Re: Mythbusting the Obama Magic

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Jonathan S. Shapiro" <shap () eros-os org>
Date: January 3, 2010 11:34:10 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Mythbusting the Obama Magic

On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 8:11 PM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
Date: January 3, 2010 9:35:27 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Mythbusting the Obama Magic

So I have to admit that I find the idea that Obama has "failed us" to be the kind of sad commentary on Amercian 
thinking that fits in with the idea that 70% of Americans don't know where Myanmar is.   Obama is probably as "expert" 
as those 70% on about 99% of the questions that concern Americans greatly.
 
This is not the sense in which Obama has failed us.
 
Even allowing for the interferences of war and the economy, Obama has clearly failed to deliver on many of his key 
campaign promises. This doesn't really surprise me, and it shouldn't surprise any of you. It is the inevitable pattern 
of politics.
 
Where Obama has failed us is in fiscal irresponsibility. In health care, it appears to me that (a) we got none of what 
we needed, (b) we're about to pay for a lot of stuff that won't help, and (c) we would have been much better off 
leaving the status quo untouched. I'm strongly in favor of a comprehensive national health care system. That isn't what 
we got.
 
In fixing the economy, we got *enormous* Federal expenses on things that won't ultimately do us any good, or worse, 
merely put off the inevitable. GM should have died -- and will, only now you and I will pay more. One can debate 
whether personal mortgages should have been bailed out by the government. But *if* you decide to bail out mortgages, 
you need to do something more than delay the inevitable for three to six months while amplifying the pain and the debt 
level of the people who can't afford their homes. It was perfectly plain that mortgage adjustments that did not write 
down principal simply could not work. Why did we throw *billions* of dollars at non-working solutions? The banks came 
out winners, but what about the rest of us?
 
The democrats under Obama have built the largest, least effective, and most poorly invested debt hole in the history of 
modern civilization, pushed every last one of us into that hole, filled the hole with national debt, and then claimed a 
victory. We will spend more money, time, effort, and pain recovering from the "fix" than we would have by simply 
letting the mortgage market collapse and rebuilding.
 
THAT is how Obama failed us.
 
 
Jonathan




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