RECOVERY IMMINENT, IT'S COMING SOON, IT'S ALMOST HERE, WE CAN SEE IT AROUND THE CORNER, MAYBE FIRST QUARTER 2010-HORSEPUCKY! DON'T DRINK THE COOL-AID!

It seems that every time the market makes a big move up, the forecasts immediately change to paint a rosy picture of the economy "just around the corner". Just who are these forecasters, these crystal ball readers?

Well it is clear that they are NOT business owners who are trying to make a go of their business. The 1,000 page Health Care bill that will do everything magical for us all, and nobody has yet read, alone is enough to kill any economic growth.

The morons in Washington, you know who they are collectively, the folks who have brought health care for Indian Reservations and the Veterans Hospitals and rebuilt New Orleans-yes those same folks, now are planning to charge an 8% fee to employers who do not offer a health care benefit to employees.

I got news for you, employers will figure out ways to NOT employ workers, since that 8% added cost of payroll is a staggering amount to a business.

Most businesses do not make 8% of their sales as profits. Most businesses, especially small businesses scrape by with the owner generally being the last to get paid when times are tough.

Here is just the basic cost of a worker's taxes that an employer now pays in addition to the salary: employer's portion of Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance federal, unemployment insurance state, workman's compensation, and depending on the city or state a variety of employee related taxes for the privilege of having employees.

Yesterday a blaring headline revealed that a high earner in New York City would be subject to at least a 57% combined tax rate, and that excludes any local real estate, and all the other add-on taxes for services and utilities and use of every type.

Why would someone want to live there....MOVE OUT NOW to a low tax state!

So to all those "predictors" of the economic miracle which is just around the corner, I would like to make a bet.....put all your savings of this bet against me. If the economy turns around during this administration, by 2012, you get all my money, and if it does not, I get all your money. How's that?

The course of action taken by the new administration is so insidious and destructive to the economy, there is little chance that any growth will take place between now and 2012, except in the ranks of bloated government agencies. The individual states will have the opposite results, as they have to present balanced budgets, They will not be able to balance them through hard choices, instead, they will raise taxes, which again will cause the vicious cycle of unemployment for the private workforce.

Does nobody see this coming?