So, I have been watching the economy collapse day after day. One would almost think the press itself wants it to keep diving. That's obviously not the case, as we see newspapers and television stations scrabbling for more cash. Today, the Rocky Mountain News published its last paper.
Listening to President Obama over the past few weeks, I too was wondering if he had a stake in all of this. When he was running for office, he had a message of hope for Americans. He was going to solve all of our problems. He was going to bring a new day. We would be strong again. Granted, he has only been in office for a little over a month, but the market has fallen even further since inauguration day. Rather than listening to the hopeful messages we got accustomed to hearing during the campaign days, we heard an Obama who has been downright scary. Words like catastrophe, worst ever, and never recover. What?
Since the birth of our nation, there have been between 18 to 20 recessions, depending how you count them (and depending on wikipedia's sources). That's a lot. Every time, America has bounced back. We are stronger today for it. We have learned from past mistakes. So how is this one going to be the end to end all? It isn't. We just aren't used to bad ones anymore.
So why has Obama been so negative. Simple, he wanted to get the stimulus bill passed. Is that so wrong? It depends on what you think will stimulate the economy. If you think tax cuts, which has gotten us out of recessions before, then it was a bad deal. If you think more government spending (which technically did get us out of the Great Depression, but it was spending for a war, not the New Deal), then it was smart. However, here we are, after all that negative rhetoric, and the Dow is hovering just above 7000 points and it keeps falling day after day. Investors are terrified. That's not good for the economy. They are waiting for a leader to emerge.
Then came the nearly 4 trillion dollar budget announcement this week. Now, I'm for deficit spending in a recession. I think it does help, but it's important where you spend all that money. This budget is laced with Democratic Party initiatives rather than concepts that will help American's get jobs. Higher taxes on the "rich". Universal health care reform. Some of the policy ideas are probably good. Some are probably bad. But, what you don't do when you are in a recession and America is broke...is create a bigger deficit than you need. You wait on your drastic reforms, because America just can't pay for it right now. Just like we should only use credit cards sparingly, so should the government when considering deficit spending. Not the Democrats, though.
So, why is Obama pushing this now? Dick Morris suggests he made the economy sound even worse than it is (if you can believe that), so that the Democrats could push through their liberal agenda. It's plausible. The stimulus bill passed. The Democratic Party has been licking their chops since they took control of everything to shove through their policies. To make up for old times. Nancy Pelosi says the people demanded it! Really? I think many people voted for Obama and the Democrats, because they were tired of all the corrupt Republicans and W's way of running things, more than anything. They were tired of deficit spending! They were tired of Iraq!
My point is, if Obama truly is catering to his party now, not the American people, and making the economy out to be even worse, to pass through Democratic Party agendas, then it's a sad day in America. What we need is a hopeful President with tighter controls on spending, not excessive spending. There will be plenty of time for the Democrats to push through their agenda. I just hope that Dick Morris is wrong and Obama is living up to his campaign promises. We shall see.
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