Paralyzing Fear!

"Many of us out here in the hinter land would rather see us die on our feet than live on our knees (legislatively). We really thought with the swamp drainers we would see this starting this year."

We have all heard of it. A few of us have seen it. In fact, some have experienced it. Fear. Absolute, fear. Fear so strong, we freeze. Like a deer in the headlights. We get so scared that we cannot function. What does this have to do with anything you might ask? I think we have just witnessed paralyzing fear in the $1.1T budget bill which is heading for law.

Fear of what? The dreaded government shut down. Even though (if the truth be known), should the government shut down, and the press did not report it, very few people would know. But the press WILL report it, and they will report it to be the next worst thing to Armageddon. Plus (and this is where the fear really becomes palpable), the stingy old Republicans WILL be the ones to blame! Regardless of facts, because they are not the Party of Santa Clause, they WILL bear the brunt of the blame!

How bad is this bill? For starters, it probably could have been put together by Democrats. In fact, here is the tell tale sign. Both Chucky Schumer and Ms. Nancy are giving this bill "high praises". They then had the gall to say, "This is how to put together a bipartisan bill". In other words, once the Republicans put their principled positions back in the closet and act "Democrat Light" again, it was a piece of cake. 

If this makes it though conference and then to the President's desk for signature, it will fund our bloated government until September. In other words, until the end of the fiscal year - which by the way, is now seven months old. And many of the targeted things for deletion we heard from a chorus of voices on the campaign trail, turn out to be not targeted after all. If this was to be death for many of those programs, I guess there is life after death.

Now that the Republicans have caved on the budget, what is in the on-deck circle? My guess? ObamaCare 2.0. What? You mean the "repeal and replace" has been replaced? Yup. Just like in poker, when every year during the Obama Administration a bill was submitted to repeal ObamaCare and then vetoed, this year the republican's hand was called. And the Republicans did not even have a pair of deuces to show. So, it looks like Congress is going to try and resuscitate the patient. In other words, fix the very sick ACA. 

One more thing. The high hopes I had for a transformational tax change, are starting to look like the mirage on the horizon. We will end up with just a bit more tinkering around the edges of our current flawed tax code. Big whoop.

Many of us out here in the hinter land would rather see us die on our feet than live on our knees (legislatively). We really thought with the swamp drainers we would see this starting this year. All I can see is miles and miles of the Dismal Swamp. And yes, it is looking more and more dismal.