What have we done?

By all know that our country is in a mess. We are fast heading toward socialism, we are broke, in two wars, we import oil when we have plenty here, and we are in an election cycle which will result in the same old "do it wrong" congress we have come to accept.

Yes, what I am saying is that this is all our fault. We, be it Democrats or Republicans, have created a corrupt and lazy congress. Why do we do it? Heck, I don't know. What I do know is that it is time for a change and I don't mean the change our current Presidential candidates are talking about. I mean real change.

"Change Congress Now" has a goal of distributing information about what congress actually does. For example, the illegal bail out had hundreds of millions of dollars added to it that was not necessary and in no way related to the current crisis, which by the way was brought to us by, you guessed it, our congress as well as several corrupt bankers.

So here are a few questions that I hope I can find the answer to. What is a congress persons compensation and how much does it cost to run his/her office? Is this expense value added? If it is, great. If not, why do we keep electing them. Remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results.

I include myself in this definition as I too kept voting for the same types of people. But not anymore. I'm done! Finished voting against some one and not for some one or some party. Starting with this election I will only vote for a candidate that I truly believe has the ability to govern in a moral, ethical and common sense fashion.

Bail Out B.S

Little by little, gradually, haltingly...the commentators are putting two and two together. In just four days, global stock markets lost more than $3 trillion. Then, the fellows who saw no danger at all – Greenspan, Dodd, Frank, Bernanke and Paulson – suddenly insisted that if immediate action were not taken the world’s whole financial system would implode! Meltdown! Collapse!

What did that mean, exactly? They didn’t say. But it sounded like big trouble. And people want to avoid trouble at all costs – especially if the costs can be laid on someone else.

“The private market has screwed itself up,” explained Representative Barney Frank “and they need the government to come help them unscrew it.” (He left out the extenuating circumstance that the U.S. money supply, the shortest term lending rates, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Fed, the Federal Housing Administration, the SEC...and a whole plethora of agencies, commissions and meddlers...as well as one out of every 4 dollars spent...were all under government control all along!)

And so, Bernanke, Paulson, et al took the witness stand yesterday. They clearly had some explaining to do. But the more they explained...the more we didn’t understand. If government were capable of understanding and fixing the problem...how come it didn’t see it coming in the first place? How come it let it happen? But this morning, we put aside the question of whether the government will unscrew things or screw them up even worse – as it usually does. Instead, we come back to the issue of who will bear the ultimate cost of bailing out Wall Street. No one knows the answer. And no one seems to feel bothered by it – even though the cost will rise to about $2,000 per family. But no one is complaining about the cost.

There’s “bipartisan outrage” in Congress, reports the Washington Post . But it’s not about the money. Instead, some argue that Wall Street fat cats getting away with murder. Others want an even bigger bailout – one for the homeowners, too. And others just want to rant and moan for the benefit of the voters back home.

As to the issue of who will benefit from the bail out, we know the answer already – it will be the usual collection of parasites and chiselers with good lobbyists in Washington. As to the question of who will pay for it, we want a lab report on the blood samples...and a fingerprint match.

The measure includes a provision in which the public debt is raised to over $11 trillion. This will put it at about 85% of US GDP. We recall that Louis 16th lost his head after France’s debt rose to about 80% of GDP. The problem is, when you get to that level of debt, lenders balk and the borrower runs room to maneuver. In the modern world, that probably means higher interest rates...and what was once unthinkable, a downgrade of America’s debt rating from AAA to something less than that – and possibly junk.

The bailout tab so far could top $1.6 trillion – assuming the new $700 bill happens. Consider that M1 money supply – cash in circulation – only totals $1.39 trillion... Consider that M2 – including certificate of deposits and such – is only $7.72 trillion. Writes one reader, “I think you’re wasting your time and energy. There is an old but very accurate maxim that says, ‘Belief is held more strongly than fact."

Finally, another reader writes: “In the words of a very wise writer, we are ‘freaking doomed’. They all talk a good schtick until they have been in Washington a year or so, and then are ruined by the establishment. Most are so out of touch that they don’t have a clue what the average citizen is going through. Guess what? Things are going to get a lot worse. I am a retail jeweler who sees people selling their wedding rings (not because they don’t like each other any more), but to buy gas, groceries, and essentials for their children every day. Not really what I signed on for when I became a jeweler back in the ’80s, but this is the way our country is heading. Congress had better pay attention real soon as they should have been doing a few years ago. However, most think that everything can be solved by running the printing press at the mint. Foreign investors holding U.S. debt are not going to wait very long either. As the dollar does not inspire much confidence these days, they will soon start dumping it.

" Sincerely, Sheikf Freddy Couples