Time for something calming...

We just don't care...

That's what Chuckie Schumer, the esteemed senior senator for New York thinks. This elite, snobbish man thinks that we as Americans, the "chattering class", don't care about the billions upon billions of dollars that he and his colleagues classify as "our fair share" and they are compelled to spend. I think we do care. There is such a sense of panic around getting the stimulus package in place RIGHT NOW that we are supposed to accept the fact that a great portion of this expenditure WON'T create jobs, WON'T have any short-term affect on the economy, and WON'T turn around the credit crisis in the near future. These things are inconsequential to the like of Mr. Schumer. He knows more than you do about what is best for you. He doesn't think that we can spend the money we earn in a responsible manner. In case you thought this was a lone voice, John Kerry has stated that we shouldn't have the ability to spend our money the way we see fit. States Sen. Kerry: "If you put a tax cut into the hands of a business or family, there's no guarantee that they're going to invest that or invest it in America. They're free to go invest anywhere that they want if they choose to invest." The horror! We as Americans are free to invest our money willy-nilly! My GOD we must put a stop to this! Seriously? These are the people who are in charge of this country now? Referring to us as the "chattering class" who are "free to go invest anywhere that they want"? I don't take too well at being talked down to, and being treated like some kind of a child who doesn't have the good sense to know what to do with the money I earn. No, they are much smarter than I am, so I should just merrily turn over my "patriotic contributions" and meekly walk away, hat in hand, knowing that my superiors are going to do whats best for me. I don't know about you, but I don't think that the course they are charting is heading for calmer seas. I think it is sending us into a perfect storm.

Stimulate this

Change we can believe in eh? So how come so much of what is coming out of Washington stinks of the same old political fish? $150 million for new construction in the Milwaukee School District when they have 15 unoccupied buildings, a shrinking enrollment, and NO PLANS TO EXPAND??? $425 million for the Coast Guard to create 1,200 jobs? Give me a break. This "stimulus package" will do almost nothing to create any type of economic recovery in the short term but will leave us so far in debt that we may never get out of the hole. I remember hearing about the "infrastructure crisis" of our roads and bridges, but a nice fat little provision in the bill makes it so that any contract given out will HAVE TO be given to union shops! 84% of labor in this country is non-union, so this just reeks of a giant kick-back to the labor unions from the Democrats. This "plan" is really no plan at all, just a bunch of pet projects and paybacks hidden under the disguise of averting the greatest financial crisis in the history of the world. I call bullshit on this one. All I heard from the Democrats was that the Bush administration rammed unpopular policies down our throats by playing on our fears... well this is exactly what the Democrats are doing right this second. They are trying to scare us into believing that this massive boondoggle is for our own protection when in reality it is nothing more than more of the same bloated spending we have had to put up with for the last eight years. I'm no fan of the Bush years, but in the short few days that Obama has been in office, he and the rest of the Democrats in Congress are just as guilty of playing on our fears as anyone in the Bush administration was. Now Barney Frank wants to legislate a cap on salaries paid to executives in private companies. I can see limits on those businesses that received bailout money, but I'll be damned if I sit back and watch the elitist thugs in DC tell me that its just not fair that those eeeeevil executives make so much money. I know people in those positions, and they pretty much give up control of their lives to make that amount of money. They don't work a 40 hour week and go home. They basically have no weekends, no evenings, no time to say "I'm not at work". Just because some barista working the minimum hours they have to and has no desire to better themselves that is no reason to limit the earning potential of those who want to work hard to earn a lot of money. That is just pure socialism and borderline communism. The current lawmakers would do well to remember that those economic experiments have a miserable record of failure and the free market system has done pretty damned well for itself. This country doesn't need the government to "save us" by controlling every aspect of our lives. They need to get the hell out of the way and let us control our own destinies. If you choose to work your ass off to earn more money, you should be rewarded, not punished. Conversely, if you choose to do as little as possible just to get by, you shouldn't be pitied and given something for nothing. That is putting the cart in front of the horse, and that method just doesn't work.