As our country awaits and debates the details of the federal stimulus package - at press time set at $789 billion - and markets have reacted to "Bailout Plan Redux," I'd like to chime in that what we really need is a comprehensive "Confidence Plan."
Regardless of the result of recent debate, the restoration of trust is highly unlikely. To paraphrase B.B. King: The trust is gone. Baby, it's gone away for good. At this point, I would trust heroic U.S. Airways pilot Capt. C.B. "Sully" Sullenberger to handle our economy rather than our current lineup - and I am not kidding.
Here are the top four reasons why I can never trust the people we elected to fix the current situation:
No. 1. Bailout 1.0 was crammed down our throats by both parties.
My current state of distrust did not begin yesterday. I was on record as opposed to the first bailout plan passed in October and will not soon forget the pork-filled bill approved by many Republicans. Remember how all the smart people - including then-presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama - forced the bill upon us with great urgency. This plan was essential, they said, to "get credit flowing" and avert disaster. In business, when someone tells us we have to make the decision now or never, we are usually suspicious and for good reason.
No. 2. The smart people lost our money, and we're not talking about a few hundred bucks.
This first plan created the Troubled Assets Relief Program and allotted $350 billion to banks, and now neither Congress nor the U.S. Treasury Department can fully determine where the money went. In the Jan. 9 Congressional Oversight Panel Report, the Government Accountability Office said that there was no Treasury mechanism in place to track the money. The report is worth a read.
This is a no-brainer: If one of your managers responsible for a major project followed this same practice, you would fire them on the spot.
No. 3. Big Government and Big Business are the same.
Small business employs America. Who is looking out for small business? Nobody. The permeable membrane between Big Business and Washington, D.C., is so thin it is barely present. They trade jobs back and forth so often that we are immune to the meaning.
Is Timothy Geithner - the man who presided over the collapse of Wall Street as president of the New York Federal Reserve and failed to pay all of his taxes for nearly five years - the best person to lead us out of these financial crises? This double standard sends the wrong message to small-business owners.
No. 4. Our government overpaid for nonperforming assets by $1 billion.
The GAO says the Treasury overpaid by about a $1 billion for toxic assets. If someone in your company overpaid for an item by even a $1,000, they might not keep their job. A billion? We need to stop trusting these guys (from both parties) just because they went to Harvard and Yale and they wear suits.
We are so desensitized to the breakdown of trust that we have become paralyzed.
This stimulus plan is not about creating jobs but spending and redistributing our money from productive to nonproductive assets. Do you think that these people are really looking out for us?
If this were a real stimulus, it would do two things: put long-term, cheap money in the hands of small business - the employers of America - and provide immediate aid to those currently suffering a job loss until thing No. 1 takes care of thing No. 2.
We should be clear about who is at fault for this mess: We are. Yes, there is plenty of blame to spread among Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan, George Bush and Wall Street. However, they are not the only ones guilty of excess and overspending. Our fingerprints are on this crime scene, too. Nonetheless, without trustworthy leaders really looking out for us, we had all better brace for impact.
Capt. Sully - where are you?
Shawn Askinosie is owner of Askinosie Chocolate in Springfield. He can be reached at mshawn@askinosie.com.
