By Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star columnist

In years past, people would say economic times like these called for “buckling down.” That is, facing difficult responsibilities. Making sacrifices, with the faith that doing so would get us through a tough spot.

“Buckle down” was a phrase I heard a lot from my mother, who survived the Great Depression and lived to tell about the Dust Bowl. Those were times when everything seemed so upside down that natural occurrences, such as the rising and setting of the sun, didn’t seem to work right. Chickens would roost mid-day, confused by the swirls of dust that enveloped barns in darkness when there should have been sunlight.

Hard times. Times of struggle that people knew they could overcome, but not easily.

A term like “bailout” would not have been used in those days. And although most of us today did not live through those hardscrabble days, we are from people who did. Which is why, despite our bulging credit card bills, sane people were rightfully a little suspicious of the plan to upright the finances of the U.S. by a $700 billion handout funded by taxpayers.
The House was rightly skeptical too, failing to pass the proposal Monday.

But George Bush skipped talking about sacrifice and buckling down in his speech promoting the bailout to the nation. He preferred to persuade us mere peons using fear, as he has in the past. The phrases he chose were dire, scary even: “a long and painful recession” and “our entire economy is in danger.”

“More banks could fail, including some in your community,” he warned. “The stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet. Foreclosures would rise dramatically.

“And if you own a business or a farm, you would find it harder and more expensive to get credit. More businesses would close their doors, and millions of Americans could lose their jobs.”

OK, we get it. The markets are falling apart, and with such a high percentage of people with some funds in the stock market, some sort of action will be taken.

But how long will it take before an accounting of the long term cost of fixing this financial mess will occur?

I’m awaiting the politician who admits that some will be shortchanged in the public arena as billions are leveraged to stave off the crisis.

Most people were understandably confused by the details of the bailout. But we are not gullible. Somewhere in our rootstock is the understanding that hard times require sacrifice. The money will come from somewhere.

We just want to have a more honest accounting of the situation, of who will actually suffer, who will profit by the plan, and whether it will really fix the problems of the U.S.
What the American public really wants to hear right now is the truth. They may not like it, but they need to hear it.

Like the costs of a prolonged war, this bailout would have meant money would have been shaved from already under-funded programs like early childhood education, which arguably is among the best investments for the future the government could make.

Most people know you do not get out of holes like the one the U.S. has been digging for itself without buckling down.

We’ll have to agree to more taxation, and some government programs will have to make do with less.

The U.S. public deserves a hard talking to, an honest accounting and, yes, a call to sacrifice so that our nation might prosper again. I just hope we have a leader with the courage to do it.

To reach Mary Sanchez call 816-234-4752 or send email to .
©2008, The Kansas City Star.
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