One Year In

Obama has simply not lived up to the hopes of a nation. To me, this signals two things, one about Obama the individual and one about our corrupt at worse, stagnant at best, political system. Let's start with the latter. The two big domestic issues of Obama's administration are health care and the economy/financial regulation.

Health Care:
A single payer option was labeled socialism before people even knew what it was and the public option only lasted for a few months. The 'blue dogs' knew the public option would be thrown to the curb eventually and, in hindsight, it seems as though the public option was mere window decoration to garner liberal support.

Now the bill we are left with forces millions of Americans to buy into a broken health care system. In negotiating the health care bill as it stands now, the federal government is essentially deciding how much money we are going to guarantee for private insurance companies. The American tax payer will largely foot the bill a la federal subsidies for low-income families who cannot afford the coverage they are being forced to buy. So who's really benefiting here? Does the bill as it stands now seriously tackle out of control drug prices, one of the malignant cancers of the health care problem? No. Will it help the average American on Main Street? Maybe. Will it help the trillion-dollar deficit? Maybe. Will it boost insurance companies' quarterly profits by forcing millions of Americans to buy private health insurance plans? Yes.

Wall Street:
Obama made a great move in appointing Elizabeth Warren to head Congress' panel on financial regulation. Now if only he would listen to her. She has proposed the idea of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Wall street and it's powerful lobby don't like it, so guess what? The right side of the aisle and the 'centerist' (read: big business friendly) Blue Dog Dems are trying to shoot it down.

The more I learn about modern American politics, the more I think the CFPA will be either scratched or watered down so much Elizabeth Warren will be trying to disassociate herself with it. So when the dust clears from the financial regulation fight, who will come out the winner? I'm guessing that Wall St. will not be disappointed.

People like to throw a fuss about bonuses and profits. Let's be real. Big banks/investment firms, and all corporations for that matter, exist to make money. A corporation is actually legally obliged to pursue profits above all else. Profits are to corporations what winning is to any sports franchise. In this sense, steroids and mortgage-backed securities, credit default swaps, and other complex derivatives are very similar. They give the 'athlete' an edge over the competition. The main difference is that steroids are illegal. If banks are acting within the law, then who are we to blame them? Enter CFPA.

Obama:
I still like to believe that Obama has a spot in his heart for all the people he worked with in his fabled days as a community organizer in the south side of Chicago. Unfortunately, one cannot readily see it in the policy decisions, or lack thereof, of his first year.

In the wake of his election and the sorry state of America that went with it, FDR comparisons were abound. The collective American consciousness correctly thinks of FDR as the people's president, but we take for granted the struggle involved in getting the New Deal passed. Big business existed in the 1930's too. Lest we forget the Gilded Age of Standard Oil and US Steel that preceded the Great Depression by a few short decades. FDR had to roll up his sleeves and play hard ball to get things done. Obama MUST play hard ball as well if he truly wants any serious change to occur.

State of the Union:
The American political system (I consider it a rarely functioning pseudo-Democracy) does not work. It is that simple. When it costs millions of dollars to run a successful re-election campaign, money is king. When money is king, lobbyists can control the kingdom, as we see now in health care and financial reform.

I know this sounds like a lot of gloom and doom, but I'm just calling it like I see it. This is not a red or blue thing, this is an American thing. If someone can please explain to me why I am wrong I would love to hear it.