Will Obama Be Able To Meet His Goals?

Immediately upon arriving at cnn.com I saw an article entitled "Will Obama Be Able to Meet His Goals?" Its an interesting question because although I am a big supporter of Obama, I wonder sometimes how realistic it is to think that he can pull us out of the hole that the Bush Administration dug for our country. Its undeniable that Obama has inspired the American people on a level that we haven't seen since JFK, but making massive overhauls of the government internally is a completely different story. Some promises are easier to keep than others, but is it really realistic to believe that he can turn around the economy by the end of his first year? I like to think so, but that doesn't necessarily make it true and even if he plays his cards right 100% of the time he is in office and creates the most effective stimulus bill possible, his goals could still be out of reach. From what I learned in intro econ, generally economies go in cycles that take time to improve. Although the dollar is weak right now, that just means its going to be circulated less globally and the less people that have it means its going to be worth more so its value will go up. But the point is that this process takes time and it might stretch into year #2 of Obama's term or even into the next term altogether. The general consensus of analysts in the article was that Obama is taking all the right steps to fix the economy but the American people need to see proof of it. He just passed a massive stimulus bill and has a housing and banking reform bill in the works, so I think it wont be long before we start to see Obama fulfilling his promises.

Speaking of bills being passed, there was another little article talking about the house passing a $410 billion spending bill for the rest of 2009. It was pretty much passed down the party line, with most Democrats in full support and most Republicans opposing it. House GOP leaders criticized the bill saying its spending increases are too large. They also criticized the addition of several BILLION dollars in earmarks attached to the bill in order to support pet projects of certain lawmakers. Democrats defended the bill saying that it was necessary to help our country in this struggling economy. President Obama plans on revealing his 2010 budget plans on Thursday.

Finally I looked at an article talking about Obama's address to Congress last night which I regrettably missed but this piece summarized it pretty well. What was really interesting about the article was that they compared it to "Morning in America" which is what Ronald Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign was called. The article said Obama struck "a defiantly optimistic tone that belied the nation's sour mood and rebutted critics who have accused him of intentionally talking down the economy for short-term political gain." With a depressing economic backdrop accompanied by an overwhelming majority of Americans under the impression that the country is going in the wrong direction, Obama's first address to Congress was a "tour de force," promising to completely overhaul the economy right down to the foundation. He ripped apart his conservative predecessors for their wasteful s long term  pending and for giving "wealth to the wealthy" by making a quick dollar in exchange for thedestruction of our countries economic infastructure. Obama did all of this while using Reagan's rhetoric tools of promoting change while enforcing inborn American ideals like hard work and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Overall from what I can tell it was a successful speech and really cleared the air as far as his opposition is concerned.

An Obama Epiphany

So from what I can tell so far, this blog is basically just following Obama's first couple of months in office. Whether it be his economic stimulus package or any other one of the thousands of articles praising and attacking our new president, I decided that the general theme for this blog will be Barack Obama. 

That being said, the first article that caught my eye was one that said "Obama Facing Help Wanted Dilema" which puzzled me because I thought everyone was out of a job and, like I said in my last post, all Obama is really trying to do is create jobs. Yet, upon reading the article I found out that the title was actually in reference to his administration. Apparently President Obama hit the ground running, naming politicians to his cabinet at a record pace which has no slowed to a crawl. Michael Feldman, a white house official during the Clinton administration said, "To some extent they're trying to build a plane and fly it at the same time. So there's no analog for what this administration is going through." A fitting metaphor for a country thats trying to keep its head above water and completely overhaul a stagnant system at the same time. The number of appointees is astonishingly low for what has been called an extremely expedited process, but nevertheless it is still slowing down because of what the article called "the political media complex" scrutinizing every decision that gets made and overanalyzing the thought process behind it. President Obama has set an extremely high bar and is now seeing the consequences of attempting to meet that goal, but from what I can see hes been doing a great job so far.

