Editorial CE #4

This week’s editorial is called “The Audacity of Audacity” by E.J. Dionne Jr. in the Washington Post. It discusses how President Obama is facing three overlapping questions: When will middle-of-the-road voters start blaming him for the sick economy? When will he act decisively to deal with the mess that is our banking system? And can he keep managing his political two-step of appealing simultaneously to centrists and progressives? The economy is still in crisis and will remain so until there is a solution to the problems with the banks, and if things keep going bad, more and more voters in the middle will start blaming Obama for not fixing them. All of the bad news is empowering Obama’s critics who consider themselves moderates. They say that the president, in trying to keep his campaign promises on health care and energy, is "overreaching" and not focusing on economic recovery. Dionne says that it's hard for the fair-minded not to have some sympathy for Obama. He has been in office for less than two months, and no president since Franklin D. Roosevelt had to deal with such a crisis as the one Obama is dealing with now. Wall Street conservatives are arguing that the stock market is collapsing because Obama wants to institute a relatively modest set of tax increases on the wealthy. But these voices supported lower taxes on the rich when the economy was bad, when the economy was good and when the economy was so-so. They have no credibility. These same voices claim to worry about future budget deficits. Unfortunately for Obama, such arguments matter far less right now than unemployment hitting 8.1 percent and the downward spiral of the stock market since he took office. All of the administration's critics are being emboldened by its hesitancy in dealing with the banking question and its apparent fear of temporary bank nationalization. On this issue, the president genuinely is trying to steer a moderate course. Obama's calm and deliberative style is one of his greatest strengths. He doesn't want precipitous action in the midst of an economic collapse to come back to haunt us all. But sometimes excessive caution can be as dangerous as impetuousness. The president has no choice but to be bold. If there is one thing he should fear, it is fear itself. Overall, I believe that Obama is doing the right thing with the economy right now. We do need higher taxes in order to solve this downward slope in the economy. It is better that we spend less and pay more than to lose all of our money in the banks and stock markets. I think it is very typical of the wealthy to criticize Obama’s actions. He wants tax cuts for the middle class and I think that that would help put more money into the economy.