Candidate Obama was eager to lend a hand and a so-called stimulus package was passed. It may be helping some with small gains in the overall national picture being reported, particularly in areas like autos, housing and so on. However, there are still huge problems with no solution other than repeated and tiresome promises that do not amount to much being offered.

Fast forward to the other side of the national financial coin. The overall economy still appears to be in a serious recession. The federal budget has such an enormous shortfall that Washington budget watchers keep announcing it is getting worse, not in terms of billions, but BY TRILLIONS, as in endless zeros at the end of the budget, the result of a lack of revenue and big spending, including entitlements, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the alleged stimulus and other federal mandates and spending programs. There are promises of a recovery but not a strong one. Not one you can believe in. Not one that would give you faith in the long term health of the country and the free market, capitalism, individual rights and initiatives or any of that legendary stuff. Not a recovery with much of a future, especially since the future is now and all that is going on in Washington appears to be more of the same empty promises that do not result in much of anything.

What does all this imply or mean?

Well expanding federal health insurance is going to require new revenue to pay for the subsidies to help those who cannot afford nice insurance to pay expensive medical bills, while, at the very same time, on the other end of the economy, everyone else is struggling to make ends meet. The federal budget money is already gone and even spent for a couple of years to come and then some. That's what the deficits mean and where the big borrowing comes in.

It sort of says a lot about Washington thinking.

Then there is the renomination of Ben Bernanke. I remember the Alan Greenspan years. Same nonsense of blowing smoke into dimly lit mirrors that most of the public do not understand. In fact, the reasoning and explanation behind such an early announcement was continuity, stability, experience and a possible strong signal to foreign interests that apparently official Washington is going to hold the course, bite the bullet or whatever it is they are doing to be reassuring. Continuity and stability, I want to point out, means more miserable economics with dim futures, hard times and iffy and insecure prospects. Where is a real solution and sound money going to be offered? When is A Dollar that is worth Something? When is the country going to be saved from the current political indigestion and dyspepsia? When is the world going to be safe for democracy and prosperity. Will there ever be an end to political shenanigans and the old sneaky hustle that the country has become so inured to?

Unfortunately, not only is the American economy in bad shape but so is the international economy. That is not something to build confidence on.

Rather it raises doubts. And Questions. Big Questions.

Is the same old bull a good course to follow. After all, grabbing a mulish ox by the tail is dangerous no matter how you look at the situation. I say there has to be a better way. Why suffer the stings and arrows of miserable economic setbacks when good times can be had by taking the easy road to prosperity. Why ride the bumpy road of a down turn when the sweet ride of a prosperous revival is so much easier to bear.

In short, there is something rancid going on in Washington. Why are there only promises of a solution? When the problem should already have been solved? Why are we waiting for prosperity to pop up around some cloudy corner when prosperity should already be HERE AND NOW.

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Email Neil Levine: neillevine3@aol.com

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