JMO - Relax Folks

I was reading and listening to the news about the apparent lack of failure of the Stimulus Plan and all the federal money spent passed by Congress and spent by the President and the Cabinet. All the news from the media and the polls suggest we're on the brink of failure. Well, relax folks, it's barely been six months after taking years, if not a decade or more, for the economy and financial market to get this bad.

We have to remember to give this the one thing it needs more than ever, time. I know patience isn't something many folks in financial straits or worse need, they need jobs, home mortage help, affordable healthcare, and so on down the list of basic needs in this country today. And unfortunately, it's always the working class who get hit the hardest, except this time with the corporations failing, it's now the middle class in the same boat. So we're all there now.

No one really knows if things will get and be better this year or maybe next year and in some places in the country, years beyond. But the key is to give things time, and let President Obama do his job. It can be argued Congress isn't doing their job, especially the contentuous Republicans acting indignent about the deficit and government spending, but that's leads to the second point.

We have to remember the problems go back to the Clinton years but more so in the Bush years when he and co-horts decided to let the market go where and do what it wanted unimpeded by regulation and oversight. They not only let it all happen, they fostered it with stacking oversight committee and agencies with pro-business people, some actually recruited from business into government service. It really was the proverbial fox guarded, or watching, the hen house, except they also had the keys to the bank.

And then when things went south, what did Bush, co-horts do? They told everyone in charge or with oversight responsbility everything was okl who in turn told us everything was ok. They told them to turn a blind eye to any problems they saw, even when the economist and other experts were raising questions and worse raising red flags. For the most part we can put the bulk of the blame squarely on Bush himself.

And then when things went over the cliff, what did they do? They got bailout money for the financial industry with no accountability, only to discover half of the $700 billion gone for things we don't know - because no one can find it, and most of the other half gone for the things prohibited in the bailout bill. Bush and company gave the money away, our money, and it's gone with very little to get back, and most of that at less than what we paid.

They gave financial corporations, who created the mess, the bailout to take the money and run, to cover their losses stiffing us with the longterm debt to repay. So, as much as you think President Obama is doing badly and things are going badly, think of the alternatives. What would McCain have done?

Do you think we would even have bailout plans, stimulus money, corporate oversight, and better oversight and responsbility by government agencies and committee? We wouldn't and things would be even worse. As much as the experts disagree about what's being done is right or wrong, they all agree the alternatives were worse and things would be worse under the Republicans of any flavor.

So, as much as you want to bitch and moan about things and your place in life right now, think if it were worse, like government didn't care and government wasn't helping. What's been done may not help right now, but it will, and without it, it would be a whole lot worse now and down the road. Standing at the bottom of a deep well is bad enough, but consider if it were filling up with water too.

So, relax and give Obama his due and give him time. Criticize as you want, but unless you can be constructive with good ideas, then don't act like politicians just making noise. We don't need noise right now, we have enough from both parties in Congress already. If you want to act, then support your representatives to act, or support change in 2010. That's your choice now. The rest is what happens.