Much has changed over the past week. Among the bustle of a new semester, the nation has gained a new president, students are settling into a schedule and seats in classes are becoming easier to find as students begin skipping on all days but the ones when an exam is held.
Most importantly, we have a new president, and he has quite a few promises to fulfill. While on the campaign trail, he promised the American people a health care plan [that] will provide accessible, affordable coverage for all ... a plan to increase America's energy efficiency and create five million new 'green' jobs"" and create an Obama stimulus plan to jump-start the economy. These are just a few of his grandiose plans for his four years in office.
It sounds like the Treasury Department will be working overtime printing money to fund these programs. For example, his proposed health-care plan will cost at least $1.6 trillion over a decade and will still not insure everyone. The $1.6 trillion is equivalent to combining the annual Department of Defense, Social Security Administration and Health and Human Services budgets. If you add this to the proposed stimulus plan of $825 billion, it approximately totals the federal government's annual budget! The stimulus plan itself ""would spend a whopping $275,000 in taxpayer dollars for every new job it aims to create,"" according to Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio.
Despite these facts, I am looking forward to observing and logically analyzing the next four years to evaluate the effectiveness of our new commander-in-chief, for I prefer facts and data rather than emotions like ""hope."" It should be an interesting ride given that our head-of-state has only a pittance of executive experience and his current job has a steep learning curve.
However, some people are ready to give President Obama tremendous credit for his week's worth of work. In fact, while perusing Facebook this past Tuesday (Inauguration Day), I encountered a friend's status that had a message to the effect of: ""[friend] thinks it's time for all Americans to put political differences aside and embrace and support their new president. Today is truly a remarkable day!""
Now, I have a few fundamental problems with this statement.
First of all, support, like trust, should be earned, not blindly granted to those society believes deserves it. I like to think the saying ""Actions speak louder than words"" is a fitting model for assigning support and approval. Now, some may argue that I would not be as critical if Sen. McCain was elected president. On the contrary, I would be more critical because supporting him and his actions would reflect upon my ability to make effective judgments.
Every presidential inauguration is a remarkable day, as it happens only once every four years. Additional historical significance aside, we all have heard much about the historical significance. President Obama is not President Lincoln despite all of the formalities in modeling his inauguration around Lincoln's, such as the train ride from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., and swearing in using the same Bible. President Obama's inauguration was the most expensive inauguration to date, with copious spending of taxpayer dollars on formalities including a concert on the National Mall and the declaration of emergency for the D.C. area.
People may still overlook these items, saying his actions in the first week are quite valiant. Closing Guantanamo Bay seems like a step in the right direction for universal human rights, but it lacks foresight. The executive order mandates the closing of the camp in one year but does not outline a plan. Signing an order without a clearly thought out plan does not appear a wise first act in office. Businesses and industry provided the new president a vote of confidence with a drop in the stock market of over 300 points on Inauguration Day. Hopefully, these are not indicators of actions and events to come.
I urge everyone to be critical and question the ideas and people you support, because what you choose to endorse reflects upon your judgment and character. It is human nature to question the holdings of society. All I can say is that it will be an interesting four years, with hopefully a new force of change in two years. Only time will tell.
Sean McMaster is a junior majoring in Biochemistry and Mathematics. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
