SO — here we are 10 days into President Obama’s presidency, and we’re still waiting on the economic stimulus plan AND the Super Bowl. As you may recall, in my last post I linked the two together in the title, so it felt right to do so again.
The important difference, of course, between the Super Bowl and the economic stimulus plan is that one of them has a predictable outcome. Either the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Arizona Cardinals will win the Super Bowl.
As for the economic stimulus plan — pretty much all bets are off on that one. As a “liberal leaning” Democrat, I’m willing to believe Obama’s plan will eventually pass and will do some good. As a “liberal leaning” Democrat, I also am not sure I appreciate or understand all the nuts-and-bolts of the stimulus plan and how it should work. Of course, none of us has seen the details of the plan now in Congress, the one passed by the House and now heading to the Senate.
BUT — from what I’ve heard about that plan, I almost am willing to turn in my “party card” as a “liberal leaning” Democrat. I actually find myself nodding in agreement with some of the more conservative criticisms I’ve heard about the plan. Frankly, what irritates me most is the way the plan contains such goodies as several millions for the DTV switch over. I simply cannot see how that, and some of the other “pork” I’ve heard about, belongs in this bill. Sorry about that, fellow liberal leaning Democrats, but this is ABSOLUTELY NOT the time to add ANY pork or “earmarks” to legislation. Period. End of story.
Once again, put on your political metaphorical boots, faithful readers, and be ready to wade right into the fray!
So go ahead, fellow “liberal leaners,” convince me that this particular stimulus plan is good and is the one which we ought to pass and fund. I await comments from “liberals” and “conservatives” alike out there. (I hate using labels in general, but you know what I mean.)
Disassociating??
I may not understand just what you mean by the term, but if you think I’m somehow breaking my association or support for Obama, then I failed to make myself clear.
I fully support him just as I did when I voted for him. In voting for him, I simply picked him as the “best and brightest” out there, and so be it. I was careful — I thought — to clarify that I see him as neither “Messiah” or “Anti-Christ,” as many extremists seemed to think him to be.
But that doesn’t mean I’m happily skipping down life’s pathway saying, “Now Obama’s going to fix everything and everything’s going to be okay.”
No, I have NOT disassociated myself from Obama — but I no more blindly support everything he does than I have blindly supported everything ANY politician has done in my lifetime.
I am willing to express concerns, even skepticism, and still support the new Administration’s efforts.
But friends and foes alike admit there’s no sure-thing fix with any economic plan. We’re clearly in a mess and NO ONE really knows how to get us out of it.
Only 10 days in and you are already disassociating yourself from the guy that you voted for? All of you had AMPLE warning of what was going to happen if Obama got elected, all of you understood the nuance that voting for Obama was really a vote for Pelosi, so pardon me if I don’t allow you to disassociate yourself from your voting record.
Less than 30 days in, he has committed us to 1.2 trillion above and beyond our current deficit, with an additional 2-4 trillion to be asked for as part of a ‘bad bank’ creation fund. Ergo, potentially a 5.2 trillion expenditure beyond the half trillion dollar deficit we were already running at.
Additionally, he is trying to reform health care under the guise of a stimulus plan – as a way to avoid the normal discourse that all of us would participate in during the normal course these topics are usually presented in.
The Democrat party is controlled by far left liberals and is no longer representative of the Democrat party that existed in the 1900s.