United States of America was told that finally, after years of ‘yes men’ running the ‘BUSH’ government, they were getting a President who would follow Abraham Lincoln’s lead, fill his administration with ‘varying viewpoints’, and glean empirically sound policy from the clash of ideas. “Yes, we can! To bring the CHANGE we believe in.” … the promise was made.
But, Obama's national security team, for instance, includes not a single Iraq
Of course, that uniformity pales in comparison to the White House's economic team -- a squadron of corporate lackeys disguised as public servants.
At the top is Lawrence Summers, the director of Obama's National Economic Council. As Bill Clinton's treasury secretary in the late 1990s, Summers worked with his deputy, Tim Geithner (now Obama's treasury secretary), and Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel (now Obama's chief of staff) to champion job-killing trade deals and deregulation that Obama Commerce Secretary Judd Gregg helped shepherd through Congress as a Republican senator. Now, this pinstriped band of brothers is proposing a "cash for trash" scheme that would force the public to guarantee the financial industry's bad loans. It's another ploy "to hand taxpayer dollars to the banks through a variety of complex mechanisms," says economist Dean Baker -- and noticeably absent is anything even resembling a "rival" voice inside the White House.
That's not an oversight. From former federal officials like Robert Reich and Brooksley Born, to Nobel Prize-winning economists like Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, to business leaders like Leo Hindery, there's no shortage of qualified experts who have challenged market fundamentalism. But they have been barred from an administration focused on ideological purity. Can they not provide the CHANGE?
In Leo Hindery's case, the blacklisting was explicit. Despite this venture capitalist establishing a well-respected think tank and serving as a top economic advisor to Obama's campaign, the Politico reports that "Obama's aides appear never to have taken his bid (for an administration post) seriously." Why?
The anecdote highlights how, regardless of election hoopla, Washington is the same one-party town it always has been -- controlled not by Democrats or Republicans, but by Bureaucrats.No matter how many times their discredited theologies are stabbed, torched and shot down by verifiable failure, their careers cannot be killed. Somehow, these political immortals are allowed to mindlessly lunge forward, never answering to rivals -- even if that rival is the President himself.
Remember, while Obama said he wants to slash "billions of dollars in wasteful spending" at the Pentagon, his national security team is demanding a $40 billions increase in defense spending (evidently, the "ludicrous" faction got its way won before the competition even started) Is US in recession??
Wow, you must be getting this from some conservative website .. that's cool though! He has un-done lots of Bush legacies.. but understand that it is hard to turn around completely a ship as big as the USA. I do think he may be compromising too much on the health care reform bill. But Obama is an incrementalist, and I knew that when I voted for him. He takes whatever change he can get as long as its in the right direction.. I can't say I am pleased with all he's done. The financial regulatory reforms seem weak. The healthcare reform seems to be a compromise.. but they are all incremental improvements.
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