Congress Really Is As Bad As You Think

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/12/27/136070636_9915001.jpg?t=1325013215&s=2

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/27/144319863 ... holars-say

Congressional approval ratings are on the rocks, hovering in or near single digits for the first time since pollsters started measuring them. But just how bad is the current congressional stalemate?

Thomas Mann, senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, is working on a book about Congress with a title that provides a succinct answer: It's Even Worse Than It Looks.

In modern history, Mann says, "there have been battles, delays, brinkmanship — but nothing quite like this."

The good thing about a NEW year is that we get to start over fresh right? I thought these were some interesting New Years Resolutions for Uncle Sam. I picked the resolution I thought Congress should work on. Which ones would you pick?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-ye ... genumber=1

If Uncle Sam were even remotely interested in self-improvement, here’s what would be on his list:

• Stop runaway deficit spending. Start paying down the $15 trillion national debt before it’s $20 trillion and counting.

• Find more fossil fuels — or an alternative energy source — to replace the increasingly expensive oil we keep importing from overseas.

• Fix Social Security and Medicare before the Baby Boomers retire en masse in five years.

• End mortgage-foreclosure mess that popped the nation’s financial bubble.

• Do something — anything — about the student-loan crisis. Not everyone is cut out for school. Not every school is worth the tens of thousands in loans it takes to go there.

• Quit saying “too big to fail.” It ain’t.

• Prepare for the end of Europe as we’ve known it.

• Acknowledge we have not been recovering from economic malaise since 2008, but sorting through the wreckage of a global credit bubble.

• Quit pretending there will never be inflation while printing unprecedented amounts of money. Quit pretending unemployment is improving when millions of people are simply giving up hope of finding a job.

• Tax everyone, not just the middle class. We face a national emergency. Everyone who makes money needs to pitch in like it’s World War III. This includes the people at the bottom, who pay no taxes, and the people at the top, who pay too little. We are not growing our way out of this one.

If you think we need to prepare for the end of Europe as we know it you best also prepare for the end of the US as we have known it.

Rockdoc Franz wrote: If you think we need to prepare for the end of Europe as we know it you best also prepare for the end of the US as we have known it.

I think we need to prepare for just that.

Rockdoc Franz wrote: If you think we need to prepare for the end of Europe as we know it you best also prepare for the end of the US as we have known it.

Good point. In a world market we will ALL feel the failure of Europe's economy and the euro. Unfortunately, neither the President nor Congress seem particularly concerned about what's going on across the Atlantic. It's as if we are impervious to what happens there and the ONLY thing that matters is the upcoming election.

Either that or they are taking the same "head in the sand" approach that they are pursuing on our unemployment woes. I think they know that if people figure out how bad things are in Europe, the US economy will really hit the skids and jeopardize certain re-election dreams. You have to admit the leaders of Germany, France and Italy have done an artful job of nicely arranging the deck chairs on their Titanic...and both the markets and the press seem to take everything they say hook, line and sinker.

So how do you think the Congress, under the "capable" leadership of President Obama, will handle these margins?

For economic growth in 2012, there's little margin for error in U.S., abroad


http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_19658422

The real reason 2011 was such a disappointment isn't bad luck. It's that the problems ailing the U.S. economy are so profound that the nation can manage strong growth only when everything goes absolutely right. The confidence of businesses and consumers is more thoroughly shot than forecasters realized. The political system is more dysfunctional. Problems in mortgage finance and an onslaught of foreclosures have prevented a housing rebound.

These kinds of problems just scream for a community organizer with a serious shortage of experience to lead us out of the flames. Don't you think so?

1. Will the U.S. political system behave itself? In 2011, American politics was ugly in ways that undermined confidence and damaged economic prospects. One key to a better economy in 2012 will be a more orderly, confidence-inspiring management of the most powerful government on Earth.

I often hear a reference to "leadership" in these sort of articles. I have to wonder where that leadership will come from. I just don't see it being there right now....but maybe I'm just missing it.

A fellow on Friday commenting on the close of the stock market for the year said that basically, if you went to sleep like Rip Van Winkle in Jan 1 2011 and woke up on Dec 30 2011 you would have the impression that basically nothing had happened all year as the market closed something like 5-6 points up over a 12 month period.

A lack of leadership will give us another lackluster economic year. JMHO.