Politics

While it probably isn't important to pay too close attention to the political scene, it is important to understand what is going on.  Politics affects how much and in what ways the government will take and spend your money.

It is looking more likely that the Republicans will win the majority in the House of Representatives in the fall election.  Will it have a big impact?  Probably not.

The Republicans will slow things down a bit.  Obama will not be able to hammer through legislation like he did with the "stimulus" or Obamacare.  But we will not see a reduction in spending.  The only things that can reduce spending at this point are economic laws and a citizen revolution (and both seem likely at this point).

Greece was somewhat forced to cut back on spending, although not nearly enough because it was bailed out by other countries.  But Greece is more like a state in the U.S.  It cannot print money.  It could only ask the other countries to print money since it uses the euro.  The federal government of the U.S. can print dollars.  That is why states have been forced to start making some tough decisions and to at least show some kind of concern for spending.  States don't have a Federal Reserve.

This is why the U.S. government is out of control.  They don't have to raise taxes directly.  They can keep deficit-spending because they can print money.  Until there are severe consequences imposed by the voters or until the laws of economics really kick in, there will be no significant spending cuts.  The Republicans will oppose Obama, but they will not control spending.  They already proved that from 2001 to 2009.