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Big Government is Here - Now What?

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Not only is the writing on the wall - the writing has covered the wall and spilled over onto the floor, the ceiling … hell, it's everywhere. Big government has come to America. Now what? Do you suck it up and learn how to live in the new world order? Or is this just a short-term pendulum swing - an overreaction to the financial crisis and eight years of George W. Bush? In that case, just vote the creeps out and play "Don't Get Fooled Again," right? Well, not exactly. You see, there's new legislation on the table that, when coupled with the bills that have already been rammed through congress, may make it very difficult to get the big government pendulum to stop, let alone swing back the other way, at least in our lifetimes. 
  1. The public option is back. Like Michael Myers in the Halloween films, you thought it was dead but nope, it's back. The public option has returned to the senate health-care legislation and a version has even found its way into the House bill. The price-tag? Hey, what's another trillion dollars, give or take a hundred billion or so? And did I forget to say that it has President Obama's support?
  2. Barney Frank - who somehow is still chairman of the House Financial Services Committee even after the entire banking system nearly collapsed on his watch - has unveiled a bill that's supposed to prevent future "Too Big to Fail" bailout scenarios. Look, when the folks who are at least partly responsible for the financial crisis are the ones working on legislation to prevent it from happening again, well, come on, doesn't that make you just a little bit skeptical?    
Add that to the trillion dollar stimulus bill (and maybe we need another one because the first one didn't really work), plus the bailouts, and all the other entitlement programs, and we'll be in debt for so long it'll probably take another evolutionary leap in human intelligence before we can figure a way out of this mess.    So, back to the original question: what do we do? Follow the Kübler-Ross model, aka the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance? I don't know about you but I think I've already run through all five stages at least three times over the past year and, you know what? It didn't do any good. I think the answer is relatively straightforward in theory but extremely difficult in practice. As a business person, I'm personally disgusted with both political parties and the way they've been spending money like drunken sailors (no offense to the sailors). Not that I think there needs to be a third party. What we need is a political leader who actually has our nation's best interests at heart, not one who's pushing an idealistic agenda - whether it's spreading democracy or spreading the wealth. We need a leader who can unite our bifurcated nation. And we need to carry on the fight until we find that leader, because we're going to be in a world of hurt until we do. That's my answer and I'm sticking to it. What's yours? Or have you given up? Also check out:

posted by Steve Tobak
October 29, 2009 @ 10:34 am

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