As I’ve mentioned before, I generally applaud the kind of people President Obama has selected to run the US government and various federal agencies, and indeed the Congress has moved swiftly to approve the nominations of the vast majority of the president’s Cabinet nominees. But that isn’t to say President Obama hasn’t stumbled in a few cases, most notably with the nomination of Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health.
Given his legislative and lobbying experience on healthcare insurance issues and close personal relationship with President Obama, Daschle was (and I believe still is) the best candidate for this critical position in the new administration. Unfortunately, he made a crucial error in paying his personal income taxes, and the decision to withdraw his nomination for the post is the price both he and Obama now have to pay for this transgression.
Regardless of whether or not one believes Daschle knew or should have known that having a driver and limousine at his disposal for the past three years had income tax consequences, that was not his biggest mistake. What sunk Daschle’s chance to play a significant role in the new administration was his decision to wait until January of this year, just days before his Senate confirmation hearings, to write a check for the back taxes he owed. There is no excuse for this delay.
Even so, I also applaud many of the executive decisions and actions taken by President Obama during his first days as America’s chief executive. Following through on his campaign promises, he signed a succession of executive orders which, among other things, closed Guantanamo Bay as a terrorist detention facility and ended the ‘separate but not equal’ justice system the Bush administration had tried to use to try terror suspects. President Obama also ordered his generals to develop a plan to withdraw American troops from Iraq within 16 months and a plan to deal with a resurgent Taliban insurrection and stabilise the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.
Closer to home, Obama moved quickly to mandate an end to the use of questionable interrogation techniques by the CIA, opened federal coffers to provide more money for stem cell research, and signed a bill to increase the number of uninsured children covered by a special SCHIP health insurance program. He also began a concerted push for a very large economic stimulus programme that he hopes to sign into law (hopefully by the time you read this).
Most Republicans say this $800bn package of tax cuts and infrastructure spending is too large, and decry the effect it will have on America’s already huge budget deficit. But I can’t help but wonder where these same fiscally conservative Republicans were when President Bush sent Congress a variety of bills for increases in defence spending that doubled the size of that deficit in only six short years. My fellow Republicans appear to have very short memories and are obviously hoping American voters do as well.
Charles Laffiteau is a lifelong US Republican from Dallas, Texas who is currently pursuing a PhD research programme in Environmental Studies at Dublin City University
