Frustration, Anger, Threats, Childishness, Obtuseness, and No Change

The title of this blog entry says it all about the President's frustration and the way he's been acting over the last few days with regard to his not-hardly stimulus package. Yes, he and his party won. But, that's no reason to believe that he got an "e-ticket" to do anything he wants. We are still a republic. That means that those constituents who lost the last election still have some representation. It also means that we don't redo this whole country into another experiment in socialism.

Obama has enough votes in both Houses of Congress to get this package through without any Republican support. So, go ahead Democrats and do it on your own. But they won't. That's because "trouble" always "loves company." And, this bill is trouble. Even moderate Democrats are fighting it. Spending alone isn't going to get this country out of the ditch it's in.

It might help if Obama stopped all to the "scare tactics" and all the downer-talk that he has been using since he got in office. It might help if he would get off the everything-is-wrong-with-America campaign and start showing some leadership and become more positive about the direction of this country and what he thinks we should be doing. But scaring people into buying into his program is just the same-old Democratic tactic of the past. For example, just think back to how many election cycles the Democrats used the argument that the Republicans are going to kill Social Security in an effort to garner votes.

Don't forget this. You can spend a million dollars and buy acres of land in the Sahara desert. But, that's just throwing money away for the sake of spending it. Ten years from now, that desert land will have gained no value. It will have provided no jobs. Spending the same amount of money in Manhattan to rehab some buildings will put people to work. It will add value to the buildings and attract buyers. That will grow the economy. It isn't how much money is being spent that is so important. It's how its spent. This Obama-spending plan is like buying a lot if land in the desert at a time when the spending needs to be targeted.

Further, once the bridges are built or the school walls are painted, and the internet cables are laid, the stimulus is all over. While he claims these are shovel-ready projects, they do nothing for the majority of the jobs that are being lost in this economy; the retail and service industry jobs like those at Starbucks, Circuit City, etc. It will do nothing to stop the eviction of people from their homes because the bulk of those shovel-ready jobs aren't for the people who are now out of work or will lose their jobs in the future as the recession deepens.

In my opinion, this is just a massive social agenda being hoisted on this country under the mask of saving the economy. The people know it. That's why only 34 percent of Americans, in the most recent polls, approve of it. Democrats who are up for election next year are scared to death of it. And, Republicans have finally got their groove back in fighting it.