The spending, borrowing and bail-outs are enough for me to scream. Nobody would argue that we never have to pay back these loans. The piper will come calling. After adding mandatory spending to our federal and state budgets, the only alternative will be to increase taxes. And not just income taxes, but a Value Added Tax (VAT) is being discussed in the halls of Congress. A VAT is a small tax placed incrementally through the supply chain of goods. We will pay more for most everything we buy. Oddly we consider adding to mandatory spending at a time when three major entitlement programs are in the tank. Why not add another healthcare program? Who is going to pay for this? The Chinese? My greatest prayer is that China would stop enabling our addiction. Bailing out car companies, shifting ownership outside of a bankruptcy system emulated throughout the world? Disgusting.

Increased taxes will mean less disposable income for which to buy goods and services. Yet a climate bill in Congress seeks to excise a carbon emissions tax on companies producing electricity with fossil fuels. Fifty percent of electricity produced is done so with coal. Obama has personally noted this cost would be passed to the consumer; utility bills will “skyrocket;” more money out of our pockets and still less money to buy goods and services. And I have no choice from whom to buy energy!

As defined by www.dictionary.com, inflation is “a persistent, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency.” Since December, our Federal Reserve has doubled the amount of currency on hand from $900B to $1.8T. We are lending to ourselves via the Treasury Department. This money will seep into circulation causing a rise in the general level of prices due to the loss of value in the dollar; more money out of our pockets and still less money to buy goods and services.

Very few will be able to hide from the impacts noted but what may be the results? The poor will become more poor with narrow lines of escape either through having to work harder to get ahead or receive greater subsidy from the government to get ahead. The wealthy will lose that which they toiled to gain their reward will be confiscated to pay for reckless government spending and debt. Who will invest in business, the government?  The unemployed may likely stay unemployed for the foreseeable future since less capital will be available for investing in business not to mention the decrease in items purchased from retail shelves. Eventually unemployment insurance payments will expire; or will they?

The government could expand to absorb these losses by headquartering the nation’s largest job program in Detroit, but what about those Americans outside the “in crowd?” If they lose their jobs as a result of the events noted above then they may lose their ability to meet mortgage obligations. Will the government buy-up those delinquent mortgages and those homes? 

Again, I’m all about hope for a better tomorrow but don’t nationalize a car company and demand they manufacture little green rechargables. Why not provide incentive to rental car companies to purchase the little green rechargables and introduce the public to them? Why not provide homeowners incentive to install solar panels and windmills? Are we still not drilling in ANWAR? Don’t tell me that Iran has the right to nuclear power while the US hasn’t built a nuclear plant in over 30 years. (How many jobs did I just create?) And don’t tell me the US does not have the one of the best healthcare systems in the world far surpassing the quality of care offered by any nationalized system; I’m just not buying it.