Week of 09/27/2010

Memo To Government: You Can Stop Lying Now
– by David Matthews 2

I have a really simple message to the federal government in regards to our economy.

Stop.

Just stop.

Stop the lies. Stop telling us that it’s raining when all that you’re doing is peeing on our legs.

This past week the “OFFICIAL” word from the National Bureau of Economic Research is that there really WAS a recession. It “started” in December of 2007, and it “ended” in June of 2009.

Bull$#it.

Stop it.

Just STOP IT!

Stop lying to the American people!

I’m not questioning the presence of recession or its severity. It really is THE WORST economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

I’m challenging the “official” dates of it.

First of all, the recession DID NOT START in 2007. The seeds of our economic destruction were sewn LONG BEFORE then!

We can trace this economic disaster going back to the 2001 “mini-recession”, when businesses like Enron and WorldCom began to fail. Back then, we the American people were fed a placebo and told it was a cure. That placebo was cheap credit and housing values in the place of a growth in real wages. And we bought into this placebo because we had two wars to fight and terrorists to thwart.

We can trace this economic disaster through the changes made to banking and bankruptcy rules. The changes that allowed big banks to get even bigger and to make more and more risky decisions, while at the same time making it harder and harder for the rest of the American people to get out of the burdens that have been placed on their shoulders.

But if you wanted a REAL date of the start of this recession, then you’d have to go with September of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina barreled through the Gulf of Mexico and our President, having already weaseled in a generous thank-you to his friends in the oil industry, decided than it was more important to attend a fundraiser in California than to worry about the sudden shutdown of oil that ended up affecting the whole country. As far back as then, people started talking about a looming recession and wondering what could be done to stop it. And of course nothing WAS done to prevent the recession, because it was just too profitable to keep the status quo going.

Here’s a little friendly tip to these “experts”… every economic downturn in recent years, no matter how slight, were precipitated by spikes in oil prices. Go ahead and look it up and you’ll make the same connection I made. There’s your true warning sign.

Of course we can endlessly haggle over when the recession BEGAN. But what I REALLY object to - what I have to call foul on - is your declaration that this recession “ENDED” in June of 2009.

Bull$#it! It did not end.

Do you hear me? IT IS NOT OVER WITH!

Unemployment is still a huge problem in this nation. Fifteen million Americans are out of work, with that number expected by some to reach as high as THIRTY-ONE MILLION by the end of the year. Almost HALF of those people out of work have been out of work for at least a year or more, which pretty much makes them unemployable. And that number is not even an accurate account, because as more and more unemployed Americans run out of benefits, they are no longer counted. They cease to exist in the minds of the government.

Foreclosures and bankruptcies are still a problem in this country, and they will continue to be as long as more and more Americans are not able to find work. The people who still have work have been forced to make do with less. They’re not going to be spending money on things that would stimulate the economy. They’re going to be worried that they may not have a job by the end of the year and end up being part of that estimated THIRTY-ONE MILLION.

Plus the recklessness of Wall Street HAS NOT ABATED! The very bad habits that created the mess that we are in are still in effect. The business community has been given ONE TRILLION DOLLARS that they’re just holding on to. They’re essentially carrying on as though it has always been business as usual.

Does ANY of this sound like things are improving? NO!

So why are you LYING to the American people?

Stop it.

Just stop.

Of course it’s easy to see HOW you came to that conclusion when the conditions you list fail to factor in those FIFTEEN MILLION that are unemployed and instead focus on “survey” standards and you factor in corporate profits, which are NOT an indication of a healthy economy because the business world has been sacrificing jobs to MAINTAIN those profit margins.

Wall Street and Main Street are not interchangeable. What part of that statement do you NOT understand? And why do you still have jobs if you fail to comprehend that simple statement?

It’s easy to simply write off those MILLIONS of Americans, especially when the benefits start ending even though those MILLIONS haven’t found work. Out of sight, out of mind.

I can even understand WHY you would lie to the American people and try to spin this HOAX that the recession is already “over” with. It’s psychological. You want the people spending again, and they can’t do it if they think times are still tough.

But the joke is really on you. Because let’s get brutally honest here… WE KNOW YOU ARE LYING!

We KNOW the recession never ended.

We don’t need fancy degrees to know this. We just need eyes and ears. We just need to see the people still out of work. We just need to see the various financial systems still screwing people over. We just need to see the letter from our local bank saying that they got taken over by the FDIC. We just need to see our neighbors being forced out of their homes. We just need to see the continued misery and the continued despair for us to KNOW that you are LYING to us!

So stop it.

Stop lying to us.

Even worse, your lies about the state of our economy can be used to justify not doing all that needs to be done. You are feeding the insurrectionists that claim that people who are out of work are just lazy. You are feeding the insurrectionists that say that unemployment benefits should be eliminated and the FIFTEEN-TO-THIRTY-ONE MILLION Americans should just be left to rot. Your lies allow you to just throw your hands up and tell us “Well, we don’t have to do anything more… problem solved! It’s business as usual.”

Do you get it yet? Your continual LYING to the American people about the recession being prematurely over could potentially hurt them just as much as the recession itself!

So just stop it.

Stop lying to the American people.

We KNOW the recession is still going on. We KNOW that it never ended. We KNOW that as long as the things that continue to keep us in this recession are still in place and as long as the people that instigated this recession are allowed to continue as though it is business as usual that the recession WILL continue.

Since we’re dealing with politicians, I’ll explain it in ways that you should understand...

Those fifteen-to-thirty-one MILLION Americans that are out of work or will soon be out of work will have plenty of time to show up at the ballot box in November. They’re going to be angry. And they’re going to be angry at the people who appear to be out-of-touch with their plight. They’re not going to be making “deals”. They’re going to vote against anyone in office. They’re going to vote against anyone that appears to be not doing their jobs. They’re going to vote against anyone who is keeping the status quo intact.

Does that get through your dense skulls yet?

So stop trying to convince us that things are getting better when they clearly are not.

Stop trying to tell us that it’s sunny when the rain is still falling on our heads.

Stop lying to us about the economy.

Just stop lying to us, period.

Is it really that hard to do? It shouldn't have to be.