Time Out, Congress! Time for a Tutorial on Economics 101!

Before I forget, Congratulations to the Spartans for a good game while lacking 14 players! We should all be proud.

On to the obvious lack of education in Congress and the Administration.

Item: Imposition of duties on imports from China of "oil country tubular goods" which are pipes used in the oil and gas industry. We can only provide 2/3 of our needs and the rest comes from abroad. Bad news for the U.S. economy and consumers of other steel products such as cars, appliances, etc. There will probably be a shortage of pipes by the second half of next year plus the imposition of Chinese tariffs on other products we buy. So again, someone else will suffer while the steel industry makes higher profits.

Item: Obamacare on Drugs. Presently the government subsidizes businesses at $665 or 28% per person to keep private enterprise supplying coverage to retirees. With the tweaking of the new health care bill going on in the dead of night the government is thinking about taxing the businesses for that "income." When that happens more and more companies will opt for letting Medicare take care of their retirees and the net result is more cost to the government.

Item: The stimulus plan gave money to the states to hire people to help the job numbers and the economy. Now if the locals and state governments want to keep those employees they will be facing the full costs of keeping those folks on the payroll. No more dollars from Uncle Sam means they face an automatic deficit in the State budget. What to do? Woe is us! The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates the combined deficits of the states for 2010 and 2011 will hit $260 billion.

Last Item: Eight Attorneys General at last count are joining together with other like thinking legislators to challenge the Health Care bill as unconstitutional. Don't know how this will play out, but it could amount to an end result of a whole lot of wasted time on the part of both houses of Congress and the entire Administration and much of Washington.

Now that the holidays are over, would you call this "Business as Usual?"

Sleep well--
God bless..........