There clearly remains a persistent uneasiness amongst business owners and entrepreneurs that manifests itself in a hesitancy to act or to invest. In some cases it is, as a you state, a desire to remain liquid.

In other cases real uncertainty about the future value of any investment made today in light of apparent certainty of near term tax increases on wages, income and capital gains.

Most health care professionals that I have spoken with seem sincerely interested in industry reforms that deliver a lower cost structure (as you discuss) to a greater number of people. I haven’t yet encountered one such discussion where there was any confidence in the ability of the federal government to deliver that result.

I also agree that the partisan political climate in Washington, while healthy for the cable networks and bloggers, is highly detrimental to effective governance.

All that said, I think the primary focus of the Federal government has to be how to spend less money, not more. For instance, restructuring all Federal procurement practices and bid procedures to make them function more efficiently would greatly enhance the value of the dollars spent by our government.

And when exactly were the members of the current ‘out’ party seriously invited to the table other than to provide a rubber stamp for the decisions and back room deals being made by the Obama/Pelosi/Reid gang? Republicans HAVE advanced specific proposals, only to be repeatedly rebuffed.

No new stimulus. Instead, leave our hard-earned money in our hands instead of taking it from our grandchildren (I’m referring to the overwhelming tide of generational theft being perpetrated by the leftist/elitist thugs running the Democrat party). Government ’stimulus’ guarantees that vast quantities of the monies involved will be lost to the overhead costs of the bureaucracy involved, and what’s left will be used only to advance the socialist agenda of the Obama administration.