The current state of affairs in the US leaves much to be desired. We have a debt downgrade, continuing high unemployment, a Federal legislature that is devoid of substantial leadership, an administration that is totally hidebound to a socialist concept that has been proven repeatedly to be a flawed ideology, a Federal Debt authorized in excess of $17 Trillion, a political agenda that is more concerned with re-election than problem solutions and a public that believes that more of the same is the solution.

As Einstein said; "Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over expecting different results."

Just when are the American people going to wake up and realize than wishing for improvements is far different than demanding improvements. Listening to politicians talk is like listening to wind in the leaves; the effects are similar, the leaves move but nothing really changes. We are past the point where we should accept what Washington is delivering. This administration has had more than 2 1/2 years to gain traction and it hasn't altered our slow progress downwards.

The dollar is weaker than ever before, our prestige is virtually nonexistent, our military is being downsized as is the Navy and Air Force. We provide money to other nations to drill for oil but we don't encourage our own resource development, our jobs outlook is grim at the best with 400,000 new applicants each month and unemployment over 9% for most of the last 26 months. The employment marketplace has to create 125,000 new jobs every month just to keep up with new people entering the job market so just how will deal with the already unemployed? The housing market is on life support and the mortgage default situation hasn't improved. worst of all, we borrow 42% of every dollar the government spends. Companies can't run that way, households can't run that way, why can the government run that way? Simply put, it can't.

With all this gloom and Washington devoid of solutions to a problem that they mostly created through favoritism, lobbying, vote-seeking and just plain stupidity, why is the American public accepting the status quo? It's time for the baby to be thrown out with the bathwater and clean house by firing the entire gaggle of miscreants and sycophants. We may lose some capable legislators, but they've been ineffectual and so should face the same fate.

The primary problem with Washington is one our forefathers never anticipated, career politicians. There is absolutely no reason why a politician should be able to build a career in government. If two terms are all that we can stand of Presidents, why should senators and congresspeople be able to spend their lives in Washington? By eliminating the possibility of lifetime in office we eliminate their drive to stump for re-election money and creating cozy relationships with lobbyist and labor unions who help bring in money.

The general public is also guilty of where this country is and is heading. A large percentage of the voting public does not want to have to think about the implications of voting in the people running for office. They prefer the perfect verbal one-liners that are easily remembered over the complexity of examining the background and associations of the candidates. Like birds on a power line, politicians associate with their own philosophical kind and seldom are found with opposing and confounding people. Obama is an outstanding example, throughout his life and education he associated with socialists, Marxists and "liberal" educators who never had to put their philosophies into action. Now the President is in a position where he has to lead the capitalist, free enterprise economy back onto the success road........and he has no idea how to accomplish this task. His position is that government is the engine of our economy and by taking money from one group and giving it to another group he can stimulate the economy. How this works is a mystery because the engine of enterprise is largely invested in small businesses.

The America at a turning point in it's existence, it can follow the lead of the European nations with their benevolent socialism and creeping collapse or they can choose to follow the path that has been successful for the past 200+ years. Dependence on government makes citizens vassals, control of government makes citizens free men.

Something is missing?

Our President is telling us to improve the economy that we, as a nation, have to invest in transportation infrastructure maintenance and high speed railways. Now all this is well and good but I see employment problems it doesn't address. Making work for the construction industries doesn't get the multi-millions of unemployed jobs unless they become tradesmen through retraining.

Can't you just see all the unemployed traveling by high speed rails from one end of the country to the other in search of jobs that aren't there. That is, after the 20 years+ it takes to construct such a facility. Furthermore, our country is not compact like Europe or Japan, it is dispersed, not concentrated in cities. So what incentive is there for people to seek transportation by trains when even in the highly populated North-East coast corridor Amtrak needs government subsidies to exist.

Worse yet, Infrastructure doesn't address the root problem affecting our economy which is that we are no longer a nation that produces things people spend money for. Our country has changed from a producer of goods to a purchaser of goods along with a user of services. Our balance of trade demonstrates that we are not creating what the world wants. The industrial base that allowed us to win WWII is pretty much extinct, our manufacturing base has moved outside our borders.

The sad fact is that our government really doesn't understand what makes our economy functional. Somehow the notion has taken root in Washington that if feel-good projects like alternative energy and "green" projects are stimulated by government fiat that all will be well. Unfortunately, the government is a dollar short and a day late when it comes to the enterprise department. It's free enterprise that visualizes and develops new markets because of entrepreneurs who see a profit potential.

Other than in wartime, the government's role should be to stand aside and foster economic growth by stimulating innovation. This is necessarily done by encouraging investment rather than taxation of available assets for social welfare and transfer payments. Neither of these result in economic growth, only further dependence on government largess. For lack of a better term, what is needed is tough love, not a benevolent government.

Who is this President?

It has been said by learned people that one's character is developed as a result of earlier interactions with various people and situations.