Another article that jumped out was one that pertained to Obama's role in Afghanistan. Obama will be sending 17,000 troops in to help quell the insurgencies that have been increasing of late, but on top of this he hopes to reach out to allies such as Canada for aide in this conflict. I think the most uplifting part of the article was when the president recognized that solving the conflict in Afghanistan was impossible through purely military means, a mistake our government has made in every involvement we have ever had in the Middle East. Obama said that diplomacy and development were crucial to solving our problems there and without these aspects we would find ourselves unable to extract from Afghanistan. CNN Security Analysis Peter Bergman thinks its unlikely that we will be able to find any NATO countries willing to lend us a hand in Afghanistan. He said that we have tried in the past and no one seems to be interested, but with Barack Obama meeting with the Prime Minister of Canada on Thursday I think it is becoming more and more plausible that we will find countries willing to offer aide. After watching a link to an interview with a Taliban General I think that it is unlikely peace will slowly begin to happen, but diplomatic negotiations with the United States standing in a position of power and supremacy may yield a favorable outcome.

The last article that I found links back into my first blog post. The article is all about a new website made by Obama's administration that lets you track your tax dollars at work in the new stimulus bill, another stride in a very open administration. The website, called recovery.gov allows visitors to track efforts to jump-start the economy. It breaks down the $787 billion by category and promises a more detailed explanation once they figure out how the rest of the money will be allocated. Graphs, charts, and easy to understand explanations are all over the website and really express how hard Obama's administration is trying to reach the American people and keep what they do "transparent and accountable." I personally think that this will help to stop any skepticism as to whether the bill will work or not or whether our money is going to the right place. After seeing that controversial cartoon in the NY Times about Obama's stimulus package it was a relief to see that there was no backlash and the administration just continued to do what they were doing and provide the American people with a window into the theatrics of this stimulus package. 

The Job Squad

What really surprised me was that when I went onto CNN to search for articles about the economy, there were a lot less than I had expected. As I was sifting through all of the horror stories about teen drinking and fluffy human interest pieces, I began to wonder if the news was aware that we are involved in two wars and at the same time trying to breathe life into a slowly dieing economy. 

All of that aside, I did find find a recent article about the progress being made with the economic stimulus package. Democratic leaders are saying that they worked out a key dispute between the house and the senate about school construction spending, an issue which threatened to derail the bill earlier in its conception. I think what is so key about this article is realizing that its basically impossible to pass a bill of this magnitude because everyone is extremely opinionated about every single detail. Essentially it was a battle between whether the money was better spent making new schools or trying to modernize and fix ones that already exist. Out of 219 Republicans in Congress, only three originally backed the bill, so it was quite a struggle to finally pass it.

Another article I found gave me some information about the timetable for passing the economic stimulus bill. Apparently the house plans to vote on the bill on friday, which would meet with president Obamas expectations that the bill be on his desk by presidents day on monday. This article actually had references to my previously mentioned article which came out a day before it, but it assured readers that the bill was not in jeopardy. This article said that the compromise actually provided an extra $10 billion to the $44 billion already allocated toward school construction and rehabilitation. These extra funds will be allocated through Title 1 which distributes the money based on need. The article also made it clear that every aspect of the bill was catered to the creation of new jobs, and Senator Ben Nelson is quoted as saying "Today you might call us the 'job squad'." Nelson was a key negotiator in the creation of the bill and mediated much of the discussion about school construction.

On another note, I read an article talking about the effects of our recession and not so much the process by which we are attempting to fix it. Banks led a stock selloff as investors questioned the reliability and efficiancy of the governments bailouts and stimulus package. Stocks slumped as people mulled over reports on housing sales, and their hesitation to invest was not unfounded with unemployment remaining at a 26-year high. Stocks actually rose on wednesday after there were reports about the stimulus package being close to done, but the unreliability and stagnation of the US political system prevailed and kept investors holding onto their money thursday.