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Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa a Latin phrase that translates into English that means it is my own fault. With Maxima' in the phrase, it translates to my most grievous fault.'
Recently I pointed out that President Barack Obama has brought about change in his first 200 days in office, like no other President before him. I also said on the financial side alone, these changes will cost trillions of dollars and we most likely will never return to the form of capitalism that has made this country the leader in the world.
I reasoned that because of greed, mismanagement, corporate theft, political indifference, lack of government oversight and sheer incompetence, change had to come. And cavalierly, I pointed out that I was not a financial column, so I would leave each of you to figure out how Obama's policy changes would affect each of your own lives.
That did not sit well with more than 140 readers who let me know of their anger and disgust with my decision to bypass what they considered the most important issues facing them. They couldn't care less about doctors who are in the upper echelon of financial earners. They wanted my own personal take on what Obama's financial packages were going to do to their own economic well-being.
So, I guess I screwed up and took the safe road in that column. So now, I am willing to jump in with both feet and risk the ire and wrath of the Obama faithful. God knows the airways are full of his cheerleaders who don't understand his policies but are willing to stand on the sidelines with pom-poms and scream at anyone willing to challenge him.
Keith Olbermann, Larry King and Rachel Maddow, of cable TV, still cannot explain what Obama is doing except it is all former President George Bush's fault that Obama hasn't already succeeded. To these three my advice is to get a life and accept the fact that Obama is President now not Bush. Bush and the Republicans are no longer in power (although I agree they screwed up bigger than any group since the Hoover administration well except maybe Carter).
Some obnoxious entertainer counterparts, the obese former prescription drug abuser Rush Limbaugh, loud mouth Sean Hannity and the bloviating Bill O'Reilly are just as much cheerleaders on the other side of the spectrum; although O'Reilly claims he is independent. They, too, need to get a life and realize the country got fed up with the Republicans' rhetoric and their lack of performance.
Personally, I would like to invite all six Cable TV celebrities to a party on some cruise line and arrange for it to sink some 50 miles offshore, in shark infested waters. Unfortunately the sharks, just out of professional courtesy, might ignore all of them.
The only two semi-rational cable bobbing heads left to watch or listen to, are Glenn Beck and Chris Matthews, except these two love to hear the sound of their own voices so much that they continually ask stupid questions but never allow the guests to answer. Then both roll their eyes like a 10-year old and pretend they know what they are talking about. I think these two should also be invited to the cruise.
To round out the cruise list, one should invite airhead Ann Coulter on the pretense that someone wants to hear anything she has to say or is interested in her viewpoints. She would instantly respond to such an invitation. Now with the loss of these seven flaming jerks, this would be change that everyone could live with.
Yeah, I know there are lots of others who ought to be there, but this is a good start.
I must admit that since Obama's inauguration, there has been a raging storm in my mind with a force equal to a category five hurricane. For over a year, during the presidential campaign, I heard about hope, vision and change. I listened to the debates between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama and finally last November, the voters spoke and Obama emerged as the winner, claiming it was time for change.
In the last weeks of the Bush administration, I saw everything come to a standstill because the Democrats in Congress didn't want to upset any imbalance of power or give former President Bush any positive talking points, as he left office. Well everything didn't come to a standstill. The Dow continued to plummet, unemployment figures continued to rise, foreclosures along with bank failures were in the forefront of the news, and the only good news was that gasoline prices were falling.
As the days counted down to the inauguration, nothing changed the stock market continued to drop, unemployment continued to rise, home prices continued to fall, and reports of holiday retail sales were dismal. Change? - whoa, this is not what people bargained for.
Finally, two million people descended on a cold winter day in Washington to witness the rebirth of a nation' and hear the promise of change. They heard the inaugural speeches, they attended the inaugural balls, and they watched the new President prepare his new administration with tax cheats especially the one who made it to be the new Treasury Secretary. Change?
We could only hope that the policymakers and budget writers in Obama's office were taking notes of the stock markets deterioration and would be adjusting their revenue projections accordingly.
I was concerned that the stock market, based on market activity, the government should expect very little dividend or capital gains tax revenue for many years to come. This kind of revenue comes largely from the same people the administration is attempting to tax more heavily, and from the broader population that holds 401(k) and other retirement accounts. Throws a whole new meaning on that oxymoron, Washington Intelligence.
Well, the market turned around and has risen almost 40 percent as it must have liked what the Obama administration is saying go figure. The changes the administration were offering, albeit radical and fast were no longer uncertain, with the exception of a public debate on TARP, Cash for Clunkers, Wall Street bailouts, Omnibus spending bill, bailout of the automotive industry and complete overhaul of a healthcare system that is the signature service of our nation.
Today, as I continue to watch this scenario unfold, I have come to the conclusion that it is still business as usual in Washington. We have been lied to again. When will America get the message that Washington, over the decades, has gotten bigger and more expensive regardless of who is in control? To paraphrase former President Reagan, Washington is the problem, not the solution.
Under Obama, we have misspent $350 billion in TARP funds; Congress passed a $787 billion stimulus package; he finally got the necessary votes to pass the $410 billion Omnibus spending bill, a $1 billion package for owners of non-fuel efficient cars to buy new automobiles, (but like all governmental programs, extended that for another $2 billion), and we are now awaiting a son of stimulus' proposal (the cost still unknown but estimated to be $1 trillion) along with a healthcare revamping package (estimated to be in excess of $1 trillion), expected before the end of this year.
