Looking past the rhetoric

The definition of insane is as follows:

Doing the same thing again but expecting a different result.

Under George Bush's watch the national debt grew according to some to more than $10 trillion and a federal deficit estimated this year at $438 billion. George Bush claimed to be a conservative like Ronald Reagan but was not in any way shape or form fiscally conservative. We are PARTLY in this mess because of spending.

And Barack Obama's solution to getting us out of this out of control spending is to....well...increase spending. Therefore, by definition this idea is insane. Obama said the following last week in a press conference that "The American people have rendered their judgment, and now is the time to move forward, not back"

So why is Obama moving back and not forward?

My last thought is about Obama's claim that the spending package will save or create 4 million jobs. Think about this logically. How can you verify that a job was saved? If you go to work tomorrow, can you say that your job was saved? Jobs created and jobs lost are figures which can be verified. It's pretty much a slick politician who in four years will be able to say that his stimulus plan worked. If only 1 million jobs are created, he'll then claim then that an additional 3 million jobs were saved. Who can refute something that can't be verified?

There is hope however. The new stimulus package will create government jobs such as road and bridge construction projects. To all the computer programmers, engineers, lawyers or nurses who may lose their job, there is good news. You can always get a job building a bridge or constructing a new highway. I'm being facetious of course.

What the American people need are real jobs not temporary construction projects. More attention needs to be given to small businesses and have the economic stimulus start from them. I'd rather work for the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs on an innovative new product (i.e. iphone) rather than from a government work project. It is in the private sector where real wealth will come and this is where the recovery needs to start.