How optimistic am I..? "The Recovery Has Begun" is a very bold statement (it's even in bold letters)....Let's back up and then get to the point?
Are we better off than we were 3 years ago? HELL YES...Anybody that tells you different is just plain talking out their ass. Yes, there's lot's of pain out there, 3 years later. But the facts are that the economy ALMOST TOTALLY COLLAPSED in October 2008. Q4 2008, the economy SHRANK 6.2%. 2.6 MILLION people lost their jobs in 2008, and 598,000 more in just January 2009 alone. We were spiraling downward at a high rate of speed.
Nobody can argue that things are that bad now. 2.5% GROWTH in Q3 2011. Not fantastic, but WAY better than 6.2% decline!!!!! DITTO for jobs. 80,000 added, but better than 3 million lost. So that's where we are.
Here's what puts us in recovery. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY is getting the wool pulled over their eyes any more. Sure, some folks walk around with it over their eyes all the time....mainly the folks who listen to Eric Cantor, the Kochs, and Rush about that "trickle down" and "deregulation" bullshit...but those folks are falling away fast. The "occupy" folks certainly aren't getting fooled anymore. Even the "tparty" folks know something is wrong. Corporations that aren't hiring know that they don't have anything to sell that anybody wants to buy.
The only real retail corporations that are making money are computers, cell phones, and video games. Of course the oil companies are making money because we still need gas to get around. Don't really see why they would need subsidies, though, being as how they are just about the only ones making money as it is.
Back to the point. Bush and Cheney and Boehner and Cantor and McConnell blew a lot of smoke up people's asses about "Jesus" and "with us or against us" and "tax cuts" and blah, blah, blah...and again, a few "Grover Norquist" lovers still believe that "tax cut" bull shit....but who is that guy anyway.....I think everybody I knew in high school whipped his ass at least once......This guy is just the figurehead for a dream that collapsed in 2008.....Letting go is tough, I understand that.
The folks that are feeling the pain know MORE THAN ANYBODY how fucked up it is. And now they're doing things about it, which is the American way. Admittedly, we're in the VERY early stages of the recovery, but admitting the truth is the first part. When government contractors are exposed for the tit-sucking leeches they are instead of the "strong patriotic conservatives" they claim to be, then things are headed down the right track.
The truth is that the military is too big, many of these old corporations that are hoarding money are just in the way of innovation, bank CEO's are robbing both banks and the American people blind, tax cuts don't create anything but deficits, and a lot of folks in the US are reaching retirement age and will be drawing down their entitlements. That is the truth. We can't vote our way to prosperity, but at least now that the cat is out of the bag we can vote to level the landscape and let TRUE AMERICAN CAPITALISM return without letting our seniors, disabled, veterans, and children die and rot in the street.
