"Never Waste a Good Crisis" (to be cont.)

TW: I am not sure who came up with that quote but it should apply to our current economic predicament. Me thinks folks are ready for some new stuff. I do not see Obama taking government down crazy new paths but unlike the Republicans who have spent the past thirty years running for office on dismantling government, I see Obama trying unashamedly to make government work more effectively. One can see that in his appointments of pragmatists and creation of some new posts to try to more effectively garner results from governance.

The reality is the Republicans did not dismantle much government, they certainly did not reduce spending and they created a huge bureaucracy known as Homeland Security.

There will be some infrastructure spending, some tax abatements and other stuff. Regardless of how the ratio of spending to tax abatements work out for the next year or so the bigger question is what will happen in the longer-term. Obama has started to open the Pandora's box of entitlements.

But will he succeed in actually addressing the problem. The problem has not been addressed because the people's collective will has not been harnessed sufficiently to do so. Generating the collective will require a tremendously talented and popular POTUS married up with a historical inflection point when the populace is ready or at least scared enough to try change and sacrifice. I think we may be at such a confluence.

The relatively piddling issue Economist brings up about getting some Republican cooperation on the "stimulus" bill or corralling his own Dems is not the point. Are we ready to attack the long-term? What attacking the long-term will be for future posts.

From Economist:
"President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that overhauling Social Security and Medicare would be "a central part" of his administration's attempts to contain federal spending.

Those are the third and third-and-a-half rails, respectively, of American politics...Will a president with an 82% approval rating be any more lucky? It'll depend on the approach, but given the problems he's already had with senators bucking some of his nominees, and squabbling over the appointment to his Senate seat the Democrats might not bite. The advantage for Mr Obama is that Republicans are queasy about supporting any new spending without entitlement reform. Perhaps that's what this is about"
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/01/barack_obama_and_the_entitleme.cfm