by Greg Miller

       It's been some time since anything has been written on these pages. The author has become busy and the writing bug just hasn't been biting. I felt that it was important to start writing again, not because of any profound thoughts or ideas and not because anyone was actually reading what I wrote but rather, because It's therapy for me. That's right this is just an exercise in selfishness.

     The third year of Barrack Hussein Obama's term as President of the United States of America is well under way and last November the citizens of this great land elected a Republican majority to the House of Representatives.  The GOP came close to taking the majority in the Senate but fell a few seats short. The fascinating thing about the election actually happened at the state level. The "Democrats" lost big in legislatures around the country as well as quite a few governorships. The point there is that, in those states, Republicans will be responsible for redistricting.

     The "Democrat" majority in Congress left town last year without passing a budget and leaving that task for the present Congress to get it done so, we just had a budget battle that actually turned out to be nothing more than a political pillow fight. No real cuts in the spending that is causing the debt that we are drowning in. 

       Today the House of Representatives passed their 2012 budget. There are real cuts and it is basically the Ryan plan. $6 Trillion in cuts over the next decade and there is real reform of entitlement programs. Now the ball is in the Senate's court, let's see if those "Democrats" are going to get serious about cuts. I believe some are and will get busy. After all there are more than twenty who are up for re election.

     A brief snapshot of America today: 

• Gasoline prices are high, averaging around $4 a gallon.
• Unemployment is above 9% and has been for well over a year.
• Gold hits record price three days in a row.
• Inflation is high.
• The national debt is pushing $15 trillion.
• Several states are fast approaching the debt tipping point.
• Suicide rate is up.
• More people on food stamps than in any other time in our history.
• A general sense and mood that things aren't going to get better.
• Deep divisions in the population.

Greg