Never Let A Good Rage Go To Waste

Today, we introduce our newest author on the Stop Taxing Us blog–Sean Purcell .  Sean is an accomplished financier, studied alongside Michelle Obama , can philosophically discuss the merits of  anarcho-capitalism , and has a keen eye for the shenanigans which occur in smoke-filled rooms.  Sean gives us his:

Tin Foil Hat Productions
It’s been a little while since I pulled down the shades, broke out the tin-foil hat and dipped my quill with crazy ink, but old habits do die hard. I’m reading about Congress delaying their eventual vote on the federal budget by creating a 2 week stop-gap measure with a whopping $4 billion cut in spending. (For those just tuning in, that’s .001 of the Federal Budget or 1/10 of 1%. Don’t ever say those people in Congress aren’t up there making the tough decisions…) So, Congress is delaying the vote for two weeks, with no real reasoning behind the decision. Does it seem likely that either side is going to have a come-to-Jesus moment in the next 14 days and realize the other side was right all along? I don’t think so either. Alright, this is a tough one so, much like Congress, let’s come back to it.

The vote on whether or not to raise the debt limit has been pushed out as well. The deadline was approaching quickly, as the money was expected to run out around March 31st. But then the Treasury took another look at their accounts receivable (…also known as expected tax receipts …which, I suppose, meant they looked down at their ledgers and put a really fine pencil to the numbers and realized they had underestimated how much wealth they would be confiscating from American citizens over the next few weeks) and announced that the money wouldn’t run out until April. So, as my old friend Kevin Bacon said so memorably in Animal House: “Remain calm! All is well!”

Why Wait
Hmmm, they’ve delayed the vote on the budget and they’ve delayed the vote on the borrowing limit (which are really one in the same thing, aren’t they) and a curious boy just has to ask: Why? Why put these things off when the debate is already engaged? Well, one usually puts off a tough decision in the hopes that something else will come along and make the decision easier. But, I can’t imagine what would possibly come along and bring ease to a $1.5 trillion budget deficit, or to the administration’s desire to add even more debt to what is already a Ponzi scheme grown so large that only Bernie Madoff can make head or tails of it. There is another reason to put off a tough decision though. Sometimes we delay a decision that’s going to negatively affect people until they’re busy doing something else. Something so engaging they scarcely notice the rug being pulled out from under them. You often see this with the so-called Friday News Dump, when relatively bad news is put out to the press just as they’re closing up for the weekend. Gives the dump-er a couple of days’ news cycles before the dump-ee asks for comment on whatever was dumped in the first place. But the budget and the debt ceiling are a little more than relatively bad news, aren’t they?

It’s almost as if Congress and the administration are waiting for something… waiting for an event so big that they can vote to raise the debt ceiling, pass a budget that contains no material cuts and maybe – if they’re really lucky – even provide some cover; a little bit of: “At a time like this, we must unite as Americans first and politicians second. We can’t afford to be caught with our financial pants down in the midst of these events.” I just wish I could figure out what big event they are pushing everything past…

Moving Right Along…
In other news, a Day of Rage to protest Saudi Arabia’s government and incite a revolution similar to what is already occuring across the Middle East, has been declared for March 11th. It is being closely watched around the world due to Saudi Arabia’s status as de facto leader of the Middle East and its largest producer of oil. Some are saying that…

Hey, wait a minute. If Saudi Arabia goes up in flames… well, we can hardly have Congress fighting over a budget. And even if the protestors fail to ignite anything more than gratitude for not being killed, it’s still going to dominate the news cycle for… what; two or three days at least? Gee whiz, I bet something like that would knock a congressional vote over budgets and lending caps right off of page one.

I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’…

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