No. Mr. Bush you do not get to create your own reality

Reality:

Wary employers clamped down on hiring and pushed the unemployment rate to a two-year high of 5 percent in December, an ominous sign that the economy may slide into recession. President Bush explored a rescue package, including a tax cut, with his economic advisers.

Gripped by uncertainty, government and private employers last month added the fewest new jobs to their payrolls in more than four years. In fact, employment at private companies alone actually declined. The Labor Department's report, released Friday, provided evidence of an economy greatly strained by a housing slump and a credit crunch.

The disappointing employment figures sent Wall Street into a nosedive, thrust the White House into damage control and ratcheted up the blame game as Republicans and Democrats battle for the presidency. The employment numbers also sparked expectations that the Federal Reserve will have to lower interest rates again. As expected, the Fed took action to make cash more available to banks.

Uh...perhaps I'm wrong, but doesn't "the Fed took action to make cash more available to banks" mean "the Fed printed more money"? Isn't that what Jimmy Carter did that conservatives have been blasting for years?

More reality:

Wall Street fell sharply again Friday after the government's much-anticipated employment report showed weaker-than-expected job growth and a rise in the unemployment rate. The Nasdaq composite index, also pummeled by a downgrade of Intel Corp., skidded more than 3.5 percent, while the Dow Jones industrials fell more than 1.5 percent.

And more reality:

Talbots Inc. will close its 78 children's and men's apparel stores to focus on its core middle-aged female customer, a retrenchment that follows disappointing sales at Talbots as well as other specialty women's apparel retailers amid tough economic conditions.

Friday's announcement of the closures, affecting 800 employees, came as Talbots also warned that fiscal fourth-quarter sales have so far fallen below expectations at its 1,157 Talbots stores, and the 271 J. Jill locations it bought in a 2006 acquisition.

And still more reality:

The nation's service sector grew in December at a pace slightly slower than the month before, providing more evidence that the U.S. economy is struggling because of higher oil prices and a tight credit market.

...and even more:

If you're looking for bad news related to the housing market, it's not hard to find.

• At bubblemeter.blogspot.com, for example, I learned that one of the nation's wealthiest counties, Loudoun County, Va., is facing a budget shortfall of a quarter of a billion dollars, thanks to the slumping housing market. Property values have fallen about 10% there over the last year, and they're expected to fall nearly as much in the next two years. The county is considering charging fees for ambulance usage, among other ideas -- such as a big property-tax hike.


• Meanwhile, according to an AP story, single-family home construction fell 5.5% in November, hitting its lowest level in 16 years. Building permit applications dropped for the sixth month in a row. "The overall construction decline left home building 24.2 percent below the level of activity a year ago," the story reported.


• At the thehousingbubbleblog.com, I read that "the median price of a home in Los Angeles County and the rest of California (recently) plummeted a record 12% percent from a year earlier," with sales falling by more than a third.

In BushWorld, however, everything's just fabulous:

President Bush said Friday that while there is some uncertainty about slowing economic growth, the nation’s “financial markets are strong and solid.”

Bush spoke after getting an update from his top economic advisers, who are helping him decide whether to offer a package to stimulate the U.S. economy as it weathers the housing slump, rising oil prices and an uptick in unemployment.

“This economy of ours is on a solid foundation, but we can’t take economic growth for granted,” Bush said. “And there are signs that will cause us to be ever more diligent and make sure that good policies come out of Washington.”

So what's his answer to keeping this "solid foundation"?

Wait for it....

Here it comes...

Any minute now....

You guessed it...

TAX CUTS!!

President Bush said Friday that while there is some uncertainty about slowing economic growth, the nation’s “financial markets are strong and solid.”

Bush spoke after getting an update from his top economic advisers, who are helping him decide whether to offer a package to stimulate the U.S. economy as it weathers the housing slump, rising oil prices and an uptick in unemployment.

“This economy of ours is on a solid foundation, but we can’t take economic growth for granted,” Bush said. “And there are signs that will cause us to be ever more diligent and make sure that good policies come out of Washington.”

Yes, folks, Bush's answer is to shovel some more government cash into his buddies' pockets, while you'll see perhaps 46 bucks a year in your pocket.

But after all, why should the president bother his beautiful mind about what real Americans are suffering?

Hope is a wonderful thing, folks. But hope has a "wing and a prayer" aspect to it that doesn't solve the problem of a profligate president raiding the national treasury to give to his friends and bankrupting the country. I'm going to be watching all three of the Democratic frontrunners to see how they plan to get us out of this mess.