Political headlines are not a WYSIWYG deal – understanding political-speak

During the several decades I've been paying attention to politics and the political headlines, just one thing never changes. Political speak is like a foreign language, to which only politicians are privy. Reading between the lines is next to impossible, perhaps because, like an IRS publication, your conclusions are probably wrong due to the many purposeful ambiguities and words and phrases that simply don't add up in the real world. Logic is not something that's prevalent in political speeches, adding to the difficulty of being informed. Let's see if we can't unravel some of this language and gain some understanding. Now that would be a coup for us.

Everyone knows that today's political headlines are driven by the economy, not confined to the U.S., but appear in news reports all over the world. Most governments are in a turmoil, attempting to find solutions to shore up their economies and give the stock markets a push in the right direction. The political headlines are filled with catchy titles, such as 'Feds approve xx billions to banking giant so-and-so'. (Presumably, this is supposed to be reassuring.) Now what does that mean to us regular folk? The presumption is that with all this cash, the banks might graciously begin to extend credit again. However, this hasn't happened yet. You're left wondering what the heck the banks are doing with this windfall.

If you're an ordinary citizen, perhaps the politicians hope you'll read the headline and get a warm and fuzzy feeling, knowing the government is doing what economists feel is best for the country. However, a quick look at the stock market response doesn't support the political headlines premise. Hmmm. Are these hundreds of billions doing anything for the unemployment picture? Are small businesses receiving an immediate influx of cash to expand and grow their businesses?

Even a 9th grade student has heard of supply and demand. This is what fuels an economy. If the consumer is unemployed, or employed but strapped, there is no demand for goods. When a country imports cheap goods from another country with cheap labor, industries at home cannot compete. We are now reaping the results of the 'Fair Trade' policies, along with NAFTA and CAFTA. Outsourcing of our technology has contributed heavily to the current economic crunch.

Perhaps the most used political headline of 2008 and 2009 to date contains the words 'stimulus package'. However, so far as I can tell, with this top down strategy isn't going to be stimulating anything for the average citizen anytime soon. Just for fun, I calculated how far the $787 billion would go, were it to be distributed in cash to the people. Using 300 million as the approximate total population, every man, woman and child would receive about $2600. A family of four would have more than $10,000 with which to stimulate the economy.

Many people who live in poverty – about 16% of us – cannot afford to buy clothes and shoes for their kids, repair their car or pay for health insurance. If the 'stimulus package' started with distribution of even half of what the banks have received, supply and demand would immediately be on the rise. Layoffs would decline, as workers would be required to manufacture goods to meet the demand.

Here are some political headlines I'd love to see: 'U.N. unanimously adopts resolution declaring war illegal'; 'CEO and executive pay is capped'; 'Universal health care implemented on a sliding fee scale'; 'Classical education curriculum adopted in all public schools'. While there's no reason that some smart legislator might accomplish all of these objectives, I don't think anyone's holding their breath.

However, for the foreseeable future, we'll have to live with talk of bipartisanship, reaching across the aisle, speeches on accomplishments and other such ho-hum entries from the political dictionary.

So what's to be done? How can we improve the current rash of political headlines, such that they are substantive and meaningful? If every person who is impacted by where we've been led through red herring political headlines were to write their congressman, state senator and appropriate cabinet member, perhaps we'd get some real change and a turnaround in the economy.