The Republicans tell us that President Obama is attempting to adopt European socialism in the USA. However they are actually trying to establish European separatism as an alternative.  Let's face it; Europe is an amalgam of over 20 separate countries with few mechanisms for coordinated Fiscal Policy. Monetary Policy is centralized through the European Central Bank in the same manner that our Monetary Policy is centralized through the Federal Reserve System. However, Europe does not have a strong central government to design and implement fiscal policy. As a result, even the Europeans have doubts about their ability to recover. Each country is pretty much on its own regarding stimulus issues. That means if Italy tries to increase spending and create jobs the result could be that the new spending ends up creating jobs outside of Italy. This would happen if France decided not to stimulate its economy. As a result wages, and therefore, prices would be lower in France and the Italians who were hired under the stimulus would buy French goods. This would result in sporadic growth in Europe and a prolonged recession.

American governors who refuse the stimulus money would be placing our country in the same boat a Europe. The lack of spending in their own states would lead people to relocate to states where the stimulus money is working. The result would be a continued recession in their own states and a delayed recovery in the country as a whole as unemployed workers cross state lines.  The only reason to seek this type of scenario is to be able to say: "See the stimulus didn't work so vote Republican."  The Republicans are willing to see the country suffer so that they can regain power. It is this selfish approach which can threaten the state of the Union. The Republican Governors are traitors who have stronger loyalties to their party than to the country.

The more I read Warren Buffett's comments regarding business and economics the more I believe that he has more practical sense than all of congress combined. Today on CNBC Mr. Buffet stated that it is time to treat our economic problems as if we were at war. In doing so our congressional political parties have to put their partisan differences aside and treat our president the way we would in a full scale war situation. In an all out war, the people need to believe that we will win and the president must be commander in chief.  Buffett (along with Krugman, Stieglitz and most economists) stated that confidence is necessary for an economic recovery to take place. As long as the congressional Republicans fight everything President Obama tries to accomplish and the Democrats try to add pet projects to every piece of stimulation legislation, the public will have serious doubts about the prospects for recovery.

It is time to end the fighting if we are to preserve the nation. Recovery is a matter of national security and we should all be a part of it. The problems that will arise from the tactics used to stimulate a recovery are far more manageable than the slide that will turn into a plunge if we do not act. Monetary Policy has done well at preventing a full scale plunge. However, monetary policy has reached its limit because we are now in what economists call a liquidity trap. It is time to let Fiscal Policy do its job.