A Vote for Change

After Obama won the election nearly two years ago I said that I would support him until he gave me a reason not to. Now with the mid term elections one week away it seems like a good time to see just how things have changed. After all, he did campaign on a promise to "change" things. Allow me to review just some of the issues that are important to me.

1) Education - President Obama recognizes that the public school system in many cities (especially Washington) is so bad that no one can hope to get a decent education there. Washington DC had implemented a school voucher system there that allowed families to send their kids to a decent school. Just as the system was beginning to make huge improvements Obama caved in to the unions and killed the voucher program. Of course his kids go to a private school. In DC or the rest of the nation there is no change on the horizon for education.

2) War on Drugs - no change here. Drugs (and terrorists) cross our border with Mexico just as easily as they ever did. We still have an open border.

3) Energy - Obama continues to shut down the coal mines and drilling for oil (off shore and on shore). He talks about a smart grid but is doing nothing about it. The only real option for domestic power is nuclear and he won't even mention that. No change here.

4) Immigration Reform - As I said before, our border is just as open as it ever was. He talks about amnesty once in a while (of course he doesn't call it that) but he isn't even trying to fix immigration. By fix I mean make it easier for good people to come and harder for bad people to come. Right now it's easy for the bad people and hard for the good people.

5) Health Care - Has anyone noticed how expensive health insurance is getting? Since Obama's health care plan was passed health care cost have only accelerated. His plan was doomed to failure. The Cato Institute predicts that Obama Care will cost $2.7 trillion (not the $900 billion that was promised) and there will still be 21 million uninsured. There are many good ways to solve this problem but for Obama it is his way or the high way. There has certainly been a change with respect to Health Care but I don't think this is the change people were voting for.

6) Uniting the country - When Obama took office he promised to unite the country. As bad as Bush was, the Democrats under Obama are even worse. You can't disagree with Obama on anything without being called a racist, a terrorist or a Neanderthal. Not much of a change here.

7) Foreign Policies - Obama promised to improve our image in the eyes of the world. I guess he intended to do this by appeasing everyone but all he's done is snub Great Britain, abandon our allies in Asia and the Middle East, bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia and give credibility and recognition to terrorists who cut off peoples heads and abuse their women. I guess this is a change but not one I like. Before long we have handed our super power status over to China and they will run the world.

8) Obama bailed out all the big banks that had mismanaged their money and bought General Motors to save their Unions. Meanwhile the banks and automobile companies that used good business practices were hung out to dry. How's that right? Is this the change you voted for?

9) Environment - Obama's doing his best to pass "Cap and Trade" which will have no effect on Global Warming but will drive our energy costs so high that even more companies will fail and unemployment will go yet higher.

10) Economy - All I really need to say is that unemployment is now over 10% and in reality it is much higher than that if you count the underemployed and part timers who would like to be full time. Now to encourage growth he's going to let the Bush tax cuts expire and this will result in the largest tax hike in American history. That should help.

It doesn't look to me like Obama has changed much and the few changes he has made seem to be changes for the worse. Apparently a lot of other Americans agree with me and next week at this time we should have a chance for some real change. I just hope that all the new politicians that get voted in learn from their predecessors and are more responsive to the average American who just wants to be left alone.