Barrack Obama

I'm not sure one name can elicit so much emotion as our current President.  Some love him.  Some hate him.  I've said this multiple times -- we may be looking at the two worst Presidents we've ever had in our nation's history.  George W. Bush and Barrack Obama have put a wrecking ball through the financial strength of this nation.  We've seen it on both sides now.  Whether it be the Republicans with Bush or the Democrats with Obama, they can't seem to control themselves and they make exceptionally poor decisions when given the level of power each of these guys were handed.

I put this onus especially with Obama.  He was given the most power ever held -- a filibuster-proof Senate and an overwhelming majority in the House.  Regardless of the situation he came in to, that's a lot of power.  Personally, I think he made just about the opposite decision I think I would have made.  The only feathers in his cap from my opinion is:

• The Lilly Ledbetter law and the 
• Setting up of the BP $20 billion restitution fund.   

Moderate to neutral items include:

• Financial reform (although there is plenty in here to be concerned with -- higher interest rates being the worst and Freddie and Fannie being ignored)
• Nuclear treaty with Russia (I think anyone who became President would have done this)

Poorly thought out or just plain bad:

• The stimulus.  I'm sure I'll have dissenters here.  The stimulus was billed to be something to pull the economy up.  But in my opinion it didn't do its job.  You can not just give money away and expect it to stimulate the economy.  We do this all the time and it doesn't work.  It's called welfare, food stamps, etc.  A give away without stimulus strings attached -- does nothing.  Investing in "infrastructure" also does little if it doesn't have a rate of return which creates ongoing jobs.  An example might be to build a nuclear plant.  This creates jobs and gets us off foreign oil.  We instead put this into "shovel ready" construction which only served to speed up what was already planned.  Were we really having trouble going from point A to point B in this country?  This added to the debt enormously for very little in return.  In the long term, this will crush our financial system if interest rates soar.
• Hate crimes.  I'm of the opinion that a crime is a crime.  Whatever your motivation for killing, raping, etc.  It certainly isn't love, and one heinous crime should not be punished more or less than another heinous crime.
•  "Saving GM".  This had to be the biggest overreach ever by a President.  The government owning 60% of a private company?  Plus, it went into bankruptcy anyway.  This company is doomed for failure or to be bought out.  It's an albatross waiting to die.  Let it.
• Mismanagement of TARP (which Obama voted for).  Allowing bonuses.
• Bipartisanship.  An extremely polarizing figure that speech after speech shows just how partisan he can be.  He and the leaders of the Senate and House shut the other party completely out of writing the bills, debating the bills, and only gets lip service to their ideas.  This may be the most disappointing aspect of his administration (similar to Bush).  He says one thing and does another.

Items that have improved lately:

• Small business stimulus.  This is the real engine for jobs, not big corporations.  Give them the funds and investing power they need, but attach strings as to how they must use it:  Hiring, investing in equipment, etc.
• Some stirrings that the Republicans may accept the Bush tax cuts without the top % getting extended.  Wow.  Perhaps some compromise.  Our elected officials.

I'll likely revisit this blog posting, but for now... time for bed.