Freight Train on Ice

The US economy is a large freight train on ice. When President Clinton turned the train over to President Bush, it was on sound tracks, on land, but after eight years of fiscal mismanagement, including the funding of two wars off budget and tax cuts for the wealthy, the train had careened recklessly onto the ice. The country’s debt reached nine trillion. The train hit a curve in late 2008 and the ice cracked. Engineer Bush bailed, his credibility so poor, his administration so ineffective, that he could do nothing. President Obama, who grabbed the controls with nothing but credibility in his presidential portfolio, applied it and some thoughtful work to slow the train, and to straighten the tracks. Government bailouts, support for Fed emergency measures, forced mergers to stabilize the financial sector, incentive spending to generate jobs. All within a few weeks.

The effort cost more money, and the debt quickly built to 13 trillion, and it has been edging up ever since. The train is still on ice, after all.

There are those who expect the President’s administration to stop the train sharply, to put the jobs back right now. They have political words, no risk, whereas the President has all the risk – patchy thin ice, controls that are wobbly, and the speed represented in trillions of wealth yanked from consumer and business wallets from a collapsed real estate market. He knows he cannot slam on the brakes, or yank the train left or right, or somehow fly off the ice onto solid land. He must steer the beast skillfully.

It is very important to sort out politics from government. Politics is biased, it is for elections, for the candidates. It is not for the people. Indeed, it engages deceit and spin and incendiary words aimed to provoke, to tear down. In many instances, it is against the people.

Government is for the people. It is serious business. Trillions ripped from the nation’s wealth does not come back overnight. The damage done by the Bush presidency is more serious than that.

The politicians are but clowns. Pelosi is a clown, Reid is a clown, Boehner is a clown. Palin is a clown’s clown. Trump is the clown to top all clowns.

President Obama is one of the people. He irritates the clowns because he knows he cannot bend to their baloney. He must steer steady and true, slow the train, get it on land, get it under control.

He’s doing fine. I don’t want him to yank popular levers without regard for the train’s well-being.

He still shoots hoops, plays ping pong, kisses babies, travels the globe garnering respect for the US.

He got health care reform passed, something other presidents failed to do.

He delicately handled the Libyan crisis, keeping the US out of major engagement and letting other nations step to the front.

He has generally stuck to his campaign promises, Guantanamo the main exception. Iraq and Afghanistan are moving into the hands of Iraqis and Afghans, where they belong. Both are trains in their own right, but the US ought not be doing any more steering.

And he nailed bin Laden in his spare time.

He’s doing better than fine. So much better than fine.