Diary: Obama Placates with Palliatives

At the top of President Obama� ??s domestic policy agenda are 1) the economy, 2) health care, and 3) education.Â Looking at each, what is mostly evident is palliative placation; palliative being the soothing of a disorder without effecting a cure, and placation being allaying our fear.Â In effect, Obama speaks big but acts small, for he fails to propose substantive plans to address the important issues he identifies.

On the economic front, Obama continues trickle-down-upside-down-socialism, of Reagan/Bush; Wall St. favored over Main St.Â It� ??s the Dooh Nibor fable come to life.Â That� ??s Robin Hood spelled backwards.Â

With the acts of piracy of trillions of tax payer dollars spent on and lent to the rich, the true flag of our Ship of State has been unfurled.Â It is that of the Jolly Roger with its skull and crossbones.

On health care, Obama has completely backed away from his earlier state senator position of single payer universal health care on the basis of, � ??well, if we were starting from scratch� ? �.Â Who gets to start from scratch on just about anything anyway?Â Did those countries in Western Europe, Canada, Taiwan or Japan not have one or more forms of health care in place before they implemented their current systems?Â All provide universal health care essentially free of fees (but not of taxes) for their citizens and those that are not single payer utilize non-profit insurance carriers.Â

While he claims a � ??public option� ? � and � ??reduced costs� ? � continue mandatory in his � ??reform package� ? �, he, so far at least, appears to be content to leave the details to the Congress which, he knows as well as do we, exists to serve its corporate masters.Â If, in fact Obama has a plan, he is certainly reluctant to reveal it.

On education, a major stated goal is to lead the world in its percentage of college graduates. To do so would require our overcoming some very large international competitive obstacles.Â College and university tuition rates have risen as fast or faster than health care costs and are increasingly unaffordable by a growing number of families.Â At the same time colleges and universities are free in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, for example, and all have a higher graduation rate than do we.Â

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development� ??s study, Looking Backwards: U.S. Falls Behind in College Graduation Rates, we are increasingly falling behind in our pre-college/university training.Â Teacher salaries have not kept up and per capita teacher salaries are lower than 42 of the 45 countries surveyed.Â

While maintaining our educational lag, our costs very much emulate those in health care.Â We spend � ?? far more on college-level education, $17,466 per student, more than twice the organization's average, and higher than any country surveyed� ??.

And so we continue.Â Palliative, without pain.Â Placate, keep them deflected and entertained.Â That� ??s the stuff of politics.Â That� ??s the stuff of Obama.Â That� ??s the American way.