Missing Reagan

I still remember, with great longing, the optimism conveyed in the famous "It is Morning in America" campaign commercial of 1984.  Back then, we had a leader who believed in the great potential of the individual and triumph of human spirit over adversity. 

In contrast, this past Sunday's CBS 60 Minutes segment on chronic joblessness put in to perspective the type of leadership we currently are cursed with. 

The numbers are staggering for those who have or are about to exhaust their 99 week unemployment benefits (thus the title of the segment: the 99ers)  Hopelessness and despair are everywhere, and why would anyone expect anything less with our current leadership?

I would like to ask Nancy Pelosi who famously declared last March that unemployment benefits were the best type of stimulus for the economy:  Madam, I know that you are a moron, but could you please point to the positive effects of the extended jobless benefits on the economy?
Are you even aware of studies done in Belgium and Germany that showed with shortened unemployment benefits, people simply found jobs that much faster?
Or are you simply living in the Paul Krugman universe?

We all keep repeating cliches like if you want more employees, you need more employers, and that no one has ever gotten a job from a poor person. Yet we (the government through progressive liberal policies) punish entrepreneurs and risk-takers with things such as the second-highest corporate tax burden in the world — and in some states, the highest.
Where are the jobs, green or otherwise, Mr. President? In an op-ed directed to President Obama, Home Depot founder Ken Langone said the company he started in 1979 and that now employs 325,000 people couldn't be started today or succeed under the administration's anti-business policies and rhetoric.

Unfortunately, it is not morning in America; rather we are mourning in America (the (hopefully) temporary death of just about everything that made us the single greatest country in the world).
It is at times like these that I miss Reagan the most, may he rest in heavenly peace.