Government Spending, Rhetoric, and Porn, Oh My!

Recently I've seen some pretty upsetting things come up in the media that I wanted to expand my thoughts on. The first of those is this article found on MSNBC. The main thrust of the article is that Obama realizes that the debt is huge and growing, but that he is going to put us more in debt to "stimulate the economy". We should all be grateful though because he isn't going to spend the $1 trillion some analysts told him to spend, instead the bill will only be around $800 billion. I always find government price tags to be of extremely questionable integrity. The good of the article is that the President-Elect does acknowledge that there is a problem with the mounting debt. I do hope to see the government do something to tackle to problem, though I doubt that a stimulus plan will help either the economy or the debt.

Those who loved the sound of much of what Obama said during his campaign should love this next tidbit. Sometimes I don't think politicians realize the power they hold over the American public, particularly the ones in high profile positions such as Presidential candidates. Some would probably find it odd that people voted for them based on the campaign promises that they made. "I want to be realistic here," Obama said in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "Not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace that we had hoped." I would hope that would cause some doubt among his followers. He promised to do something and now is saying it can't be done in the timeframe he desired. The reality is that most of it will never be accomplished. Politicians should choose realistic goals instead of overinflated ones that will get them elected.

The last thing I hoped to mention here is just an interesting thought that should make Americans a little more leary of the economic bailouts that are being doled out like halloween candy. This article lets us know that another industry is searching for a bailout, I would assume more for the reason that "everyone else is doing it". The Porn makers of the US want a handout as well. To most Americans this will hopefully illustrate the futility and idiocy of handing out taxpayer dollars, mind you those taxpayers are not buying the products offered by those companies in the first place, to save companies the government feels needs saving.

What does it really cost?

So over the past month the Obama transition team has done nothing surprising to me keeping to their own for appointments to cabinet positions. All of that does not bode well for the battle cry of "Change". If you choose the people we all knew you would choose, we're not going to believe that something different is coming. I've already talked about my feelings on his pick for Secretary of State so we can move on.
Recently my wife and I began to talk about the inaguration that is forthcoming. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this one. Obama has chosen to be sworn in on the Lincoln Bible which is perhaps an interesting commentary on the beginning of rights for blacks in this country. Then he chose Rick Warren to give the invocation and all hell broke loose. This might be the first sign of change in the administration, though the though did cross my mind that he might have just wanted someone famous to do it. For those who do not know Warren he is an uber-conservative pastor of his own church that he started from the ground up a while ago. He is incredibly popular, even hosting one of the presidential debates during the campaign. So, why is an ultra-liberal asking an uber-conservative to pray at his inaguration? I mean, it's his party, he can do whatever he wants. He either thought it a good move to get conservatives to watch the celebration, or it might even be an attempt to get conservatives to like him more. Or with my previous theory of it being a quick choice of someone famous. Who knows, but we will see what happens here soon.
The other big issue surrounding the swearing in of Barack Obama as President of the United States is the price tag on the party. Originally the budget was set at 15 million dollars, which I thought was outlandish, but then again I am used to the government putting a huge markup on all they do. Then came the real kicker for me when Congress was asked for 15 million more!!!! Now, even if this is a historic event, to which more people than normal are going to come. And even with the need for more police and public transportation. Can we not throw a party for the incoming president with less than 30 million? Why the inflated price tag? It reminds me of the stimulus packages where the bill was such that if you split it up equally for every tax-paying adult in the nation it came to something over 100 thousand dollars and instead each person got less than a thousand. Where does all that extra money go? Is our government really that inefficient? Then should follow the question, if our government is so inefficient, why do we let it continue to be so? It is not the only way and can be changed with a little concern and effort on our part.
So beyond the Saddleback controversy and whether Warren will pray in the name of Jesus Christ, there is still not much to inspire confidence in change with the Obama presidency. If I am missing something, please let me know as I would be happy to post something that proves myself wrong.