From Hope to Fear – Campaigning versus Governing
After four weeks in office as President and quite a bit of activity during this time, we find it is time to take a look at President Barack Obama and his ability to govern. In order to do this properly, we have to first refresh our memories as to the themes and promises he campaigned on for well over twenty months since he declared his intentions to run for President in February 2007.
The two major campaign promises by Barack Obama were Change (in various forms) and Hope. He promised at every event that he would change Washington D.C. and the way things had been done there in the past. He would bring ethics back to the White House, there would be no room for lobbyists in his administration and no lobbyist would have access or influence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He promised total transparency in all his actions, he would not sign one single bill without having it posted on websites so that the American people could see and review its content. He promised a new era of bi-partisanship, all part of his “Change” theme. He would bring ‘Change, we can believe in” and fundamentally change America. He said that he knew he could bring people of all stripes together and therein unite the country after those terrible eight years of the previous administration.
And then there was “Hope“. He promised hope for every American who needed help of any kind. He would cut taxes for 95 percent of the people in this country (which is an incredible promise when one considers that about 40 plus percent of the people do not pay any income taxes). He also promised to ‘spread the wealth around’ and that meant real hope for the downtrodden. He promised last summer to bring the high prices of gasoline down with his energy policies. (Needless to say, they came down without his help). And so, he got elected, there were enough people who believed him and his messages/promises and they voted for him. In all, about 62 million persons compared to the 56 million who voted for John McCain.
He utilized the time between November and his inauguration to build his cabinet and he and his team transitioned with the Bush administration very effectively. At first glance, his cabinet selections all appeared capable and experienced individuals and he hailed every one of them as the most qualified ones to serve this country as member of his administration. And on January 20, 2009, he became the 44th President of the United States of America. He rode a huge wave of popularity not just here but around the world.
But now came the reality: He had to govern! He asked Congress to expeditiously approve his cabinet nominees and they tried very hard to do so. But, as we found out, a few candidates were not all that squeaky clean. For example, the new Secretary of the Treasury had not paid income taxes for a few recent years! Ooops, the man in charge of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) simply forgot to pay taxes on portions of his income over four years. But he remedied the situation by paying them post haste and since he, Mr. Timothy Geithner was the only man qualified to be in this position, the Senate confirmed him. Then we found out that the candidate to run the Health & Human Service Department, Mr. Tom Daschle, also had not paid his taxes on some income in previous years and he took himself out of contention for this job. The President then appointed a Republican Senator, Judd Gregg from New Hampshire, as Commerce Department Secretary. After initially accepting the appointment, Mr. Gregg took himself out of contention as well. And there were a few others who also rescinded their nominations.
We could continue here and write about the “former lobbyists” who are now in high level positions in the Obama administration, even though the President had vigorously campaigned to not appoint any. But the major focus in the past weeks was the Obama stimulus package, called the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He had asked Congress to get this bill on his desk by President’s Day. He provided some guidelines (not a complete stimulus proposal) but left the drafting on these bills to the members of Congress. The House of Representatives came up initially with an $820 billion proposal that was voted on along party lines (Democrats for, Republicans against), the Senate settled on a bill for slightly less than $800 billion and the consolidation of the two versions settled at $787 billion. This is a thousand-plus page bill that no member of Congress read before voting on it! While nearly all Democrats voted for it, all House Republicans voted against it and only three out of the 41 Republican Senators voted for it with all the Democrats in the Senate. The President signed the measure on February 17 and hailed it as a major achievement by Congress. It would provide, as he said, the funds necessary to create 3.5 million jobs in America over the next two years. He also said that this bill was just the beginning! To us, this means he will come back for more if the millions of jobs are not created!
Now then, we asked: Why does it take over $200,000 ($787B/3.5M people) to create a job that might not pay more than $40 to 50,000 per year? We do not have the answer to this question! But our biggest disappointment in Mr. Obama so far is his change in rhetoric. When he campaigned, he promised change and hope and yet for three weeks until the stimulus bill was hastily voted on by Congress, he predicted doom and gloom and catastrophic consequences for America if this bill would not be passed. You are talking about a complete switch from lofty rhetoric (while campaigning) to constant fear-mongering (as new President). He predicted potentially irreversible trends towards permanent recession and even depression! He compared the current times to the “Great Depression” some seventy years ago. To us, having lived through several economic downtowns in the past, this is nothing more than hype and complete nonsense. To be quite honest, we here at CSU are not impressed with that performance by our new President! He sounded at times like a spoiled child wanting to get his wish and throwing temper tantrums when getting it was in doubt.
Since the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will eventually amount to several trillion dollars (with interest and continuation of inherent Federal programs), you can look at it as having been burdened by Mr. Obama with a ‘nice’ addition to your obligations as future tax payers, probably to the tune of $10,000. And that is just this one bill.
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