"Madness"

"Madness"... the only term I can think of to explain what is happening in this country regarding the financial management by our government. It is such a subtle thing that many Americans pay no attention to what is happening. Why should you question the government when you may get a "stimulus" check, or a welfare payment, or food stamps, or help to pay off your mortgage, or a $4500 "cash for clunkers" payment, or an $8000 rebate for your first home purchase? Most people will not question "free" money? And if you get yours, why should you care if the government has to borrow the money to give you your free handout?

Many Americans do not even understand what a "$ trillion" is. My son recently made a good suggestion - eliminate the word trillion and replace it by "1000 billion" when talking about deficits...I agree; more people might understand the problem if they heard that the deficit this past year was 1,400 billion dollars.

We are now starting to see the reality of this spending of money that the country (and states), do not have. California was the first, now New York is almost bankrupt, and today ten states are close to bankruptcy. Has California tried to solve the problem by cutting expenses? No...they have raised taxes and increased the state tax withholding by 10% to in effect get a free "interest only" loan from the citizens of the state.

This reckless spending by Congress has caused the value of the dollar to drop 35% the past year. While at the same time Congress and President Obama are working hard to pass an unpopular Health Care bill and a "Cap and Trade" bill that will add even more 1000 billions to the deficit.

As a businessman that had to meet budgets all my life I cannot believe what these politicians are doing. They have no concept of managing money - because it is not theirs. They preserve their jobs by distributing "pork" and free services to their constituents with no regard to the future financial stability of this country.

But I see a tax revolt coming - our politicians cannot continue this uncontrolled spending and expect the public to support it with higher taxes, higher fees, higher interest rates, and higher inflation.

The unemployment rate continues to climb over 10%; and many estimate it is closer to 15%. And I'll tell you why, because the entrepreneurs and the small businesses who are the "machine" that makes this country work are standing on the sidelines, waiting to see what madness this government will come up with next.