A medical/fiscal analogy: anatomy of a no-brainer

[Atticus]

Assume that you've been diagnosed with some terrible malady (cancer or---?) and you've been told by all the doctors you've consulted that the "tried and true" remedies which they prescribe will "turn things around any day now!"

Months pass and, while you may seem to "rally" every now and then, you get noticably sicker and sicker. At each appointment, the doctors insist that their remedy "just takes time" and they urge you to be patient. If you complain very loudly that you can't see any improvement at all, they write you "new" prescriptions for more of the same in a different package. You want to believe the doctors because they say you're going to recover. But, after months and months of being told "you're doing fine" while you KNOW you are feeling worse and worse with each passing day, you decide to consult a different doctor.

This doctor, backed by lots of scientists and researchers, tells you about a new, never-before-been-tried treatment regimen which he---and his team of experts---seriously believe may slowly reverse the damage and, eventually, cure you. He tells you, honestly, that he cannot guarantee success because the new treatment has never been fully tested. He insists, however, that his training and experience---and that of his team---leads him to believe that the new treatment should work.

When all the doctors you'd previously consulted hear that you are considering this "radical, new, unproven" approach, they are aghast. "How could you abandon our prescribed treatment, which has been used for decades, to try this NEW and- - - -UNPROVEN course of therapy?"

Okay-------the patient isn't you; it's our nation's economy.

The "tried and true" therapy is the "let's let the fox guard the henhouse" brand of capitalism that has been alive here for decades, but flourished especially during the previous couple administrations.

The "new, never-before-been-tried" remedy is the admittedly imperfect Obama plan for national economic recovery.

Is there really a decision to make here?