The Sage Observer

Shoe on Other Foot

When President Obama took office in 2009, the Republican Party treated him abominably—their behavior was outrageous, to the detriment of our people and our country. Not only did they leave our nation with a national debt of Ten Trillion Dollars (When President Reagan entered office in 1981, our national debt was less than a Trillion Dollars) and a budget deficit of One and One Half Trillion Dollars, they left us with a crash in the financial markets and the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. To cap that off, they publicly announced their intent to make sure President Obama would fail in his presidency and be a one-term president, the well being and success of our nation or our people notwithstanding. All this was on top of President Bush having entered office eight years earlier with a zero dollar deficit. In fact, he really didn’t inherit a budget deficit. He inherited a budget surplus—there was no deficit.

Have you ever watched a railroad train running down the track at one hundred miles per hour? Have you ever seen an ocean going ship moving full speed in the water? Have you ever thought about how long it takes to stop at those speeds? If you overspend your annual budget by twenty-five or thirty percent, how long would it take you to get back in balance again? Do you really think you could stop overspending and get back in balance all at once without completely wrecking the economy of your household; or, likewise, President Obama could eliminate our national deficit on the spot without throwing our whole economy (and maybe that of the whole world as well) into complete collapse? That’s where the additional Ten Trillion Dollars (President Obama’s portion) of the debt came from which brought us to the current status of our debt, just below Twenty Trillion Dollars. As of the end of 2016, President Obama “slowed that train and that ship”, reducing our national deficit, to less than $600 Billion. Had he followed President Clinton in office, he would have inherited a surplus instead of a deficit and, arguably, we would be looking at a completely different picture right now.

On Friday, January 20, 2017, President Donald Trump will take office as the forty-fifth President of the United States of America. One of the most unpopular presidents to ever enter office, elected in one of the most hyped up elections in recent years, he is entering office under a cloud of hatred and disdain to preside over the most divided electorate since the Civil War. The shoe is on the other foot. Accordingly, many of those who voted Democrat in this election want to treat President Trump as they were treated during the eight years they were in office. Although we should object and vote against legislation which is clearly not in the best interests of our country, I believe two wrongs don’t make a right. President Trump was duly elected by our people according to the law of the land; and we should let our democracy, the will of the people, play out. We should give President Trump a chance. We should “let our light shine before men” even if he can’t.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller, www.sageobserver.blogspot.com signing off.