I am very sad

I am very sad this morning, and I think I know why - - I have lost all confidence in our elected officials. What a mess! Would you ever say "it is not as important what we do, it is only important that we do it fast" WHAT! I sometimes tell the joke in the car, "that I don't know where we are going , but we are sure making good time". It generally gets a chuckle because it is a joke, if it were true nobody would be laughing. Our elected and appointed officials made the rounds Sunday on the talk shows and made just that argument. "We are in uncharted water", "we are not sure what to do, but we must do something fast", "we don't know how much money is needed, but we know it has to be bold". They don't know where we are going but they sure are in a hurry to make good time.

What would you think of a doctor who told you he was not sure why your thumb hurt, but he was going to be bold and cut off your arm in hopes that it fixed the problem? I think you would say wait a minute let's talk about this, I need to understand what is going on. If he then told you there was no time to discuss it, you had to be bold and act right now, you would. Only your action would be to get up, walk out of his office, and call the American Medical Association to report the quack!

The one thing that all the economist seem to agree on is the fact that the mess we are in was caused by our collective determination to live above our means. We bought houses that were to big for our needs, we bought cars that were impractical, and we did it all with easy money loans that clearly we could not afford to pay back. We were borrowing to support a lifestyle we could not afford. And what is the answer now? The government will borrow several trillion dollars, that we can not afford to pay back, to buy "things". Buying "things", or "investing" in them as the politicians like to say, will stimulate the economy. I suppose that is true. The politicians argue that if they gave us the money, we might save it and not spend it as needed. Interesting that saving has become evil. I suppose it is true that most Americans are concerned (see scared) and might want to hold on to some of their money, of course if we had been doing that for the last few years, we would not be here today. Non the less we need to spend, we need to buy cars and houses and shoes and TVs to get our economy rolling. I would be willing to do that if I had any confidence that our government was not driving us toward a real depression.

It is also true that a big part of this financial mess was caused by greedy charlatans on Wall Street, and they are being dealt with - - -by giving them several hundred billions in bailout compliments of the tax payer!

There are those that argue that government spending is more effective than spending in the private sector. That argument generally comes from those folks who are living off the taxes of the private sector and are not the least bit worried about losing their jobs. You and I would never pay $1000 for a toilet seat or spend millions of dollars to study the sex life of badgers.

We are looking for answers without pain, and I am not sure there are any. I don't know the answer. I know that the problem is very complex, and the solution is even more so. I also know that whenever someone tells you that they don't have time to explain the solution or discuss it, that is a bad sign. We all sign legal papers all the time that we don't understand. Not a good practice but we do it anyway. We are usually comforted by the fact that we are invited and encouraged to read the documents, and to ask questions about anything we do not understand. What if you sat down to sign those same documents and they were covered up? What if you wanted to read them and you were told there was not time? What if you protested and were told, "just trust me, I am looking out for you." Would you, or would you say wait a minute you have some explaining to do, I am not signing anything.

The economy will not collapse if they take time to explain the "stimulus package" to the American people. One trillion dollars explained in 800 pages of legislation. At a cost of a little over one billion dollars per page, that might be worth reading.

They cried wolf and we gave them 700 billion dollars without any idea of what it was being used for, or accountability of where it went. We have a new president and he said the 700 billion was handled irresponsibly, I will do better. He is now crying wolf for a trillion more dollars. Don't ask any questions, just hurry and give it to me where I can save you. (with your own money I might add)

"Change we can count on" - - if "count on" means the same old pigs at the trough getting what they want, looks like we got it. I have children and grandchildren who will never see this money paid off. I was hoping for more.