I don’t even know how to write this column because the details of the financial debacle that just occurred in the last week are still swimming in my head. It is almost too much for an individual to take in, as the enormity of it and the repercussions have not even begun to settle. What is very, very clear to me is that the government of this country is in denial.

When a candidate who is running for president can stand up in front of the public and say that we are basically in good shape, we know that he is in denial. It seems that in a particularly paternalistic way, the government wants us to feel good about ourselves so we don’t panic. So for the most part, the media covers the light- weight campaign rhetoric and the occasional zingers that fly back and forth between the two camps, but they don’t want the public to zero in on what is really at stake. Or maybe they all think we’re too stupid to connect the dots.

I have been keeping notes of the little blurbs that appear in the newspaper. Like the one about industrial output dropping 1.1 percent last month, the worst decline since Katrina devastated the Gulf in 2005. What this means is we are not manufacturing and people are not working and goods are not being sent out for exports, which is one of the main things that has been shoring up the economy for the last few months.

The problem is intensified by the mix of layoffs all over the country in multiple sectors, coupled with the huge job casualties in the wake of the investment, mortgage and banking sector failures. From these areas of our economy come those high wage earners who support the middle class, blue collar and low wage service industries by buying the big ticket items, eating in restaurants, shopping in malls for all the latest gotta-have-it “stuff” being advertised ad nauseam and yes, paying taxes.

Also affected are the near retirees who are now desperate to hold on to their jobs for a couple more years until this “crisis” has passed so maybe they can recover what has been wiped out of their retirement savings in a matter of days. These are the same ones who were hoping to sell their homes and downsize for a more modest life in North Carolina or Florida, which could have been supported on those savings. And what about the hard-earned dollars invested in college funds by parents of near graduating high school students?

On top of that we’ve got to pay for the bailout of these giants who have fallen with either our tax dollars or funny money printed on deficit paper. We gave up regulation and oversight and now we have to succumb to the losses, the foreclosures and the perils of unchecked greed. As I sift through the reports on the $700 billion dollar government rescue foisted by Paulson, I am wondering if it addresses the very real concerns that necessitated this bailout in the first place.

He says the Bush administration wants a “clean” plan, but both the Senate and the House should take the opportunity to scrutinize the plan and to set in it enough rules and regulation to make sure that the money does not go back into the pockets of those who put us here and above all that this fiasco is not allowed to repeat itself. Our debt from this administration is already in the stratosphere with no one to pay for it but our children and grandchildren.