While growing up I remember the late Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen, (R-IL). When debating on the Senate floor about government spending, he was fond of saying, "We have lost control? A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon were are talking about a lot of money." If he were alive today, I wonder what he would think of the trillions that are now being spent.
What we really need to do is to cut the legs out from under Washington politicians somehow. We could have elected a candidate with real change for the better. In retrospect, we might have had real change with Ron Paul, even though it would certainly have been a weird change.
Or we could have a tax revolt. Or we could just let Washington go under on its own, due to lack of revenue because of a bad economy. However it happens, this Federal Government needs to go down in power, size and scope about 80 percent. But I fear that will never happen under our new President nor even in my lifetime.
The form of Capitalism that I grew up under is dead and we are now heading into a socialistic form of government, which will offer us an economy with promises of cradle to the grave protections, rights, entitlements, and boondoggle projects.
And, to the embarrassment of Obama who promised during last year's campaign to force Congress to curb its pork-barrel ways, the budget is growing and will ultimately destroy our economy. If you didn't know it, the Omnibus budget passed by Congress contained almost 8,000 pet projects totaling $5.5 billion.
These pet projects called earmarks run the gamut. Without citing all of them in this column, (that would be impossible) they included $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, $238,000 to fund a deep-sea voyaging program for native Hawaiian youth, agricultural research projects, and grants to local police departments, among thousands of others.
The problem has nothing to do with the amounts, but rather the promises to end this wasteful spending of our money. Whether it's $10 or $800 billion, Americans don't care. It is the principle of unconstitutionally wasting our money and the big bold promises that were made over and over again during the campaign last year, specifically on this issue by both candidates.
Last years multiple promises and guarantees, by both McCain and Obama at the debates, was that Congress was not going to have ANY pork/earmarks get past their veto pen. (And we did watch all the debates.)
They both claimed that this was a big important issue to them and that continually promised no pork would get past their veto pens period no maybes', no ifs' and no buts'. You watched them with me. Both guys were adamant and made big issues and fought over earmarks and pork, though not over the amounts. They debated both, and each promised to end the practice. It was the principal of earmarks/pork, in any amount.
Then in late February, with a $410 billion catchall-spending bill stalled in the Senate and a midnight deadline looming, Congress rushed through stopgap legislation to keep the government running for another five days. The House passed the bill by a 328-50 vote; the Senate acted by unanimous voice vote. President Obama signed the measure later that week. Sen. John McCain did not add on any earmarks as he kept his word. Not so Obama.
The stopgap measure was needed because on a Thursday night, Senate Republicans unexpectedly put the brakes on the sweeping measure. The so-called omnibus bill would award domestic agencies with big spending increases in addition to the 8,000 pet projects sought by lawmakers. House Republicans unsuccessfully tried to freeze most domestic agencies at current levels, but were easily defeated.
"Spending as usual with thousands upon thousands of earmarks and special projects is not what the American people expect from this Congress during these difficult times," said Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN).
With most Republicans denouncing the bill as too costly and a few Democrats opposing it as well, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), was forced to call off a key procedural vote just one vote short of the 60 needed to send the measure to the White House.
Several Republicans, who supported the bill, withheld their support of the procedural vote to force Reid to let other Republicans offer amendments, including ones to extend a local school voucher program in Washington, DC. The Republicans also wanted to require lawmakers to approve Congressional pay hikes instead of getting automatic cost-of-living raises every year.
With the vote postponed, Reid could bargain for additional support, because both the House and Senate had to pass the stopgap spending measure by midnight to prevent a shutdown of most domestic agencies. Midnight was when a temporary law that kept the government in business, mostly at 2008 spending levels, expired.
Angry Democrats were fretting that if the Senate amended the larger spending bill, the House would again have to act on that bill, giving Republicans more chances to launch political attacks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), had a hissy fit and privately threatened to abandon the bill altogether. She claimed she was infuriated that GOP leaders were stalling it even though they helped craft it and had a big stake in its passage.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who had numerous earmarks for Kentucky in the bill and benefits from an increased staff allowance for Republicans, previously praised the measure before turning against it in the wake of Obama's costly economic stimulus bill.
Senate Democratic leaders prevailed upon the weak-kneed Pelosi to stick with the measure. They reasoned letting it die would deny large spending increases for some of Democrats' favorite programs, such as food aid for children and pregnant women, in addition to billions of dollars for lawmakers' pet projects.
Amid the debate over spending, the government delivered more bad economic news a spike in unemployment to 8.1 percent (it is now 9.5 percent). That prompted the top House Republican to call for a freeze on spending until the end of the fiscal year and plead with Obama to veto the Senate measure. Dreamers.
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), said the bill was loaded with "unscrutinized taxpayer-funded earmarks" that are "a textbook example of why Americans have grown so fed up with Washington."
The huge, 1132-page spending bill awards big increases to domestic programs and is stuffed with pet projects sought by lawmakers in both parties. The measure has an extraordinary reach, wrapping together nine spending bills to fund the annual operating budgets of every Cabinet department except for Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs.
The measure was written mostly over the course of 2008, before projected deficits quadrupled and Obama's economic recovery bill left many of the same spending accounts swimming in cash. Initially, the bill attracted bipartisan support, but most Republicans developed sticker shock in the wake of enactment of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill.
Now it's on to Son of Stimulus and Healthcare reform. No change at all. So there you have it Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa.
JP Bender is a retired award winning investigative reporter with 35 years experience in the profession. He now spends his retirement living in Maryland with his children and grandchildren. He still reports on issues of national interest, while his peers claim he does not fully understand the meaning of the word“retired.”
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