Real leadership in short supply

The debut of President Barack Obama has left many people skeptical about his willingness to confront those who would ignore his lofty standards or plunder the treasury.

Quite of few of President Obama’s supporters are completely bewildered, wondering where the “no earmarks” promise went, feeling the sting of an administration wandering quickly to the left.

Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, said the president will sign the 2009 omnibus spending bill, despite his strong campaign pledge to slash earmarks, promising us a reduction in earmarks to below 1994 levels (less than $7.8 billion a year).

Orszag told George Stephanopoulos, “This is last year’s business. We want to just move on. Let’s get this bill done, get it into law and move forward.” Even some of the most ardent liberal pundits claimed Orszag’s statement and Obama’s lack of action was a blatant cop-out.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, both former House members, have earmarks in the bill. Vice President Biden makes an appearance too. But before Republicans get all fired up, the current proposed earmarks do not even come close to the outrageous 13,492 appropriations earmarks in fiscal year 2005, the year of conservative Republican shame.

President Obama made a deliberate contract with the American voters to “change” the status quo. Well, spending is still out of control and earmarks reign. Likewise, lobbyists still hold seats of power.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress he was going to pursue corporate tax cheats, not especially reassuring from a man who failed to pay his taxes.

One in five mortgages is now “underwater” (when the debt is greater than the value). Furthermore, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced it might go bust by the end of 2009.

But before the Democrats start screaming, “President Bush did this to us,” remember Rep. Barney Frank and Sens. Chris Dodd and Chuck Schumer led the charge for regulatory changes, encouraging sub-prime loans and boosting lending for people buying housing they could not afford.

President Obama’s Housing Relief Program would force those who pay their mortgages to subsidize as many as 9 million people who have defaulted, creating the perfect description for “moral hazard.” Also, giving judges the authority to “cram down” loans in default will not help the financial institutions regain their footing.

Rather than blame the banks and their greediness for all of our current problems, do not forget members of both political parties are to blame too, imposing market-distorting regulations on our banking system, carelessly neglecting the best interest of our nation and the world economy. The discouraging part is we now must rely upon them to fix the mess.

However, before you scold our members of Congress, remember that we voted for those bamboozlers over and over and over again. When I look at the tremendous intellectual capacity of Fayette Countians and who we end up sending to Congress, I shriek in disbelief.

Sadly, if history is any indicator, the new unprecedented federal spending will become the new spending baseline for our country’s future budgets.

Now, we sit and watch helplessly as former president and chief operating officer of Countrywide Financial Corp., Stanford Kurland, the man who mismanaged billions in defaults, announces a new venture known as PennyMac, designed to buy bank-held, non-performing mortgages for pennies on the dollar, creating an uneasy harmony with the billions in TARP funds that disappeared within the banks.

Now, we sit in silence while the Dow Jones Industrial Index drops over 1,000 points in just 14 days of trading. Even renowned investment personality Jim Cramer — who embraced candidate Obama — called the President’s new course a “radical agenda” and the “greatest wealth destruction” he has ever seen.

The country is ramping up new nuclear energy facilities, including one in Georgia, and the Obama administration ruled out the Yucca Mountain site for storing the highly radioactive nuclear waste. To date, the federal government has spent nearly $13.5 billion preparing the site. No one knows where the over 60,000 tons of waste we have on hand will be disposed.

Republican governors and legislatures are snapping up stimulus funds after decades of preaching about the evils of the Democrats’ big government ways.

And as if there were not enough distractions, the President’s staff has gone to war against radio personality Rush Limbaugh, a battle they are not likely to win.

The President’s debut could go down as one of the roughest in presidential history. The debate will be fierce leading up to the all-important Congressional elections in 2010.

Fortunately, for the Democrats, our Republicans are suffering from a huge leadership vacuum and a failed ban of foot soldiers on Capitol Hill.

[Steve Brown is the former mayor of Peachtree City. He can be reached at stevebrownptc@ureach.com.]