Ridiculous Republicans Say: "Let Them Eat Tax Cuts!"

By Si Dunn

On a day when the national economy continued to swirl down a giant, gold-plated toilet, not a single House Republican voted in favor of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package, despite his best efforts to win their support.

"Let them eat tax cuts!" That was the message, in so many words, emerging from the now-minority party in the U.S. House of Representatives. "Tax cuts" seems to be the upper limits of their intellectual and patriotic vocabulary in this time of unnerving crisis. They have one idea and one idea only: "Taxes? We don't need no stinkin' taxes." (Well, perhaps that translates into a second idea deep within their shallow brains: "Government? We don't need no stinkin' government." But, of course, if they could follow that thought out to its logical conclusion, it would mean that they would be unemployed, former Congresspersons.)

These Limbaugh Republicans apparently agree with their talk-radio godhead who recently proclaimed that he hopes President Obama "fails" in his efforts to restore stability and growth to an American economy that now is in deep, deep voodoo, thanks to GOP's own governance efforts--or lack thereof--over the past eight years.

People who have no jobs can't eat tax cuts. They can't pay for health care with tax cuts. They can't go to the supermarket and pay for meat and bread and apples with tax cuts.

Tax cuts also won't put people back to work for companies that no longer can afford to sell their products nor keep employees on the job. Sure, tax cuts may help those companies not have to slash their dividends to stockholders quite so deeply. But tax cuts won't save the job of Joe the Welder now working on the line and looking over his shoulder for the next layoff ax.

If President Obama fails, we all fail. And House Republicans forever will be known as the ones who gave up first in this perilous fight to save the United States of America from economic catastrophe.

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Get Mad as Hell at the Recession---and Don't Take It Anymore!

By Si Dunn

What are you waiting for? Godot? A government bailout? Manna from heaven?

Yes, the financial news is bad, all bad. More bailouts, more layoffs, more fiscal stupidity everywhere we look.

And yes, we're all down. But we're still not out in this bad-and-getting-worse recession. No matter how hard we have been slammed to the turf, we are still not out of the game.

When you get knocked down, what matters is how quickly you get back up and start hitting back.

So get up. Hit back. Any way you can.

Turn Off the TV

Don't just sit there watching the Dow Jones and NASDAQ and the increasingly gloomy economists on the news.

Go outside and do something. Fix something on your house or car. Help a friend or neighbor or relative fix something.

Invite a friend or several friends over for coffee and conversation.

Contact distant relatives more often and go visit nearby relatives. Let them know you still care, no matter what else is happening.

Lighten up your load. Clean out a closet and get rid of some clothes you no longer need. Donate them to a charity that helps people who need more clothing. Clean out unwanted stuff in your garage and donate it, too, or recycle it. Having too much stuff sitting around just drains your psychic energy.

Spend some money on stuff you need. No, you don't have a lot to spend, and neither does almost anyone else. But if we all spend a little bit on things we need or want, we can help people keep their jobs. We can help keep money moving in the economy. This is vital.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Eat out every now and then. And add an extra dollar or two or three to the tip, whether the waitperson really gave you good service or not. He or she may be having a bad day or worrying about a sick child at home or just scared of going broke. A few extra bucks tonight could really help.

Do some things you've always wanted to do. Take up guitar, aerobic dancing, acting, bird watching, historical re-enactments, model airplane building, whatever. Read some of the books you have put off reading because you have been too "busy." See some movies, some plays. Go to some local concerts and recitals.

If you attend a church, get more involved. Maybe someone has started a program to help out the local food bank. Make a donation and volunteer to help. Put a little extra in the collection plate for the church and its staff, too. It's tax deductible. Sing in the choir, even if your main contribution is to just stand there, move your mouth and make the choir look bigger.

Improve your health. If you need to lose weight, start exercising. Spend a little less on groceries and use some of the saved money to fund a new hobby, a new membership, a new subscription or a new charitable contribution.

Find a New Focus

Get more focused on your community and its needs. You can't save the world. You can't stop the recession. But maybe you can help save an historic building from the wrecking ball and turn it into an arts center that serves as a magnet, a training center, and a rewarding outlet for people with creative talents. Maybe you can volunteer to help a preschool apply for state and federal grants. Maybe you can teach a community-education class or lead a volunteer recycling program.

Get more focused on your family and its needs and your friends and their needs. Those who need the most help may be those closest to you. Let love help push away the doom and gloom. You may have to help keep relatives and close friends from giving in to despair if they have lost their jobs and their homes. You may have to help them in other ways, too, including financial. It's just the way things are right now. Yes, maybe they did make some poor choices, or maybe they didn't. But what matters now is getting through this terrible downturn. We can all use the lessons learned to build better and more sensible lives later.

We will get through this. Together. But only if we get up and start punching back now that we have been knocked down.

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The Coming Rise of Online College

By Si Dunn

The cost of a university education is staggering. And it's about to get much worse as revenue-strapped states find themselves forced to sharply raise some of the fees for attending college.

Attending is the operative word here as beleagured parents and students try to figure out how they will afford a good education. It costs a great deal of money to house and educate students on campus and to pay the salaries of professors and support staff. And the costs keep soaring at a time when more and more parents and students are unemployed or underemployed.

Online college courses already are providing at least some cost relief. For example, I live in Texas, and I am now taking an online course for credit from Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. The online class is costing me nearly $500 less than attending a similar course on campus at a local university just two miles away.

Several reputable universities now offer degrees that can be earned completely or almost completely online.

There are scams, too, of course. And the degrees or class credits from some online schools may not be worth much academically or in the job market.

But America's current economic crisis will force many parents and students to take harder looks at online classes for at least part of a college education. And the quality and acceptability of online education will continue to rise.

Well-known schools such as Ohio University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Colorado, Harvard and many others now offer online courses for credit.

In some cases, you may use your computer to watch videotaped lectures and use email to send in completed assignments or questions for your instructor. Other schools may use various other methods to deliver course materials and lectures online. Old-fashioned correspondence courses also are still available, and these make it possible to handle all of the classwork and tests by mail, without computers and Web and email access.

Some online courses allow more time for completion than a usual on-campus semester. And some classes can be started at any time of the year.

You may not want to pursue an online degree. But taking a few online courses may be a good way to reduce the cost of your college education. And the accessibility of these courses may help you get a good, quick jump on earning a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, or even a Ph.D.

Just be careful to pick a well-known school with online class credits that can transfer from one college or university to another.

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