If those managing a company had acted as recklessly and irresponsibly as has Congress with the U.S. economy, they rightly would be fired.

Congress by its actions is driving away foreign capital, new and existing companies and jobs; burdening the people with excessive debt - and even providing an incentive for murder.

The death tax rate this year will be zero as a result of the Bush-era phaseout of this destructive tax, but it is set to jump to 55 percent as of Jan. 1. There have been many articles about the likelihood of individuals attempting to time their deaths before the end of the year to save their heirs many millions of dollars in "death taxes."  

When incentive is given to cause a premature death by an interested party in order to gain a great deal of money, the probability is that it will happen in some cases.

Members of Congress normally are exempt from civil prosecution for actions and statements made in Congress, but it would not be beyond possibility to see some enterprising lawyer charge those irresponsible members of Congress with abetting murder (which is not protected by congressional immunity) because of their lack of action to "fix" the death tax. How just!

Many in Washington care little or nothing for the well being of Americans, other than themselves and their cronies. The widespread continued lying about the soundness of Social Security and Medicare isn't due to ignorance -- it is due to politicians aggrandizing  power regardless of the cost to others.

Either their careers will have to be terminated by a better informed electorate - not impossible, as demonstrated by Canada and Sweden - or the US central government and the scores of millions who depend upon it will crash and burn. 

The US central government is on the road to either radical reform or self destruction. Continued kicking the can down the road would soon send it over the economic cliff where the USA would join the USSR on the ash heap of history.

Radical reform could be as simple as refusing to increase the debt ceiling, auctioning the Ponzi scheme operator's assets off for the benefit of the Social inSecurity and MediScam victims, allowing unlimited expensing for all business capital investments, requiring that all regulations be voted on by Congress before becoming laws, and legalizing competing precious metal currencies.

It's this simple:

Most of the current problems facing America stem directly from the failure of our elected representatives to follow the Constitution. Much of what the Tea Party activists are demanding is a return to the principles and procedures found in the Constitution.

Many of those running for office are venting about excessive spending, deficits, taxation, regulation and so forth, but are struggling to say what they are for and what they would actually work to accomplish once they are elected.

To deal with this problem, candidates for office should state that, if elected, they will have a "Contract with the Constitution," much like the Contract with America that Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey developed for the Republicans in 1994.

Warren Buffett is a world class investor. He is also entitled to his opinion even when it demonstrates larceny with the truth.

His grand and magnanimous genuflection to "fairness" is fraught with dishonesty and does no service to the debate on the nation's economic future.  "We have abundance but we don't have as much fairness as we might have in the system," he announced at a fund-raiser he held for Mr. Obama in Omaha last week (8/16).

"Fairness" is a code word of the left which has its origins in the class hatred so beloved by Marx . It is meant to arouse the "masses" (another term of haughty illiberal insult to citizens ) to demand their illusory "rightful" share from the rich . It fabricates an enemy out of capitalism and implies some form of theft that must be redressed.

This is the essence of Barrack Huessein Obama's indoctrination and Mr. Buffett is simply feeding the beast.

Hard to believe Christmas Eve is two short weeks away.  For those folks not yet checked off on your Christmas gift list, the HFR suggests a copy of The Jade Steps. 

Or a Gift Subscription to To The Point.  You can gift a friend with a one-month, a three-month - or for a special friend an entire year - of the insights on the world that only TTP provides.  The HFR can't think of better gifts than these, that will be more valued and appreciated by your friends. 

(I should add here that Dr. Joel Wade's Pocket Guide to Mastering Happiness makes a great low-cost stocking stuffer...)

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Before we look at the dog's breakfast in Washington this week, let's have some fun at the Chicoms' expense.  Ever heard of the Confucius Peace Prize?  Neither did its recipient, who didn't bother to show up at the awards ceremony.  The result was the Chicoms ended up this week being laughed at and compared to the Nazis at the same time.  The world needs more of this.

Election of our nation's first black president is delivering an unexpected message to our black population.

Blacks are discovering that what a man or woman does -- their actions -- is what matters, not the color of their skin.

It is not hard to understand why black Americans were happy that a black man was elected president of the United States. It was kind of final and most grand announcement that racism has finally been purged from America.

But for the highly politicized parts of black America this was certainly not the only message. Because for the highly politicized parts of black America, the point has always been to keep race in American politics.

For black political culture that dominated after the civil rights movements, the point was not just equal treatment under the law, but special treatment under the law. Plus the assumption that more black political power -- defined by more blacks holding office -- would mean that blacks would be better off.

Now blacks have a dilemma. We have a black president and blacks are worse off. Not just a little, but a lot worse off.

We open this week's HFR with a Special News Bulletin from the Associated Press:

In response to the "Cablegate" scandal - the release of a quarter-million classified State Department documents by WikiLeaks - the US Government announced today that henceforth all Top Secret government documents will be placed in an "ultimate" secure location. 

"This location is so secure that even people with the highest of clearances cannot gain access," said R.J. Finklestein, Director of the Federal Document Classification Agency (FDCA) in a press release today.

All classified documents, Mr. Finklestein announced, will now be stored at the same location storing Barack Hussein Obama's Birth Certificate, College Transcripts, SSN applications, and off-shore campaign contributors list.

"Using our Ultimate Secure Location, we are quite sure that WikiLeaks will never be able to access any more classified documents," noted the FDCA director, "nor will anyone else."