Posted by
Buster Foghorn on Friday, February 06, 2009 2:17:15 PM
The Drudge headline this morning: THE FEAR: PASS IT NOW, OR WE MAY NEVER RECOVER, links to an AP article: “President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that failure to act on an economic recovery package could plunge the nation into a long-lasting recession that might prove irreversible, a fresh call to a recalcitrant Congress to move quickly.”
Obama’s warning of irreversible doom echoes Nancy Pelosi’s claims yesterday and her hilarious assertion—we are losing 500 million jobs every day we don’t pass the stimulus plan. Why is Obama pushing Pelosi’s pork plan? Why would he place his credibility and his carefully constructed image as a prudent planner at risk to support her proposal when it doesn’t even meet any of the early White House requirements that any spending bill be – timely, targeted, and temporary? How can Obama continue politically to support this egregious patronage payoff plan (an extensive list broken down by category—here) when Republicans in the House tout their own proposal using the same WH criteria, announcing their plan doubles the number of jobs produced at half the expense? Why not pull the plug, like the curious case of the disappearing Daschle? Obama should realize he loses if this plan passes when it not only fails to ballast the ship of state, but continues to create malignant reminders of an early folly, a folly that will haunt his legacy?
Early reviews on Obama’s first days are seeping into the consciousness of Middle America; and if this were a pre-Broadway performance—it would quietly get buried in Newport. For example, Charles Krauthammer calls the Obama Stimulus Plan: “one of the worst bills in galactic history” and notes where some of the money is going, critically comparing the Obama plan to what FDR (the Hoover Dam) and Eisenhower (the Interstate) accomplished with their spending, concluding that in comparison we are getting a dog run. Michael Novak takes a look at Obama’s First Week, reviews the early steps taken and notes: “Bill Clinton deeply wounded the moral force of his own presidency” and wonders why Obama would walk the same trail? Victor Davis Hanson comments on The Impending Obama Meltdown, commenting: “This is quite serious. I can't recall a similarly disastrous start in a half-century (far worse than Bill Clinton's initial slips).”
As Obama rolls out his agenda, argues for flawed nominees, carries water for Pelosi and the liberal spenders in his party, he is risking his image, credibility, and future Presidency on a bill not of his making. Why does he march forward despite all the concerns about the wisdom of the plan? Why does he march forward despite the enormous interest expense that will be passed to future generations to pay for the spending; the lack of timely, temporary and targeted stimulus proposals; the absence of anything approaching value from spending by FDR and Eisenhower? Why does he march forward like an early foot soldier walking in formation to music, into a fusillade of fire, marching into slaughter?
Michael Novak in The Coming Fall writes about the high expectations for Obama, noting: “The job of president is to cope with his own coming tragedy.” Who would have guessed Obama would accelerate this process, setting the stage for his downward spiral, forfeiting an image he carefully cultivated, squandering accumulated goodwill, forcing Americans to stop looking only at the spectacles, the image, the soaring rhetoric and to look through it all, look to the content, question the motives, test the soundness, examine the wisdom of his leadership? By forcing voters to study the underlying remedy, the quality and specifics of his proposal, Obama risks his credibility and reputation, gambling on a spending plan that could haunt him throughout history, a gamble appearing more reckless as interest expenses mount, the plan fails to promote the promised relief, future generations—delaying their retirement—experience confiscatory marginal tax rates paying for spending and debt service, as the government seeks to gather more dollars to feed the many groups feeding off this excess of roasted swine.