Let's Get This Show on the Road

In the article "Obama Calls on Congress to Put Stimulus Plan in Motion", author Jeff Zeleny reports on the progress of President Obama's huge stimulus package and how close it is to getting passed by Congress. His request of Congress to "put this plan in motion" goes to show how important bipartisan cooperation is in getting major bills passed. President Obama defends his huge spending package by stating that it is vital to keeping the American dream "alive in our time". He agrees that a bill of that size and magnitude deserves the scrutiny it has received, and probably more in the coming days. However, he stresses that "we can’t afford to make perfect the enemy of the absolutely necessary". In essence, I think he's saying that we can't afford to let this bill languish as we fight about the details. According to President Obama, his plan will save or create millions of jobs in the U.S., jobs that are critical to the health of the nation's economy. He states that the American people trust the government to fix the financial crisis, and that they proved that in November in the presidential election. A direct quote from the article sums up everything he is trying to say: “The American people know that our challenges are great,” Mr. Obama said Saturday. “They don’t expect Democratic solutions or Republican solutions – they expect American solutions.”

I agree with President Obama's views on the seriousness of the problem at hand. However, I don't necessarily agree with some of the bailouts so far. The bailout of the mega-banks and their subsequent misuse of the funds to give themselves fat raises and bonuses are a sign that maybe that money could have been better spent. I agree that banking and finance are necessary to the country, but I heard on some news report that "it doesn't necessarily have to be those banks". Some attrition is natural during tough economic times, and I think it's a travesty that the people that are having to foot the bill on this are having such hard times, but the boneheads that created this mess are giving themselves millions of dollars in bonus money, like they did something great. It's ridiculous.

This balance of power between executive and legislative branches of government is important to preserving our democratic way of life. Even though sometimes it seems like the process is just there to get in the way of progress, it is an important form of checks and balances that protects the American people from inept leadership and bad legislation. It is very important that bills get the scrutiny that they deserve, as opposed to being passed into law hastily due to adverse conditions. That being said, I don't think there is room currently for bickering between parties over details that do not affect the bill overall. You have to draw the line somewhere between due diligence and being difficult.