Grabbing the Wheel

The Bush administration, and Treasury Secretary Paulson in particular, have been getting a lot of flak over the plan to deal with the current economic crisis.  But hey, at least they have come up with a plan, which is more than most of the critics have done.

No, the Treasury Secretary should not have carte blanche to spend almost $700 billion without oversight. But he has done his job. There's a plan out there on the table to get kicked around, tweaked, picked apart, and transformed.

Is it going to work? You've seen enough of those disaster movies where the asteroid is heading for Earth,  and they launch a spaceship with nukes in it to deal with the threat. In some movies it works, and in others it doesn't -- but somebody has to try.

Doing nothing is not an option. Jus the fact that there is a plan on the table is something to calm the markets. Many of the reforms put in place after the crash of 1929 are still working our favor today. That's why there hasn't been a run on the banks.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the New Deal to lift Americans out of the Depression -- with a little "d" as well as the upper-case one. The launching of those programs accomplished that goal -- even though as time went on, the programs' effectiveness was questioned. But just the fact that someone grabbed the wheel and started steering made the difference.

Let's hope they come together on a plan quickly in Washington -- that needs to happen. But let's give everyone credit for tryihng.

There, now I've said it.