The Courage of Obama's Convictions

I voted for Barak Obama, because he promised to reform the health insurance, the banking, and the financial services industries. He also vowed to close the prison for terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and eliminate the "don’t-ask-don’t-tell" policy against gay men and women in America’s armed services.

Now, eight months into his presidency, I am disappointed by his ineffective leadership. He has allowed his opponents to define his policies for voters, which effectively turns over the control of the current legislative agenda to the American Conservative movement.

Conservatives have a lot to answer for. Who first advocated and enacted the bailout of banks and Wall Street? George Walker Bush. Yet Conservatives call such bailouts "intrusive big government spending" and blame Obama for the mess. Who created the enormous budget deficits that will burden our grandchildren? George Walker Bush. Yet Conservatives shout into their radio mikes about Liberals and Socialists who seek to destroy this country by spending it to death. Who increased the size of the United States government? George Walker Bush. Yet Conservatives keep up their mantra about Obama’s enlargement of an already oversized bureaucracy that saps Americans’ self-reliance and interferes with citizens’ personal choices.

Conservative aggression has stymied the Obama administration, but Obama has aided and abetted Conservatives by not stating, clearly, the policies that would aid Congress to pass the necessary reform legislation. He has been so busy being bipartisan that he has failed to notice that he has lost the political initiative that had swept him into office. He will likely never regain it.

If he had had the courage of his convictions, he would have advocated, right from the beginning, health insurance reform, rather than health care reform. That would have eliminated the nonsense about "death panels." The insurance reform would have included a government insurance program, like Medicare, that would compete with private insurance companies, thus lowering the costs of premiums charged by private insurers. The government’s program would not have covered elective surgery. Nor abortions, except in cases of incest, rape, or when the life of the mother was in danger. Obama could have stated clearly, at the beginning of his administration, that this program would have been available only to citizens of the United States and resident aliens. Which would have made Representative Wilson’s outburst not just stupid and untrue, but politically ineffective.

He would have stated, clearly and forcibly, that those who had wanted to stay with private insurance companies would have been allowed to. And they would have been protected from the insurance industry’s questionable practices. The reform would have kept health insurance companies from raising premiums or canceling coverage because of a policyholder’s illness. Insurance companies would not have been allowed to deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions, age, job change, or employment termination. Policyholders would have been protected from a reduction of coverage or an increase of deductibles as long as the policyholder had been paying the premium.

This would have given legislators real issues about actual problems to debate. But it would not have prevented Limbaugh, Beck and Company to distort and lie about insurance reform. But if nothing had been accomplished, they would have had, hanging around their necks, the lack of adequate health care for millions of Americans, many of whom were their listeners and readers. And Obama would have reminded them who was responsible.

Obama would have stated that he wanted to separate consumer banking from stock market and international trade. He would have told Congress to re-enact the Glass Steagall Act, regulate the stock market and international trade so that derivatives and the packaging of mortgages to be sold as securities would be illegal.

He would have advocated specific laws and regulations to stop the extravagance of corporate executive compensation. Bonuses would not have exceeded 20% of an executive’s base salary, and would have been subject to withholding taxes before they were disbursed. They would not have been paid unless the corporation posted a profit of no less than 5% after stockholders had received their dividends. All deferred compensation would have been eliminated, as would all corporate tax deductions for all executive perquisites such as club memberships, use of corporate jets for personal use, executive dining rooms, private use of all corporation-owned transportation, first-class and business class airline tickets, except for business travel outside the continent of North America. These perquisites would have been allowed only if these expenses had been listed as compensation for the specific executive who received them. Then the corporation would have withheld taxes from the base pay of the executive who received them, and the executive would have paid federal and state income taxes on the value of perquisites received.

Yes, Limbaugh and Beck would have shouted "Socialism!" into the Conservative echo chamber (which shows that their ideas and rhetoric have limited intellectual substance). Banks would have claimed that they needed the perquisites and bonuses to retain experienced and productive personnel. Hopefully, Obama would have pointed out that those experienced and productive personnel had been the ones that had brought the banking industry to its knees. Obama would have also pointed out that, in the recession caused by their inept and corrupt management, the executives would not have quit their jobs if they had not received those bonuses and perks. New positions, even for executives, would have been very difficult to find.

Immediately after assuming the position of Commander-in-Chief, Obama would have ordered the closure of the prison for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay. He would have also closed all the "black sights" maintained around the world. He would have transferred the inmates and internees to the federal facility at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Kansans would have protested loudly, but their protest would have put them in the awkward position of wanting the money that the Federal facility would have brought into their state, but, at the same time, casting doubt on the ability of the military to hold its prisoners. Hardly a way to support the troops. However, they would have benefited from the thanks of their fellow Americans who would have spent millions in Kansas for expanded facilities. They would have also received the thanks for all those fiscal conservatives for helping to eliminate the expense of maintaining all those secret holding sites around the world.

Obama would have put accused terrorists on trial in civil courts immediately and ordered that all evidence against them be revealed. He would have let the evidence reveal whatever it did, including the sources of intelligence and the US government officials that approved the imprisonment and torture of the accused. He would have ordered that the innocent be returned to the countries where they were first detained, thus returning the United States of America to the status of Nation of Laws.

Of course, the Swift Boaters, various retired generals, and probably Senator John McCain, would have gotten on Larry King and Fox News to call for the impeachment of President Obama for treason and putting Americans at risk. Limbaugh would probably have called Obama an "Arab-loving thug" and demanded another investigation into Obama’s birthplace. Again, Obama would have forcibly reminded Conservatives that we were a Nation of Laws, not Lies, and that our military could hold prisoners effectively. He would have reminded them that fair and open trials had been something that terrorists wanted to destroy. He also would have announced that we needed to recruit translators of languages that are spoken in the Middle East, and that he would rehire those foreign-born and gay Americans that had been fired because they were foreign born and gay.

After that, he would have told Congress to reverse the law formulating the "Don’t ask, don’t tell" policy against gays in the military. While Congress debated the issue, he, as Commander in Chief, would have ordered that gays in the military be allowed to serve openly and without prejudice to their expectation of promotion. Thus joining the armed services of such countries as Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. I leave the Conservatives’ probable response to your imagination.

President Obama wasn’t elected to be popular. He was elected to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States of America and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. He was also elected to fulfill his campaign promises. That he has not done.