Consumer confidence falls on gloomier jobs view

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A reading on U.S. consumer confidence relapsed in June, falling to 49.3 from a slightly downwardly revised 54.8 in May, as worries grew about jobs and the economy, the Conference Board reported Tuesday. Following a large confidence jump in May, consumers grew more pessimistic in June about their present and future. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected the June result to hit 55.5, continuing recent confidence gains. "On balance, this was a disappointing report as it has clearly bucked the trend of improving consumer sentiments in the past few months," wrote Millan L. B. Mulraine, economics strategist with TD Securities, in a research note. "Moreover, with the details of the report uniformly weak, we are left with the impression that this was an outright slump in consumer confidence."

This was posted on another site by a friend. Thought others should read it.

LOOKING TOWARD INDEPENDENCE DAY, 2009
I’m writing this in a fury the morning after the House of Representatives voted to approve H.R.2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009— a measure that is going to wind up costing Americans thousands of jobs and thousands of dollars in new taxes at a time when we can least afford it. Why did they approve it? Was it a well-crafted piece of legislation? No. Was it because the vast majority of voters were in agreement with it? No. They passed it because the President told them to. They passed it because the Speaker of the House told them to. They passed it because they think they know what’s best for us, or at least what’s best for them. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we, the voters, did NOT tell them to vote for this legislation. The majority of us know that this bill is going to cost us far more than it’s going to benefit us. We know that they voted on this bill without having read it, after having heard from us that we did not want them to vote for it, just as they did with the stimulus package. Now, it’s been a long, long time since I was in school, but I think I still remember that the way government is supposed to work is that we send our representatives to Washington and to our state and local governments to do what we tell them to do. We didn’t elect them to go there and line their pockets at our expense. We didn’t elect them to go there and make decisions for us. We didn’t elect them to sit up on their pedestals and shake their fingers at us as if we’re a group of unruly children. We didn’t elect them to go there and start playing God with the climate. And we absolutely did not elect them so that they could sit in fancy buildings and tell us what we can and cannot do, yet they have done and continue to do all of these things, apparently because they think that we don’t know enough to be making decisions regarding our own lives and our own welfare. And so they pass bills that adversely affect every American, without listening to us and without even reading those bills first. Well, enough is enough. This ends here. This ends now. It’s time that we voters remind our President, our Congressmen, our Senators, our Governor, our state legislators, and even our county supervisors that they work for us. They are public servants. They are there to serve us, the public; we are not here to serve them.

This coming Saturday is July 4, Independence Day—the anniversary of the day we officially declared ourselves free from the tyranny of the King of England—and it’s time for us to declare our independence from tyranny again. This time the tyrants are sitting in Washington and in our state capitols, making decisions that affect us without listening to what we’re telling them to do. Instead of picking up muskets and firing off bullets, we need to pick up the telephones, pick up our pens, fire up our fax machines, and fire off emails. We need to bombard our elected representatives not with cannonballs, but with phone calls and letters and postcards and faxes and emails, and even visits to their offices if possible. Just as Americans did 233 years ago, we need to stand up for what we believe, and we need to make our voices heard. The people who founded this country risked everything for the sake of our new nation and for the sake of freedom; we’re now at risk of losing everything those Founders fought for. The people we sent to Washington and to our state capitols are bankrupting our country and our states. They’re ruining our economy, our reputations, and our ability to defend ourselves against those who want to bring us down. They want to dictate to us which foods we eat, which cars we drive, which medical treatments we need, which housing we can live in, even which light bulbs we put in our lamps. Is this what we sent them there to do? No. We sent them there to represent us, not parent us. We didn’t send them there to involve themselves in every aspect of our lives. We didn’t send them there to garner salaries and perks in such amounts that they have mansions and vacation homes while they tell us to “do our part,” cut back and do without. We didn’t send them there to live like kings and queens and then tell us that WE need to be doing public service. We didn’t send them there to get lifetime sustenance at the public trough while we’re losing our homes and our jobs because of their bungling and political gameplaying. We sent our representatives to work together according to our Constitution, to protect the citizens of this nation from outside aggressors, to preserve our liberties, and to work for the best interests of Americans. The Preamble to the Constitution puts it this way:
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America.”

There you go; those are the basic principles behind our Constitution. Do yourselves a favor: before July 4th, find the text of the Constitution somewhere and take the few minutes required to read it. Remind yourselves how the government is supposed to work, and ask yourselves if that’s how the people in Washington are doing their jobs. Turn on C-Span if you have access to it. Watch and listen. And if you’re truly satisfied that those people are truly working for you and for this country and are doing what you sent them there to do, then re-elect them. But if you think that they’re overstepping their authority, that they’re not doing the jobs that you elected them to do, then exercise your rights and your obligations as Americans and replace them with people who will remember that they are there to serve the public, not there for the public to serve them. Be suspicious of individuals who will tell you that as children they dreamed of being President or that they have always wanted to work in government; that means only that they have always wanted power. The people we need to be electing are those who had other dreams but later realized that they had the responsibility to serve. Don’t elect those who are eager to go; instead, elect those who had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the realization that the country needed them. Don’t elect those who are looking for fame and a lifetime pension; instead, elect those who will be sacrificing much by serving but are willing to do it anyway. And don’t elect those who promise to give you everything you could want; the government is not supposed to exist to answer your every need. It’s there to make it possible for you to make a good life for yourself and your family. It’s supposed to work like the sidewalk under your feet: a firm foundation for you to walk on through life; it’s not supposed to be a limousine that carries you from cradle to grave. Remember: those limousine rides are awfully expensive, and as a passenger, you’re at the mercy of whoever’s behind the wheel. Do you trust the politicians to drive you through life? If not, take the wheel yourself and tell them where they can go.

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