Sorry for the hiatus . . .

1. Health Care. Here are a few things to think about the current legislation being debated by Senate Democrats. First, the bill is now up to 2100 pages. Please raise your hand if you think any of the legislators who will vote on this legislation have actually read it. And, if they have read the words on the pages, raise your hand again if you think they have any idea what the actual real-world impact of the bill will be.

Second, in poll after poll it is clear that the American People are afraid of this legislation. This is partially because . . . we have no idea what is in this proposed law . . . because Senate Democrats aren't telling us. And, they aren't telling the Senate Republicans, either. In fact, they are conducting negotiations secretly without any public disclosure of the policy specifics they are considering.

Question: is this the type of open and transparent government the Democrats, and President Obama, ran on? Oh, sorry, that was an impolite question. We are supposed to forget the campaign promises and statements now that the election is over (but, wasn't that why many of us voted for them . . . sorry, impolite again). (I am sure at this point, if there are any Obama Supporters still reading, they are readying a response that will no doubt call out the Bush Administration and a comparison to how much better this is to Bush . . . I feel better already.)

Third, it is increasingly becoming clear that whatever form this Democrat legislation (let's call a spade a spade) will take . . . it is going to raise costs, not lower them, on a per capita basis. This is from the CBO, and various policy wonks and think tanks. How does this square with what President Obama said were his priorities in this effort? Answer: not at all. Where does this leave Obama in the minds of many people next time he tells us what his priorities are? Is it so hard to figure out why politicians rate so low in poll after poll?

Fourth, Joe Lieberman is opposed to the public option, in any form, including a stealth form that pops up later, because he has been told in plain English by Congressional Democrats that the legislation is being used as a step towards the goal of nationalizing health care (see recent WSJ interview). If Obama, and Congressional Democrats want that as the end-game, why aren't they saying so? I will tell you why: because the American People don't want nationalized health care . . . and the Democrats know better what is good for us than we do.

DISCLAIMER: As if I need to do this again . . . I am not a Republican. I am part of the vast Middle who are independent minded and non-party people.

2. Monday Morning Quarterbacks. Why is everyone so smart now, a year later? Where were all these Congressional critics of our Treasury and Federal Reserve a year ago, when the bullets were flying and it was so unclear what was going to happen to our economy? I'll tell you where they were . . . scared crapless. And, relieved that someone else's butt was on the line fighting the raging fires that threatened to consume us all.

Now that the danger has passed, these hypocrits on Capitol Hill are busy parsing blame to everyone . . . but themselves. Who was it that repealed Glass-Steagall? Was that Henry Paulson, Tim Geithner and Alan Greenspan? Nope. It was Congress . . . under a Democrat President (Clinton). Oh yeah, and who pushed and pushed for federal financing of more and more home loans? Was that Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, among others? And, now those two are raising their voices loudest to call for more Congressional oversight of our financial system.

Is this Alice in Wonderland, and are we supposed to believe that up is down and down is up?

I am not sure that all the decisions that we made a year ago to bail out this or that firm were good decisions. And, I said so at the time. But, the fact is, that I really had no idea what the impact of not bailing them out would be. And, neither did the policy makers. But we had to do something and what we did apparently stopped the train from going over the cliff. So, the combination worked to save us all from ruin.

Maybe saying "thank you" would be in order. Instead of holding sham hearings, made for TV, that are designed to embarass the very people who saved us.

No wonder Congress has 26% approval ratings (seems high to me, but that besides the point).

Enough for now,

Woldy