OMG! He's making sense...somewhat

Was listening to Rush Limbaugh talking about the economy today - specifically about jobs and the so-called summit President Obama is finally going to hold in December to address unemployment.

As Rush said, until small businesses are given a tax break and other incentives, they won't be hiring at a rate high enough to get most people back to work. And because small businesses employ most people in this country, any further delay in helping these companies will just bury us deeper into this recession. No hiring, no jobs. No jobs, no buying of goods and services. No consumers equals more economic pain for a growing number of people and companies. Even the government suffers because there isn't enough tax money coming in. And when the government suffers, that means no new roads. No new schools or research funding for diseases. The domino effect is endless.

So Limbaugh's focusing on building the private sector as solution, rather than politicians randomly pumping more stimulus money in the economy and into government jobs, is probably a pretty logical approach.

But here's the problem with Rush. Like others who are either liberal or conservative, he's one-dimensional. He doesn't take a fair and holistic approach to solving all that is wrong. He has an agenda. He's a rich guy trying to protect every penny he has and pretty much admits that on his radio show each day. I get no sense from him that he is ever willing to carry his fair share of the load. That is not to say some of his ideas aren't on target. It just means he's unable to stray very far from his core beliefs and seems proud of it. In that way, he's very much like Obama. Their solutions come from preconceived notions that don't address the whole problem.

Yes, what we need is someone to fight for small businesses. I have personal friends who own small businesses who all say the same thing - they need a break, mainly from taxes, in order to hire. But we also need someone to come down hard on corporations that abuse the system. That won't be Limbaugh. He won't attack corporate America or Wall Street when they go astray. He won't stand up for laid off workers who were let go unfairly or approve of regulations that prevent corporate misdeeds. He's not a true friend of the underdog, although he pretends to be in order to build an audience. Like many hardened conservatives, he blindly supports greed and cares only for those who are able to help themselves. And those right-wing blind spots have gotten us into as much of a mess as liberals who want to tax the heck out of small businesses.

It seems we need some sort of hybrid leader who isn't wed to one ideology. We need someone who doesn't have a personal agenda and isn't motivated by political incentives. We need someone to diagnose the unemployment problem and then proceed with fixing it like a surgeon repairs a heart. It shouldn't matter what one's personal beliefs are. The only thing that should matter is saving the patient - being open minded to all solutions and then taking a course of action that is intellectually correct. A solution that will help blue and white-collar workers, and business owners who are willing to play more fairly.

If a business is given a tax break or other government incentives, then it needs to be more accountable and not lay off workers on a whim or pad CEO bonuses. Those in a position to hire must do so if the obstacles are cleared. If they don't abide by some sense of fairness, or if they continue to freeze average salaries while CEOs are pampered in Palm Springs, then those incentives should be forfeited and those business should be left to fail. No more bailing out massive companies that don't put a priority on their employees.

If we continue on a black or white path - this selfish, egotistical way of doing things - then we will have no one to blame but ourselves when this country collapses. If we don't somehow get smarter people with more accurate morale compasses into leadership positions, I believe capitalism will become extinct or so mutated that we won't recognize it.

Summits are only as good as the people attending them. Consensus can be a deceptive thing and it can be weighted one way or another depending on the invitation list. If the unemployment summit produces more of the same old solutions, I believe we will be looking at 13% unemployment by next November. Then Rush Limbaugh will really have something to talk about.