Flying High and Doing his Job

A Republican friend called to complain that President Obama seems to be flying here, there and everywhere as if on a continuing campaign. He wishes President Obama would stay home and save the taxpayers the cost of operating that very large airplane.

I told him that as far as I am concerned, the President can stay in the air all the time as long as he keeps addressing or attempting to address our nation's very real problems. The economy has had three consecutive months of real growth (3.2% for the last quarter). Unemployment is down (only stayed above 10% for two months unlike Reagan who had 10 consecutive months of 10% unemployment or higher). New Home sales are up. The stimulus package is working. Most importantly, the regulatory arms of the US Government are working again. The FDA is working, the SEC is working, FEMA is working, NHTSA is working. No one is trying to dismantle government these days. Bobby Jindal of LA is asking for more help from the FED not less. Speaking of the Gulf, this morning there was a news report that federal regulators did nothing in 2004 when they were told by BP that the safeguards built in to their deep water wells might not work. Nobody from the Bush administration asked, “why?”

The saddest thing continues to be the Republican insistence on bringing Obama down by sticking to their strategy of denying him any success whatsoever. They were opposed to Wall Street reform until their own polls said "you have got to be kidding," and then they couldn't turn around fast enough. Government is supposed to work when elected officials do what is best for the country, not what the fickle weathervane of public opinion tells them is the "safe" thing to do. Governing is hard. If an elected official doesn't understand that and is not willing to ignore the polls and exert the necessary intellectual and personal energy to do the job, they should get out.

Lest We Forget

Most people, anxious to make a change in Washington this year, will tell you they are upset about the ill-considered war in Iraq. Many will quickly follow up with examples of other events/decisions they would change if they could. My personal list would include these:

I hope we never forget the day the bridges collapsed in Minnesota, reminding us that the Bush administration would not support spending dollars from the Highway Trust Fund to repair and maintain our federal highway infrastructure.

I hope we never forget the day the Bush appointed head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission shrugged as she testified before Congress, confessing she could not remember whether or not the Commission had recalled a single toy made in China that was unsafe for our children.

I hope we never forget the near misses by aircraft at Reagan National Airport, and the fact that the FAA does not have the money to install current state of the art systems to keep planes from colliding on taxiways because the Administration does not support such spending.

I hope we never forget when USDA announced the biggest meat recall in US history, partially because they cannot afford enough meat inspectors to do one of the basic jobs Americans expect from their government.

I hope we never forget that FDA permitted unsafe drugs to enter the prescription drug market because of lax oversight, and because the FDA cannot afford the experts needed for proper testing in a timely manner.

I hope we never forget the inept reaction of FEMA to the catastrophic damage to the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

And then there were little things that seldom made the evening news programs. I hope we never forget that $500 million in federal support for development of a clean coal-fired electric generation project was withdrawn because such spending would add even more dollars to an already bursting federal deficit, even though such spending might result in cleaner more breathable air for all.

These are but a sampling from a very long list. There are many more from nearly every agency and department of our government where, over the past seven and one-half years, budgets have been slashed, staffs have been cut and the delivery of services American taxpayers depend on has suffered.

Government is not inherently bad. We should not let candidates (or elected leaders) get away with insinuating such and impugning the integrity of federal employees who are drawn to government service by the high ideal of serving the public good. A government as large as ours is essential if we are to provide the protection to the homeland we expect and the domestic services the people deserve and have paid for.

Can government be made more efficient? Sure – and we should all work toward making it so. But when leaders promise to cut your taxes and insist on increasing spending, they do not serve you, they insult you with their fiscal sleight of hand designed to simply pass the bills to your children and grandchildren. We will strengthen our republic when we go to the polls this fall remembering the failings of the current administration and determined not to forget what it did to our country these past eight years.