Thank God for the 228

I don't care why they did it. I don't care who they are. I don't care if they overslept after a night of crack-smoking, and a case of Busch Lite. I have 228 new heroes as of yesterday.

If there's one thing I love to see, its the pitiful, forlorn look on a Congressman's (or Congresswoman's in this case) or President's face when their brainchild of a bill has flunked spectacularly. It makes me almost weepy with joy. The look of disappointment yesterday on Nancy Pelosi's permanently scowl-marred mug was priceless. I may print and frame it and kiss it every morning. Bush the Younger's reaction was almost as gratifying. Neither of them got what they wanted, and that made me a happy panda. As a Libertarian, I get worried when Democrats and Republicans want the same thing and start slow dancing to Barry White and talking about having one another's children. As Brave Sir Robin once said, "Thats enough music for now lads, looks like theres dirty work afoot."

One of the first things that stuck in my throat was the fact that the bill called for the funds allocated to be deposited into the general treasury - a place that makes the change jar on my bedside table look like Al Gore's infamus "Lockbox". Everyone knows what happens next. Every special interest with a lobbyist and a telephone starts trying to get their share of the loot. Apparently, I'm not far off here either. Legislators loaded the proposed bill up with almost $3 billion in earmarks. But hey, what's $3 billion between friends?

The question I had all along was, "Where is this money coming from?" We don't have $300 billion dollars. We're trillions in debt. I guess we would have to borrow it, but from whom? The Federal Reserve, of course, which is no more federal than Federal Express. Just what we need, a massive infusion of worthless cash into an economy already tormented by inflation caused by the runaway spending of the Bush Administration, who never met an entitlement program they didn't fall in love with.

In an email the other day, one of the few congressmen from North Carolina who voted for the bailout, a Democrat named Brad Miller, called the bill a "bitter pill". He said "The economy will slow dramatically if every business and every American family has to operate on cash."

That got me to thinking about the possibility of a US with less cash on hand. While it may be true that the economy will slow, guess what else will happen? All of that phony cash that was floating around for the last few years, causing inflation and gas and housing and groceries to skyrocket is gone now. Today, the Euro fell more against the dollar than it had since its creation. Oil dropped $11 per barrel. Why is this happening? Because the lack of cash is forcing the dollar to go up in value.

So who would want to infuse the US with phony cash and continue this spiral of inflation, this devaluation of the dollar that Ron Paul calls the "inflation tax", which robs the poor, the elderly and the middle class? Who else? International corporations, of course, who have a vested interest in seeing the dollar weak. When the dollar is weak, the cost of goods is higher at the checkout counter, while wages paid stay relatively stagnant. No one gets a raise every time prices go up, and almost no one's salary is tied to inflation. So the big multinational corporations stand to benefit from a weak dollar. The cost of labor in China hasn't risen. The people in India and Bangladesh haven't suddenly mobilized and unionized and begun charging higher prices for their labor. Fabric purchased from these countries to make the clothes we wear isn't more expensive. It simply takes more of our relatively worthless dollars to purchase these finished items at the point of sale. What happens next? The stock of the giant multi-national corporations gets a nice little boost for their shareholders. Guess who's making out like a bandit here? I guess if you can't make money the old fashioned way - by earning it, you support legislation to flood the largest economy in the world with trash-cash which causes the currency to fall and inflation to set in so it at least looks like you're making more money.

The government has been getting serious about the business of ruining the value of our dollar with the $700 billion in spending on the war in Iraq for for half a decade while people get all excited about the rising value of their homes, which in my mind, was fake all along. In the meantime, the cost of everything under the sun was going nowhere but up, so many of these people were forced to take out second mortgages, or chose to do so rather than alter their individual lifestyle. Let's face it, as the nation with the largest per capita share of debt in the world, most people in this country live on the very edge of their means, and any significant increase in costs will cause a glut in the amount of disposable cash flow of a family's income. Inflation is like a free pay day for multinational corporations with no allegiance to any nation who buy low overseas and sell high here. The Walton's don't care that bread is $3.00 per loaf when they sell millions of them every week. They love inflation. It tastes good with butter and jam.

Those who say that if we don't swallow nancy Pelosi's "bitter pill", that credit will dry up and there simply won't be any money to lend new homes and autoloans are simply mistaken. On my way home today, I saw a man hanging a banner outside a mortgage company that read, "100% Mortgages Available Here!" Sure, there may be a slowdown, but at the risk of trying to sound like something I'm not - a financial wizard - I predict an upswing as home prices fall back to a reasonable level and the dollar strengthens. The government cannot continue to prop up home prices at the expense of runaway inflation, the worldwide devaluation of our currency and loss of confidence in our financial system. And we certainly can't afford to set this precedent of bailout as an acceptable alternative to a free-market correction. In my mind, this crisis is a good thing, maybe even the best thing to come along in a while - unless we bail it out. Now all we have to do is get our spending under control on a federal level, pass the Fairtax and watch some real prosperity take hold, as opposed to this false prosperity we've been led to believe we've had because the DOW has been up. Of course, why is the DOW up? Say it with me. Because it takes more of our worthless dollars to buy a share of stock. Thank you. Don't you feel better now that you've spoken the truth to yourself?

This isn't just the government's fault. Its the fault of people who took out loans to pay for things they could have done without. Its the fault of people who bought houses they knew they couldn't afford. Its the fault of some mortgage lenders who dreamt up complicated loan schemes that were way beyond the capacity of comprehension of the average person in this country, who isn't that bright to begin with. Its the fault of Democrats like Barney Franks, who opposed stiffer regulation of Fanni Mae and Freddie Mac back in 2004. Its the fault of Republicans who controlled the Congress and the Presidency back then to do anything about it. Its the perfect storm of a crisis of financial and military hubris and political alzheimers. What is it about flooding the market with fiat cash that's bad for the country that central banks can't remember? What is it about Roman history and the projection on military power around the world that makes people forget how devastating it is to an economy? Why do we think we can do the same thing Nero did to Rome from 54 to 68 A.D., debasing the currency to worthlessness with endless military and social spending, government intervention in private business and the reduction of economic freedom and end up any differently?

I find it interesting, funny, ironic and deeplly disturbing that politicians are calling the failure of this bill a failure of our political system. Of course it isn't. How insulting. Its an absolute success of our political system. In fact, its one of the few shining moments in our recent tainted history. I called my Congressman, Howard Coble, to tell him that if he voted for this bill in any form, not only would I not vote for him, but that I would actively campaign against him. To my utter delight, he voted against the bill. While I'm certain that he didn't listen solely to me (if he did that he'd co-sponsor the Fairtax Legislation and sign off on the Pickens Plan), his office reported at least 90% vocal opposition to this bailout. That's what the American political system is all about - not Nancy Pelosi and the so-called Republicans who voted for this bill being able to ignore their constituency and ram it down our collective throats.

So a hearty pat on the back to the 228 who voted against this trash, this slap in the face of every taxpayer who expects more than the arrogance and bile they get every year from Congress. Like I stated in the beginning - I don't care why you did it. I just care that you did. Thank you.