Continuing Resolution

Imagine the CEO (chief executive officer) and CFO (chief financial officer) of any company not bothering to create a budget for their upcoming fiscal year. Imagine them saying, we don't know how we are going to pay our bills or meet our payroll, or how much we need to budget for on a monthly basis, or how much we will have for capital expenditures, how much we will be able to put back into the business, or how much profit we stand to make. Imagine them saying, even though we don't know where we stand financially, how much capital we have, how much we'll have to expend as operating expenses, or whether we have enough capital to meet those expenditures; we are going to resolve to continue doing business as usual. Continuing Resolution. That's what the United States Congress just passed; a Continuing Resolution. So they can all go home; and if Democrat, campaign to try to hold onto their Congressional seat in Novembers election.  As of midnight last night, the United States government has no operating budget for the fiscal year which began today. That's when last years budget expired and the books were closed on it. The House of Representatives is the branch of Congress that deals with financial and budgetary issues, and originates the spending bills. The House has a Democratic majority that means it could pass just about anything it wants to. Yet, the governmental budget has languished unfinished in the House for months. My 80 year old brother-in-law says it's because they (the Democrats) don't want us to know what they are spending. That's about as good an explanation as any. We've seen the massive 1,200 to 2,000 page bills that the Democrats have passed that nobody knows what is in them. The bank bailout, the stimulus bill, obamacare. Do they even know themselves, what they are doing? I kind of doubt it. But a government without an operating budget is like a ship without a rudder. We need to know which direction we're going in, other than the straight into the ground path we've been led down for 19 months. On the other hand, maybe we should wait until November's Republican electees get seated in January and let them do the budget. Either way, I have to wonder just why our Democrat majority Congress hasn't given us a fiscal year 2011 budget yet.

Another major issue that Congress skipped town without addressing is whether or not to extend the Bush tax cuts which expire December 31st. That's because they don't want to extend them, but they don't want their constituents to know that for sure before next months election. So, therefore, they just didn't get around to voting on it. Not only that, they voted to not vote on them. According to the Washington Times, House Minority Leader John Boehner, (R) Ohio, called for a motion to stay and vote on extending the Bush tax cuts. That motion was defeated by only 1 vote; three dozen Democrats were brave enough to vote to stay and address the tax cut issue. The bone of contention between the Democrats and Republicans on the Bush tax cuts is that the Republicans want to extend them across the board and the Democrats want to extend them only for people making $200,000 or couples making under $250,000. The Democrats want to take away a tax incentive for businesses, or as they like to refer to them "the rich"; an incentive that made it possible for businesses to grow, put more people to work and be more productive during the Bush years. It was only after Obama "stimulated" the economy into a nose dive and crashed it into the ground that the economy failed. If the tax cuts to businesses made sense when they were implemented, they make even more sense now; when unemployment has risen so drastically under Obama and many millions of Americans need jobs desperately. However, the Democrats want to increase taxes on the wealthy to try to cya on all that unfunded spending they've done, with no way to pay for it. It won't work. History has shown that when tax rates go up, it affects economic expansion negatively, and taxes collected actually go down.

Businesses, large and small, are the job creators in America; not the government, although this administration has grown the government and damaged the private sector to the extent that 30% of the people in America who are fortunate enough to have jobs, work for the government in one capacity or another. Between the uncertainty over how that obscenity thrust upon us known as obamacare will affect their businesses, and the uncertainty over what exactly their tax structure will be January 1, 2011 depending on whether or not the Bush tax cuts will be extended for businesses, companies have stopped hiring for empty positions, have stopped expanding to create new jobs, and have stopped manufacturing and producing goods. A financial publication, The Street, on 9/22/10, listed 9 companies that are sitting on $1.89 trillion in unspent money. I heard last week on Fox that there is about $4 trillion in money that businesses are just sitting on. I don't doubt it, since Fox News Network has a 99% accuracy rate; and adding all other businesses to those 9 named by The Street probably does equal $4 trillion, if not more. As for those left-wing liberals who keep saying the "rich" and "big business" need to pay "their fair share"; just what do you consider "fair"? Back during tax prep season, the Orange County Register reported on 4/10/10 that the top 5% of earners (individuals and businesses) in America pay 60% of all taxes collected; and the top 10% of earners pay 75% of all taxes collected. I think that's fair, and I think the tax cut incentives that has allowed them to be successful to the point that they can support 75% of America's financial needs, ought to be extended. Any person that says these individuals and businesses need to have their tax base increased to up to 65% of what they earn, because they need to pass around what they've made to those that have less, are what is know as a socialist. America is not a socialist country, no matter how hard some are trying. If you want to live in a socialist country, be non-productive, and live off the productive people, then move to Cuba or Venezuela.

Hurricane Congress Fleeing DC Yesterday