On Obama budget, and ailing GOP...

I didn't vote for Obama. I had voted for Hillary Clinton in the primaries, and went for McCain, perhaps just to spite Obama. I can't stand his schmuck grin - I really can't stand it. I have ignored watching all speeches from Obama since he won the election, including the so-called historical inaugural speech.

But deep down, I know I had prefer Clinton's agenda (and Obama copycat it). Now that Obama is in office, for better or for worse, I would not wish him ill or fail. Afterall, the country and future direction could depend on this man. So, reluctantly, I brought myself to belatedly watch Obama's speech to Congress, prior to the release of his first budget proposal.

I must admit though, that Obama has approached the deep issues facing this country with pragmatism. At least in words, Obama looks to have the big picture and priorities right, which is to fix the economy in the immediate term, and fix the big issues (notably, energy, health care, and education) for the strategic future. Other approaches like bringing competitive bidding to medicare, should have been done long ago.

I do hope that he would follow through on his rhetoric that Obama is famous for, although his record of backpedaling is staggering, even during the presidential campaign. Who is there to hold him accountable for his pretty words? All we can do is hope - yes, that's the "hope" that he's been trying to sell to the voters, because that's all we can do now.

With the economy and bad news coming in every day, what with unemployment number (California reaches 10.1%), stock markets at all time low, and there's no end in sight, I'm sure everyone wants to be seen as doing something.

But while I'm still highly skeptical of Obama (and will only be convinced by actions and results, not words), I'm equally convinced that, should McCain win, he would not have offered much fresh ideas, or to change much of the wrong-headed course that George W Bush had charged this country down on.

These days, GOP, as if stuck in neutral, only has one line to offer - tax cuts. Rush Limbaugh, unbelievably, has become the face of GOP. When so many ordinary folks hurting due to job loss and sour economy, the GOP rising stars would have us believed that government is not the answer, unemployment benefits should not be increased, and everything would go back to normal if government gets out of the way of Wall Street.

While I do not believe government should be all-encompassing, I do not subscribe to the notion that there's no role for the government to play. A good government should establish a reliable, fair, and enforceable (backed with effective enforcement) framework and level playing field, whereby private parties can strive on. The eight years of Bush, and the Greenspan/Rubin reign during the eight years prior under Bill Clinton, have essentially reduced this country to the wild-wild-west for the Wall Street where everything and anything goes. The profit-at-all-costs is simply and completely unacceptable. I can't believe it either, that GOP still has the thick skin to reiterate those same old tired lines to the American people. Hell - can anyone be more tone-deaf than the GOP right now?

While I did not read the whole budget draft, the fact that some agencies like EPA are getting additional funding is indeed good news. Without the funding, those federal agencies (like SEC) are effectively reduced to be toothless tiger. I'm still hoping that more regulations (with less DUI from lobbyists on the Congress) are going to rein in alot of things that are ailing this country.

I'm still hoping and waiting.