First Political Post

Despite the first post, I’ve mostly stayed away from politics.

But since the debt debacle and market crash, I’ve become increasingly poorer and increasingly angry at the administration.

I voted for the President, mostly out of a sense of optimism and the belief that the pendulum had swung too far right.  I thought the President would be in a unique position to do the hard work of government: To reform entitlements, reduce healthcare costs, reduce crony capitalism, reduce military adventurism, and institute a rebuilding of infrastructure similar to FDR’s new deal.   I was a bit on the fence and worried about an undivided government, but after sitting at a Redskins game, listening to people talk so hopefully of Obama’s election, I chose to ignore my worries and vote for hope.

It turned out to be a bad decision.

Rather than institute decisions to benefit the entire county, the President instead rewarded his supporters with a stimulus package which spent more on unions than roads.

Rather than immediately work on employment measures, the administration’s priority became a healthcare package which did very little to truly reduce costs (means testing, tort reform, insurance shopping, test cost reductions, etc).  It instead increased costs, created impediments to hiring and raised taxes.  The CBO scoring (8 years of revenue versus 4 years of full spending) was ridiculous, and the package further divided the country and increased a call by the public for government austerity.

And though he ran as a “free market guy,” through executive agencies, he increased regulation and compliance barriers for the broader market while continuing to allow loopholes and advantages for supporters.  (Unions, Wall Street.)

Nearly every speech admonished millionaires and billionaires (any household making over 250k) and insisted that they needed to pay “their fair share.”  The speeches ignored the fact that the top bracket would be paying nearly 50% of all income taxes, and nearly 30% of all total taxes.  He cut effective rates on lower income payers though refundable tax cuts, so that more than half of the population paid no income taxes, and nearly 40% of filers paid negative tax rates.

For the first 18 months of the administration, any discussion of economic problems laid the blame entirely on the Bush administration and wall street, and ignored all the damage caused by democratic policies or bad decisions made by the general public.  He took no responsibility for the righting of the ship, and chose to campaign instead.

Speaking is his strength.  The President gives wonderful speeches, and is at his best when he is optimistic.  But like a candidate rather than a president, he has chosen to blame rather than fix.  His policies have been disastrous; the quiet decisions enacted through the agencies are troubling, and his inept lack of leadership is frightening.  He positions himself as the lead opposition to the Republicans rather than chief executive of the entire country.  He is perpetually running for a second term while ignore the duties of his first.

Rather than risk votes by addressing real problems in entitlements, he allowed vicious cuts in real, necessary, social programs.  Rather than face political damage by having to face another debt extension prior to the election, he chose to surrender even more funding to core programs and further hurt job creation.

Philosophically, he naively appears to truly believe that a government can (or should) make things “more fair” and can do so without damaging the overall economy.  He appears to believe that private industry should answer entirely to government, and that “excessive” wealth on the part of individuals is a serious problem for a society.  Worst of all, he believes that citizens must fund the needs of their government, rather than government must exist on what its citizens are willing to pay.

He seems to have forgotten Churchill’s advice that although capitalism unequally shares the benefits, socialism shares the misery.  If history is a guide, “Shared sacrifice,” does not mean eventual equality, it means that your Government will eventually take something from you personally. 

And we have all sacrificed.  What Mr. Obama has taken from us, was the promise of a sense of optimism without blame.   The greatest tragedy was the lost opportunity to remind us we one great country, rather than two flawed parties.  My vote was a mistake I will not repeat.  There was no real Change, and my Hope was misplaced.