Don't expect quick fixes to economy

How convenient it is for Donald Anderson (Fence Post, Sept. 24) to use figures from the last 10 years to show that George Bush was nothing short of spectacular in handling the economy only to be thwarted from perfection by the Democrats in his last two-plus years. He states that for the first six years, Bush kept the economy stable and then in 2007, when the Democrats took control of Congress, suddenly unemployment went from 4.6 percent to 7.6 percent. It takes time for the economic forces to take effect, and Mr. Anderson should know this.

Think of America as a corporation, whom many on the right believe it is. You have a CEO (Clinton) who is paying the bills and is forced to retire. The shareholders hire a new CEO (Bush), who inherits a strong company. He begins to distribute the profits (tax cuts) to the shareholders and borrows and spends money for "projects" (wars).

The barrel becomes empty, and the borrowing begins (deficits) to a threshold never before seen by the company. The shareholders continue getting distributions (tax cuts) from the borrowing however. The abuses take their toll (the economy) and the shareholders see their company slipping away.

They hire new officers (Congress) and a new CEO (Obama), who takes over a company in turmoil (recession) and tries to steady the ship. In the meantime, some of the shareholders (Republicans) cry that this man and the new officers are responsible for the company's woes. Their solution: hire back the officers and get a CEO like the ones who trashed the company.

This is absurdity. Fixing the country takes time, and so does the process of breaking up a country as we have seen the last 10 years. Mr. Anderson's numbers prove this.

John Papeck

Hoffman Estates