Open Letter to Obama - from Jan 2009

Dear President Obama,
Congratulations on an impressive campaign. If you become as effective a President as you were a campaigner, you will make a far better leader than I expected. The problem is being president is a lot more difficult than running for president.

In October, before the election, I saw a political cartoon that caught my attention. One of your aides was whispering in your ear, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is it appears you will be elected president. The bad news? It looks like you will be elected president!” In the bottom corner one of McCain’s aids was whispering in his ear, “I have bad news and GOOD news....”

When it comes to the economy, you have to make a choice. Do you want to fix our financial mess permanently, or just patch it up to make you look good in the short run? If you just want make it look good in the short run your current approach will probably work. Just throw more and more money at the American people and things will look rosy for a few years.

When a drunk awakens from a riotous night on the town with a killer hangover, a couple of shots of alcohol will make him feel better for a few hours, but eventually the drunk will hit bottom and the effects could be fatal.

For most of my life the American people have been on a wild spending spree. When the money ran short - no problem - just borrow some more. When the payments got too high - no problem - just combine the loans into one larger loan with lower payments. After all it’s not how much you owe, the only thing that makes a difference is if you can make the minimum payment. Soon every penny of income is used meeting obligations for things that are slowly losing their value.

Then all of the sudden, without any warning, fuel prices start going through the roof - no problem - just put it on the credit card. You don’t notice it at first, but soon those credit card balances start to max out and there is simply not enough money. No problem - I’ll just borrow more money. But wait - I can’t! I have no more equity and the banks are out of money.

It appears to this North Georgia boy that what you and other politicians from both political parties are proposing as a fix is the very thing that got us into this mess in the first place. Let’s just borrow more money.

For the last several years every time I listen to the news, the government is throwing a few billion here, and a few billion there with no thought whatsoever about where that money is coming from. No problem - we’ll just borrow some more. People are down on their luck because of poor decisions they made - no problem - the government can just give them some money. Of course, the government is way deeper in debit and has made a lot more imprudent choices than the constituency it is trying to help. No problem - just borrow more money.

Most Americans, including myself, have built their financial future from a deck of cards named LOANS. For many the structure is massive. When high fuel, health care, and taxes started kicking down some of the cards the house built of cards fell.

I’m just a country boy from the Georgia mountains, but it appears to me that the government is making the same mistakes many Americans made that got us into this mess. Eventually a devastating war and/or natural disaster will kick down a few key cards and the massive government house of cards that your predecessors built will come falling down. Our national debt will be far more than the American people can pay. That would be tragic and could send our country into a dire and possibly fatal crisis.

My advice? Years ago I was taking flying lessons. While flying at a safe, high altitude the instructor kicked the rudder and put the plane in a downward spiral. The harder I tried to correct the plane the worse it got. Thankfully the experienced pilot took over and soon we were flying straight and level again. The instructor looked and me and said, “Son, this plane is built to fly. When you find yourself in a mess like that simply take you hands off the wheel and your feet off the rudder pedals. It will be the hardest thing you will ever do and you’ll be in for one heck of a ride, but the plane knows what to do and eventually it will fly. If you try to fix it you only make it worse, and in all likelihood you’ll end up a statistic.”

Mr. President, it will be the hardest thing you will ever do and it may even cost your precious popularity in the short run, but I think you and our government leaders should take your hands off the wheel and your feet of the rudder pedals. The ride may be scary, but the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people has made us the strongest country in the history of the world. Our economy will come back. Sure, we will need to correct a few of the problems that caused the downward spin, but trying to overcorrect because everyone is yelling at you to do something, could be fatal.

The voters who put you in office will likely turn on you, but I have a feeling their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will thank you.

Bobby Watson
277 Charlie Batson Rd
Demorest, GA 30535
DiscoveryTours@Windstream.net