Now match that list of actual problems against anything we’ve heard from the Obama Administration or the new Tea-GOPer Congress about their priorities. There’s almost zero overlap. There’s no jobs program, no mortgage solution, no state budget rescue, no reining in the financial sector before the MOTU tank the economy again, no end to wars, no restoration of the rule of law. In short, we see nothing even remotely helpful coming from Washington.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said on an end-of-the-year conference call yesterday afternoon that “we’ll see confrontation on spending issues” in the next Congress, vowing that the President will fight efforts to cut budgets by 20% in areas like education.

The Century Foundation, Demos and the Economic Policy Institute have released a liberal counterpoint budget plan, as a response to the plan put forward by Erskine Bowles and Alan “The Greediest Generation” Simpson on deficit reduction. The counterpoint is fundamentally different in that it demands increased employment levels before spending reductions kick in.

Goldman Sachs and the New York Times may think the economy is returning to normalcy, but that’s not the picture one finds out in the real world. Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson proposed the fifth set of draconian budget adjustments for the 2009-2010 budget, and things look even worse for next year.

But who are the folks in Congress going to believe: the Masters of the Universe, or the people back home?

News flash from Kansas to DC and Wall Street: it’s going to be a while before the end of the recession can be seen outside of Manhattan. Just ask the teachers in Kansas, the Kansas state police, the Kansas National Guard, the Kansas hospitals . . .