Does Anybody Really Get it?

The simple and obvious truth of our current pain and suffering is not evident anywhere I can find, whether from TV talking heads, politicians, or publications. Is this because everyone just takes it for granted and assumes there's no need to state the obvious, or is possible most don't actually understand?

What obvious truth am I talking about?

Simply this: When you lose 17 or 18 percent of the workforce to unemployment, and everybody else who's still working is earning generally less than they would in a healthier economy, revenue to government takes a big hit.

Just like businesses are closing or hanging on by their fingernails, governments at the Federal, State, and Local levels who have always spent every penny of tax revenue inevitably face fiscal disaster when the taxes they collect on their constituents' income falls off a cliff along with that income.

It just puzzles me to read and hear the angst and anger of people who are seeing their favorite government programs cut. Protesters scream about losing funding for everything from schools to road repairs to community social programs. Politicians bend themselves into pretzels trying to figure out ways to raise taxes on everybody without them realizing it and voting them out of office.

We have an encapsulation of the problem in the healthcare battle. Left-wing Democrats, led by the President, are using every tool at their disposal to exploit this best opportunity in several generations to implement the one socialist program they've lusted after for generations: Nationalized healthcare.

Imagine the economy were to rebound, returning to full employment. How many people would be worried about our health insurance system when virtually all of them are employed and most employers offer insurance? Not many. And nobody but the most committed Socialists would support the current healthcare bills.

But the rhetoric of the Left side of the political spectrum is predictable. We all know about their goals and aspirations, and there's no surprise that they might choose to ignore this simple truth to push their agenda.

It's the Right side that is puzzling me. How simple is it to build an appealing campaign message that easily shuts down the other side's healthcare and soak-the-rich demagogery?

"Vote for me if you would rather have a good job than a government handout."

Unless you're a permanent ward of the State, wouldn't that simple campaign message resonate?

So why isn't anyone using it?