President Obama wants to be all things to all people. For liberals, his stimulus plan moves the country forward by allocating hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending. For the auto industry, loan guarantees worth tens of billions are under negotiation. For the banking sector, more capital but no outright takeovers. And now, for the fiscal hawks, a ten year budget plan that restores a balanced budget.

But all of these good intentions, to be seen as a white knight by a broad array of Americans, undercut popular understanding of the reality before us: the USA is in an awful slump. Last week the New York Times reported that the Federal Reserve anticipates sustained high unemployment and that some fed members believe that it'll be five or six years before a recovery.

Millions of Americans are underwater not just with negative housing values and other debt but with moderate to low wages, rising health care and higher education costs. They are the REAL asset base that needs fixing, and the only way to provide the fix is to get them solid income forever. So our advice to President Obama: shore up the population, and the rest will follow. None of the millions in trouble care whether America's deficit goes up, nor should they. We're way beyond that.