Housing

Congress in an effort to get the housing market moving has convened a panel to study the issue. One of the proposals that was made is to make first time home buyers buy a mandatory insurance. Not regular homeowners insurance but insurance against damage and repairs that might be considered maintenance.The idea being that an unexpected repair could put undue strain on their budgets. So at a time when homes are extremely hard to sell and new construction is almost at a standstill they want to put another impediment in the path of first time buyers. Most people who have bought a house remember how tight money was coming up with down payments and closing costs. The added expense of an insurance that is bound to be expensive or useless is libel to be the tipping point that keeps people from buying.

Differences

For the past two years we've heard how mean spirited Republicans are being towards Pres. Obama. This mean spirited behaviour is generally aimed at policies that Rep. find disagreeable. I submit that there is a time and a place for spirited disagreement and political functions are fair game. Contrast this to last nights episode of Dancing with the Stars. Sarah Palin was in the audience to watch her daughter compete. Between dances ABC decided to interview Sarah about what she thought of the competition so far. She was booed loud enough so that it could be heard back stage.

A time and a place for everything, so I ask you who is really mean spirited.

Update: What appeared to be the audience booing Sarah Palin is being denied by ABC and new video evidence seems to confirm this.

Bloated Government

For years our government has been taking in a bigger percentage of the population. Both parties say the government is too big and we keep hoping one party or the other will act to reduce the the size of our government. Obviously the Obama-Pelosi-Reid administration is working in the other direction growing our government through new health care and environmental panels and commissions. I won't argue the merits of either set of programs here.

Talking with the boss the other day he advocated just loping out 50% of the government employees. Great this will reduce the government in one fell swoop the only problem is what do we do with millions of more people that would be unemployed. I prefer a more judicious approach and I believe the baby boom generation can hand us this reduction. We all dread the burden the mass retirement of the baby boomers and what this means to social security and our economy. Why not look at this as an opportunity mandating no new hires letting the retirement of baby boomers reduce the government in a slow methodical way. Combine this with a review of existing programs eliminating antiquated and ineffective programs. This stream lining may even allow us to reallocate funds to cover our s.s. obligations without crippling new taxes.

Green Jobs

As Obama Runs around the country pushing his economic plans to help the economy and put people back to work he often cites Green technology. Yep windmills and electric cars the government wants them and this new technology will add jobs. Even the lowly incandescent bulb has fallen to the greener cfl compact fluorescent so that we can save electricity and add jobs. Of course there is a price these bulbs are much more expensive and produce an inferior light. It turns out though that were really lightening our wallets and ruining our eyes only to actually lose jobs. You see as they quit making the old bulbs they close the plants putting more people out of work and import the new bulbs from China.

Good thing the government is pushing this green technology, that will put us back to work Not.