Can the Obama Administration Lead

It seems that the distraction of the Illinois Governor scandal has done more damage to the leadership capabilities of the Obama Team than first met the eye. The selection of Rahm Emanuel as the Obama Chief of Staff was touted as a selection made because Mr. Emanuel knew how to work through Congress. Mr. Emanuel seems to have disappeared since he was linked to meetings with the Illinois Governor over the selling of the Barack Obama Senate seat. At least he has not been in public view and the Obama Stimulus is tied up in Speaker Pelosi's inability to find a consensus even with a larger Majority. All of this and Inauguration Day is still over 10 days away.

The Obama Plan has suddenly taken on the look of the same failed policies as the Republican Philosophy of the Bush Administration. Mr. Obama is now calling for the total stimulus package to contain 300 Billion Dollars of tax cuts. These tax cuts will only benefit those who are still earning enough money to pay taxes, which of course leaves the wealthy. During the Campaign Mr. Obama's resume was highly controversial because he was a Community Activist, it looks like the grips of wealth and power have already managed to work their grasp into the President Elect mind. Anyone who has worked in a Community in Poverty knows that what the People need is spendable funds to cover the essentials of life followed by jobs that pay a livable wage. The only way that the Obama Administration can justify that a $300 Billion Tax Cut will benefit anyone in Poverty is by using the tired, false economic philosophy of the Republican Party invoking the phony theory of trickle-down economics. If Mr. Obama is now leaning that way, then surely we have elected the wrong man. Change that we can believe in is a change that will free us from the chains of the failed policies of the Republican Congressional Majority in the 90s and early 2000s. Those phony theories have put us in the economic straits that we are in now.

If Mr. Obama is to succeed he must stick to a plan that will benefit the immediate and build foundations for the future neither of which will be accomplished by a tax cut of any proportion. The $300 Billion that will be sacrificed by the Treasury for a tax cut for the well-off can be better spent by sending out direct checks to the American People which will be spent six times over as the money works its way through the Economy creating a stimulation to the economy in the trillions. Second, the money spent on infrastructure projects must include Alternative Energy Mandates no matter how low the price of oil goes. The longer we continue the addition to oil, no matter what the price, the longer we continue to burn the wealth of our Nation.

Mr. Obama must make it clear to the Democratic Leadership that the past is over and from now on a progressive agenda of the Democratic Party will be implemented. If Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid are encumbering the enactment of new-era policies, then their power must be neutralized. Mr. Obama should demand that Congress rescind their recently enacted pay raise spearheaded by Ms. Pelosi. This is a direct insult to the American People who have toiled their lives away only to see their lifelong assets and hopes of a peaceful retirement devalued by the inaction of Congress while the Bush Administration ravaged the Treasury, Invaded Sovereign Nations, committed atrocities in the name of our Nation and allowed their financial millionaire supporters to play unregulated games with the Nation's Economy. This does not deserve a raise it deserves indictments for Treason.

If Mr. Obama's key personnel have already been rendered ineffective because of their ties to the Illinois Governor then Mr. Obama has to jettison them and quickly replace them with people who can stay focused, latching on to Republican ideas such as Tax Cuts for the wealthy is not focusing on the National Crisis at all.