We now have a President who has probably never had a callus on his hands from hard physical work. His entire lifetime has been devoid of exposure to the working class except as an "organizer" attempting to orchestrate other's lives. Has he worked alongside any of the working classes that he parades in front of with his sleeves rolled up? I doubt it. How can this "friend" of the working class be identified as anything but an opportunist seeking votes from people who are desperate for assistance. He won't release any of his personal history which makes one wonder if there is any history or is the explanation merely his ambition to alter the fabric of this nation to fit his tutor's vision of a Socialist utopia. His tutors never had to live under the control of a socialist government so they could easily visualize heaven on earth under socialism.

Obama, having reportedly spent $900,000 to defend his hidden history has succeeded in convincing the media that it's proper not to reveal his earlier though processes and writings, if they existed. Why are the lemmings of this country so afraid to ask the hard questions of their "leader"? Is it because then the curtain would be drawn back and real manipulators of the controls would become apparent? His track record up to now has been pathetic and his advisers have absolutely no idea as to what makes our economy tick. They recommend squandering piles of money at "infrastructure" jobs when the unemployed are factory workers, bankers, teachers, home builders, etc. who don't build bridges and roads. Don't these dunces in Washington look at the demographics of the unemployed before spending money that doesn't exist?

An interesting aside, we spend billions on "recovery" but do we really spend anything on understanding the American economy? We call upon the learned academic economists who apparently have no understanding of our economy and only bring their preconceived theories to Washington. In science, any theory requires experimental evidence of it's validity backed by independent verification and peer review. In Washington, we spend billions at the drop of a hat on theories without some basic experimental proof that the theories have validity.

But, yes, there is a plan, it's to tie up the union votes through financial bribery and let the 9.6% unemployment segment founder because they won't bother voting as a block. The Machiavellian plan is to tie the nation up in such debt that capitalism and free enterprise can't survive and then the wonderful world of socialism will come to our rescue. That is; rescue as in the current Greek tragedy with demonstrating masses demanding that for which they haven't worked but have been promised by vote seeking politicians. When pigs are fed at the government trough and no longer have to root, they will squeal loudly for their due, listen carefully because the squealing has started with the teacher's union in New Jersey.

Now Obama is testing the compromise route with the opposition party because he's seen the outcome of the November elections. The outcry's from the radical left wing of the Democratic party are like the squeals of stuck pigs, these are the pigs referred to earlier as missing their feeding time. Without taxpayer's funding, these liberals will have lost their lock on beholden voters and this is a disaster of major proportions. The specter of entitled individuals is being played out around the socialist, semi-socialist world.........just look at the riots in England over "free tuition", Greece over delayed retirement ages, Riots in Spain over the increase in cost of fuel and the list goes on. The point being that entitlements are a guaranteed way to induce dependency in governments and dependency is a process that corrupts people into accepting increased government control over their lives. Unfortunately, the entitled don't see the end results of this disease until they are beyond the cure.

We now have the political specter of class warfare with the ultra-liberals proclaiming that the wealthy don't pay enough. Well, let's see, the top 10% of the income earners currently pay 70% of all the income taxes collected while the bottom 50% pays in the order of 3%. Now the class warfare advocates would like to confiscate more of the high income to support their hold on the low income voters. An interesting note is that the bottom segment of earners actually receive negative taxes, they are paid by the government even though they haven't contributed.

The fact of the matter is that the entire tax code, all 13,000 pages, 9,000,000 words is beyond the comprehension of mere mortals and seriously needs to be overhauled and simplified to the level of a flat tax. Everyone from the poor under the bridges to the wealthiest on their yachts should have dogs in the fight, no one should be exempt from the responsibilities.

He is not what he appears

In earlier posts, I stated that Obama was a sophomore in a new job as President. I think that I will have to modify that position somewhat.
He is a cunning sophomore in the President's job. While I felt that his past associations and friendships with Socialists/Marxists was something to be wary of. I think his hidden agenda has become far more obvious and is leading this nation down a path that will ultimately destroy the principles on which it was founded. He has encircled himself with academics from liberal backgrounds, which in and of itself is not the disaster.
The problem is that some of these liberals appear to be involved in some sort of cabal that has as it's purpose changing the character of our nation. It's an interesting observation that Obama himself left no discernible history permitting an understanding of his political motivation. Now he has nominated for the Supreme Court of the United States a woman who has no legal trail that clearly identifies her motivation. Yet when one examines their backgrounds, they find a clearly Socialist- Marxist series of associations free of any taint of capitalism or free enterprise education. More interesting is the fact that they both led gifted upbringing complete with highly liberal pursuits. Nowhere in their past is a signature hardship event that could cause them to follow a socialist path. What this means is that they are idealist socialists which may be the worst type since they never experienced the conditions brought about by socialism.
Having spent some time in Soviet Russia, I experienced the socialist system first hand, albeit for a short period. I was not impressed by the political system which had degenerated into a dual class citizenship arrangement. There were the very poor, scratching out a meager existence and the privileged class cruising the streets of Moscow in their Lada automobiles with the blinking blue warning lights. Soldiers were being used to do menial jobs such as installing doors and old women were employed sweeping streets with brooms. Your travel was monitored and certain modes of transportation were only available if one had "connections".
Frankly, I don't want to see us degenerate to this level and the path being laid out by our "leadership" is intent on everything for everyone as though the costs are paid by the "money tree" called the printing press.

