[Timber Loftis]

I don't see how a prolonged recovery is avoidable. The bailout and stimulus monies were too little (or they went to the wrong party, rich bankers - who should have in all fairness gone bankrupt - instead of shovel-ready projects) to give much of a kick-start, and the stupid sheeple have been beaten into believing that balancing the budget is the smart thing to do in a recession -- so the follow-up stimulus funds that should have been approved were never approved. This not only caused jobs that were currently underway to stop mid-project (leaving lots of Chicago's roadways standing with permanent construction barriers everywhere) but also resulted in many people losing their construction jobs.

You either buy into Keynesian economics or you don't. If you believe the government should inject money into the economy, then you don't half-ass it, you go whole hog and do it. Otherwise you risk a horrible double-whammy: more debt plus no recovery.

Just remember that the last person who tried to balance the books in a recession was named Hoover, and we know how well that went.

As for the mid-term elections, the Republicans have certainly engineered enough failed legislative efforts that they will probably pick up some seats. They've also been real good about spinning the legislation that has passed, such as health care, into some big scary commie boogie-monster that's gonna kill us all.

It will be sad. And if they pick up enough seats to get a majority, and then oust Obama in 2 years, we'll face a real crisis. I don't see how more money can be pushed upward to the rich. After 3 republican presidents and congresses that spent all their time pushing money from the middle class to the wealthy, I just don't think we can take any more. If you're not a millionaire and somehow you find yourself voting Republican, you should know that you are NOT voting for yourself, but if the last 30 years didn't prove that to you, nothing will.