Bill, that is what I worry about most of all- special interest doing what they are so good at- bending congressional elbows and positioning themselves in the first row of the money troff. But I would be happy if congress posted a website that accounted for every penny of the money used to make this "adjustment". It would probably be too complicated to follow, but at least they should make the attempt.

I saw Warren Buffet last night on Charlie Rose. Metaphors are flying from congress like the lines of lame songwriters lately (economic Pearl Harbor etc.) but Buffet had a good one. He is more optimistic than most investors, but he described the problem like this: We have a world class athletic (the American Economy) who just had a heart attack. We could talk about what kind of treatment he needs and we could bring in a team of doctors to form a committee to reach a consensus on what needs to be done but that is foolish because we have got to get his heart started again! The problem is that everyone is loosing confidence in money. So to Buffet, it is less important what is in the "package" and more important that we do something now to restore confidence.

The whole economy was, is, and forever will be just a confidence game. In my opinion it is wrong to think about our economy as "wealth" that moves around and to think that some have it and some loose it. The economy is just the scorekeeper of the amount of "activity" in the country or in the world. If we decide, as a nation, to go green; put a man on Mars; rebuild the nations highways and bridges, provide college education to every young American and insure health care for all, there is nothing that is "subtracted" from anything else. To do all those things will make the country much more prosperous- there is no down side to it- nobody gets shorted and it doesn't come with a crushing debt burden. It is selfishness and greed that "bottle up" the potential for this nation to do unlimited good things. In a way, it is exactly the "small mindedness" of or representatives that hold back the real promise of economic security and prosperity for all. What do we fear? Economic slow down- where banks are afraid to loan to innovators and businessmen are afraid to hire, and employers are afraid to quit their lousy job and look for better ones. Why do we fear? Well, the banker's fear is based of the fact that so many of them are guilty of misdeeds and they are afraid they have Hell to pay. The worker is afraid because he feels powerless. The congress and president are afraid because they may lose their job or legacy. Fear is definitely the enemy- but like the biblical Satan, it is a liar from the beginning.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein