Democratic Oak Tree

Eight years of President George W. Bush backed by a very supportive Republican Congress made one significant contribution to our country: they showed how the age-old Republican slogans of “low taxes” and “small government” and “fiscal responsibility” translate into reality.

 We saw the Bush tax cuts give back thousands and thousands of dollars to the rich and a pittance to most Americans.

 Our country piled up debt while the rich piled up more wealth.

 Executives who didn’t believe in public service were put in charge at the highest levels of government. 

 Volunteer soldiers were sent to fight a reckless war with inadequate plans and armor, while private-sector military contractors were paid enormous sums without proper accounting controls. 

 Good-paying jobs became scarcer.  Public education suffered.  Many Americans lost the ability to get decent medical care. Government scientists were overruled whenever private profits were threatened.  The twin dangers of dependence on foreign oil and climate change were ignored. 

 It’s not just that forward progress was blocked. We fell backward.

 Readers of this column can easily list more examples of how our good country grew weaker during that Republican-led period.

 A few days from now, President Obama will have been in office for three short months. While hiring his top managers, he is dealing with unprecedented national and global problems—a legacy of the previous Republican administration.

 Obama has appointed well-qualified people to lead the myriad functions of government, most of which languished from lack of leadership and resources during the Bush administration.  You won’t find anyone leading FEMA whose previous job was Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association (remember “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” of Hurricane Katrina?).

 Our President is taking action (including international diplomacy) to try to prevent the global economy from spiraling further down into a nightmare depression. 

 Last week, the House and Senate approved budgets incorporating many of Obama’s priorities for next fiscal year.  Not a single Republican voted in favor.  Although individual appropriation bills to be enacted later will determine the details, the budget resolution provides guidance.

 As Obama stated, “This budget resolution embraces our most fundamental priorities: an energy plan that will end our dependence on foreign oil and spur a new clean energy economy; an education system that will ensure our children will be able to compete in the economy of the 21st century; and health care reform that finally confronts the back-breaking costs plaguing families, businesses and government alike. And by making hard choices and challenging the old ways of doing business, we will cut in half the budget deficit we inherited within four years. … Like the families we serve, we must cut the things we don’t need to invest in those we do.”

 It’s interesting that once again Republicans’ proposals to fix the economic crisis are to shrink domestic spending and … you guessed it, cut taxes (on the rich). It’s amusing to hear Republicans like Senator Pence of Indiana now say “Let’s not borrow from the next generation of Americans”—since he was part of the Republican Congress that supported Bush’s irresponsible tax cuts and mismanagement of resources.

 Thanks to Democrats gaining seats in Congress in 2008, Republicans aren’t able to block every initiative of Obama’s, but they still hold a powerful negotiating tool—the Senate filibuster—since Democrats don’t hold 60 seats in the Senate.

During the Depression of the 1930s, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced relentless hostility from the Republican Party when he used government investment to improve the lives of Americans who were suffering from lack of jobs and food and housing.  Republicans called him a “traitor to his class.” Yet virtually every American living today has benefited, in one way or another, from that “traitor” who reduced poverty and broadened the middle class.

We can expect intense Republican resistance to the change that Obama is working on—change that we who voted for him asked him to bring about.

Be sure to listen to Obama’s own explanations of his policies and programs rather than hear about them through Republican talk shows.  Take a few minutes out of your week to watch his press conferences on TV (a big change from the Bush years!) or get them via podcast or transcript. You’ll find very interesting material at www.whitehouse.gov, including Obama’s weekly Saturday address.

The more you learn, the more you’ll see how President Obama is working for the common good.