Sunday, March 22, 2009

Going to the doctor

No - I'm NOT going to the doctor. But our political/economic situation lately reminded me of some old "doctor thoughts."

We watched a medical documentary once, in which a very frank physician was honest about what he does for a living: sick people (say, with a broken bone, or an infection or illness) come to see him. He diagnoses, maybe gives a little pain medicine, sends them home. 6 weeks later they return, all better. And they thank and praise the wonderful doctor for giving them renewed health.

He said it's almost embarrassing to get the credit for doing what the body actually did for itself. [I'll add here that I found it refreshing to hear this from a doctor's lips.] Left to itself, the body will do what it is designed to do: heal. There are exceptions to this, of course, but generally speaking, he said, medical professionals are only cheerleaders for our bodies as they make "natural corrections."

Our economy is sick. America's "prosperity" for the past 20 years or so has not been based on real wealth; it's been based on credit. Both individuals and large businesses have lived on credit. This sickness must be fixed. It certainly reached a critical point.

And America went to the doctor.

Who was the doctor "on call"? Why, the doctor we'd elected to the job -- Obama

And I can't help but wonder if, when we look back on this economic situation later, we see that it was a financial illness that the nation could have (painfully and with much time) recovered from. Some major industries should suffer and die. Some people should decide to cut up their credit cards, or stop making risky investments, or stop trying to flip houses. We realize we don't need to get credit flowing again, but to stop living on it.... But, given time, recovery comes.

But we don't have one of those doctors in Obama. Oh no -- We have the kind of doctor who looks at you on the table and decides it's time to operate, remove a few things, slap you in ICU, and keep you in the hospital for observation indefinitely. In other words, a doctor who makes the problem worse.

I really do think that we may examine this economic event from the vantage point of 20 years and realize that what would have been a temporary economic downturn, was transformed by the president into a medical disaster we won't be able to pull ourselves out of.

Have you folks looked at how much money is being pumped into our economy by the Fed these days? It's alarming.

Have you read about the "necessary programs" that Obama MUST fund RIGHT NOW, to produce a turnaround in the economy? Aren't a lot of them the pet projects that liberal democrats have been longing to fund for decades? Are they just milking the panic of this opportunity?

I believe he is overreaching, and that is the only encouraging thing I see right now. Perhaps if he overreaches, he will fail. We need to get this patient out of the hospital and back home to recover.

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