Brushfire of Freedom
Ram Rants
Picture if you will a new President, taking the oath of office and stepping for the first time into his role as leader of the free world. All about him the US economy is beginning to collapse, due in part to the policies of “his predecessor”. A bubble has burst, and the ripple effect is being felt in industries previously considered disconnected. Unemployment begins to climb as major corporations, only recently bloated with spare money, are now struggling to meet payroll. They cut costs, which means cutting jobs, and people begin to line up in the unemployment lines.
The people, and the Congress, demand action. Cries of “Where are the jobs, Mr. President?” ring across Washington, D.C. People lose their retirement funds, and some lose more, as the market continues to drop because of the economic malaise. Companies begin to file for bankruptcy protection, and some even go out of business completely.
Nine months into the term of the new President, this nation is struck by a group of terrorists, killing thousands of innocent Americans and further impacting the economy.
But wait Ram, we’ve not been struck by a terrorist attack of that magnitude, have we?
Not since 2001, no. You see, I’m not talking about the recent inauguration of Obama. If you dig into your memory just a little you may recall that just as George W. Bush took office in 2001, the tech boom was going bust. All of the “MOPS” (millionaires on paper) found themselves nearly broke. Those who had once been the new darlings of the growing global economy found themselves filling out forms for unemployment. In just a few short months we went from a supposed government budget surplus (as real as “global warming”) to an economy in crisis.
We can remember the names. Ken Lay was responsible for the Enron debacle, an energy company that quickly went from Texas giant to a term used to identify shady financial dealings. Joe Nacchio and his dealings at Qwest communications. MCI Worldcom fell to its knees. The IPO had been a daily occurrence just six months prior to Bush‘s inauguration. Now, just after taking the oath of office, the new President had a melting US economy on his hands.
Then, to make matters worse, the US came under attack. Innocent civilians in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania were killed by a group of men who cared so little for life that they took their own in the process. The World Trade Center was destroyed in a matter of hours. The heart of the US Economy had been struck a brutal blow as well, and the impact was felt throughout the world markets. Everything came to a stand still for a few days as the nation gathered its collective breath.
A similar thing happened with the inauguration of Obama. He stepped into office as the housing bubble popped, crippling financial markets and bringing construction to a near stand still. Unemployment had been hovering near five percent for the previous nine months, but once the new President took office, he found himself with an economic crisis of significant proportions. Obama did not have the added impact of a major assault on US soil, but he had a very large financial crisis on his hands. The nation paused, listened, and hoped as he stepped up to the dais and took his oath.
The big difference is how each man played the cards he was dealt.
George W. Bush began building a plan to revive the economy. He spoke of investment in America and, when the time came, of defending this nation against the tyrants and mad men that had attacked her. He made tough decisions, sending troops into combat in Afghanistan and, when necessary, Iraq. He looked forward into a brighter future, brought the nation together, and consolidated the entire US Congress into a single unit to pursue and destroy the enemies of freedom. At the end of his first year, nearly 80% of Americans supported the President and his policies.
He was promptly vilified by the media and his political opponents. His policies were questioned, attacked, and in some cases charges were brought. Nothing has been proven to date, though threats of legal action still loom in the air a year after his departure. Yet Bush kept pushing forward.
It is a testament to the value of his decisions that many of his policies are still in place today.
Obama took a very different approach. After rushing through a couple of massive spending packages he said were designed to save jobs, he began acquiring pieces of the US economy. Rather than rebuild, Obama has taken over companies that had at one time been the pillars of US commerce. He continued his efforts to pull the private sector into the government by crafting a bill to socialize the US health care industry.
At the six month point in his term, a divide appeared in the nation. Opposition movements sprang up, and protests began to occur against the new President and his policies. He pressed forward, convinced he had made the right decisions. The opposition grew and coalesced around the star of the Obama plan, health care reform. People began writing their representatives, and some of those who had previously supported Obama began turning on him.
The divide in the nation widened, and a backlash against Obama’s policies began. The economy continued it’s downturn, with unemployment reaching levels not seen in 25 years. The 10% rate exceeded even the gravest estimates of Obama and his advisors.
Through all this, Obama has pushed forward, refusing to change course no matter the continued failure of his policies or the outcries from his constituents. Obama now has an approval rating lower than any recent President after their first year, with less than half of Americans supporting his policies.
Who’s at fault for Obama’s continued failures? According to Obama, it’s George W. Bush and his administration. It’s Bush’s policies that brought about this chaos, though Obama still enforces many of the Bush policies, at least on national security. Obama keeps looking back, placing blame for each new failure, and the continued economic downturn, on Bush.
The Bush economy saw growth from an economic downturn. When the tech bubble burst, the market dipped to around 7,000. In the last year of the Bush administration, it had nearly doubled. Unemployment dropped under Bush, and the economy grew at a steady pace. None of these things can be said about Obama to date. But the failures of today are Bush’s fault, even though Obama has been in office for over a year.
When the tech bubble burst in 2000, who did George Bush blame? No one. He took charge, took responsibility, and made the decisions necessary to reverse the downturn. If Bush had followed the Obama plan, he would have taken the easy route and just blamed Bill.
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