The Twinkie Solution ~ By Patrice Lewis

Commentary from WorldNetDaily

By Patrice Lewis Posted: December 12, 2009 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2009 OK, I'm going to improvise a scenario for you. Let's say that my husband and I have good jobs. Together we make $150,000 a year. Our kids attend private schools. We wear designer clothing. We vacation in Hawaii. But we have $100,000 in unsecured debt. This is from credit cards, student loans, cars, boats and, um, more credit cards. We live high on the hog until the recession catches up with us. My husband's job is eliminated. My job is downsized. We don't want to give the impression anything's wrong in our little financial world, so we pretend. We continue taking vacations, buying clothes and sending the kids to private schools. We double our debt. Delusionally, we claim that by exponentially increasing our credit card balances, we can spend our way out of our personal recession. It doesn't matter that we don't have any jobs or have no way (at the moment) to earn additional money. It doesn't matter that we're digging ourselves deeper into a hole while bankruptcy looms. Spending is what matters because it gives everyone the impression nothing is wrong. Welcome to Economics 101, government-style. MSNBC reported, "President Barack Obama called for a major new burst of federal spending Tuesday, perhaps $150 billion or more, aiming to jolt the wobbly economy into a stronger recovery and reduce painfully persistent double-digit unemployment. … Obama said the U.S. has had to 'spend our way out of this recession' with so many people out of work but insisted he was still mindful of a need to confront soaring deficits." Really. Now, to any normal person this sounds like lunacy. It's like claiming the best way to lose weight is to eat tons of Twinkies. Or the best way to cure alcoholism is to chug Jack Daniels. But some people actually fall for this bunk. "A recession is a situation in which output, spending and income are all below normal or below potential," sniffs Roger Bootle of the UK's Capital Economics. "If output and income are to go up then someone must spend more. There is simply no other way. As a matter of logic. The only sensible debate is about who should spend more, on what, and how they can be persuaded to do so." Mr. Bootle goes on to chide us not to "confuse the situation facing you as an individual with the position facing society as a whole" (as I did at the beginning of this column). Translation: To all of you troglodytes in Flyover Country, go back to sleep. Let us handle this lofty subject because you're too dumb to understand. Now, I'm not an economist. I don't even play one on TV. And that's what our government is counting on – that we yokels won't question their freakishly counter-intuitive actions (spending their way out of this recession) so they can do whatever they want. Twinkie, anyone? READ FULL STORY >