How, exactly, are things great?

The president says we are doing great economically and the throngs cheered. I am confused by the measure he uses to gauge “doing great” — is it the dramatic rise in number of people now dependent on the government for food stamps and other such support over the past four years? Could it be the fact that our debt could achieve $15 trillion very soon? Perhaps it’s the fact that unemployment that includes relevant workforce data is still nearly 12 percent. Maybe it’s the huge increase in Medicare subscriptions as more and more Americans lose their health care and become eligible because the criteria was dramatically reduced?

Then again, it could be the fact that the number of uninsured now compared to the number used in his campaign (50 million) are not signing up for his program because it’ s too expensive. Or the 2.5 million who will have their jobs eliminated or scaled back because of the ACA. Maybe we are just focusing on the wrong metrics. Success is measured by failure and failure is rewarded with promotions. There are two major sectors of our economy that have a very high amount of government oversight and control. Health care is one, and I just described how much of a mess that is; we are targeting the wrong things to fix and now seeing what many were warning about. The other sector is education, any guesses what’s happening there? The point of no return for fiscal sanity is behind us.

Don Thompson

Lake Stevens