The economic crisis currently gripping our country has been the top political issue in this country for months now. My blog is a political blog. Noticeably absent from it has been the top political issue in the country. Why? Because words can’t describe how angry, disappointed, and disgusted I am with the handling of it all.

Believe me, I’ve tried. There are many half-written posts on the subject. A starting paragraph followed by a rant followed by broken sentences that simply couldn’t be folded in coherently – not that my rants are terribly coherent to begin with. It almost makes me feel like I’ve somehow failed as a blogger. I’m normally a very articulate person. I’d like to at least think that I’m a rational, reasonable, persuasive person.

But every time I think of what the government has done on this my mind just fucking asplodes.

The country faced a problem that the government could not have possibly solved: we, as a culture, were spending more money than we actually had. Government “solved” the problem by giving us money it didn’t have so we could continue to spend the money we didn’t have.

I was confused and felt more than a little betrayed by my so-called conservative President.

And so what should have been a light recession that happens every 5 years turned into a sideways slide that eventually caught up with us again. It caught up to us at a time when not only were we overdue for the now-delayed downward cycle, but at a time when the institutions of credit – the beasts of burden which we rode so hard to get ourselves into this mess – couldn’t handle the strain any more. We had whipped and beat and poked and prodded them until they simply couldn’t take it any more. Not only were we spending more money than we had, and not only did we need more money to keep us sliding sideways, but the institutions that conjured that miracle money were crumbling.

We didn’t take the yoke off and suffer the indignity of pulling the plow ourselves. No, we had to keep it going – and we had a plan to make it happen. We were going to spend money we didn’t have so that banks could lend money they didn’t have so that consumers could spend money they didn’t have so the economy could go sideways for just a little longer.

WHAT?!

Despite our best efforts, it somehow wasn’t enough. The banks still failed. The money still vanished, and the well still ran dry. Our beasts of burden had died. Oh, but that wasn’t the end of it. Our fields (if you’re having trouble following the metaphor, we’re calling the auto industry “fields” now) still need to be watered. We have a plan for that too.

We have children, you see.

Instead of accepting the bursting of a tiny bubble, we kept pumping stimulating air into the economy, and the bubble grew. We all know that the bigger the bubble gets, the more it’s going to hurt when it gets popped. And by “we all” I, of course, don’t mean politicians.

So we’ve spent money we didn’t have. This created a recession. The government spent money it didn’t have so we could continue to spend money we didn’t have to delay the inevitable. When the inevitable came, it was worse than before. So again, the government spent money it didn’t have to prop up an industry to lend money the industry didn’t have to lend money to us so we could spend the money we don’t have to buy things we didn’t need to keep the whole thing going. Surprise, surprise! Not only did it not work, but it made things worse.

Whodda freekin’ thunk it?

So now we’re on round what? 3? 4? And now we’re throwing money at public works because the money we threw at private industry didn’t save us from the situation that should have been solved by the money we threw at the public that didn’t save us from the situation that should have been solved by not throwing money at the problem in the first place.

What. The. Fuck.

Every time the economy has threatened a down turn, its been the worst one we’ve seen in a while. Then the worst one we’ve seen in 20 years. Then the worst one we’ve seen in 60 years. Keep spending money, guys. It’s going to be the worst one we’ve seen ever.

And that’s not even the worst part of all of this.

The worst part is that sooner or later we’re going to get our comeuppance. At this rate, it’s not just us that are going to suffer for our mistakes. Make no mistake – we are going to suffer for this. What just blows my mind is that at this rate we’re not just shooting ourselves in the foot, we’re turning to the next generation (and most likely 2 or 3 generations) and doing the same thing to them. And for WHAT?

To delay the inevitable crash at the end of our economic high. Talk about a hangover. The morning after this one is going to be a bitch.

I just … words can’t even begin to describe it. The enormity of the problem compounded by the enormity of the “solution” compounded by the enormity of time compounded by the sheer stupidity of it all blows my freekin mind.

I can’t handle it. My brain just can’t accept it.

I realize I’m supposed to be the voice of reason here. I realize I promised myself that I wasn’t going to be the guy who sensationalized or fear mongered or raged. I’m the sane one. I’m the calm one. I’m the rational one.

There is no rational response to how unbelievably insane this bail out bullshit is. None. I … I can’t even pick an emotion. Rage? Oh, believe me, I’ve been there. Disappointed? Its a republic for God’s sake, I’m at least partly to blame. Powerless? I voted. I’m still represented by one of the most liberal people in congress. And hell, even if I was represented by a Republican, look at the hapless bastards. They started it in the first place – and even if they weren’t on board they sure as hell can’t stop this freight train.

I just … I have no idea. It’s insane. Insane. Just absolutely insane. Don’t expect very many posts from me on the subject. A sane perspective just doesn’t exist on this issue.