Today’s issue will not, as you have come to expect, be framed as an attack on the far right but as a show of disgust for the left for turning on a President who has been doing exactly the things they elected him to do.
Obama made several pre-election promises. He has, despite the intrusion of an economic disaster brought on by the Bush policies and a greedy business community forged ahead to fulfill those promises. This, despite the fact, that from four months before his inauguration until 2 months after it the country lost 6.7 million jobs. This was not something Obama had been able to plan for when he was running and making those promises.
Despite this Republican created disaster and despite a Republican sector of congress that has done nothing but log jam everything put before them, Obama has passed a Health Care Bill, a rational bank & business regulation bill and a Stimulus package of $787B that although not perfect has helped businesses and through unemployment extensions kept afloat a good percentage of those who lost their jobs. It has also invested in ecologically significant businesses, which have added part of the 600,000 jobs that have been created in the last year.
Yes, we’re still in Iraq and Afghanistan and yes, he promised to end both those youth killing, money draining wars. I will do a piece on both those wars, both of which, I am against, at a future date but for now suffice it to say, that if the current plans work, we will probably be out of both those countries, as much as we ever leave someplace we have fought, in a relatively short time.
Obama hasn’t passed a significant immigration bill but despite that, he has passed more legislation, quicker than any president since Roosevelt and he’s done so with the economic disaster caused by the Republicans and the business community hanging over his head and clouding the whole picture. So what the hell’s the beef?
Why is it that Obama’s ratings are falling with the same people who elected him and whose wishes he is trying to fulfill? It makes no sense. Would they rather have the Republican’s whose policies caused this depression back in office? Are they scared by the national debt? They should be, but Obama didn’t cause it and his policies aren’t going to cause default.
The people who worry about our huge national debt whine about the cost of Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Unemployment benefits, the new health care and the stimulus package. Okay, let’s look at them: SS is paid for by us as a tax on our salaries or profits, it actually finances a number of other programs. Yes it’s in trouble mainly because there aren’t enough workers earning it now to support the program but the money that’s in it didn’t come from anyplace but our own pockets. The same is partly true for Medicare and Medicaid and unemployment. None of these programs were instituted by Obama. The health care bill, which has all the uninformed crying disaster will, according to most knowledgeable economists actually reduce the current costs and add to any future surplus. That leaves the Stimulus package. $787 billion is a lot of money, but it certainly didn’t cause the debt we have now. Neither did Bush’s Tarp, probably the smartest thing he did in eight years. What did these programs actually do? Well they extended unemployment benefit’s, they fed money into programs that kept teachers, police and firemen on the job and they gave money to banks and corporations to keep them from folding. Ahh, that’s the rub. The Stimulus money went to private companies to help them continue to make money. Well, it did do that, but what it accomplished was keeping GM and Chrysler in business and helping to maintain thousands of jobs. As a result, GM, at least, is coming back fast. The banks that were helped will not crash the way they did in the Great Depression and are already paying back the money they received.
What we need now is another stimulus package aimed at creating new jobs by financing the companies that the banks so far refuse to finance. That includes spending huge amounts on national infrastructure. This country desperately needs highways, bridges, high-speed rail, broadband, airports and ports and it needs advanced high-tech security for all of the above. A program aimed at meeting these needs will create a wide variety of jobs at all levels of the educational spectrum that will have a place for every worker.
I was watching Meet the Press yesterday and listening to Texas Republican senators John Cornyn and Pete Sessions argue, vehemently, about the need to reduce the debt without adding any taxes. Sounded great but when David Gregory asked them for some program they would be willing to go on record as cutting to accomplish this goal neither of them could come up with a single suggestion. That is so typical, not just of the do nothing Republican members of congress but also of the liberals, libertarians and independents who voted for Obama and are now turning against him. They’re against whatever’s Obama’s doing but they have no constructive alternative to it and by their unconstructive criticism they are hurting their own goals. If Obama has to waste his time going out across the country, campaigning for the candidates who will push his agenda instead of staying in Washington and pushing through more legislation the goals of the people who elected him, the same people who are now abandoning him, will be thwarted.
In 2008 this country gave Obama a mandate and then the business community, through greed and stupidity pulled the carpet out from under his ability to carry out that mandate. By pushing the nation to the edge of another depression, they created a problem far worse than any he had sworn to solve Now they are chafing under the new regulations which, will hopefully, slow down their ability to make the same mistakes again. The financial industry spent hundred of thousands of dollars lobbying against the bill. Maybe they should have used that money to invest in job creating small business instead.
The business community is like an adventurous kid, that you love but to whom you constantly have to say “NO.” No doesn’t stop him, it rarely slows him down but you have to keep doing it just to keep him from killing himself.
On the other hand the Liberals, Libertarians and Independents are not used to pushing ahead and getting their way. They are so used to losing that they don’t know how to deal with a win. They got one in November of 2008 and instead of enjoying it, instead of getting behind their winner and helping him achieve their goals, they immediately fractured.
“But he didn’t do this, but he’s not doing that, but it’s costing too much, but…”
Hey!! Shut up and look around. You’re getting what you wanted. You’re so used to whining about Bush not accomplishing anything that you haven’t been able to recognize someone who is actually getting the job done. It doesn’t happen over night. It’s a monumental job and a lot of bad, stupid, greedy people are trying to stop it from happening and your whining and negative BS isn’t helping so just sit back, shut up and let the guy do his job, the job you elected him to do. Stop being part of the problem. Try being part of the solution. You might like the result.