What to do? What to do to save this economy of ours from another downturn - that new recession that seems to be creeping our way? What would you do?
I'm not asking about ways to reduce the deficit or diminish the overall national debt - nor do I want political flourishes, deft gestures that give joy to the right - or the left.
No, I'm asking about what we, the people, can do that will avert another recession, that will act on the economy in a way that cuts the unemployment rate, puts money in the pockets of consumers, and gets this country moving again, gets business investing in products that have a market out there of American people who are able, willing and stirred to spend money.
What would you do? Today a columnist for The New York Times offers us an answer. It's a prescription for meeting the great malady of the American economy - unemployment - or, if you want to put it more brutally - the "oversupply of labor" in this country.
Call it what you want. The simple fact is, there are more people looking for work here than there are people looking to put them to work. Nobody has to be told that. It's the condition we're living in.
Part of the proposal suggested in the Times today is to create five million jobs a year with a five-to-seven year infrastructure program at a cost of $1.2 trillion in government and private sector spending, but mostly government.
This drives us right to the point of decision. Doesn't it? You can support such a proposition - which goes well beyond anything President Obama is pushing. Or you can oppose it, saying the government ought to be cutting spending.
I think the president ought to make it clear where he stands. That's even if he doesn't have the votes right now to get it passed. If he thinks this bigger program is called for, he ought to say so. People ought to know where their leader wants them to be led.
Don't you think? Don't we have a decent claim on knowing that our president agrees with the need to do something this vital, this big - even if he can't get the votes for it?
Nothing would dramatize the ideal of a second Obama administration than him simply laying out where he would like to take the country in meeting its imminent economic challenges.
Five million new jobs a year? Or continued deflation, continued decline in investment, consumption and overall economic activity. Get the country moving again - or stay the course, a course that's headed right now for the second recession of this presidency.