He giveth, he taketh away

...Uncle Sam, that is. Quote of the day:

Not so long ago they advised the Bush administration to give people a $600 cheque to get the economy going again. On Thursday Paulson announced a plan to bail out everyone who is important (one degree of separation from the elite), in order to get the economy going again. Who will foot the bill? The same mugs who received the $600 a few months ago. A $600- cheque in one hand, an $18,000 bill in the other. Wow, that's a deal. How can giving someone $600 and taking away $18,000 from the same person both be good for the economy? Oh, I get it.

I remember reading a novel about twenty years ago, the premise of which was the destruction of the American economy by a Soviet mole who'd worked his way up to become Chairman of the Federal Reserve. All I can say is, truth is stranger than fiction.