with their fill of pork, Congressional leaders appear to be lining the little piggies up for more of the same, saying that they needed to keep the door open for a second stimulus package.

When will this utter stupidity come to an end? When the country is bankrupt from all of this garbage that they're signing off on?

Generational theft doesn't come close to covering what they're doing. It's so vile and obscene that the current English language doesn't come close to having a term to describe what the Democrats are doing, along with Republican turncoats who are supporting the Democrats.

Those who vote "NO" are doing us and themselves a favor; they'll be proven correct soon enough. And I dread the day when that prediction comes true. Money doesn't grow on trees; it has to be generated, and it won't be generated until the workforce is back on it's feet and producing, and people are buying their products.

But they're spending money that is years away from being generated by the economy. They shouldn't be gambling with money that they don't have and doesn't belong to them.

GOP Leadership Backs Off From Comments Against Limbaugh and Steers House GOP to Reject Obama Stimulus Plan

The House GOP leadership backed away from their comments against Rush Limbaugh, saying that the comments read harsher than they were intended.

Rush seemed willing to let bygones be bygones, but pushed the leadership to be more aggressive in their attempts to stop the Obama Administration's agenda, which was also the correct thing to do.

Their conservative base will support them if they stick to their conservative principles, and don't knuckle under to the new order in Washington. The Republicans who lost their seats did a poor job of taking care of their conservative constituents, who didn't turn out to support them, or threw their votes elsewhere.

The House GOP's unanimous rejection of President Obama's stimulus bill is a very good start. I was pleased to see that. Having the Republicans get along with the Democrats is not in our nation's best interests.

Many of our problems need more than one solution, and if we get into the groupthink that the Democrats have bought into, we run the risk of restricting our choices in dealing with the economic difficulties that have put our economy into the toilet.

Russian Professor Predicts U.S. Will Collapse and Break Apart in 2010: Russian Media Loves His Predictions

A Russian professor has predicted a 45%-55% chance that the United States will collapse under the economic strain that it's under, a second American Civil War will break out and several new nations will emerge from the wreckage.

Yeah, right.

But his wild predictions have found an audience in the Russian media, which has been interviewing him like crazy. Despite his reputation as a KGB analyst, he couldn't predict the breakup of his own country in 1991, yet he's prognosticating an American collapse in 2009-2010. His anti-Americanism has found support in Russia and in the Kremlin, who blame Washington for everything.

His description of the six new American nations to emerge from the article: California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

Thhhhp!

My prediction: 2009 will come and go. So will 2010. America will emerge from it's economic woes sometime in 2010, with a new focus on paying off the sizable debt that is currently being accumulated.

This guy has read too much Harry Turtledove (an alternate history author). Too many of his ideas look like they've been plagiarized from Turtledove and other "what if" authors that I've read.

Biden Talks of ANOTHER $700 Billion Stimulus: This is a BAD Idea

VP-elect Biden said during an interview today that the "...economy is in danger of absolutely tanking" and would take another stimulus (in the range of $600-700 billion) to get things back on track.

I would like to know if this will involve borrowing more money from China.

Because if it does, then I am absolutely opposed to this move. We CANNOT afford more debt. They should be doing these stimuli from money they already have in the bank from taxes. They need to be PAYING DOWN the debt, not increasing it.

The cumulative effect of all this debt will lead to the end that Biden is currently predicting, and the bill WILL come due eventually.

Government Should Forget About the Bailouts, and Reduce the DEBT: That's Going to Kill Us

When we take a hard look at what our nation is facing in this financial crisis, it becomes clear that a number of things need to be considered when formulating a strategy to dig ourselves out of this mess. And I think our government is failing to look at what lies over the horizon. They're really blowing it.

They've reacted by adding $5 trillion to our national debt.

Here's my impression of this fiasco:

• A stimulus package that requires us to borrow money from China to fund it? DONE!
• Fanny Mae is failing? So is Freddie Mac? QUICK!! TAKE THEM OVER! (Pass the buck.)
• Lehman Bros. is failing? Too bad. They didn't support my candidacy. Let them FAIL!
• AIG is failing? Bail 'em out. Then bail 'em out again!
• Stock market's lost 2,000 points in the last ten days? Drat.
• Bear Stevens is failing? Seize them, sell them and put the taxpayer on the hook for the bill!
• Citi is failing? Bail 'em out. More? Bail faster! Here, have some more taxpayer money!
• A $700 billion bailout? Add another $150 billion to bribe the opposition in Congress. Mo' money, mo' money!
  
• We're bailing out all the toxic debt??! Bail harder! Bail faster! Here, have some more money!
• What? What? Wall Street doesn't think it's the right fix now that they have it?
• Washington Mutual is failing? Seize 'em and bail 'em out!
• Dow's dropped 2,000 more points?
  
• Hmm...Dow added 936 points in one day, but it's still down for the week.
• Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon and State Street all signed on to our $2.5 trillion deal, to take our money, whether they needed it or not! YAY!! MORE DEBT!! Oh those taxpayers are really soaking it up now! Hummana, hummana, hummana!
  
