Republicans Stand in the Way!

It’s really quite sad that the Republicans have been so hateful to this President; for, I believe, President Barack H. Obama has been a good and important president in one of the terrible and muddy periods in American history.
by Charlie Leck

Consider the situation during the 2008 election race between John McCain (Republican) and Barack Obama (Democrat). The nation was falling into a deep financial abyss. The housing scandal developed late in the campaign and the two candidates actually had to call a “time-out” in the election battle so they could rush to Washington to consult with President George W. Bush about what was happening to the economy. Remember?

The United States of America was teetering on the edge of a dangerous cliff, about to fall into one of the deepest financial depressions in its history. The housing bubble had burst completely and several of the largest banks and financial lenders in the nation were facing total collapse. President Bush told the two candidates that he was going to take serious and unprecedented action in order to soften the disaster about to take place – that he was calling on Congress to bail out several of these banks. Both candidates left the White House with an agreement to support the President. There was a distinct possibility that they might not have much of a nation to govern if they didn’t.

The stimulus program initiated by President Bush was not serious and extensive enough. When President Obama stepped into office he had to act more aggressively against the dark and pervasive recession that gripped the nation. He did, in spite of constant and strong Republican opposition.

This morning, looking back, the NY Times said of the President’s action:

“The stimulus could have done more good had it been bigger and more carefully constructed. But put simply, it prevented a second recession that could have turned into a depression. It created or saved an average of 1.6 million jobs a year for four years…. It raised the nation’s economic output by 2 to 3 percent from 2009 to 2011. It prevented a significant increase in poverty – without it, 5.3 million additional people would have become poor in 2010.”

And, it is important to remember, the President’s actions would have been more extensive and successful had the Republican Party not fought those actions, tooth and nail, and forced the President to seriously cut back those actions if he wanted to get legislation through the majority of the Republican Party.

Yet, today we hear the Republicans crying that the President should have done more.

If one measures honestly and rationally the actions of this President while in office, to this point, one must conclude that the President saved the nation from total chaos. And all the while he was doing all of this, he had to deal with an irrational and unneeded war in Iraq that had been started by his predecessor. Add to that the significant problems and expenses also created by another foolish and illogical war in Afghanistan.

No president has ever faced such an opposition and such an unfriendly Congress. None!

Against all odds, this President gave America a health plan that, in twenty years, we will realize is historic and vitally important to both our health and economy. Medical costs in America, as a Time Magazine article in 2012 so carefully pointed out, were out of control. The plan Obama just barely managed to squeak by Republicans will save America from what could have been another economic disaster. [I wrote about that Time Magazine article in a blog last year.]

In arguing today to give the President more freedom to govern, the NY Times boldly states…

“Government spending worked, helping millions of people who never realized it. And it can work again, whenever lawmakers agree that putting people to work is more important than winning ideological fights.”

Again, the Republican Party stands in the way of bringing greater economic relief and economic strength by refusing to play the role of the loyal opposition and instead declaring itself an enemy of the President.

Why is it that a number of Republicans could not abide watching this President succeed? They couldn’t allow it! They wouldn’t allow it – not this President, mind you – not this President! I am so afraid of the answer to that question. Deeply afraid for my country!

UPDATE:
I don't usually allow anonymous comments. I think one who wants to take a strong position ought to have the courage to do so under (or over) his name. However, I did publish a comment here that is remarkably far from accurate in so many ways, but does show the passion and hysteria of the current far-right and only provides more evidence for my thesis that the Republican Party has gone loopy with the dominance of the far right so evident in the GOP today. The same fellow, I am quite sure, also commented the other day, but in such a personally insulting and gravely inaccurate way (and anonymously) that I refused to publish his drivel. 

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