What Congress Hasn’t Gotten Yet: It’s The Economy Stupid!

The results are in. The electorate has spoken. And apparently the public is unhappy about the economy. How anyone could have discerned that before this election, I cannot imagine. Thank God the Republicans are going to save us and return the economy to a robust and dynamic state. Because we know that Republicans would never be fiscally irresponsible, they would never spend money that we don’t have, or allow the financial industry to engage in risky and irresponsible investment and monetary policies, and they would never allow international trade policies and agreements to threaten the long term interests of the country.

Wait! I forget; didn’t the Republicans actually do all these things? These stalwarts of conservative philosophy and America First posturing, aren’t they as or even more responsible for the atrocious financial situation that we find ourselves in then the Democrats? Who else could have funding a war on “off-the-books” budgeting? Or, who could have deregulated banking and blindly assumed that the banks and financial institutions would be focused on the national interests before their own? And has anyone done a better job in supporting the ever growing trade deficit with the rest of the world, and devaluing the dollar against other currencies?

I don’t mean to say that the Democrats haven’t demonstrated the same levels of incompetency in their skills and expertise. They have been the prime movers on any number of Governmental programs that have managed to completely hose up Government budgets, taxes, regulation, trade, and all the other elements of our national economy.

All that aside; we can all look forward to the Republicans arriving as the saviors of the economy. And because Republicans are the defenders of citizens who seek individual freedoms, small government, the efficiency of the free market system, and a strong defense; we can expect them to step up and force America to face the hard facts. The Republicans will bring a strict monetary accountability upon not only the Government, but upon corporations and upon the populace. The new leadership (it must be a new leadership, because the old leadership couldn’t do it) will expect Americans to live within their means, and will require companies to be prudent with and tie bonuses to long-term delivered performance and not short-term promised future value.

The way that we know that Republicans are up to this task is that they have never demonstrated any indication of being aware of such responsibilities, and they are only interested in protecting campaign funding sources to keep them in office. In other words, they are just like the Democrats. Promise with is easy, and what people want but don’t want to have to pay for. Blame anyone else for the problems, and accept none of the responsibility. Yes, be a politician.

So whichever party you are expecting to return America to its strong economically dominate position in the world order, what do you expect them to do? Do you expect them to strengthen the dollar, to stop borrowing money from the rest of the world (reverse the trade deficit), and prevent corporate and business leaders from funneling the value of companies into their own pockets? Do you think they are going to make executive be accountable for and paid according to their mis-management, high risk bets that are unprofitable, and for self-interest directed fiduciary irresponsibility?

Do you really think either party even knows how to do this?