THE RYAN BUDGET PLAN, THE EU/CYPRUS DEBACLE AND OTHER THINGS FALLING OFF A HUGE CLIFF

The Republicans have had another stellar week, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt why they are unfit to even lead a troop of boy scouts. First, we had several Republicans try to block legislation that would allow the Post Office to stay open on Saturdays. As these morons have done just about everything to kill this service by frontloading the company with huge unpayable debt, it is not surprising that they are still on the hunt. Democrats are adding an amendment to an upcoming appropriation bill to keep the Saturday mail coming and save some thirty thousand jobs in the process. The Post Office is not broke. The Republicans made it so.

Then comes this gem that the Paul Ryan Budget plan went down in flames today in the Senate by a vote of 40-59, getting five Republicans to vote against it. Some were not happy with the Medicare voucher plan, others (Tea Party followers) balked on raising taxes on the super rich. Either way, for a third straight year, the budget the House offered was never going to pass and deserve all the blame for not having a budget for the sixth year in a row. Way to go losers.

At least some Republicans are doing their job this week by finally questioning why DHS needs billions of rounds of hollow point ammo. As the MSM has mostly missed this story, except for Forbes, this is a big step forward to some sort of transparency. The official story that these are being used for training purposes is bull as I have talked personally with people who run training exercises for the military, and have done so for decades, and the tell me they have never used hollow point bullets ever for training purposes. The fact that DHS was recently caught using armed cutouts of pregnant women, children and the elderly states a much more nefarious purpose.

So while we watch Nero's mentally challenged brothers fiddle in Congress, the EU is in a full fledged meltdown. Cyprus banks are still closed until at least Tuesday and people are running out of cash as the ATM's are all empty. When they reopen next week, bank runs are expected, as I would certainly be taking my money out of any place that threatens to steal it. Fitch is downgrading Cyprus' status and their exit from the EU may be inevitable. Someone sure thinks so because a nine hundred million Euro bet was placed against the currency over the next two weeks. In other words, someone with a lot of money just bet big time that the Euro will crash in the coming fortnight.

This is not as stupid as it sounds. This one domino could topple the world economy and there is nothing anyone can do about it should it occur. As Cyprus has become an offshore tax haven for Russians with at least $300 billion (probably much, much more), a bank tax would greatly upset the elites as much as the average investor. This was a bad idea from the start and instead of going after the banks and reorganizing them to go after tax cheats, they decided to behave like the TSA and treat everyone as a terrorist. Smart move.

This notion has destroyed any confidence in the EU and the banking system where your money can now be taken as surely if they held a gun to your head. This will have the same repercussions as the statement "Let them eat cake." People are pissed, world wide and the slightest spark could spell trouble, Ben Bernake didn't do himself any favors when he left the door open to so something similar here. Try it and see how many of those 300 million guns you find pointed at you, guys.

Other options they are debating about still is the Chained CPI which would lower the standard of living for everyone not rich. They already cheat us on a inflation rate that has been tinkered with twice over the last few decades, by Reagan and then Clinton. We cannot let this happen a third time. Our inflation rate according to the government is around 2-3%. The actual rate, once food and energy are brought in, the rate rises to 10-11%. They want to lower the rate to 1%, while the actual rate will soar to at least 15%. This is not progress. This is extinction.

We keep hearing that the GDP has been rising almost insignificant levels since 2009, but rising they say. The truth if the matter is that because the inflation rate is being masked, we have actually been losing ground instead, proving my point that this country never left the Depression we have been in since the crash of 2008. When the government screws around with numbers, housing looks robust (it isn't), unemployment is dropping (not even close) and GDP is rising (actually the opposite). Last quarter saw a negative 1% growth, not the 1% gain the MSM gloated about, if we use actual numbers and not made up fairy tales.

Here's the worst news: Inflation is getting worse, as it should considering the steps we are making. As long as we print money ad naseum, inflation will tick up. As long as austerity measures are the only solution, inflation will tick up. And if the EU goes belly up, prices may rise exponentially to hyper-inflationary levels. The next few weeks will let us know if the EU stabilizes or collapses. Pray it doesn't go down and take the world with it. As someone just bet almost a billion dollars it will, what do you think the chances are?