The Change That Morphed Into Disappointment

Last night President Barack Obama announced that a deal has been reached on the debt ceiling. Republicans and Democrats were able to come together at the last minute to strike a deal that will reduce the deficit and cut almost a $1 trillion in government spending, upfront.

Details of the deal include a new Congressional committee, or “Super Congress,” that will consist of six Democrats and six Republicans who will identify additional spending cuts by Thanksgiving of this year. If the new “Super Congress” is unable to agree on additional cuts then $1.2 trillion will be cut from defense, Social Security, Medicare, and other domestic programs.

Long before any type of deal was reached President Obama stated that he wanted a balanced approach that would include revenue increases as well as spending cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the so-called entitlement programs.

Unfortunately for those on the left that balanced approach was thrown by the wayside. No revenue increases are included in the new deal, just spending cuts. Democrats also lobbied for an extension of unemployment benefits but that was a non-starter for Republican lawmakers.

The President applauded Congress for coming together to make a deal as well as the American people for flooding Senators and Representatives offices with phone calls urging them to raise the ceiling.

While the President was measured in his tone as he didn’t receive the deal he wanted, those who walk on the political left are left to wonder what has happened to the man who promised them so much change in 2008.

The unemployment rate nationwide is still riding high at a healthy 9.2% and the President allowed Republicans to remove an extension of unemployment benefits from any type of debt ceiling deal.

President Obama spoke on the importance of removing tax breaks for oil companies and corporate jet owners but Republicans removed that language as well.

So what exactly did Democrats receive by allowing those on the extreme right to hijack the talks on the debt ceiling?

Simple: Nothing.

The President will still receive a great amount of support in 2012 when he begins to officially campaign for re-election but his support base is starting to seriously erode. Many Democrats feel that he’s afraid to stand up to Congressional Republicans who are only interested in making him look like a weak President.

The debt ceiling was extended almost 20 times under President Ronald Reagan in the 80’s and seven times under President George W. Bush so why now is it such an issue?

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman states that the debt ceiling deal will cause significant damage to an already fragile American economy by slashing government spending so deeply.

His assessment is that our economy will not begin to fully recover until at least 2013 and this deal will only complicate that process.

Hopefully Krugman is wrong because if that scenario plays out then we may see double digit unemployment numbers for another five years.

For those on the right who believe that America has to cut its way to prosperity how did that work out under W? The spending binge Bush II went on during his eight years in the Oval Office is causing serious harm to our financial system but it’s being undervalued and ignored.

President Obama, that change that we so desperately ached for in 2008 has somehow transformed into a bad dream filled with shattered optimism and tempered audacity.

Those people who once believed in the words of your rhetoric are now starting to take it as just that, rhetoric.

I still believe that President Obama is this nation’s best hope as Republicans are only concerned with being economic rebels for a terribly unjust cause.

Its just too bad those high hopes we had in 2008 have gone from being full of life to being near death just three short years later.

-JH