Taken from an old colleague of mine who now resides in Florida! Hope everything is well CG!
Does it ever end? Billions to bail out the financial sector. Billions to bail out the automotive industry. Hundreds of billions for a stimulis package that not even the Democrats are certain will do anything. And now 410B for additional spending.
For a president that promised "change" and "responsible government", Obama is not off to a great start. Granted, I am not a fan of the president's. I have believed from the outset that his approach to government was an academic experiment in socialism and I would rather have had another hand at the wheel. Given that, I do believe that he believes that he is delivering change and a new level of government responsibility. Its what he truly wants to give us.
Unfortunately for us we have to live with the results of our President's inexperience and idealism. The results: legislation, bail outs, and spending bills in the untold billions churned out by a Democrat controlled congress because the leader of their party is not providing any leadership. President Obama naively believes that his party fellows Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, et. al. will work towards his "fair and balanced" and "responsible" approach on their own. They certainly have proved him wrong.
We will see more of Obama's true colors when this bill hits his desk. If he veto's it and sends it back to Nancy Pelosi and the House he just may be the man he has tried so hard to persuade us that he is.
I am not counting on that. Like most idealists he is also easily blinded. He has banked on his high public approval ratings to see him through his tremendous spending, his ludicrous appointees, his attempts to nationalize our banks and socialize our health care. He will most likely continue to believe that the people's approval rating of him will automatically be tranferred to what he does, including signing this spending bill into law. The polls do not bear this out. The public opinion of the stimulus package, the bailouts, and spending run much lower than the public's opinon of him.
Where does that leave us? Besides under some pretty heavy duty debt, it leaves us with a President who runs the risk of becoming increasingly disconnected from reality. A President that believes so much in himself and his mission that his actions, and worse yet, actions taken in his name, reflect his own agenda rather than the welfare of the nation in his stewardship.
Will any of this change? If our history of recent Democratic presidents tells us anything the answer to that is no. Obama is on the same trajectory that lead Carter and Clinton to lose control of their government's. Carter had a government so huge that it regulated the retail price of gasoline and airline tickets. Clinton had a government so out of control that Freddie and Fannie prompted the creation of sub-prime mortgages.
In only the first few months of his presidency, the Obama government has spent upwards of $1.5T. I wonder what his claim to fame will be?