Well, Crap ...

It passed. The massive deficit spending bill passed. I knew it would, but still ... This morning I heard a clip on the news: "When President Obama signs the spending bill, it will become the law of the land." That's when it hit me.

Interest rates are going up. Taxes and inflation, too. My daughter and her friends are going to be saddled with this mess for years to come. And we just extended the economic malaise from a couple years to a decade.

This thing was nothing more than the Dems finally getting the White House and both houses of Congress, and getting everything they've been pining for since 1994. The final bill was over 1,000 pages, and it was delivered to lawmakers late Thursday night. Not one person who voted for it read the whole bill - not one! They're spending a trillion dollars of our money (with interest), and they didn't even read the bill before they voted on it! Unconscionable!

It will not stimulate the economy. It may bankrupt a nation. Moody's is looking at the US Treasury credit rating - we may get downgraded. The Fed is talking to four primary dealers to add to the group that participates in Treasury auctions - they're worried that the current cabal isn't big enough to move all the paper they need to move. The bond market traditionally closes at 2:00 pm Eastern on the Friday before every Monday holiday, plus Good Friday, Christmas Eve, and the days before and after Thanksgiving. They're considering eliminating the early closes, for fear that without the extra trading time they can't move all the paper they're going to print. This is unprecedented. And at the same time, China, our biggest buyer, is doubling the frequency of its own three-month bills - so it's going to be a net issuer, not a net buyer.

Rates will go up. I will make money off that. I just hope it's enough to offset the higher inflation and taxes I'll be facing. I may defect.

Kudos to the House Republicans for standing against this, as well as the handful of brave, fiscally conservative Democrats who crossed the line - at significant political risk. Clearly the "Blue Dogs" are a thing of the past. Shame on the three Republican Senators who voted for this bill. This isn't a partisan thing; shame on any elected official who will vote to spend a trillion dollars of our money and our kids' money, without even reading the bill to see what's in it.

So much for the President's transition promise to place all non-emergency bills on the White House website for five days before he'll sign it. This porkulus will get signed stat. Besides, that promise was broken with the first piece of legislation he put his signature on. And few of us would have the time to read 1,000 pages in five days. And even if we did and found a bunch of stuff we didn't like, nobody would listen to us anyway.

And, the White House provided a plane - on the taxpayer's dime - to fly the deciding vote back to the Senate from his home state, where he'd been attending his mother's funeral. And the Senate extended voting hours to accommodate his return.

There is so much wrong with this, I don't know where to begin - nor do I know where it will end. I only know it won't end well.

Crap.

Next post, I'll address the promise of creating 4 million jobs (or 3.5 million or whatever the number is this week).