President Obama certainly has been spending money, what with stimulus, health care, unemployment benefits, housing, financial reform, but we are still in the doghouse with the economy, unemployment, housing, education, immigration, not to mention two wars. For those of you who were sure George Bush invaded Iraq for oil, well, with the price of gas expected to rise to $4 a gallon, he obviously didn't get it at least not for us.
President Obama promised alternative energy plans. Where are they? In the works? What is this man doing? Two years. A friend reminded me gas was around $2 a gallon when Bush was President. The good old days of George Bush??
Are our memories that short? This reminds me of a child watching his sand castle swept off the beach, decimated by a wave, then expecting another to appear instantly in its place without the requisite dripping of the sand to rebuild it. I shudder to think of what the scenario might have been if George Bush jumped up from reading to those school children and took charge on 9-11. Would any of us be around now and complaining about a President tirelessly working to repair all the damage and get this country back on track?
To paraphrase a Paul Simon song: do we only hear what we want and disregard the rest. Can we wake up, grow up and take responsibility and see the forest for the trees? With new congressional representatives threatening a fight we are on the sidetracking merry-go-round train once again and going nowhere fast. Republicans now pontificating for less government, less spending. Where were they when George Bush was playing warrior and involved us in two unconscionable wars while urging us to buy homes, spend money, get the economy working again while disasters got worse instead of better? Is this anyone's idea of less government? Let everything fall apart. Let someone else pick up the pieces. Destruction instead of construction. I heard Barbra Streisand comment on television that she was amazed people would actually vote against their own interests for tax breaks for the wealthiest. That's what we're doing.
President Obama is not some movie star superhero who can solve all our problems in a flash. This is the real world folks and fixing our country is going to take time and the cooperation of all of us. Are we really such warmongering people that we need to fight amongst ourselves and hurt each other as well as others. If we keep fighting we will be in the eye for an eye territory, all blind.
President Obama has been taken to task, criticized by Democrats for not being a fighter. For working hard, and fruitlessly they might add, to try and bring us together. Don't we want a President who does that? Who listens to all of us and works for all of us? Who brings us together? Whatever happened to the common good? The greater good?
We are a country that tries to perfect itself when it doesn't live up to its ideals. Can we do it now? Can we get this message to Congress? Stop fighting over done deals like health care that are actually beneficial to us. Other countries, and anyone who has lived in Europe will attest to this, have national healthcare. America, supposedly the richest, most powerful, most advanced country ever, the best of the best, doesn't. How do we reconcile this with our consciences? Republicans: stop thinking you know how to spend money just because you say so. That is not our experience. We wouldn't be in this mess if it was. I think we all love our country. How about we start showing it and not saying it?