Having Your Cake

In America, we like to have our cake and eat it too. When I was a child, I never understood what that meant. Of course, I wanted my cake... and if I had my cake, I most certainly wanted to eat it. It was my grandfather that explained to me that "once you ate your cake, you no longer have it. It's gone". I then scratched my head and said, "Oh" and I began to understand. The difference between me and grown American citizens now is that I was 5 years old, I can be forgiven. In light of the terrible state of affairs this nation is going through right now, You would think they would understand that some tough decisions had to be made and with them comes consequences.

As the young Obama administration spends trillions of dollars in its effort to turn around the nation’s economy and revive the U.S. auto industry, the American public is growing concerned about the size of the budget deficit and the government’s intervention into the private sector. Nearly 7 in 10 have serious reservations about the federal government’s ownership stake in General Motors. Almost 60% say that President Obama and Congress should worry more about keeping the deficit down, even if that means it will take longer for the economy to recover. And, fewer than half of Americans have confidence in the president’s policies to improve the economy.

Again, here we are wanting to have our cake. In this case, a thriving economy and wanting to eat it too, by not having a deficit or any government intervention. The president and his administration are in the unenviable position of being damned if they do something and damned if they don't. People are grumbling a little about the Obama administration not acting fast enough on health care. If he does, the deficit may grow even deeper and that will cause these same people to be concerned about that. Seriously, what do people want? A magic wand that will make all of the pieces fit? It just doesn't work like that.

Obama remains a popular figure in the polls... but, these numbers on the deficit and the government’s intervention seem to mark a new period for the administration, as the public moves from welcoming his inauguration and first days in office to examining his initial actions as president. Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with (Wouldn't you know it?)Republican Bill McInturff, said that Obama is still receiving a bouquet from Americans “but there are a lot more thorns in the bouquet.”

And, looking ahead to the items Obama wants to tackle like reforming health care (as I mentioned above) and curbing greenhouse gases, Hart observes that the bar has been raised. “There is no more smooth sailing for the administration. They are going to have to navigate in pretty choppy waters.” Choppy waters the Republican opposition is more than happy to navigate him through.

McInturff agrees, although he adds that the president’s continued personal popularity gives him “the latitude to ask for major action and major change.” Independents are now split on Obama, according to the poll... 60% view Obama favorably vs. just 29% who see him in a negative light. Also, three-quarters of the public say they like him personally and that number includes 27% who don’t like his policies. But, the president’s overall approval rating is at 56%, which is down 5 percentage points from April.

The drop mainly comes from independents, who backed Obama by 60% to 31% in April but, approve of him now by a 46-44 clip. Yet, perhaps the most troubling numbers in the poll for Obama come on questions about the administration’s intervention in the private sector, especially to help save General Motors.

The public sours on GM intervention and the deficit... 46% oppose Obama’s action to provide financial aid to GM in return for a majority stock in the company. Additionally, a whopping 69% say they’re concerned “a great deal” or “quite a bit” about the government’s ownership of the automaker.

But, here again... this is a case of having your cake and wanting to eat it too. If GM goes down, jobs are lost and not just the GM jobs... but, all of the companies who service GM and depend on GM for their livelihood. I found it simply amazing that a number of so-called Pro-Business Republicans said that Obama should have let GM and the banks that asked for bailout money simply fail and collapse, and that the American people should not have had to pay their tab. Incredible. On paper somewhere, some idiot might have thought that looked good but, the human face was certainly not on that paper.

The human face of the father and mother who are out of work, whose electricity is off because they've fallen behind in their payments, whose home is about to be taken from them, and who might have had a meal yesterday but are not sure if they will eat today. The human faces of their kids who just don't understand why or how this all happened to them... whole towns and urban areas where many families are acting out this entire scenario. This is why it would have been catastrophic to allow the banks and automakers to fail. This is why there was no time to debate policy for three years and then do something half-assed. Something had to be done now!

I don't like the widening and bloated deficit anymore than the next man. I'm no fool. I know that my grandchildren's kids will probably still be paying for this mess but, it's either that or I'm out on the street now, which would do no one any good at all. I'm slicing a piece of strawberry short cake. Care to have some America?