The media blitz is going full throttle with ads of GMC’s CEO Ed Whitacre walking through a plant pronouncing that GMC has paid back its’ loan part of the bailout, namely $6.7 billion, however the taxpayer is still on the hook for $43 billion in stock options; the reporting of the minor dip in shares of Goldman Sach’s after the SEC indictment, the extreme profits reported by them and other financial institutions, and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner reporting that “…the economy is growing faster than the Obama administration expected.”
However, the human recession continues with the loss of jobs, increased taxes and foreclosures with hoped for ‘ ‘trickle down theory’ from the large financial entities to main street yet unseen.
To look at whether or not the voter should join Obama’s bandwagon of ‘Happy Days Are Here Again,’ one has only to look at the economy of your local state. Looking for money in all the wrong places seems to be the lyrics of our state legislators and executives. Minnesota needing to put money into their depleted, rather nonexistent, coffers has initiated a 2 mailing system for income taxes. Your check for taxes owed are sent separately from your return allowing the state to cash your check before reviewing your return–a change that only spells increased manpower. Money is beginning to kick in on road improvements for the interstate system, but potholes are so rampant that sections of road that are traffic arteries in our cities and towns continue in complete disrepair. Inflation remains flat for luxury items; however, for necessities like food they have risen substantially, not to mention the costs of energy at the pump and in our homes–costs that will go up with the changeover to Obama’s green energy.
The PR being fed to the American people may fool some of us, but like the old adage says you can’t fool all the people, all the time. The average American only needs to look around his/her town or city, speak with relatives, friends, and neighbors to see the reality of this current application of smoke and mirrors. The trouble is that the beltway is not only infused with perpetrators of our economic meltdown, but remains on its’ payroll.
What the American citizen needs now is not a feel good pill like the lipid Financial Regulatory Reform bill and spin doctors, but honesty coupled with systemic reform. As we continue to struggle with the results of an economic pandemic, we can take a page from the book by J.M Barry on the 1918 Pandemic: “This communication strategy of either reassurance or silence had its effect. Its effect was terror.”
