KathyZ, I definitely agree with you 100%. Just like the people that have voted in this forum, our geniuses in Congress don't fully understand that if they fix the economy, it will have a rippling effect and most national issues will be alleviated as well.

I'm a little upset that so much money is being given to those of us who didn't make smart decisions. Bailing these people out in the housing market is just postponing the inevitable and will lead right back to where we are now. Would seem to me suspending federal income tax would have been the smarter plan, the people would have fixed this themselves.

The government can not fix the economy - it can only provide favorable conditions for the economy to thrive by:

* Establishing justice and enforcing the law if force or deception occurs in a market.
* Getting out of the way

Government intervention in markets is the problem, not the solution. Government intervention has a crippling effect on the ambition of entrepreneurs.

I think the real issue is that government has very little direct impact on the economy. A 'stimulus package' ore similar would be a drop in the bucket compared to what we need. I think instead a focus on programs like energy independence and healthcare reform could kill 2 birds by reducing consumer costs and increasing the numbers of jobs (and adding more money to consumer's pockets).

Man, I wrote 400 char's on this and lost it. But basically, maybe people are just assuming that the economy is #1 and so are treating this as political Christmas. So they vote on here for the things that aren't glaring needs, but that they would like to see addressed at some point. So a Christmas list vs. a Grocery list, basically.

If this is not #1, perhaps people don't fully understand the precarious situation we're in. Our economic well being is critical to everything else on the agenda.