MATH 101: ECONOMIC "STIMULUS" PACKAGE = BANDAGE ON A GUNSHOT WOUND

Admittedly, I am not a math whiz. To my INTP personality, it is the equivalent of intellectual wash-boarding. However, whenever Washington finally said yesterday it had to cough up a lung to derail an impending recession - I almost fell off my chair. The Executive Branch tried their rebate bologna several years ago, but look where we are now.

Where is this stimulus money coming from? Are they cashing in gold reserves stored in the bowels of Fort Knox? Government officials sauntered past the fiscal warning flags for some time, and perhaps because the election is looming, it is why they are compelled to address this. If you want to know how bad things really are, look at the Bureau of the Public Debt website. Oddly enough, the site has recently changed - it is not as easy to understand. In the upper right hand corner, the accruing total was plain as day, but not anymore. That number is regretfully well over nine trillion dollars now. That’s a nine folks, with a posse of twelve zeros.

Our government has continued to send billions of borrowed, yes, BORROWED dollars overseas, to fund a “war” with an unforeseeable victory, while public, environmental, and infrastructure programs suffered at home plate. Worse, a generation of mostly well-intentioned, albeit naïve individuals were being swindled by parasitic lenders into purchasing homes they would inevitably loose, forcing more bankruptcy, poverty, exponential credit card debt, and forced population migration.

No doubt, this situation may provoke widespread social stress. Everyone will think twice about what he or she buys, where they go, and where they live. Among several industries, manufacturing, tourism, and small businesses will bear the brunt. Then there are the charities, but nobody seems to stop and think about how non-profits are affected.
The wealthy will probably remain intact. As for the rest of us…well, ever heard of a “nuclear winter”? We’re on our way to a financial one. Bottom line: It is time for America to get off the couch, put the economy first, and most of all, put your legislative leaders back to work - VOTE.