While many in the country are still relishing in our new-found unity (well, if one ignores the 53-46 percent split in the popular vote still only a few months old) and the arrival of change we can believe in, it seems that the citizenry, by-in-large, is on vacation from scrutiny where President Obama is concerned.
In the interest of civic awareness, allow me to inform you of a few of Obama and the Democrat’s shenanigans since gaining power in the new America. Obama went to great lengths during the 2008 campaign and his tenure as president-elect to reassure the American public that he would lead the Democrats in the legislature to new policies that would lessen the economic turmoil of the still-metastasizing recession. Accordingly, the House Democrats, without the support of a single House Republican, passed an $819 billion stimulus package Jan. 28 that incorporated a number of Obama’s campaign goals. Irrespective of one’s ideological or economic opinion on the merits of spending over $800 billion in a time of recession, though, the new piece of legislation is shockingly wasteful, loaded with pork and may be largely ineffective during the lifespan of the recession.
Take, for example, the Congressional Budget Office’s “discovery” that of the $335 billion approved for national infrastructure projects and other discretionary programs, only $136 billion is to be spent before Oct. 1, 2010. The problem with this timeline is most economists claim the worst part of the recession will come in the next two years. Why, then, are the Democrats trying to snatch some $200 billion in taxpayer dollars that won’t be spent to help a slowing economy in a time when experts say we need it the most? I am personally unsure, but I think that the $200 billion at the ready to be injected into numerous “quality of life” programs in the last two years before the 2012 elections isn’t a bad thing for the Democrats.
The issue with the timeline of spending is only one problem with the Obama-backed stimulus package. Though the president lambasted Wall Street CEOs for accepting $20 billion in bonuses in 2008, the new plan contains, according to the New York Times, 152 appropriations. Only 11 (yes, 11) are actually geared specifically towards stimulus and/or job creation. There is, however, money for “home weatherization” and Head Start, among other completely non-stimulus based initiatives. Obama did not write the bill himself, so undoubtedly the honest observer must look at the House Democrats to blame first.
However, is there any doubt, based on the president’s comments on the bill thus far, that he wouldn’t sign the legislation into law?
The new president certainly retains a huge amount of excitement, but now it is time to bring on the policy. Obama’s historic candidacy won’t make this taxpayer-backed boondoggle worth your hard earned money.
