In Case You Missed It

Posted by Jake G. on 03.05.2009

Government shows signs of change and more of the same.

While most of the political world tried to figure out if Rush Limbaugh is the new leader of the GOP, I'm keeping tabs on some other developments in the world that may have slightly bigger impacts. This is the 411 equivalent of "In Case You Missed It"... The Democrats just reached a new deal for mortgage bail outs that meets almost all the important requirements. Namely, you can't get money if you haven't tried to pay off your mortgage. It also checks to see if banks gave you a fair loan or if you were one of the many millions of Americans who got caught up in a bank loan scam.

"The concern is that we want to ensure that those people who get relief have tried other avenues," (House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md Speaks on Mortgage Bill.) To me this is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle to come down the line in all the stimulus brouhaha of late. Obviously some people got screwed, but others just didn't live up to their end of the bargain. It's nice to see the House Democrats working towards a solution to help weed out the good from the bad. This is another step in the right direction and an absolutely positive sign of the government working for us.

Elsewhere it's business as usual in Washington as the Senate passed a spending bill loaded down with earmarks. While Earmarks themselves aren't always a bad thing, they are typically treated as one in the media. It's easy to throw punches at "pig odor research" but as we learned last year during the debates, some of these items that seem like throw away's such as research on fruit flies that Sarah Palin criticized last year, apparently unaware that, that same research had led to significant knowledge on the battle against Autism, a cause she herself championed. Still it's somewhat alarming to see that the earmarks are getting passed.

John McCain made a play for power attempting to have many of the earmarks removed, but was quickly shut down to further show how little stroke he has left within the Senate. Ironically the bill itself has less earmarks than last year, which does show an improvement but doesn't quite meet up to President Obama's high standards that he insisted be sought out in his stimulus package that was to be kept free of earmarks.

Obama has agreed to sign this bill but has basically thrown down the gauntlet and insisted that the next one will not pass so easily if the earmarks aren't reduced or completely eliminated. Of course many of these earmarks are looked at as a positive thing in the current economic climate as many of them create jobs and are for legitimate projects to improve schools and communities throughout the country. This makes the word earmark not nearly as bad of a word as it was in more prosperous times. This will be a tough battle for Obama to overcome. Despite McCain's grandstanding, it appears as though the two men have similar goals on earmarks.

So what can we take from all of this? We're seeing improvements in Washington, but nothing can be done overnight. The Republicans message is getting muddled by their own party's faults and some Democrats are eager to take advantage of this. However it is good to note that we're seeing some unity from both sides to work on some of the more pressing issues and we're starting to see some progress in some important legislature. Will things be dramatically improved in the next few months? We'll have to see if the Republicans can get their game together with a focused message and a leader, while the Democrats will have to align themselves together on critical issues and not just try to bend and shape things to their will. For his part Barack Obama has stuck to his guns but has been bent a little on certain issues. The line is slowly being drawn in the sand and we'll see if the executive and the legislative branches of government can make sense of it all and show some unity for the common good of the people.

Here's hoping.