But if not.....

Yet another meeting on the "critical catastrophic crisis" today with Mr. Obama and assorted governors. It's as if, despite a vast and highly questionable plan having been passed, that having meetings every day will somehow help to cure the country's economic malaise.

Then there are the endless theories, mostly incorporating at some juncture a hopeful prediction as to when the recession will 'turn around.'

But it doesn't take a whole lot of reading to see that we are living in a monstrously complex economy, that is tied in to an incalculable degree with other economies in the world, and that no one has an accurate view of what's going on.

Which is why I'm doubly apprehensive at the haste to pass a gigantic 'stimulus package' only a month into the new administration. Yes, there's a lot of pressure to do something, but that doesn't make this wise.

If there's anything specific that bothers me, it's the rush of government at every level to preach tax cutting, while at the same time proposing -and in some cases already passing- measures to generate more revenue, many of which may charitably be called inadvisable.

The thing I'm looking for -and have yet to see- is a list of government cuts to attempt to balance the deficit that is only growing worse. And it's not going to come, because every one of our elected officeholders is already looking at November of 2010 and sweating.