Post-Partisan Politics

In yet another example of just how out of touch this administration and Democratic Congressional leadership is with the needs of this nation, Congress passed on Thursday a small business bill which creates a $30 billion fund which ‘smaller’ banks (with less than $10 billion in assets) could use to provide loans for small businesses. [1] A few problems with this. One, bank executives seem ambivalent about participating in this program. Why not? Thus far, I’ve seen little reason for banks to serve as a ferrying service for funds between the federal government and small businesses. All the work and none of the benefits. The only thing that would motivate them is if they somehow profited from this, and if banks do profit from this, then the Democratic leadership, which has accused Republicans time and again of being friendly with Wall Street bankers, is yet again helping out the banking industry with taxpayer money (or, should we say, taxpayer credit since we’re in the hole). This gets to the third point — why loans? If we really wanted to help small businesses, then why not up the tax incentives included in the bill? Some way of letting them keep their already existing funds to do with as they see fit to help get their businesses on a more solid footing rather than putting more Americans further in debt. The main reason we can’t shake this recession is that Americans do not feel secure in the massive amounts of debt we’ve already accumulated and are reluctant to borrow more due to the ever-present fear of losing our jobs/businesses/means of living. We are being conservative in our spending habits because we don’t see any other choice, and thus, our consumer economy suffers. What is the incentive for small businesses to participate in this?

For the Congressional Democratic leadership, I fear their time is about up, but the administration still has a couple of years to turn their fortunes around. The recent shakeups in the economic team might provide the President with wiser council going forward. Unfortunately, as Obama ventured little beyond the ideas of Geithner, Summers and Bernanke until late in the game of dealing with this financial crisis, ignoring advice from insiders such as Orszag and Romer as well as from former Fed Chairmen Volcker and Greenspan, I wonder how much this shake up will change the administration’s course. Where others screamed ‘jobs,’ Tim, Larry and Ben would say otherwise, and Obama followed their lead. Mr. Obama has been credited for being decisive, not taking much time to deliberate or to listen to numerous opinions as Bill Clinton did during his presidency. After the immediate crisis, the President would have been wise to follow the steps of his predecessor, the man from Hope, and not just trusted the words of a few over the screams of many. That was the way of Mr. Bush.

As Velma Hart put it so eloquently in addressing Mr. Obama earlier in the week, “Quite frankly, I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.” [2] I say to my fellow citizens, from this point forward, stop. Stop defending the administration. Stop thinking that, due to a sense of patriotism or party affiliation, that you have to just accept what’s being given to us. Running on a ticket of “It could be worse” or “This is good enough” is not the “change that we deserve” that Democrats promised in 2008, and they need to hear it. Do Republicans have all the answers? No. No one person or party does, and if they tell you they do, then call em out on it. But together, we can find some answers. The administration and Congress need to understand this if we are ever to get ourselves moving forward again.