President Barack Obama will deliver his first State of the Union address to both Houses of Congress this evening.
I am hoping that there will be some indication that he intends to put on the fighting gloves and abandon this reconciliatory and bipartisan attitude that has gotten us nowhere. It is sufficiently clear that Republicans have absolutely no intentions of working with this President on any legislation. It is paying off handsomely for them to have taken this obstructionist stance and the President not only has suffered in his popularity but the country as a whole has been condemned to forego much needed legislation to fix the fucking mess the Republicans and George W left behind.
Now more than ever it should be clear to the President and most of us that the Republicans are not going to change one iota in their tactics; they want the President to fail and if we don’t see it that way then we are in denial. So should the President. If he wants to actually be an effective President he is going to have to draw the line and tell them they are the minority party and they better get used to it because he is no longer going to even try to include them unless they change their tune.
I am not so sure that making spending cuts at this time is the wise thing to do. I have consulted many sources of those who are cognoscenti in economic matters and they all agree that at times like this when the private sector is not creating jobs and spending money; it is up to the government to do so to stimulate the economy. People like Robert Reich has made it clear that this is not the way to go and others I have checked have said similar things.
If President Obama thinks that by caving in to the Republican’s claim that we are spending too much, government is too big and we are getting our country into debt; then he would be wrong because if we don’t have growth we don’t have revenues and that should be sufficiently clear. Not spending money at this time would certainly mean a return to economic failure which I am sure fits the Republican’s agenda just fine.
PHOTO SOURCE: http://blog.oregonlive.com/politics_impact/2009/02/Obamacongress1.JPG
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