The fall has been precipitous. Just months into his first term, President Obama's support is evaporating at record rates. Even a majority of the independent voters now disapprove of his performance.
A slew of recent polls show the President's approval rating below 50 percent and going lower. The dual force propelling the drop for both the President and Congress seems to be bailouts and the Democrat's health care plans.
After criticizing President Bush for increasing debt, President Obama took office and began borrowing trillions more to pour down the rabbit hole. He continues many of the fiscal policies that created the meltdown. The similarities between current policies and those that put the U.S. deeper into the Depression for a longer period than most other nations are noted in a paper published by a British think-tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs.
The study, endorsed by economist and Nobel laureate James Buchanan, argues that deficit spending and increased Federal intervention will impede the long-term growth of the US economy and could delay full economic recovery by several years. As in the 1930s, the Federal government is sucking money out of the system that would otherwise support the survival and growth of private business and industry and the wages they pay. In the current crises, consumer credit is tapped out and shrinking, making a quick recovery even less likely.
The President and his Czars turned from bailouts to clunkers to health care and stumbled through the summer. Democrats in the other Washington saw the Federal takeover of health care wrenched out of their hands as grassroots movements turned out thousands to rally against them.
The ill-defined "public option" is one theme of the debate. Candidate Obama called for a program to "help Americans and businesses purchase private health insurance." President Obama and his overwhelming majority in Congress made "public option" their battle cry. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, said there would be no bill without it. Representative Jim McDermott says he will oppose any bill that does not include it. In a recent interview, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-MN, agreed with others that "public option" is the foundation for a single payer, government controlled program.
President Obama insisted on "public option," right up to the point that the public pushed back. Then he did a double flip-flop, saying that was not necessary before reversing himself a few days later under pressure from the Congressional Democrats. Leading up to this week's speech, the White House indicates we now have a triple flip-flop and the "public option" is off the table again.
Cost-saving arguments were unpersuasive. First it was claimed that a massive government program would result in such efficiencies that it would pay for itself. Then the benefits of screening everyone in America would pay for the program. Both claims were contradicted by the Congressional Budget Office. Next the President, addressing a group of religious leaders, said that God favored his health care plan. Al Gore piped in, preaching that we have a moral duty to pass it. That theme was floated for a few days and disappeared too.
President Obama is taking to the air once more in an attempt to regain control of the debate. He has done more television addresses in the first months of his term than any of his predecessors. So far, they are not helping his approval rating.
With Congress back from the summer storms and 75 percent of the public saying they would replace every member of Congress, Republican and Democrat, if they could, the health care debate may be taking even more twists before the debate ends.[[In-content Ad]]
