1.  How come when Congress goes into overtime, it costs the taxpayers bazillions of dollars?

2.  It looks like in the stock market bailout, the federal government is going to wind up with a lot of foreclosed mortgages.  Are they smart enough to sell the related properties and reclaim at least part of the money so that the taxpayers’ burden will be a little bit less?

3.  Has it occurred to anyone that opening up offshore drilling and other natural resources would create jobs and income which might allow us to get out of our financial doldrums?  The drilling ban on the outer continental shelf expires September 30–if nothing is done to renew it.  It will be interesting to see what happens with this–opening up drillilng would be a definite boost to our economy–the exploration and preparatory work alone would create jobs, taxes, etc.  We need to be careful to make sure the oil companies have enough profit margin to take advantage of this opportunity when (and if) it happens.  (Just for the record, the oil company’s profit margin is about 7 percent–below the average profit margin of an American corporation.)  I would also like to note that American corporations are the most highly taxed and highly regulated in the world, making it extremely difficult to compete in the global market.  That is why many of them have outsourced and moved offshore.  By overtaxing and overregulating them, we have driven them (and their tax revenue) out of the country.  To see an example of this on a statewide basis, look at the states that are gaining industries and jobs and the states that are losing industries and jobs (Michigan is a prime example of high taxes, powerful unions, and overregulation).  People vote with their feet when they can.