So These are Good Times?

I read a headline yesterday that explained to me that all of my worries are over. How cool is that? I didn't realize that B.O. has some magical mystic power that heals all things. But, I need only turn on the television or pick up any number of sympathetic (deep emphasis on the pathetic part) newspapers, and I will see that BO (birthplace, unknown)has got a plan to fix everything! Hot damn. And I was worried that too much government intrusion would take this recession into another depression. BO must not be a student of history, or he would see that the FDR influences that he is so proud of actually prolonged the last depression. Here is my idea, you can take credit for it if you want. We need a National Lottery. Not a bunch of scratch off tickets, pick three, pick four or anything too complicated. In this National Lottery, we would have a drawing every -let's say Thursday night. The rules would be simple, pick six numbers and a another ball, just like the Powerball is set up. Every U.S. citizen over eighteen years of age would be allowed to play, and if you aren't a legal citizen of this country, sorry, no dice. Have all fifty states be involved in this lottery and the prizes would be huge. Since the Powerball is hovering around 165,000,000 as I write this, one can only imagine what the weekly prize would be from the involvement of all fifty states. The best part of my new lottery is what they would do with the profits. I would have them take every dime, every dollar, every red cent of profit and apply it toward the national debt. I would have an overseer to make sure that no one involved in this National Lottery got "Enron's Disease" and started making ridiculous money while they were involved. The profit from this would be kept within a strict percentage, so that overhead and greed didn't ruin everything. Decent wages, and no bonuses for CEOs. How long do you think it would take to wipe out the National debt? One year, two maybe. And when the National Debt is wiped out- how high would the dollar soar then? And then, when the national Debt is wiped out, and the budget is balanced-really balanced,not slick willie balanced, then we could start putting money into the other things that need it. Infrastructure would be a wonderful way to spend the money, plus it would create a bazillion good paying jobs. And if the economy were rolling like it was at Ronald Reagan's peak, there is nothing that we couldn't do, is there? But of course, BO and his band of 40+ thieves would have to have our best interests in mind, and that's not going to happen, is it? I have used this expression before, but monkeys are more likely to fly out of my butt than anything good come from the next two years of uber government that we are in for. When did people become unable to think for themselves? When did the government decide that we all needed to be taken care of like small children? When did people decide that it is easier for Big Brother to do the hard work instead of getting in there and doing it ourselves? I wish I knew when that time was so that we could go back and correct it. There is an expression for that time. It's called "Jumping the Shark." The expression means the time when something or someone has peaked and has now begun to descend without hope of recovery. The phrase was coined from an episode of Happy Days when the character Fonzie jumped over a tank of sharks. The series never recovered from that horrible moment, and it began it's decent into the end. I only hope that we as a country haven't "jumped the shark." But recent events make me wonder. If I hear any different, I'll let you know and you can thank me later.