Bob Wire Has a Point (It's Under His Cowboy Hat)

Obama: Getting Over the Two Year Hump

By Bob Wire, 1-24-11

	You tell 'em, Ginger. I mean Brenda.

It’s been two years since that unforgettable Inauguration Day, when hundreds of thousands of people froze their giblets off in D.C. to witness Barack Obama take the oath of office. Yo-Yo Ma wailed on the cello, Jesse Jackson wept tears of joy, and Aretha Franklin wore a hat made from the tarp that covers the Washington Nationals infield during rain delays.

On that day Obama looked every inch the confident, proud, smart and forthright candidate the majority had voted for, the dignified leader we desperately needed. Now, two years into his first term, he’s a little grayer on top, the bags under his eyes are more evident, and he seems a bit gaunt. But when you consider the constant stream of abuse and hatred and lies that has been dousing him and his administration like a fire hose since that Inauguration Day, it’s a wonder the man doesn’t look like Scatman Crothers.

President Obama has scored some major victories in his first two years in office, and he’s suffered some humiliating—and frequently unfair—defeats. The fact that you’re reading this on your fancy laptop while sipping a four-dollar cup of espresso shows that our standard of living remains high. We haven’t been overrun by Iraqi terrorists or forced to bear the unwanted burden of rampant socialism (one comrade, one laptop). On the other hand, if you’re reading this at home on your Commodore 64 because you’ve lost your job, well, that’s the bad news. The good news is that your unemployment benefits have been extended.

Obama promised that he would get a Universal Health Care Bill passed. He did. Problem is, the bruised and battered version that finally got his signature is far from universal. Who is going to benefit from this bill, and what it will cost us? Who the hell knows? It’s so bloated and arcane that most of the Congresspuppets who voted on it never read it, and probably used their copy to wipe their butts when they ran out of Constitutions. It does not provide a single payer option, and there are no anti-trust measures that would break the monopoly held by the profit-mad insurance industry. So, strictly speaking, it is not universal, and it does little to reform the industry. Sure, they can’t deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition (if you can manage to hang on ‘til 2014), but they’re free to raise their rates to the point where we’ll soon be paying more in health insurance premiums than we are in taxes. The Big Pharma and Big Insurance hogs get fatter, and taxpayers get plugged into a system so complex it makes the plotline of Shutter Island seem like an episode of Teletubbies.

But overall, Obama’s achievements have outweighed his failures. We’re making progress. Despite all the gnashing of teeth and wailing from the Tea Party clown factory, Obama followed through on an impressive number of campaign promises. Obama and his team were able to finish the bailout started by the Bush administration in late 2008, although it’s no secret that deficit spending is more of a shell game than a solution. Spending money you don’t have and calling it “economic stimulus” is somewhat akin to giving your teenager a credit card and seeing if he can charge his way to responsibility. If the U.S. is going to retain power, and not have the economic rug pulled out from under us by our creditors in China or Saudi Arabia, we’ve got to get serious about balancing the budget and reducing the deficit. I don’t want to learn Mandarin; it’s too hard. And I’m always shutting my burnoose in the car door.

Unemployment for December fell to 9.4%, the lowest level since mid-2009. Still unacceptable, but it’s going in the right direction after peaking at 10.1% in October of 2009. According to several economists whose website I gave a cursory glance, unemployment is usually the slowest symptom of the economy to recover after a recession or depression.

Many of us who can read a newspaper and perform simple math were saying the same thing two years ago: the Bush administration started two wars, squandered a balanced budget, and destroyed the credibility of our nation among the world community. This was going to be a lot to overcome. It took eight long, painful years to do all that damage, and you can’t expect this ship of state to be righted overnight.

But many did expect just that. Obama had not even had a chance to shampoo the champagne out of his hair before the right wing began carping about the lack of improvement in our various national calamities. Selective memory reached critical mass as the impatient catcalls of these sore losers has grown louder and louder. We’re only two years in, people. Stop bitching at the tow truck driver who came to pull your ass out of the ditch.

One high-profile achievement was the bailout of an auto industry that was selling breakdown bait that made the Yugo look like a spaceship. That bailout came with important strings attached: develop new efficient battery systems. Electric cars are the future, and the future is now. And we must hurry, before China successfully develops the 30-mile extension cord.

The automotive bailout saved something like 100,000 jobs. I’ll bet those people aren’t complaining. But the other bailout, of the financial industry and Wall Street firms, is far more questionable. How many jobs were salvaged there? Yeah, probably a few hundred yacht mechanics and all three Brooks Brothers, but what, if anything, was done to ensure that the economy would not be jeopardized again by the rampant greed and avarice of these glorified numbers runners? Judging by the orgasmic response of the economic community over the resurgence of the stock market, it’s business as usual. Wall Street doesn’t PRODUCE anything, people, except anxiety. The tail is wagging the dog.

Still, there was a bright spot in the shady world of finance. (I frequently consider something “shady” if I don’t understand it.) The new administration passed credit card reform legislation that would stop Visa and MasterCard from jacking up your interest rates while you slept, without so much as a how’s-your-uncle. That’s a good start. I notice that my credit card statement now includes a formula that tells me now soon my balance will be paid off if I continue to send in just the minimum payment. It doesn’t give a specific year, it just says “some time after Mars is colonized.”

Obama kept his promise to end military operations in Iraq, which will bring 100,000 men and women home from that misguided conflict. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he ramped up the aggression in Afghanistan, under the old banner of “spreading democracy.” But we all know it’s not Obama pulling the levers on that one. It’s some guy named Halliburton. This aggression will not stand, man.

Other accomplishments get buried in the tedious avalanche of criticism delivered daily by right wing crazies and Fox News blowhards. The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, for instance, put millions of acres of wilderness and thousands of miles of rivers under Federal protection. I’m still waiting to hear about the opening of the long-awaited Rush Limbaugh Wilderness Trail system in Bloviate, Wisconsin.

Let’s not forget the START treaty with Russia. How about two women appointed to the Supreme Court. The repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Tax credits of $2,500 to offset college tuition. The $4.5 billion funding for better school lunches (so long, mystery meat!). The expansion of AmeriCorps and VISTA. Serious funding for stem cell research.

All in all, thanks to the tenacity of his team and the ambition of a progressive agenda, President Obama is moving us in the right direction. I don’t agree with all his decisions or those of the Democratic caucus in general. Nor do I automatically disagree with everything the Republicans propose. What I agree with is a compassionate, intelligent, equitable and realistic approach to driving this big ol’ crazy bus that is the U.S. of A. I want this to work. In the end, the hardest thing to overcome will be the influence of special interests: a small handful of huge corporations still have way too much power and way too much influence, and they shouldn’t even have their hands on the damn wheel.

But there’s hope. There’s always hope.

[Come back here each week, my friend, you’re sure to get a smile. Bookmark it, click on the rss feed, whatever floats your S.S. Minnow.]

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