Should all Politicians be Required to Carry a Compass?

Until the government realizes that the average U.S. citizen prefers a leg-up to a handout, the deterioration we are currently experiencing will continue.

Courtesy: dronfieldblather.blogspot.com

(HARRISVILLE, N.H.) - Do you think the recovery plan is working? The facts and figures say "Guess again"!

For almost a year now, we have been exposed to report after report stating that we have turned the corner and the economy is on the mend . . . that things are not that bad . . . that happy days are here again. There is a problem with these messages. They ring hollow at best!

The real unemployment rate (which includes all of the unemployed, not just those still collecting unemployment benefits) is at 21.7 percent. Yes, the government figures state unemployment is at 9.6 percent but that reflects only those individuals still collecting unemployment benefits. The individuals who have already collected the maximum, are self-employed but without work, or have given up looking for work after a year or more are not counted by the government. Remember when we were told unemployment would not exceed 8 percent?

The number of foreclosures prior to 2009 averaged about 100,000 homes. In 2009, the number of homes foreclosed on was just more than 900,000. A recent AP article titled "Homes lost to foreclosure on track for 1M in 2010" states the number of homes foreclosed on in 2010 will exceed 1 million. No one who was even remotely honest would try to represent this as being on the right track or heading in the right direction.

40.2 million Americans are currently on food stamps (up 21% from just a year ago) and the White House estimates that food stamp usage will increase to 43.3 million Americans during the 2011 fiscal year. Well, that certainly looks like we are headed in the wrong direction to me!

RealtyTrac released its Midyear 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 1,961,894 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 1,654,634 U.S. properties in the first six months of 2010, a 5 percent decrease in total properties from the previous six months but an 8 percent increase in total properties from the first six months of 2009. Does this sound as if we are headed in the right direction?

President Obama has stated that “Small Business will lead this recovery” but the National Small Business Association recently issued a report saying that more small businesses are unable to get financing than at any time over the past 17 years. Unless they can get the loans they need "we will continue to see high unemployment," said NSBA President Todd McCracken. So, the banks that have been bailed-out using billions of our tax dollars, refuse to lend money to small business but willingly gave bonuses to the same executives who made the bad investments that brought our economy to this sad point. Right direction? It sure doesn’t sound like it to me!

Congress should have been developing and passing legislation that would give companies a reason to create new private sector jobs, give companies a reason to keep jobs held by taxpaying U.S. citizens here in the U.S. and filled by U.S. citizens, and give companies a reason to bring jobs that have been sent off shore, back to be filled by U.S. citizens.

Until the government realizes that the average U.S. citizen prefers a leg-up to a handout, the deterioration we are currently experiencing will continue. The bottom-line is this: Rather than taking steps that would create a job rich environment, the current crop of career politicians chose to focus on programs that would push spending (and ultimately taxes) to obscene levels. All effort at fiscal sanity has been jettisoned as programs like TARP, Cap and Trade, Healthcare Reform, Stimulus, Cash for Clunkers, Financially/Politically Motivated Wars, Bank Bailouts, and Automotive Company Bailouts have created a fiscal chasm that will likely take generations to bridge. So, the next time you hear "The recovery plan is working" or "We are in a slow recovery", question the intelligence, the veracity, and possibly even the sanity of the speaker. Regardless of which political party holds the particular seat, BS belongs in a pasture . . . not in the Whitehouse or the halls of Congress. Maybe it is time we put most of those politicians warming the seats in Washington, out to pasture so their BS doesn’t seem so out-of-place . . . but that is just my opinion!

You can write to Bob Collingsworth at this email address: colli2@webryders.net