Stupid comments

I've received several comments from individuals who, because they are incapable of intelligent comments, leave trash. To them I say, everyone knows that human intelligence has a normalized distribution ranging from the very intelligent like Einstein to the pathetically stupid like anonymous comment authors. To these poor unfortunates who lack communication skills, I hope you leave the ranks of the unemployable. The current administration might have a place for you with ACORN, falsifying voting records or working the world's oldest profession.

Continuing Thoughts

Well Obama has been in office for nearly a year and his agenda has become apparent. He has been previously described as a closet Socialist-Marxist and while he hasn't admitted to it, his push in Congress has been exactly that. His agenda is to make this country into a nanny-state with it's citizens evermore dependent on government. By accomplishing this objective, he will solidify the control that incumbent politicians have on the people.

We are already suffering from career politicians like Robert Byrd who at 92 requires a wheelchair aid to navigate the halls of Congress, suffers from palsy and has questionable mental capacity, but he votes the party line, democratic, although I don't know if he physically votes or has a aid do it. Regardless, this is just one example of the abject stupidity of a block of voters who, to avoid intelligent thought, vote party line and keep the Byrds in office.

Obama has sold the entire country down the tubes with his "healthcare plan" that has built-in pork barrel items buying votes for our perpetual politicians seeking lifetime employment in Washington. The American people, if they go along with this scheme, will be mortgaging not only their children but their grand and greatgrand children.

In addition, we have the Cap & Trade scheme which is another form of taxation, "green" energy that ignores the overall aspects of cost, anthropomorphic warming which has taken on a new name (global warming) since we have been in a cooling cycle for many years, Nuclear disarmament, which sounds more and more like unilateral disarmament, apologies to all belligerent governments for not accepting their hatred, need I go on?

The interesting thing about Obama is that when he addresses the public, which is more often than necessary, he has a strange methodology. When he is addressing us, the ignorant voters, he always casts his head from left to right to left, never pausing in the center where the audience is. Why is that,you ask? The answer is quite simple, his teleprompters are located left and right. The other observation is that he pauses at the end of each sentence presumably to let the profound message sink in, but actually it's to read the next sentence on the prompters. Oh no, you say that can't be the facts, well ponder this. When he speaks extemporaneously, his sentences tend to be incoherent as he searches for words.

As I have said earlier, he is a man without a shadow, no accomplishments in his past and no visible sign of any virtues but his oral presentations. He has bowed to more leaders of other countries than any other President of our Nation, including a bow to the Emperor of Japan that was so low that one would think Obama was a vassal.

Observations about our Congress

Our legislators in Washington are trying very hard to pull the wool over the eyes of the American public. They are claiming that the healthcare bill is all but a proven accomplishment. This act of fiscal irresponsibility will destroy the economy because of the taxation that will flow from it.

If you believe in tooth fairies and Santa Claus you'll buy into the financial gibberish emanating from Washington, the reality is much different.

The current Social Security plan will go cash flow negative in 2013, for those who don't understand financial terms this means that the taxes coming in are less than the money paid out. At this time the SS administration will have to cash in the Government bonds that Congress so generously substituted for the trust funds they spent. Now US bonds are backed not by cash but by the credit and good offices of the American people, this is not money. Therefore, the only recourse open is to increase taxes to provide the money or cut spending, which do you think will happen?

Now add to this scene another grandstanding spending event called the 'Healthcare Plan" which is going to spend by congress's estimate another $880 Billion over ten years. Now we all know that congress can't count two beans in a row when it comes to money, so this is a low-ball estimate.

When you add just these two spending bills together, a picture arises of deficit spending on a grand scale. The money to pay for this has to come out of the GNP and therefore there will be less capital available to grow our economy and financial stagnation will happen at best.

Add to this the fact that the Chinese, who hold hundreds of Billions of US debt, are getting wary of carrying too much of our promissory paper and will start dumping bonds or calling them in. Ergo, more demand on the GNP of the US and a further depletion of the very capital that we need to sustain growth.

To put national situation as plainly as possible, we are at the same point, nationally, that the folks who bought houses with zero down payments and inadequate income were a year ago. The nation is in over it's collective head with good intentions and an empty wallet. And, we all know what's going on with the foreclosure marketplace.

Hey folks, I forgot the 800lb gorilla waiting in the wings, add to the above the "Cap and Trade" bill which we all know won't cost only a penny, just Billions and drain more money from the GNP. Oh yes, while we're at it add the "Alternative Energy" financial requirements to the budget. Have I forgotten anything? It doesn't matter, there isn't any money available anyway.

The fiscal irresponsibility being demonstrated by our Congress is akin to the irresponsibility that would be demonstrated by a child in a candy shop. For whatever reason they are launched down this path paved with good intentions and sustained by an economy that can't withstand another severe financial blow. We have spent all our assets and our children's assets and are now spending our grandchildren's assets.