Obama Veneer Wearing Thin
The throngs of youth and hopeful who had faith in Candidate Obama’s promise of change will dwindle as President Obama prepares to sign a bill crafted in Democratic committees on Thursday and rammed through Congress by Democratic majorities a day latter before anyone could possibly review the details of the monstrous package that exceeded 1,000 pages. It appears approximately $500 billion will be spent on infrastructure, education and public housing as dictated by Democrats. The only portion that will find it’s way into the economy immediately is the $287 billion in tax relief pleaded for by Republicans. The Congressional Budget Office called the plan a spending bill rather than a stimulus plan and added that future growth would be better served by doing nothing than the drag borrowing for the massive spending bill will cause.
Transparency Forsaken
The promise that important legislation would be posted on the internet for 48 hours would be a convenience not even afforded to the members of Congress responsible for voting on the legislation. The promise that the President would go through each spending bill line by line so that tax payer could escape the wasteful practices of the past simply a minor obstacle to be dismissed by another flimsy excuse. And while the promise to cut taxes for 95% of Americans will see them get $400 each in tax relief in this bill they will see higher rates in the coming years to cover the effort to preserve the jobs of overpaid UAW workers that cost GM over $500 per day to keep on the factory floor and throngs of unnecessary state workers who, in states like California which is suffering it’s own $40 billion deficit, retire with pensions as high as 90% of their working wage with life time health benefits; special interests are alive and well.
Granted, Obama has only been in office for 27 days now. But we’ve seen his casual dismissal of allegations be they for his questionable associations or policy statements for nearly 2 years now. He managed to get a pass from the main stream media that ignored the incongruity of his statements while they trampled his Democratic opponents during the primaries. It wasn’t until the cast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live did a parody on a debate between Obama and Clinton when Hillary asked “Is it my imagination or do I always get the first question?” that any but the conservative commentators pointed out the disparity between the treatment of the two. Even those who were swept up in The Hope of Obama will realize the nebulous statements he dispensed during the campaign contained little evidence of their own goals and aspirations that they attributed to them.
Chief Executive Looks the Other Way
Quite a bit was made about Obama’s lack of executive experience during the campaign. John Kerry’s operation of a hot dog cart exceeds the experience unless one counts Obama’s position at the Woods Foundation where he engaged the services of the convicted terrorist, William Ayers which was another incident he rapidly dismissed as unimportant. But this is an example of his practice of looking the other way in the pursuit of what benefit him personally and politically when those benefits include morally objectionable elements be it his long term relationship with Reverend Wright in gaining the support of his flock or Chicago crony and supporter Tony Rezko [ "Obama's Chickens Come Home to Roost" ].
The lack of responsibility can’t explain what is downright deceit. Joining the criticism of Bush’s monitoring of phone conversations from overseas to intercept possible terrorist plots Obama has no problem which a smart energy grid that will monitor individual energy use, a computerized medical plan that will not only give the government access to your records but dictate the care your personal physician provides. These have no place in a bill that was promised as a stimulus package that need be rushed through because the urgency of the economic conditions. While they warrant immediate attention they hardly call for action required as a result of 9/11. Neither the plight of the salt water march mouse habitat in Nancy Pelosi’s district, receiving $30 million, nor the high speed rail to Las Vegas, some $5 billion, demand any urgency whatsoever.
Harry Truman is known for the plaque placed on his desk which read “The Buck Stops Here.” One would have hoped with a chief of staff with the skills, intelligence and intensity of Rohm Emmanuel he would do a better job of vetting his appointments. But after the fact resignations seem to enforce a stigma of “The Buck is Passed Here.”