Obama's First Month (or so) in Office

I was going to write a post about the atrocious manner in which President Obama has run this country so far.

But Karl Rove beat me to it - and he writes better than I do.

Enjoy

California Budget Finally Passes

After three months, the California Legislature has finally passed a budget. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria was the One Vote that the state congress needed to pass the budget. Maldonado (the State Senate's answer to John McCain perhaps?) agreed to the budget after Democrats amended the election rules to let California voters vote on open primaries. This is probably a major coup for the state Republican party. Most other Republicans, however, held firm against a budget that included tax increases.

The best news for California is that the 12 cent increase in gasoline tax was removed from the final budget - that revenue instead coming from federal bailout money. In addition, the proposed $18 billion dollar tax hike shrank to $12.5 billion - most of it in income and sales tax increases.

The rest of the budget shortfall will come from cuts in education, health care, and welfare spending.

The real question for teachers is whether school districts will cope with budget cuts by streamlining operations and cutting wasteful spending or by firing teachers. I'm going to guess the latter.

Can this possibly be true???

Obama, in his press briefing tonight, claimed of the economic stimulus bill, "What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable."

Interestingly enough, the sentences seem at odds. First, he claims that there is not a single pet project or earmark. Then, he claims only the "most objectionable" have been removed.

I don't believe either of these things. The final bill (which hasn't even been written yet) will be chock full of pet projects, earmarks, and things that people in both parties find objectionable.

The real question is the political fallout that the Obama administration will face from cramming this unpopular piece of legislation down America's throat.

Obama's Motives

President Obama is undertaking a week-long media and campaigning blitz to convince voters that the government needs to pass an economic stimulus package.

Why?

The bill is already wildly unpopular, based on some reports. But, there is plenty of support in the House and Senate to pass the bill today. So, what do citizens need to do? Why do they need to support it?

Obama is not out campaigning to make the country a better place. He is out campaigning (already) for his own public opinion numbers, and for those of the new and improved Democratic super majority in Congress.

I guess he learned a lesson from President Bush, was too rarely took his case to the American people and suffered poor job approval ratings. Obama is trying to avoid the same fate.

But it is pretty amazing that Obama is already in this position after just two weeks on the job. It's because Democrats, as usual, have overreached - they went for the whole shebang in their first economic bill with a Democrat president. They offered up new spending in every Democrat-approved area, while keeping the tax cutting and actual economic stimulus to a minimum.

So, Obama is out on the trail doing damage control. The man who was supposed to bring a new era to Washington, who supposedly had such a strong mandate based on the elections (remember his comment to Congressional Republicans - "I won"), is already struggling to maintain popular support. Obama has basically begun the 2010 mid-term election campaign.

He spent practically all his time in the Senate running for President. Less than a month into his Presidency, he is already campaigning again. What is he going to do when there is nothing left to campaign for?