Republicans and teabaggers are constantly saying that we shouldn't be spending taxpayer's money on healthcare reform in a time when unemployment is so high and our economy is in such bad shape. I gave that some thought and realized that the people who helped us get into our economic mess in the first place are the last people that should be giving us economic advice. Those right wing guys seem to get their fiscal advice from the Wall Streeters and bankers who got us into our current precarious situation. The irony is that the Democrats are getting their advice from those very same people, that's what I call change that is deceiving.

I will be the first to tell you that I am not an economist, nor do I consider myself to be an expert on that subject by any means. What I do have going for myself in that area of expertise is my God given common sense, the same common sense that tells me that I shouldn't run while carrying scissors or unplug an electric power cord when my hands are wet. I have decided to use my awesome super-human Wade power of common sense for the good of mankind, womankind and our nation to come up with several immutable laws of common sense economics that could help get us out of our current fiscal morass, or not.

Without any further adieu, in increasing order of importance,
WADE'S FISCAL RULES TO LIVE BY, OR NOT:

Rule 1 –Ya can't spend what ya ain't got! When you pull out the plastic and charge something, you are not getting your purchase for free, that debt can be generating high interest charges for years. If you must use credit cards, only buy what you can comfortably pay off before it generates interest charges.

Carefully read all notices from your credit card company as they could be notices of a change in terms , more fees, higher interest, etc.

Rule 2 – In most cases, financial institutions are not there to help the little guy or gal. Your bank isn't usually your friend and your insurance company isn't usually on your side. Find a credit union for your banking. Be extremely careful and read the fine print when buying insurance. Verbal promises don't mean a thing, get everything in writing.

Rule 3 – Unions are your friend! If you are represented by a union, give thanks to God. You are in the enviable position of having a negotiated contract that gets you a higher than average rate of pay, decent benefits and a modicum of job stability. If your co workers are talking about unionizing your workplace, give it serious consideration. If you have relatives or friends who live in a right to work state (a state that has a law that makes it hard to unionize a company), let them know that unions can benefit them and they shouldn't believe any anti union propaganda they've heard in the workplace. Here's a little union humor: What is the mating call of an anti union employee in a right to work state? You want fries with that?

Rule 4 – For the working person, there is nothing “free” about free trade! Free trade is the main cause of our current economic problems. America is becoming a nation with no product. Short-sighted, unpatriotic corporations manufacture overseas and are looking at foreign countries as “lucrative” places to sell their wares. They are trying to sell their stuff overseas because they know that they outsourced your job and you can no longer afford their products. To sum it up, to our corporations, Americans are neither employees nor customers, we just live here! Things must change!! That leads me to rule 5.

 Rule 5 – Support issues, not parties! As Democrats, most of us feel that the Republicans represent corporate interests and our party represents working people. If that were the case, how do we explain Bill Clinton's strong support of free trade during his administration? The truth of the matter is that corporate lobbyists have the ears of BOTH parties, the Republicans are just more blatant in their pro-corporate stance. As we saw during the healthcare debates, the republicans took a unified position against any healthcare bill, the Democrats had their Blue Dogs getting concessions that diluted the healthcare bill. The take away from that is if we want change we can really believe in, we have to let our representatives know that they can ONLY count on our votes, if they fully support OUR issues. We should also let the Democrats know that, as working people, we are prepared to throw our support to a progressive third party.

Now did I tell you something that you don't instinctively already know? That's how common sense economics works, ignore the other kind, it's gotten us into too much trouble.