Americans are being slapped in the face with a new reality. We are living in a recession. Yes, I said the “R” word. I am no economist but if this is not a recession, I don’t know what is.

I paid more than $55 to fill up my 4-cylinder Toyota Camry this week. We’re not talking about a gas-guzzling SUV here, this is a mid-size sedan with relatively good gas mileage. But with gas prices ranging between $3.68 and $3.75, it adds up quick.

The rising cost of fuel is obviously having a domino effect on food prices because of the cost to transport food to stores across the country has skyrocketed.

And if you read any newspaper or watch any television news coverage, gas prices are only the beginning.

Headlines screaming with fear-mongering like, “Could the U.S. face a food shortage?” “Home foreclosure rates continue ugly climb,” or “Stores ration rice,” are only adding fuel to the fire, no pun intended.

Now I am certainly not one to criticize the media since I have made my career with them, but I have found myself “freaking out” at times about the impending economic doom and gloom that is being portrayed on the nightly news. And I am not alone.

Everyone I talk to is cutting back on discretionary spending to make ends meet. I can’t imagine what this is doing to lower-income families who were already on a fixed budget.

While prices at the pump seem to be rising with no end in sight, oil giants like BP and Shell this week reported record first-quarter profits. Shell’s net income in the first three months of the year rose 25 percent to $9.08 billion and BP reported its profits increased 63 percent to $7.62 billion. I am so glad they are doing well while we all suffer! What is going on here?

And where is the government in all of this? I would start the blame at the top.

I wouldn’t say that President Bush is a “lame duck” president because in the remaining months of his tenure he is doing more harm to the economy by doing nothing and as usual blaming everyone else for his ineptitude. As the theme of his presidency has been, the buck never stops with him.

And in his two terms in office, the economy and general state of the union has steadily declined to its current state. There is no way anyone can blame the previous administration, which by the way was more than eight years ago, for this administration’s economic decline.

President Bush on Tuesday accused the Democratic-led Congress of blocking his proposals to deal with rising gas prices and dragging its feet on measures to address the sagging economy.

Bush was quick to add that he favors longer-term fixes, such as encouraging new oil production in the United States and building new refineries at home. And low and behold, he renewed his call for opening areas of the Alaska wilderness to oil exploration and production.

In this era of going-green, he just doesn’t get it. But I guess being out of touch with the American people and what they want is nothing new for him.



Night City Editor Amy Wallace’s column appears every Thursday.

Contact her at wallacea@gnnewspaper.com