Okay, now let me get this straight. Now that Washington has pronounced that the economy and the job situation are "stimulated," we can move on to the issue of healthcare.

Americans told members of Congress more than 80 years ago they desperately needed food, jobs and health care for themselves and their families. So, the federal government set up "trust" funds for Social Security and (later) Medicare to assure Americans of the promised land of survival to come.

But, not much seems to have changed for Americans.

It is now 2010 and the only thing members of Congress can conceive is that lower-echelon Americans [like you and me] really can't afford to be healthy and happy anymore.

The joke is on the American people, members of Congress say. 'Tighten your belts, Americans, as we calorize on steak in Capitol Hill and White House dining rooms and suck on hors oeuvres with lobbyists," the Washington elite is saying.

While "We the People" eat baloney.

"Healthcare reform" is being served up like another rubber-chicken lunch to the national media, who breathlessly reported the recent "summit." This grandstanding makes interesting media theater and fodder, but the meat entrée never arrived and We the People are left with more baloney.

Democrats have taken this time in the vacuum to romance Republicans on healthcare. Dems are buying time. Why? Because their bird won't fly. Their hound won't hunt.

But they are sitting at the table with their ever-changing hand, but one that will win ... if they are patient. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also is playing a shrewd hand.

McConnell knows the Democrats must come to him to make it work in the "mythical" bipartisan way. We're playing hardball here, as Hall of Fame pitcher Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., will tell you.

The Democrats have everything to lose; Republicans have much to gain. Keep your eye on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. When she starts warming up to you, you need to find your wallet or purse.

Both parties acknowledge Pelosi is the closed-door queen of deal-making. That's a speaker's job in government by extortion (the subject of another column).

Consider these statements from Democrats since Sen. Scott Brown's Massachusetts miracle, as the party leaders have evolved from [italics are mine] "we will go forward with the health care reform plan," "we will sit down and offer a revised plan," "we will get together in a 'summit' to resolve the issues, "we will do what we have to do," "the reconciliation process will get this needed legislation passed," "we will present a plan that would require a simple majority," (that is, 51 votes in the Senate).

In other words, Congress declares, we don't know what we are doing, we need to hang onto the trust funds to keep the government going, we need to give the country and the world the perception that we are still in control of our destiny, let our GREAT military save our collective posteriors -- and the people?

Let them eat baloney.

While "We the People" say...

It's about the jobs, stupid.

The messages coming out of Fantasyland (aka Washington, DC) are encouraging to Americans as we eat more of their baloney while looking for jobs that don't exist. Just watch this timeline of comments and stock up on baloney because no one is here to fix our real problem (that would be a lack of jobs and a broken economy). Where have all the leaders gone?

Timeline of "Leaderless" Comments

Jan. 27 -- "One in 10 Americans still cannot find work. Many businesses have shuttered. Home values have declined. Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard. For those who had already known poverty, life has become that much harder." President Obama, State of the Union.

Feb. 25 -- "This will take courage to do." - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., at televised "summit" on healthcare.

Feb. 25 -- "If all we're doing is adding more people to a broken system then costs will continue to skyrocket, and eventually somebody is going to be bankrupt, whether it's the federal government, state governments, businesses or individual families." - Obama at Feb. 25 White House confab.

Feb. 25 -- "This is a car that can't be recalled and fixed and ... we ought to start over." - Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

Feb. 25 -- "Harvard just completed a study that shows 45,000 Americans die every year because they don't have health insurance, almost 1,000 a week in America." - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Feb. 25 -- "We can't afford this [Obama plan]. That is the ultimate problem here." - Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.

Feb. 28 (Courtesy MSNBC) -- The White House called for a "simple up-or-down" vote on health care legislation Sunday as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Barack Obama's chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers.

March 1 -- Obama will soon propose a health care bill that will be "much smaller" than the House bill but "big enough" to put the country on a "path" toward healthcare reform, Speaker Pelosi said Monday on Fox News..

"In a matter of days, we will have a proposal," Pelosi said, pointing to Obama's forthcoming bill. "It will be a much smaller proposal than we had in the House bill because that's where we can gain consensus. But it will be big enough to put us on a path of affordable, quality healthcare for all Americans that holds insurance companies accountable."

White House officials indicated Obama was working with the other side of the aisle. It created a national media impression that NOT everyone slept through the so-called healthcare "summit" last Thursday.

"Freeze the design on the bill," Pelosi said. "See what the Senate can do; It's essential for us to know what the Senate can do ... and then we will take up the bill on the House side."

And, Pelosi now declares her kinship with the Tea Party Movement (maybe Democrats are realizing Tea Party participation is open to everyone, including independents).

After calling the grassroots Tea Party Movement "AstroTurf" and racists last summer, Pelosi revealed to ABC this weekend that she now shares some of Tea Party views and that the Tea Party Movement had been hijacked by the Republicans. You can't make this stuff up. See for yourself as you Google her remarks.

Pelosi's remarks were a subtle acknowledgment that the Tea Party Movement is a political force that the Democrats need in order to achieve their political agenda, the Associated Press reported.

Pelosi's comments, made on ABC's "This Week," occurred while the Tea Party movement was celebrating its one-year anniversary.

The timing sure fits a Democratic blitzkrieg, AP reported on Fox News. The Democrats will most likely strike before the next series of Tea Party rallies, which are scheduled on tax day, April 15.

Pelosi has expressed a similar sign of urgency, even to members of Congress who could lose their jobs if they vote for Obamacare: "We're not here to self-perpetuate our service in Congress," she added: "We're here to do the job for the American people."

While Nancy sits on her throne, we bring our readers the latest unemployment results from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (new statistics coming soon but these are bad enough and you will get the picture):

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the Jacksonville metro area held steady at 11.3 percent in December, which was slightly lower than the state's 11.8 percent, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

A total of 76,558 people were out of work in December in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties compared with the 50,258 who were out of work one year ago, according to the Jacksonville Business Journal

Nassau County was the only one in the five-county area to see a rise in unemployment to 11. 3 percent in December from 11 percent the month prior and 7.2 percent in December 2008. Duval County, which accounted for 52,620 of the laid off workers, had an unemployment rate of 11.8 percent, which was unchanged from November and up from the 7.7 percent in December 2008.

The three other counties in the region actually saw a decline in unemployment from November to December. St. Johns County's fell from 9.8 in November to 9.6 percent in December, Baker's went from 11.5 percent to 11.3 percent in December and Clay's dropped from 10.5 percent to 10.4 percent. All three counties had an increase in unemployment from December 2008, however; St. Johns County from 6.4 percent, Baker County from 7.1 percent and Clay County from 6.9 percent.

Nearby Flagler County continued to have the highest unemployment rate in the state at 16.9 percent, which was up from 16.8 percent in November and 11.8 percent in December.

It's about the jobs, stupid and that's no baloney.