President elect Obama’s speech this morning highlighted the critical state of the US economy. It also marked the beginning of the Obama Presidency.
Obama has made every effort to avoid interfering with Pres. Bush’s authority as the sitting President. But events have overtaken Obama, forcing him to inject himself into the legislative process before things get even worse.
One line dramaticaly makes this point. “For every day we wait or point fingers or drag our feet, more Americans will lose their jobs. More families will lose their savings.”
The speech was designed to increase pressure on legislators of both parties, to focuse them on passing the stimulus package without bogging it down with grandstanding and loading it with pork. Of course, one representative’s pork is another’s essential investment in infrastructure.
Simultaneously, Tom Daschle was in the midst if confirmation hearings just a few miles away. Daschle was introduced by none other than Bob Dole, former GOP Presidential candidate.
A couple thousand miles away, hospitals in California were reporting elective admissions were down almost a third while indigent cases have risen dramatically. This over the last few months, and if It continues we can expect hospitals to join the ever-lengthening line of supplicants coming to Washington with their hands out. .
The wheels have fallen off the economy faster than anyone anticipated, much faster than our leaders’ ability to react much less anticipate the next yawning pothole. There’s no question the imploding economy is directly related to hospitals’ travails, just as there is no question these travails will add their own weight to the burden on the economy.
I predicted a few weeks ago that the number of uninsured would hit 50 million in 2009. At this rate, that may come sooner than anyone expects. The only thing standing in the way is a huge stimulus; President Elect Obama’s speech this morning shows exactly how important fast action is.
Jan
8
This is so unfortunate and such an international embarassment. Thank goodness we have a president-elect who is not into the selfish, bully, egocentric ways of W. He is just jumping in and working on solutions, with a lot of varied input, unlike Mr. Bush. It is a pretty sad state of affairs that our system, with all of its bureaucracy, has nothing in place to allow us to expediantly remove poor leaders rather than having to wait through their term.
Yes, President Obama has made every effort not to interfere in Bush’s final days; but the country needs a president and, as Rep Barney Frank noted on a recent 60 Minutes, last time he counted there was less than one.
We shouldn’t forget that there is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle in Washington. Fast action may still not be enough to help our ailing economy. There are no “quick fixes” to this dilemma but I hope the Pres-elect and the new Congress act in the best interest of the American people and not in self-serving ways of the past.
Joe, you state: “The wheels have fallen off the economy faster than anyone anticipated”. This is not true. In 1997, President Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagal Act, an act that was put into place after the Great Depression. It’s sole purpose was to prevent an American economic crisis like we have now. From as far back as 1998 there have been articles in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, warning of the economic crisis that would come in “a decade’s time” because of the repeal of this act. PBS’s Frontline had a special on it, back in May of 2003, describing pretty much to a “T” what will be coming. All the true finacial experts, the one’s not bought and paid by Wall Street knew this was coming and coming fast. Once President Clinton left, President Bush continued, with Alan Greenspan, to allow big business and Corporate America to run amok without regulation. The Glass-Steagal Act enforced regulations of a sort, and protected the American public. Obama seems to follow the path of Clinton and Bush in these matters. Instead of introducing regulations to put a curb on what caused the problems, he wants to “stimulate” the economy with less regulation for banks and corporate America. Sadly, I think we are in for the same economic policies of the past 10 years, with it snowballing into a bigger and bigger problem. Clinton and Bush were fine teachers, and unfortunately Obama seems to be a fine student. All I see is the new administration doing what the old one did. Print more money. Like putting your finger in the leaking dyke, just a very temporary fix.
Pictures say 1000 words…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01218/presidents_1218106c.jpg
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2009/01/07/presidents-cp-w6054886.jpg
http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/01/07/PH2009010702342.jpg
…Regards