More than a few commentators have noted President Obama’s update
an old FDR homily. Obama’s version is,
”
When the town is burning
… everybody needs to grab a hose.
”
It’s a very compelling thought, but he forgot to tell his own
fire department to squirt the flames, not to use the hose to water
the lawn.
More than a few commentators have noted President Obama’s update an old FDR homily. Obama’s version is, “When the town is burning … everybody needs to grab a hose.” It’s a very compelling thought, but he forgot to tell his own fire department to squirt the flames, not to use the hose to water the lawn.
No sane person would take either moral or ethical lessons from Bill Clinton, but he was right in one respect, “It’s the economy, stupid.” President Obama should see if he can find that sign in a trashcan and hang it back up. By his own account, the president sees the current economic chaos as an opportunity to advance his ambitious reform plans – it’s like seeing a house fire as an opportunity to buy new curtains; it’s the wrong time and the wrong place for redecorating; first save the house.
The new administration’s decision to disregard the market was not merely careless – it was stupid. Ever since they revealed their non-plan to save the banks, the markets have dropped like a rock. They are wasting energy and money on doing a little bit of everything and they are doing nothing well. As long as unemployment is rising and revenues falling, healthcare and education reform cannot move forward because everyone has other, more pressing, priorities – economic survival.
With more than 200 “at risk” banks out there, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is the glue that’s holding the banking system together. FDIC guarantees that depositors accounts are safe, insured by the federal government to $250,000. Last week the markets needed assurance that the administration would back the FDIC’s request for additional credit from the treasury. That vote of confidence should have come immediately, but for some incomprehensible reason the administration hesitated. They will eventually say yes, maybe as soon as today, but the damage is done – it’s like having to wait too long for the answer to the question, “do you love me?” The loss of confidence can’t be repaired.
The economic crisis will do more to harm education than any reform can do to improve it. An untold number of students will either drop out or put their education on hold as economic conditions force them into the labor market. Their educational timeline will be disrupted as families are uprooted and forced to move and change schools on short notice. Increased economic stress means more substance abuse, more domestic-violence, more gang activity and more clinical depression.
Locally, we’ve already been victims of the government’s inflexibility. They took nearly $375,000 in ready cash and wasted in on low priority public transportation buses that will not add a single local job while the county’s unemployment rate was soaring past 14-percent. The current federal stimulus plan has the same problems; it will make very little impact in 2009. That’s far too little, too late.
The administration needs to put aside it’s grand plans for reform and concentrate all its energy on designing and implementing a rapid and effective economic recovery plan. That means reinforcing the best, not the worst, companies in the private sector because only they have the capability of putting people to work immediately and productively and they generate the added value needed to prime the economic engine.
Silicon Valley is one of the power pistons that propel both the state and the nation, it supports the tech market and it provides employment for large numbers of our local residents. Most importantly, it’s full of people and companies who know how to get things done. That’s where the stimulus money should go and it should go there right now. Redecorating can wait until the fire is out.
Marty Richman is a Hollister resident. His column runs Tuesdays. Reach him at [email protected].
