The Problem
100 Days, Letter Series, obama, one term 12:45 AM
Dear Mr. President:
It's not that I despise what you believe in or what you stand for, per se. I believe that you love your country. I believe you think you've heard all the arguments, and I believe you think you have the best judgment and most objective, pragmatic ideals to navigate our nation out of our economic disaster. We both want this nation to succeed.
Please, if you'll allow, let me tell you why as a recent convert from the Democratic Party, I'm mortified by the plans you have laid forth for America.
On the campaign trail, while not patting yourself on the back for the historical nature of your candidacy, you often reminded us of your blueprint for change - especially as it concerned getting America back on the road to fiscal solvency.
On a whim, I Googled some of what you had to say on the matter as I pondered and brooded over the mess we currently find ourselves in.
Surely you're getting advice from everybody these days about what you should and should not do. No doubt your email and voicemail are full of people's ideas and concerns. Rather than interjecting my own, allow me to simply flash you back to some basic guiding principles outlined by the one person for whom you hold the very highest regard - yourself. Only, this is you before you entered the Oval Office.
Still up on your campaign website is your plan to get Washington back on the "right path" so that our economy can be healthy in the long run. "The Problem", as you rightly point out at the very beginning, is increasing debt. That was true when you began your campaign for president, it was true in September when this financial crisis began, and it is true now that you occupy the White House. Beside the severity of the problem we now face, only one major factor has changed: your perspective.
A brief parousal of your plan highlights several concerns and solutions, and you must admit that the stimulus package you championed strays severely from the principles you outlined. So does your budget. So do your bailouts. In fact, Mr. President, I can safely say you just became the posterboy of the problem. You are the problem.
You detailed for us in very specific terms that in order to return to fiscal responsibility, we must:
Nearly half of America voted for the other guy in November, and many of us did so because of our inability to figure out who you really are. It's not that we don't read the newspapers or listen to your speeches. The problem is that you reinvent your core beliefs from the ground up depending on circumstance. You say one thing, then do the other. You champion one idea, then fight for the other. You tell one group what they want to hear, then backtrack in front of another. The sudden and dramatic shifts in your priorities is enough to cause whiplash.
Bipartisanship doesn't mean "I won the election, so now you need to do whatever I say." It means hearing and heeding the concerns of people who don't agree with you fundamentally. It means incorporating the ideas of the other half of America that isn't in control but still needs a voice. "The Problem", Mr. President, is that House and Senate Democrats took your stimulus package as an opportunity to pile on any goodies they could conceive of, but couldn't otherwise get. "The Problem" is that this is your first major push as president, and it's disasterously off message and off base. Sir, this problem is likely to catch up with you the next time Americans go to the polls.
More Democrats voted against your stimulus than Republicans that voted for it. The budget was a strict party line vote, and any reporter left or right will tell you that the Blue Dogs had to be shoved back in line to get on board with you. Are ALL Congressional Republicans crazy? You know that the answer to that is "no". While you disagree fundamentally on whether more spending or more tax cuts should be the backbone of an economic stimulus, one thing we must all agree on is that your children's children's children will likely still be paying off the money you just put on the nation's credit card.
When you put Sacha and Malia to bed tonight, explain to them just how much money $1,000,000,000,000 is. Explain to them how many dollars they would have to spend every day for the rest of their lives to ever spend that much money. Explain to them how much money you would have to take out of their paychecks to ever recoup that money. Explain to them how that debt takes money away from their children's schools, from their social security funds, from the police that protect their neighborhood, from the campaign to nationalize our healthcare system.
Can you look them in the face and explain this to them? Do you even understand the gravity of a ONE TRILLION DOLLAR deficit? If a ten trillion dollar national debt in 232 years of this country was deplorable, why is it palatable to increase it to 13 trillion in less than 100 days? If the previous president was wrong to increase spending and decrease taxes at the same time, how then do you reconcile a so-called tax cut for 95% of Americans while pushing forth the largest expansion of government in modern history? At what point do we claim fair game on intellectually dishonest claims and proposals?
Like so many Americans, I understand the severity of the crisis that confronts us now because I know personally many who have lost their job or their home, or whose debt burden has forced them into bankruptcy. And so while I welcome the proposal of bold, new ideas over the status quo, I cannot in good faith sign a blank check in the name of my children, written on a Chinese account. That is, of course, until you can explain how the money will ever be repaid.
And so, as your first 100 days in office come to a close, we must look back and ask ourselves, are we better off? Are people's savings more secure? Are their investments worth more or less than 100 days ago? Are more or fewer people safe in their homes? Is unemployment higher or lower? Are American companies stronger or weaker? Is health care more or less affordable than it was? And most importantly, will our children inherit easier or harder circumstances than we did?
I think you know the answer to those questions, Mr. President, and I hope you join with me in toasting to your successor in a few short, tumultuous years. I'll bring the tea.
