Don't worry, children, the Chinese people will loan us money for you to spend on trinkets (many of which will have been imported from China).

That's how I feel about the CRAZY,STUPID, IRRESPONSIBLE ECONOMIC STINKULUS PLAN the idiots in Washington have dreamed up. They are acting like the country is in the middle of a full-fledged economic meltdown. IT IS NOT! It is simply in a "as you sow, so shall you reap" slowdown. A lot of people borrowed more than they should have, banks LOANED those people more than they should have, home prices rose higher than was reasonable, because for a while demand was outstripping supply, and now it's time to pay the piper. In my opinion, we should learn our lessons, limp a little, and recover naturally.

But NOOOOOOO! It's an election year. The politicians must assign blame! They must "remedy" the situation! Too bad that their to-do list does not include taking a crash course in Economics. How can anyone possibly think that our economy will be helped by the government playing Santa Claus and handing out $1,200 checks to every couple with annual income up to $150,000. I'm simplifying the formula, but you can look up the details on line, if you have the stomach for it. Do they really think that couples with an annual income of $150,000 (or even $100,000) are going to rush right out to K-Mart and spend their $1,200 for more crap, which most of us have too much of anyway? I would have been happy to go along with the proposals to extend UC benefits and food stamps for the people who are struggling to get by. But those ideas were dead in the water, thanks to Republican opposition. I'd also be supportive of job training programs or even public works projects, if they were well thought out and needed (think crumbling infrastructure).

I wouldn't be so incensed if the federal government were running a budget surplus. But we are in hock up to Uncle Sam's hat brim! We're going to have to borrow the money for those rebates. And so much of the U.S. borrowing is from foreigners (think China and Japan). What kind of example does that set for our overcharged, underinformed citizenry?

Okay. I'm done.