LEADERSHIP IN GOVERNMENT

Leadership or Compromise
One Year Obama Leadership Report

Timothy Stagich, Ph.D.

Leadership is not about compromise. It is about working through problems in a collaborative way for the greater benefit of everyone. Compromise is at best a temporary solution and at worst it is unsatisfactory to all and risks repeating the same mistakes over and over again. President Obama and his Administration are already at a critical crossroads one year into their work for the American people to fulfill the promises and contract he made with all of us to turn around a nation heading in the wrong direction. It is becoming a choice of compromise or real leadership. So, it is necessary at this time to take a closer look at what is happening in order to see more clearly if we are really heading in the right direction under the promises and vision of real leadership or the wrong direction under the ambitions of political cronies and compromisers. Now is the best time to take a look when we may still be able to right the Ship of State that seems to be floundering under the weight of compromises that are not fulfilling the promises, hopes and wishes of the American people. Let us assess each of the important issues affecting the nation and see where mistakes are being made and what is necessary for real change we can believe in.

Regarding the economy, President Obama has inherited a nation on the brink of economic catastrophe. His calmness and poise at first have been reassuring for American people who have been losing their homes, jobs, health care benefits and money at record levels. His quick action to develop an economic “stimulus” plan seemed to be just what the country needed to get back on track. However, instead of a real stimulus to put money into the pockets of consumers and small businesses, he developed a plan to give states money for “shovel ready projects” that would create jobs and stimulate the economy. This plan has yet to reap benefits as unemployment figures continue to rise since it takes time for money to filter down through the states and be allocated for designated projects. And, most of this state money is being used to retain existing jobs with few new jobs being created. We need a new jobs program. A real stimulus plan that would have put money immediately into the hands of consumers was ignored. Consumers would have done two things with this money – spent it in the marketplace which would have stimulated business or deposited it into the banks which would have helped to shore up our floundering financial institutions (See Economic Progress).

If these checks were sent out immediately we may be already seeing the results. Instead, the Obama Administration settled for an Economic Development Plan that may not show results for many months. And, instead of providing stimulus money for Main Street the Administration has continued the Republican fiasco of bailing out Wall Street Firms with billions of dollars of taxpayer money built on the false notion that our banks would fail since they were tragically tied to the toxic assets of the giant Wall Street Firms. However, this was not necessarily the case as Bank of America was in relatively good financial shape until it was pressured by Paulson and the Bush Treasury Department to buy the financially insolvent giant Merrill Lynch. This effort to bailout and save insolvent Wall Street firms continued with the new Obama Administration. Wall Street seems to have won out over Main Street as the priority for the use of taxpayer money to save firms that have become insolvent because of their own greed for profit at any risk. In the meantime jobs continue to be lost and foreclosures have reached record levels even with the effort to provide government funds to help some homeowners to refinance their mortgages.

Regarding health care reform, the President has talked about a “Public Option” for health care to provide a viable low cost alternative for those Americans who cannot pay for the skyrocketing increases in premiums by the private insurance companies. Now, he has been quoted as saying he does not consider the Public Option essential for health care reform and appears to be backing off of this important element of his proposal. However, in reality President Obama had already given up his greatest bargaining chip for health care reform when he agreed during his campaign to propose a plan far short of Universal Health Care. Our President has never actually supported a one payer system for health care reform. And, now Americans face the possibility that mandated health care is being proposed in Congress (which is supported widely by the insurance industry) without a way to lower costs or help Americans pay for insurance premiums. In addition, the Obama Administration has met with representatives of the Pharmaceutical industry to garner their support for health care reform by proposing changes to Medicare that will decrease services and may raise the cost of Medicare for Senior Citizens. With all of the money flowing into Wall Street, how can we do this to our senior citizens?

Why is our President dealing at such an early stage with those groups who have helped create our health care system problems in the first place? Even the most inexperienced of negotiators save their most important and valued bargaining chips to use at a much later date. Why is he selling out at such an early stage in the negotiation process? Mr. President, we hired you for your leadership and not your ability to grant concessions and compromises dealing with groups that are part of the problem and not the solution. You work for us and not your political cronies in the White House or your Wall Street advisors or the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. We need your leadership now. We need the transformative leader that you appeared to be in your campaign for the presidency and not the dealer and compromiser you seem to be now. It is not too late to change. It was okay to listen to your political advisers while you were running for president. However, now you must listen to the real leader in yourself and give us change we can really believe in. Or, was that just a slogan to get you elected?

Mr. President, for those of us who really believe in change, your actions contradict your words and are taking the country down the same road we were on during the Bush Administration. We are still mired in two wars with no real end in sight. Education is still emphasizing teaching to the test and the development of raw technical knowledge instead of supporting our young people with collaborative skills, more leadership curriculum and a set of democratic values that they can carry into the workplace to help create a better society. We are propping up a Wall Street economy when our free enterprise system and real economy, built on consumer buying in a regulated marketplace, are floundering. And, health care reform is becoming just a political prop to cover up a lack of real reform that was compromised from the start. It is time that you hold up your end of the contract you made with the American people. If we wanted more of the Bush Administration we would have hired another Republican as president. Right now there does not seem like much of a difference with very little change we can believe in. Please, Mr. President, do not make us hire another Republican in the next election. Give us the leadership you promised now.