On Friday, job losses for January came in at 598,000, which was worse than the forecasts of most experts. Still, it fell far short a Nancy Pelosi’s Wednesday prediction of 500,000,000. Pelosi had stated that each month the stimulus package was not passed 500 million Americans lose their jobs. Scare tactics aside, Americans were left to wonder how it would be possible for the equivalent of every working American to lose their job every week. I pondered this could actually mean full employment because everyone would have to be hired the following week in order to lose their job that week. In Washington, Pelosi suffers just like others in this disconnected Congress where thousands, millions, billions, and trillions just get really confusing. I thought maybe Pelosi really believes the stimulus bill is $800 million, not billion.
    Barack Obama became frustrated several times during the week over the stimulus bill. One day he had to escape the White House, having been held prisoner there for two weeks and went to second grade. On Thursday the democrats went down to Williamsburg and told the president he could take Air Force One to come and see them. This was just a little fuel efficient test run of 150 miles, but Obama was like a kid with a new toy.
    Still, later, his frustrations boiled over. Pass the bill or we have a catastrophe he claimed. After all he needed three Republicans to pass the bill in the senate. Obama was resorting to his community organizing skills. But he’s President now. This was requiring overtime. The president explained that he was tired. His staff was exhausted. And that was just from going over the tax returns of his cabinet appointments. Fatigue had set in after sixteen days on the job. It’s possible this guy’s going to look older than Jimmy Carter after one term in office. No, I mean Carter today, not when he left office in 1981.
    What happened to the Mr. Unflappable, according to his image-makers? Not to worry. By late Friday one of those typical Republican moderates, Susan Collins had bailed out Obama and the pathetic, mumbling Harry Reid. Collins said something to the effect that we can’t let partisanship keep us from passing this bill. Why not, the democrats never left partisanship at the “waters edge” during the last seven years.
    Sadly, less than 35 Americans truly know what is in this bill. Collins and other moderates found the great moderate courage to get the bill back to the amount it was roughly when it came from the House. The time is now to rush this through, a bill that has never even had committee hearings in either House. You have to believe that when the details of this $820 billion monstrosity emerge after passage we’ll find 500 million reasons it should never have happened.