Obama Must Engage in Correcting Waste and Mistakes on Omnibus Spending and Elsewhere

To some of us who are amateur Washington watchers, the most confusing thing happened this week. The issue was "spending" in the form of "Pork barrel", or "Earmarks", or simply "Waste." You chose the word. Either way, what it all came down to was whether our tax money was being used for the right priorities during these hard economic and fiscal times. To those of us who did not even know what the word "Omnibus" meant, it took us sometime to comprehend and follow what was going on. All the discussion came after President Obama unveiled his Fiscal Year 2010 budget, held a fiscal deficit reduction summit, and announced that he would try to reduce the deficit by half and so on, not to mention his campaign promises.

To make it even worse and more confusing this discussion on "Omnibus Spending" was occurring while on one side John McCain was lambasting Obama on the Senate floor for reneging on his campaign promise to go over budgets "line by line" to eliminate waste. On the other side, John McCain was standing with Obama during Obama´s announcement of reform on contracting practice of the government so as to eliminate waste.

So, how is a person to find out what this back and forth was all about? Well, the key is in the response Whitehouse aides gave to the issue. The response to the riling of John McCain from the white house was, "That is last Year´s Business." That helped, but it still took us a while to find out what the fight was about. Apparently, this fight is about a budget Bush was supposed to have set up, but had to leave office without signing into law the year 2009´s budget for the Federal Government with the exception of the Pentagon, Homeland Security, and Veteran affairs. Oh, finally, we know what is being talked about to have an opinion about it despite the failure of our broadcast media to explain it to us. The issue is whether there are about 9000 pet- project spending that add up to $8 Billion [with a B] in earmark in the budget bill. The other question is whether this was a waste?

Well, some Democrats like Evan Bayh and Russ Feingold seem to think so and even said that they want the President to Veto the bill if it ever makes it out of the Senate. Others like House leaders Pelosi and Hoyer seem to think that the process and the amount are acceptable. Harry Reid seems to think it is fine, too, because he is in hurry to get it done.

Liberal MSNBC hosts like Olbermann, Maddow, and Schuster seem to think that it probably is a waste, but they have been obsessed with the "Hypocrisy of Republicans" that support the bill. These hosts seem to justify Democrat´s waste by pointing out that Republicans did it, too. Chris Mathews? He has been obsessing too much over an Obese, megalomaniac and narcissist man named Rush Limbaugh or L. Rushbaugh to even think about waste. Despite it all, there seems to be a general consensus by the media, Democrats, and Republicans that Earmarks are vehicles of government waste

Well, amidst this, the President´s and the White House´s response has been utterly disappointing to those of us who believe in the President. Instead of saying that we oppose waste at all times, the aides have been saying that the president will sign it the way it is. They have been saying "this is last year´s business" as if there is a wrong time to do the right thing or fix mistakes. The President must start from last year´s business to fix the problem if he can. He is getting a chance to go back in time to fix things. That is a chance Physics does not allow. Fortunately, politics is allowing it. Instead of seeing this as a problem, it must be seen as an opportunity to start fixing things early on even by going back in time.

Some bloggers like Robert Schlesinger of US News and World Report have theorized that it was a right congressional- political calculus for President Obama to pass up an opportunity to do the right thing by refusing to fight skirmishes with congress that might produce less goodwill for his actual Giant fights to come. He does this analysis by saying that there is a Perfect World and Real World. In the Perfect world, Obama would have done the right thing, but since he is in the imperfect real world, he has to save his ammunition for the big fight.

My question is: what happened to the idea of to form a "more perfect Union?" Obama is in the Whitehouse because numerous young people like me worked and sweated so hard believing that he would take us to a "more perfect Union" or World. We all live in the real world, but we believe in making our world a more perfect one. Beside the idealist or moral reasons for trying to do the right things at all times, there are also practical political benefits of not looking like he is shrinking from assuming responsibility. The chance of having to work on deficit reduction a year ahead must also be not passed up. It must be remembered that feeing up funds from last year also simply makes up for funds for the future.

There fore, President Obama, you need to get back to the fundamentals that got people to believe in you. Stay away from those whom you called Cynics. Practice positive policy and politics because they are good and they will serve you well as they already have. Please, get back to relying on the grass-roots again to help your agenda. They are waiting for your call. Please, send us Jarret and Axelrod. Send a message to congress that the American people do not like waste at anytime. Try to get congress to eliminate waste on the Omnibus before it gets to you, if not Veto it if you have must. The people are behind you and will remain behind you if you stay true and protect them from waste. Do not forget that the people are your ammunition not cynicism.