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I'm doing the best I can to stay ahead of the disaster the Bush administration is imposing on America. For example, in anticipation of the high gasoline prices, we traded in our car for a hybrid in early 2007. Second, even though our low ARM did not expire until March 2009, we refinanced our house in early summer 2008 for a low 30-year fixed rate because I did not believe rates would be better in March 2009. Today, I visited the Bank of America office near by and found their 30-year fixed rate is now 7.0 percent.
I want to state emphatically that I am not prescient. However, I do I live on the west bank of the Potomac River and from here, I can see Washington clearly....even through the intensely partisan cloud that usually hangs over the city each morning. What I have seen is not pretty. We citizens have to rescue the city from itself...and we must do it on November 4th.
Those members of Congress who did NOT vote for the "National Economic Stability Act" on Monday should be sent packing. (I know that is not its real name.)
It is not a bailout; it isn't even a rescue. I think it should more accurately be described as an act to restore economic stability to the markets AND to main street. All are affected by the lack of action. But make no mistake about it, the bill defeated 228-205 on Monday WILL pass this week...even if the Democrats are the only party with enough patriots willing to risk defeat with unhappy constituents at the polls in four weeks. They will do it; the bill will pass.
As for next year, two things are likely: (1) When the troops come home, America will start to spend a small portion of the war money on rebuilding America's infrastructure and that will lead to tens of thousands of new jobs; (2) another small portion will be dedicated to developing the means to wean ourselves off addiction to foreign oil and that will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs over the next decade.
Oh, and one other thing: you can expect to see about 20 books published by former "friends" of Bush 43 who served with his administration for the past 8 years and have been waiting until "it is over" before penning their recollections of the time they spent in this unfortunate national experience. If you have no stomach for incompetence, dereliction of duty, malfeasance and misfeasance in office, the politicization of the Justice Department, the emasculation of nearly every budget of nearly every department or agency of government, do not buy any of them. I will tell you this: I have already started a collection of these books and will continue to add to them, because I want to pass them along to the next generation with the hope they will read them and vow to avoid putting in office such partisan incompetence in the future.