Congress--worse than useless

America is broke.

There is no nice way to say it.

On August 2, the US government will not be able to pay its bills. It requires the increase of a debt ceiling of trillions (!) of dollars to stay solvent through only 2013.

President Obama talks of cutting spending and "increasing revenue." Since governments only have one source of revenue, he clearly means taxes.

That is the last thing that should even be allowed in the conversation.

What he wants is more money to spend while increasing spending while not being able to pay the bills. Stupidity or madness, take your pick.

In an ear of out of control gas prices, inflation, 9.2% unemployment etc...raising taxes will not only DECREASE government revenue, it will destroy anything that might look like an economic recovery. This is how the Tea Party got started. Americans are tired of having to pay for red ink they did not want their representatives, Republican or Democrat, to vote for. But they did anyway and here we are.

People without money will not spend it and the economy will go into freefall.

American businesses are sitting on a pile of cash estimated at $1 trillion dollars. Why are they not using it to hire new workers? Part of the answer is greed but closer to the truth is that they have no idea what the tax situation will be like.

Obama rails against anyone making over $250,000 a year. Strangely, that would include himself and his biggest donors but push that off to the side for the moment.

Corporations, especially the small ones, are legally people. They make over the magic number of $250,000 and small businesses are job engines---when they are not being forced to make ends meet by high taxes.

If people in Congress got out more or had real jobs at some point in their lives, they would understand.

Cicero was right. Politicians are not born, they are excreted.