You Say "Potato," I Say "New Job" ...

We're in Beijing right now, a really awe-inspiring city, full of history, and not filled so much with people. What the heck is going on here? How can this be a country of a few billion give or take a couple hundred million, and no one be out on the streets? Makes you wonder if this place is as free as Big Guy says it is.

For some reason my Internet access was limited at the hotel, so I had to ride back to Air Force One to post. Thankfully, the Chinese cleaning crew was just finishing up putting in the new furniture in the flying Oval Office, so I have some privacy.

You'd think that Big Guy would be focused on what is going on here in China, but ever the giant leader, he truly is worried about what is going on back home. This is especially true with the economy. So Timmy Geithner brought him the latest numbers on stimulus, job growth, TARP spending, foreclosures, and the like, and Big Guy was not happy.

"What happened to the recovery we've been talking about?" Big Guy asked Timmy in his hotel room. "We've been touting this thing for several months, but I don't see any improvements; shouldn't the numbers keep getting better if the economy is getting better?"

Timmy finally had to tell him that there really wasn't a recovery going on, and that it all started with Joey B claiming there was a recovery and everyone else just playing along to humor him. "It kind of got out of control," he said.

So now, Big O is stuck. He has an imaginary recovery, with imaginary job creation, but in order to make it look more real, he has to cut 60,000 made-up jobs he says he created, but which never really existed.

How come we can't do the same thing for this damn health care debate?