Where's Ross Perot When You Need Him?

Those charts he used back when he was a presidential candidate in 1992 were simple, funny, and persuasive. Apparently he never stopped making them. But our government is about to spend some $800 billion and we've yet to see one from our representatives in Congress or The White House. What's the problem here?

At least CNN finally published what's in the package "deal" at this point and what was omitted to get there. But these are still just lists. What do they mean if you're an out of work social worker living in Connecticut or an aerospace junior executive living in California? Surely someone has an idea? Otherwise, what are they arguing about?

A few simple pie, bar or scatter charts would go a long way to explaining where our money is about to go. And we deserve this. After all, look what happened with the bank bailout. A bunch of thieves ran off right in front of our eyes with mega bucks or made plans to spend millions more at meetings in Las Vegas.

I'm ready for a little old fashioned Ross Perot specification of the expected outcomes of the stimulus package. Where's the press on this? What's the big secret? This is what we call in education a "teachable moment."

It's been a long time since we've seen so many of our leaders who'd planned on transparency so put out about something so important, arguing about something so vaguely explained, asking for our support, and telling us next to nothing.

Dr. Reardon also blogs at bardscove.