Required Reading: "The Biggest Losers"

I have been behind on my reading, and last night I finally had a chance to catch up and read the recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "The Biggest Losers".

I had read about the U.S. Treasury's Christmas eve shenanigans from other media outlets, but for whatever reason, the WSJ opinion piece evoked a very visceral response. Every paragraph made me nauseated and inflamed my sense of fairness. Just what are these people thinking?

Every American should be outraged, but for some reason, no one is. If you pay taxes, you should be outraged. If you don't pay taxes, you should be outraged. If you have lost your job, you should be outraged. If you are behind on your house payments, you should be outraged. If you are the beneficiary of such programs, you should be outraged.

I am by no means suggesting that we should throw people out of their homes and onto the streets, but the way this program (i.e., subsidy) has evolved is really the unfortunate part of this story. This is a disingenuous effort by our leaders (sic) to cram down the throats of every American a program that has tremendous implications for our financial future. It was put forth on Christmas Eve (1st bad sign) only days prior to the deadline that would have resulted in Congress having some sort of control over the program. Depending upon your view of Congress (which is likely poor), this may be good or bad, but it is bad sign #2 in that it prevented public discourse and oversight on such an important policy initiative.

As stated above, how it has all evolved is very sickening and troubling.

In addition to the WSJ piece, you should check out this analysis from Trader Mark at FundMyMutualFund and from John Hussman of Hussman Funds.