The President has quite a task ahead of him.  Today he is meeting with Republican's concerned about the stimulus price tag of almost $1 trillion.  The inclusion of pork spending plus not enough tax cuts has the GOP on edge.  Let's face it, this stimulus is going to go through whether we like it or not.  President Obama is willing to make some concessions and he has urged the Democratic majority to do so as well.  He has already convinced Pelosi to drop her contraception funding project.  I suppose she figures if she can't create new jobs, she can at least stop the creation of new people to later find jobs for.  The President is sitting on a very high approval rating right now and that will prove to be helpful.  His real burden, however, is to get Pelosi and Reid in line.  If this stimulus is filled with ridiculous pork spending, it will be a defeat to the President and a show that he cannot rein in his party leaders.  However, if he can rid the stimulus of these expenses, it will show Washington that the President is in the driving seat.  The President is in a strong position to accomplish this.  You can not misjudge the Democratic Party leaders ambition.  They have been making it quite clear that they will not simply fall in line behind the President.  This is the President's first challenge.  The GOP will be watching carefully as we must do.

In regards to the stimulus itself, President Obama needs to consider the consequences of his actions.  The American People have been quite generous with our money without even having a say.  Our Representatives are writing checks which our children and grandchildren will be paying for.  Of course something must be done and must be done soon.  When this stimulus passes, there will be an uptick in the economy.  If the uptick is sustained and proven to be successful, it will cement the President's legendary status in the minds of Americans and a grateful Nation will most likely reward him with a re-election in four years.  (Of course a lot could happen in four years).  There is, however, a possibility that the uptick will be just that, a temporary uptick, and the spending of nearly $1 TRILLION will not have saved the economy.  If the economy falls to be worse off than it currently is after spending the money, there will be political and I strongly believe social unrest.  I do not think it would be that far-fetched to see a small California town collectively not paying taxes in protest, led by their local government.  Such a move would get so much media attention that the idea would spread to other towns.  Nobody wishes to see this happen but it is understandable if it did.  It is OUR money at risk.  I personally wish Congress would listen to the numerous Economists who insist that the current system is too flawed to endlessly go on.  Perhaps the time is now to consider a Progressive Consumption Tax instead of the current system.  A PCT mixed with a free and transparent market would, in my belief, be the most succesful and truely capitalistic method to addressing our problems.  We will of course have to move forward with our current method of Socialism and unprecedented spending first.  I pray the President is successful because we cannot afford a second chance.  We've committed our future generations to enough.

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