• WHAT DID ALAN GREENSPAN SAY?? Oh, man, there goes another 600 points off the Dow!
• "Bailouts Being Used to Finance Retirement Packages." Surprise, surprise, surprise.
• Now the TARP measure isn't being used to buy all toxic debt? What's going on now?
  
• Hmm...General Motors sales fell 45% from a year ago, Ford fell 30%, Chrysler fell 35%, Toyota fell 23%, Honda fell 25%, and Nissan fell 33%.
• Now the Big 3 want a bailout? Yes! No! Yes! No!
• The CEOs flew their private jets to Washington while claiming that their companies are BROKE??! GM is producing a 2009 Hummer??!
• Group says we entered a recession in December 2007. Well, DUH!

It seems clear to me that the auto companies are ALREADY bankrupt, if they're going to Congress and asking for an I.O.U. to stay in business through December. They don't have the guts to come right out and say it. Yet.

As for the rest, it was a mistake to begin with. I think that those companies that would have a negative effect on the value of the dollar overseas (should they fail) need to be bailed out, while the others should get on a payment plan and pay off their debts, just like Joe and Jane Six Pack does.

The government should take the money from this $5 trillion scheme and put it toward paying down our national debt. That'll kill us in the long run and will hurt many more people than the current downturn has/will.

Surprise, Surprise: Obama Says He Should Get Credit for Curing Wall Street Folly: Since When?

Barack Obama blasted John McCain again, saying that McCain didn't do anything to deserve credit for the $700 billion mistake-in-progress plan, while he did.

Yeah, right.

Last time I checked, Obama scurried his butt out of Washington first. He also didn't want to even be in Washington (which I think was a smart initial move.) McCain stuck around, then left Washington to go to Friday's debate, then turned around and came back to Washington to confer with his GOP colleagues. Obama belatedly returned.

Obama said he deserved credit for making sure that there were taxpayer protections in the plan, but the fact is that his Democratic colleagues and many Republicans were calling for the same things long before Obama even realized that it was going to be a campaign issue.

Both candidates were equally ineffective and should have stayed out of Washington to begin with. Obama's statements are highly hypocritical.

And the "plan" that they came up with is not much of one.

On to Palin vs. Biden. Hopefully they have more of a pulse than their bosses did during Friday's debate.

Rebate Checks Round 2: Bad Idea

There is a possibility of another round of rebate checks from the government to stimulate the economy. I disagree with this kind of thinking due to the fact that the feds will have to borrow tens of billions of dollars to pay for the package, just as they did earlier this year. In fact, they had to borrow $191 billion.

Going further into debt to China and other international lenders is a TERRIBLE idea, and I renew my objections to it. This proposal should not see the light of day.

No government should spend more money than it takes in. There's a reason that the economy is in the condition that it's in: we are $10 trillion in debt, our dollars are devaluing on the international market, which is also helping to drive up the price of fuel, which is driving up the cost of everything else.

This is NUTS, and we have to put our collective foot down somewhere to break this vicious cycle.

Romney Wins Michigan Primary, Hillary Beats Nobody

Well, Michigan's not-primary is over and Mitt Romney carried the state. And Hillary Clinton managed to beat someone called "Uncommitted." I'm not sure that's anything to brag about.

I could beat nobody too. So could you.

I also couldn't help but notice how quickly McCain and the other candidates who did not fare as well quickly dismissed Romney's victory as Michigan voting for it's native son. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Michigan has rejected other members of the Romney family in other elections in the past; Mitt won because of his business credentials and his coming here and addressing Michigan's economy head-on. In Michigan, the economy was the #1 concern of voters. And Mitt was more positive about rebuilding Michigan's reeling economy than all of the others.

McCain's pessimism about putting Michigan's work force back to work cost him the election. That's why Romney won, not because he's a native son.

Venezuela's Collapsing Economy Should Be Watched Carefully in This Country: There's a Valuable Lesson for the U.S. Government to be Found Here

Venezuela's out-of-control spending increased their inflation by an amazing 4.4% last month to 18.6%, according to international economists. And it looks to get much worse unless it's government reigns in it's own spending. If it keeps up at that rate, Venezuela's oil profits will not be enough to keep it above water.

And now there are reports of shortages of basic goods and food in Venezuela, which could seriously destabilize the communist wanna-be government of Hugo Chavez. Food costs in Venezuela have gone up 33% in spite of government attempts to influence prices of major domestic commodities.

People in our own government should be watching what's happening to prices in Venezuela's economy and declining currency, as the same thing could happen here if Congress and the White House don't get a handle on OUR out-of-control government spending.

As it is, the U.S. debt is somewhere near $10 trillion. Venezuela's debt is a fraction of ours, but Venezuela doesn't have the economic power that our nation does and so is much more vulnerable to economic chaos than we are. When our economy declines, it's a gradual event. But in a smaller nation like Venezuela, it's like someone's hit the fast forward button. Changes are quite sudden and get real bad, real fast.

Are the decision-makers in this country paying attention?