Donaldson on Economic Challenges Ahead

Dec. 2, 2008 — -- The following is a commentary by ABC News' Sam Donaldson. Click here to view a video version of his latest essay.

A private firm that keeps track of these things informs us we are in a recession.

What? A bombshell! Why, I thought everything was going peachy keen. Didn't you?

Talk about a worthless piece of information.

We know we are hurting. And now the states are joining Detroit and many of the rest of us in asking the federal government to come to the rescue. This morning state governors met with President-elect Barack Obama to plead their case, although the conference chairman, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, was less than candid about it.

Rendell said he had heard a newscaster this morning say the governors were going to "beg for money."

"That is definitely not why we are here," thundered the Democratic governor.

Oh yeah? Tell it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declared a fiscal state of emergency in California with the word that given California's $28 billion budget deficit, the state would run out of cash within two months. Think General Motors.

Obama told the governors he wanted to hear about their problems, but he warned them that his administration would have to make hard choices about how to dole out the money, and at some point, he said, the federal government would have to stop printing money and begin once again to practice fiscal restraint.

Schwarzenegger seems to have already gotten the message that the federal government, like the Lord, will help those who help themselves. He told the California legislature it must take draconian measures … including raising taxes.

Is anyone doing well now? Yes. Remember the firm that informed us we are in a recession? When we finally emerge from this economic darkness and people start buying cars again, who knows whether from Detroit or not, and people go back to work in good paying jobs again and once again can afford to live somewhere other than a homeless shelter, this same firm will -- after a decent interval -- inform us that we are no longer in a recession.