Lord have mercy, ya'll. The feds just never cease to amaze me with their wisdom. They are in the hole to the tune of eight brazillion bucks which, obviously, makes consumers wary. We are all poor broke workin' fools who know when to stop on the credit thing and so the holiday shopping whorefest known as Christmas 07 was less than retailers expected. Boo freakin' hoo. Speaking from the former credit laden consumer that I am, it seems that we the people have begun to see the advantage of living within our means. Wall Street takes a nosedive, which is not at ALL an unusual thing to have happen and BOOM! Here come the troops.

Now I'm not a Greenspan wanna be or anything, but it just seems stupid as hell for a government that's up to its' ass in debt from financing a war that nobody wanted to give tax rebates to "stimulate" the economy. Don't get me wrong....I will definitely not send the check back! They owe me, big time and then some. I'm just saying. Who's in charge here? The two parties! Typical GOP handling of the bucks in an election year with the Dems too scared to play devil's advocate.

Me and another "independent" got to chattin' at work today about the trouble with healthcare these days. Universal doesn't seem to be the way to go federally : see Canada, et al. My opinion is that the responsibility might be shifted more toward the state level and become a bit more efficient. After a start filled with lots of graft and corruption, my state's program has morphed into something that might become a model for other states, thanks to Governor Bredesen. I know, I know. A lot of people got kicked off the rolls when the house cleaning started and some went without what they needed. But in the end, the ones who were working the system went by the wayside too. Here's the way it works with the feds and healthcare. Most of the ones involved in making the rules have never worked in the field or have a CLUE about the details or economics of the whole deal. The majority of states don't require licensure of laboratory personnel and other allied health professionals. That would be a huge victory for quality healthcare in any location. Tennessee, by the way, does. I can show you what I pay for the privilege of working for a living.

Gifts for politicians? Puleez. There is never an honorable reason for someone who is entrusted with our future to accept a dinner/trip/bribe/lobbyist donation. Most of them spend more having their suits cleaned than we ever spend on our families for entertainment or just plain fun. And I'm not talkin' one party or the other. Both are guilty.

Blogger is about to have a downtime so I must wait until later to finish this rant. Gotta go figure out how to spend my free money from Dubya.

^j^