Patriotically yours,
Concerned Citizen
It's not that I despise what you believe in or what you stand for, per se. I believe that you love your country. I believe you think you've heard all the arguments, and I believe you think you have the best judgment and most objective, pragmatic ideals to navigate our nation out of our economic disaster. We both want this nation to succeed.
Please, if you'll allow, let me tell you why as a recent convert from the Democratic Party, I'm mortified by the plans you have laid forth for America.
On the campaign trail, while not patting yourself on the back for the historical nature of your candidacy, you often reminded us of your blueprint for change - especially as it concerned getting America back on the road to fiscal solvency.
On a whim, I Googled some of what you had to say on the matter as I pondered and brooded over the mess we currently find ourselves in.
Surely you're getting advice from everybody these days about what you should and should not do. No doubt your email and voicemail are full of people's ideas and concerns. Rather than interjecting my own, allow me to simply flash you back to some basic guiding principles outlined by the one person for whom you hold the very highest regard - yourself. Only, this is you before you entered the Oval Office.
Still up on your campaign website is your plan to get Washington back on the "right path" so that our economy can be healthy in the long run. "The Problem", as you rightly point out at the very beginning, is increasing debt. That was true when you began your campaign for president, it was true in September when this financial crisis began, and it is true now that you occupy the White House. Beside the severity of the problem we now face, only one major factor has changed: your perspective.A brief parousal of your plan highlights several concerns and solutions, and you must admit that the stimulus package you championed strays severely from the principles you outlined. So does your budget. So do your bailouts. In fact, Mr. President, I can safely say you just became the posterboy of the problem. You are the problem.
You detailed for us in very specific terms that in order to return to fiscal responsibility, we must:
- Reinstate pay-as-you-go
- Cut pork barrel spending
- Make government spending more accountable and efficient
- End wasteful government spending
Nearly half of America voted for the other guy in November, and many of us did so because of our inability to figure out who you really are. It's not that we don't read the newspapers or listen to your speeches. The problem is that you reinvent your core beliefs from the ground up depending on circumstance. You say one thing, then do the other. You champion one idea, then fight for the other. You tell one group what they want to hear, then backtrack in front of another. The sudden and dramatic shifts in your priorities is enough to cause whiplash.
Bipartisanship doesn't mean "I won the election, so now you need to do whatever I say." It means hearing and heeding the concerns of people who don't agree with you fundamentally. It means incorporating the ideas of the other half of America that isn't in control but still needs a voice. "The Problem", Mr. President, is that House and Senate Democrats took your stimulus package as an opportunity to pile on any goodies they could conceive of, but couldn't otherwise get. "The Problem" is that this is your first major push as president, and it's disasterously off message and off base. Sir, this problem is likely to catch up with you the next time Americans go to the polls.
More Democrats voted against your stimulus than Republicans that voted for it. The budget was a strict party line vote, and any reporter left or right will tell you that the Blue Dogs had to be shoved back in line to get on board with you. Are ALL Congressional Republicans crazy? You know that the answer to that is "no". While you disagree fundamentally on whether more spending or more tax cuts should be the backbone of an economic stimulus, one thing we must all agree on is that your children's children's children will likely still be paying off the money you just put on the nation's credit card.
When you put Sacha and Malia to bed tonight, explain to them just how much money $1,000,000,000,000 is. Explain to them how many dollars they would have to spend every day for the rest of their lives to ever spend that much money. Explain to them how much money you would have to take out of their paychecks to ever recoup that money. Explain to them how that debt takes money away from their children's schools, from their social security funds, from the police that protect their neighborhood, from the campaign to nationalize our healthcare system.
Can you look them in the face and explain this to them? Do you even understand the gravity of a ONE TRILLION DOLLAR deficit? If a ten trillion dollar national debt in 232 years of this country was deplorable, why is it palatable to increase it to 13 trillion in less than 100 days? If the previous president was wrong to increase spending and decrease taxes at the same time, how then do you reconcile a so-called tax cut for 95% of Americans while pushing forth the largest expansion of government in modern history? At what point do we claim fair game on intellectually dishonest claims and proposals?
Like so many Americans, I understand the severity of the crisis that confronts us now because I know personally many who have lost their job or their home, or whose debt burden has forced them into bankruptcy. And so while I welcome the proposal of bold, new ideas over the status quo, I cannot in good faith sign a blank check in the name of my children, written on a Chinese account. That is, of course, until you can explain how the money will ever be repaid.
And so, as your first 100 days in office come to a close, we must look back and ask ourselves, are we better off? Are people's savings more secure? Are their investments worth more or less than 100 days ago? Are more or fewer people safe in their homes? Is unemployment higher or lower? Are American companies stronger or weaker? Is health care more or less affordable than it was? And most importantly, will our children inherit easier or harder circumstances than we did?
I think you know the answer to those questions, Mr. President, and I hope you join with me in toasting to your successor in a few short, tumultuous years. I'll bring the tea.
Patriotically yours,
Concerned Citizen
Posted by Nick Stone
on 12:45 AM.
Filed under
100 Days,
Letter Series,
obama,
one term
.
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