Is it Fair????

This Republicans in Congress who now control what is going on, were elected into Congress on a promise of many things.  One of those things was to “cut the budget by $100B”.  Now when I compare $38B to $100B, I come to the conclusion that their promise wasn’t met.  This was best analyzed by the statement:

“$100B budget cut is $100 budget cut is $100 budget cut.”

It is very easy to say that the Republicans are not meeting their promise, and were elected under false pretenses.

However, the “new” Republicans in Congress immediately raised a fuss that we must meet the $100B promise, or even exceed it.  I think the Republican leadership got the message, and they should be shaking in their boots.  Freshmen Congressmen are supposed to be seen, and not heard.  But, these Congressmen and women are there to make a real change in the fiscal deficit spending and the total debt that America is facing.

Remember that there are a lot of “old”  Republicans and some of these Republicans are “big government supporters”.  In other words, there are a bunch of Republicans that need to be thrown out of Congress.  And, these “old” Republicans are in positions of power inside of Congress.

What is really going on in Congress????

Congress is going to debate a Continuing Resolution in an Open Session of Congress.  This has never been done before, and in my opinion, we are seeing this because the new Republican freshmen and women are rocking the boat.  Also, Speaker Boehner wants to have a much more open Congress than existed under Nancy Pelosy – just last year.

Here is what can happen.

During the Open Session, any Congressman or woman, Democrat or Republican, can add to the budget cut resolution by having a vote on individual areas to cut in the government.  In other words, if someone knows of an area of government where spending is just plain nonsense – and you know as well as I do that they exist – the person can have a vote to add that budget reduction added to the resolution.

This should increase the amount to be cut from $38B to something greater.  How much greater?  It depends.  Here is an opportunity for YOUR Congressman or woman to make their presence felt.  It your representative does nothing to reduce the budget, they are letting the side down, and should be considered for replacement in the next election.  I am speaking for both Republicans and Democrats.

So, there is a chance that the $100B will be met after all the dust settles.

What can YOU do about all this????

Here is a fundamental point for you to consider.  Do you think the deficit spending is too large?  Do you think the debt is too large?  If you do, you can do something right now to make a difference.

Call your Congressman or woman.  Tell him/her to propose a budget cut.  It they don’t know of anything in government that should be cut, then they should be replaced out of hand.  That is an insane response.  Even Democrats know where there is waste in government.  If your representative if a Democrat, tell them to look at legislation that was passed at the beginning or the Bush Administration by Republicans – there must be something they disagree with.  If they are Republicans, tell them the opposite.

Everything else (including stocks as far as that goes) went sideways, and they hardly moved today.

In the news today…..

CPI – unexpectedly dropped for the first time in half a century.  CPI fell 0.1%.  The core CPI rose 0.2%, remember that core CPI excludes food and energy.  So, that means food and energy were the total cause of the drop in CPI.  I wouldn’t give this drop in CPI a second thought.  Food and energy are going to go up in the future, and wipe out this aberrant blip of data.

Bank Lending – in spite of the billions poured into the banks by our government – declined 2.2% in February over January.  You see, all that rhetoric from the government about wanting to give money to the banks to improve lending just wasn’t the truth.  They actually just wanted to save the banks – a totally different motivation.

Today’s Tea Parties….

I attended a tea party in my local community this morning.  The tea party was scheduled from 9AM to 2PM.  I took the bus because I was warned that parking could be a problem.  There were 8 other people on my bus going to the tea party.  That was the first big clue that the tea party was going to break the estimated 600 to 1000 people in attendance.  I arrived at 9:30AM.  The park was packed.  I talked to one of the local radio hosts who had set up shop at 5AM for his broadcast.  He said people were already coming there at 5AM – that’s 4 hours early!!!

Naturally, I was concerned with the people who had professional cameras around their neck because there is no doubt that photos will be taken.  Yesterday’s stupid announcement from the US Homeland Security – headed by Janet Napolitano who I personally spent some time with) that everyone having a “Ron Paul for President” bumper sticker should be considered a terrorist by our law enforcement agencies only heightened the attendance at these events in my opinion.

Here are my observations.  This was a poorly organized event – and I appreciated that fact because I was worried that someone’s agenda would be forced down my throat.  Over half the people were carrying home made signs.  There were no “professional” signs.  The mood was a very festive – in other words this was not a lynch mob.  There is no doubt that the “tea party” concept that has swept across the USA today is touching a very deep feeling in the general public.  (For any readers in the UK, please understand that our tea parties today have NO reflection on the British – only on the current US administration.)

It’s impossible to predict where this movement will be going in the future.  It’s impossible to say this will turn into a negative vote against Congress next year – but it definitely has that possibility.

Why am I talking about this at all?  This feeling in the country could easily change the economic direction of the country in two years.

Here are the last numbers for today:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 8030 (up 109 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 2.76% (down 0.03%)
Euro – $1.3227
Gold – $894 (up $2)
Oil – $49.25 (down $0.16)
Gasoline – $1.45 (down $0.01)