Recently in Congress Category

If folks stowed their money away in fixed rate investments during the latter part of the Bush economy, and then reallocated that money into stock investments for the Obama economy, those folks have to be pleased at having saved as much as a 50% loss at the end of the Bush economy, and approaching as much as a 50% gain during this Obama economy, starting in March of this year.

Of course, President's don't control the stock markets. Myriad factors, most knowable, some not, play roles in the direction of market investments. The trick is to acknowledge and accept the trends without prejudice, political or otherwise. As far back as 2006 and 2007, there were clear indications the Bush economy was going to implode.

Some Republicans are calling for Term Limits of those in Congress. When you are done laughing your arse off, please continue reading. Term Limits were in the Contract With America, offered by Republicans in 1994. As soon as Republicans acquired the majority in government to enact term limits, the entire issue was never spoken of by the GOP again. Until now, that is. Now, that they are the diminished minority, again.

The House narrowly passed what has long been considered to be an impossible bill to push through during a recession. It was bi-partisan in its passage, as 8 Republicans voted for it, and 44 Democrats voted against it. However, this sweeping energy innovation and climate protection bill, faces a short life as it heads to the Senate later this year.

Congress is working on reforms to be applied to the credit card industry. Good. They need it. But, when it became clear that the government was going to bail out floundering corporations, did credit card companies begin to make themselves insolvent in order to get in line for tax payer dollars? With a few exceptions, the credit card companies did not begin to shut down consumer credit until government handouts were known to be coming and the recession underway.

Deficit spending by the federal government, (spending beyond the budget year's revenues), has at various times in our history been essential and necessary. Necessity has been defined as insuring the integrity of the nation, as in World War 2, or, insuring humane conditions for the American people, as in the Great Depression or Dust Bowl era. Defining essential and necessary deficit spending is not difficult. Defining non-essential and unnecessary spending is a highly improbable endeavor for our American system of government. Therein lies the economic threat going forward. A potential solution sits idly in Congress.

On Jan. 8, U.S. Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) and U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wi) introduced the Weekend Voting Act in the Senate and House in an effort to increase voter turnout. This is only 60 years late in coming. Sensing however, that there is a new Sheriff in town who reiterates that he will sign bills that make sense for America, not just bills that make sense for his party, some of the more responsible Representatives in our Congress are going to seize the opportunity to make political reforms never introduced before, but, long overdo, like this one.

Debate on the House floor regarding the proposed 825 billion dollar economic stimulus and investment package demonstrated that most Congress persons haven't read it, even fewer understand it, and none can provide any rational assurance it will have the intended effect. Yet, they debated with misinformation, deceptions, and prophecies as to the outcome of such spending. It is necessary to lay down some facts, even if our representatives are bereft of them.

This is the refrain of many remaining Republicans in the House and Senate in the new session of Congress. While they would not confess to such, their reason for objecting is about keeping some semblance of purpose. If they didn't object, what purpose would they serve? But, it would behoove Republican supporters to insist that their Republican representatives at least make the attempt to find sound reasons for objecting to the actions of the Democratic majority. That really should not be too much to ask.

Failure to pull together a bill by Sunday Night, the opening of Asian markets, will have a trigger effect on international banking. How bad, how deep, and how fast the domino effect will occur remains to be seen. But, the obstacle is the Rogue Republicans insisting that private investors (friends and lobbyists of theirs) get a piece of this discounted real estate pie that could produce handsome profits down the road.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and American workers are on opposite sides of the fence. This is made obvious by his attempt to kill the E-Verify program which allows employers to verify citizenship of potential employees through a computerized system before hiring them.