What happened to Change?
Where is the change? Over the last week I’ve heard some very strange things. Some are change and some are politics as usual.
1. Obama came out last week and endorsed John Barrow for Congress. Now here is a man that ran in ‘06 as a defender of the Bush tax cuts and a strong supporter of the war in the Middle East. In ‘08 he is a strong supporter of Obama. I’m curious, which is the real Barrow, or is the real Barrow just a superficial person who goes which ever way the wind is blowing? Actually, no Change there.
2. The real question is, “Why is Obama endorsing a “conservative” Democrat while Regina Thomas is left hanging in the breeze?” After all, Regina is as politically close to Obama as one can get while Barrow is still trying to woo conservatives in the district by voting as close as he can to the Republicans in Georgia. The reason is simple, it’s not about what the candidate stands for, it’s that Barrow is the incumbent and the Democrats do not want to take a chance on Regina. They are willing to put up with a chameleon instead of someone who will actually say what they believe. Politics as usual, No CHANGE!
3. I met Jack Kingston’s opponent this weekend and he seemed like a pretty decent guy until he promised to balance the budget and THEN bring home all the “entitlements” that we deserve. That’s when I knew who we are dealing with. No change there.
4. Obama trashes McCain on not funding more levees, not spending more government money on flood control, and then says that he will create a new Federal Agency to help cities cut through the Federal Bureaucracy.
Did you notice that when some of the levees broke it reduced the flooding downstream? The reason is simple, by allowing the water to expand in area it reduced the flow downstream so that the lower levees had less pressure on them and a lower crest than expected. The current plan is to funnel the water, which causes restrictions in the first place. Maybe, just maybe, someone will come up with the idea of having areas in the system that will allow the water to spread out and actually reduce flooding instead of building more and higher levees that actually cause the rivers to rise so drastically. Maybe if the politicians would actually listen to some people with a little engineering background we could actually solve a problem instead of making it worse.
The interesting part was the founding of the first White House Director of Urban Policy. This new position would help communities by cutting through the bureaucracy. Why not just cut the bureaucracy in the first place? He is also promising more money for police, teachers, transit, housing, and broadband access. Does this sound like more or less government? Where in our constitution is it the job of the Federal government to get involved in anything other than interstate transportation? Wouldn’t it be more efficient if the states raised the money to pay teachers and police rather that the Federal government raising the money, cycling it through all of those bureaucracies, and then sending it back to the states? Once again, promise of Change but no change on the horizon/