This diary is not intended to change anyone's opinion of Obama. We all have our issues, and no one is wrong for holding their elected officials up to scrutiny.
As for me, I wouldn't say I have my issues specifically. So much is wrong with my country, that it is hard to know where to start. Perhaps this is what I like best about this President. He has pretty much started with what's in front of him.
We are coming up on yet another deadline. Once again we will have to count votes to squeeze something through congress. Once again Obama is demanding the best possible legislation, which can pass the House and Senate.
How many times have we been here in the past two years?
Now I know many here aren't looking forward to Medicare or Social Security cuts. Quite simply, it isn't where anyone of us would start.
However, any honest observer will have to agree on one thing. Both Medicare and Social Security will need addressed sooner or later. The President didn't pick this fight, but if it is at his doorstep, he is willing to move forward.
Really, other than health care, the President hasn't gotten to pick any of the fights. Since coming into office, his path was chartered by larger events surrounding him.
The Stimulus and Wall Street Reform were the mess left for him.
The wars were stuck in limbo, when he took office. Gitmo was a wound he didn't open, but sought to close.
TARP and the Auto Companies were still half measures by the Bush administration.
Still, I haven't seen Obama flinch. He has took congress to the floor with everything they seemed willing to discuss. Even when the margins narrowed, he pressed every piece of legislation that could find a plurality.
There were a lot of failures. The Dream Act and closing Gitmo among the obvious. Still these two died in the congress, despite the President's wishes. The fact that a repeal of DADT passed still dumbfounds me.
Another failure was the repeal of the Bush tax cuts, but again he took the deal congress gave him.
Now I know some think the President should set the agenda. I know they think he should drive the conversation. I have seen Presidents do just that. I've also seen those same Presidents fail to get meaningful legislation through congress.
I remember Clinton's first two years, and the futility of his initiatives. Clinton himself wielded the bully pulpit, but somehow never seemed to get a bill on his desk. The media followed the conversation anywhere he led it, but to what end?
Again I wouldn't choose now as a time to discuss the deficit. Really, I wouldn't even worry about tax reform for a few years. But it is something that needs addressed, and I don't see the Republicans hoping on board a jobs program.
So if this is all the House majority wants to discuss, I'm glad to see the President is taking it seriously. If he manages to get $3 trillion dollars in cuts with and addition trillion in revenue, he will be alone among Presidents. That wouldn't balance the budget, but it would shrink the deficit far quicker than any President has managed in the past.
Despite my own personal ideological discomfort with the order of events and some reservations about the tepid legislation produced, I have to acknowledge the simple truth. This President has taken on big problems. He has made congress take more significant votes than I can remember in my lifetime.
Maybe the government isn't solving the problems I want, but it has been busy. It has been uncomfortably busy.