COMMENTARY | In his weekly address, President Barack Obama called for "a few common-sense policies that would make a difference" with the economy, according to ABC News. As someone who studies politics, I find it interesting that the president would talk about common-sense policies leading into the election. If he had used common sense during his term, he would not have the up-hill political battle he is facing today.
One of the early moves by President Obama was the failed stimulus package which was partially used to give money to energy firms later found out to be failing. Promoting alternative energy sources too expensive for unemployed workers to use was not the sensible move at the time. Throwing money at the problem in an attempt to make it go away was also not sensible.
Instead of using common sense and attempting to fix the economy and create jobs, President Obama urged other Democrats to pursue universal health care. Debate continues to this day if the package will actually create jobs, but it is sure to cost taxpayers billions. Instead of helping people get back to work and put food on the table, the president and Democrats created a tax-raising package for health care.
The president who promised he would do everything he could to reach across the aisle to Republicans and usher in a new era of bipartisanship spent more time blaming the Republicans and President George Bush than extending a hand. By using common sense, President Obama would have known that attempting to work with the other party and negotiate might be the more difficult road to travel, but more work gets done over time. We can only speculate about how much change could have happened if the president kept that campaign promise.
It is too late for President Obama to start promising to use common sense. Instead, he should have been using it from day one if he truly wanted to help America out of the economic situation. His lack of common political sense proves he was more interested in pushing his agenda than pushing America forward.
