Stimulus, Recovery, TARP, Tax Cuts, Cash Grants, WPA, CCC….enough.  Fix the problem where it started: housing.  Put all of the other garbage on the back burner and get a “Bad Bank” setup.  This is the first step in getting to the bottom of what ails us.  Sure, it was necessary to pour some capital into the banks to keep the doors open but that will only go but so far and we’ll need to do it again even if we set up a bad bank – but we’ve got to get over this.  We in Manassas are keenly aware of the ramifications of this housing bust – I would even argue that this was ground zero for it.  What we saw going on here in terms of mortgage lending and other practices are what is wrong with our country but on a small scale.

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I watched “Meet the Press” this morning.  The Republicans need to get their message right or just not do these interviews.  Rep. Boehner threw out just about every trite saying in the book and managed to contridict most of them by the end of the interview.  Boehner doesn’t want the republicans to be the “party of no” but he started off the interview by saying that Obama’s economic plan won’t work.  He doesn’t want to give any of the money to the states (the implication is that they’re not competent to spend it) but he also doesn’t want to have Washington waste it.  He wants tax cuts, not spending (I understand the nuance but we’ll have to borrow the money to pay for either).  He doesn’t like deficits but he wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.

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