Republican teabaggers are having a great deal of fun pointing fingers at President Obama for our current situation. They fumed over President Obamas contribution to the national debt while ignoring Bushs contributions. They proclaimed health care reform Obamas Waterloo. And they have now labeled BPs oil gusher as Obamas Katrina.
Never in my lifetime have I seen people so anxious to see a President fail.
But before everyone joins in by jumping on the nincompoop wagon, lets consider the situation President Obama inherited:
The worst economic meltdown in nearly 80 years. The collapse of the housing industry that has long fueled our economy, the collapse of our financial industry due to deregulation, and the worst job losses in nearly 80 years. Historic levels of national debt created by the banks and Bushs unfunded wars, Bushs unfunded Medicare expansion, and Bushs unfunded tax cuts. The collapse of the auto industry due to imports, high oil prices and the financial meltdown. Two on-going wars (one which went neglected for 7-1/2 years) and an over-stretched military. The worst environmental disaster in history. Growing tensions in Israel and Gaza, Korea and oil-rich Iran complicated by nuclear weapons. A national infrastructure that has been decaying for decades. States and industries crippled by the sky-rocketing cost of health care and pharmaceuticals. A middle class that has been stressed by years of dwindling jobs and salaries. Millions of Americans who were (until the passage of health care reform) unable to afford access to health care. An illegal immigration problem that has been kicked down the road for decades. Social Security and Medicare trust funds that have long been raided by Congress, putting them on the edge of bankruptcy. And the most toxic political environment of my lifetime, fueled by right-wing political hacks posing as talk radio hosts and news commentators.
Thats an overwhelming array of crises, and Ive probably even forgotten to list a few.
Never in our history has a new President been handed such a mess. Sure, Abraham Lincoln was handed a growing states rights crisis that led to the Civil War. And FDR was handed the Great Depression along with a growing conflict that became WWII.
But this?!!!
President Obama must feel like a Marine surrounded by ticking IEDs and wondering which one to disarm first. And these crises are made to seem all the worse by an impatient populace and media that have amazingly short attention spans.
© LaMaster Propaganda – All rights reserved.