Change? Where's the Beef?

Years ago, 1984 to be exact, there was a television commercial run by Wendy’s, which put forth a question that has relevance today. It featured a nice older woman opening an oversized hamburger bun, in front of a sales clerk, and pointing to an absurdly small hamburger patty. In a firm "I will not be patronized" sort of way, the lady asked, "Where's the beef?" We should all be asking today, of President Obama and the Legislature who promised 'change', "Where's the beef?"

It has been over a year since we retired the Smash, Bash and Bully mentality of the Bush administration. The new administration promising change seems to be doing nothing; or, as most recently criticized, is “dithering,” to which might be added the charge of, “withering.” What little the Obama administration has done, by analogy, leaves us wondering, "Where's the beef?"

So far, all that has been done is to hand out huge sums of money to big corporations, banks and insurance companies. That was not a change. In fact, it mirrors what Bush and his Republican legislature did in the form of tax credits in the early “ought’s.” Only the rich have benefited – not the American in the street – and whatever is meant by the “Wall Street to Main Street” mantra sounds a whole lot like “trickle down” which was a huge failure for us all.

We wearied of wars being urged and initiated by the Bush administration but did not manage to put our collective ‘foot down’ until it came to light that we went to war not to protect the U.S. from weapons of mass destruction; but rather, to insure that we had control of our need for petroleum. We knew we had been duped and voted with anger. We had been duped before into believing that by force of arms, we could and should "Americanize" other countries. That theory of international diplomacy failed. The wars are still smoldering, in part, and escalating in part. There has been no change. We are still at war.

The Bush administration effectively blocked all lingering attempts at Health Care Reform left over from the Clinton administration. We sent the new President a new Democratic controlled Legislature expecting a change in health care. Though there is a bill being bounced around in Senate and House committees, we can only expect that it will be so washed down and neutered that it will amount to nothing more than boondoggle. There will be no change. We will still not have meaningful health care that we can actually afford.

To spawn unparalleled growth in American industry, the Bush administration removed all roadblocks to carbon based fuel consumption totally ignoring the consequences of global warming. That administration feared loss of economic growth if any credence was given to an anticipated global catastrophe. We listened, evaluated and determined that whatever economic considerations there were, in conflict with protecting the environment, that the earth must win out. President Obama, and the salons that we sent to Washington, promised alternative energy initiatives but they have done so on so small a scale as to be ludicrous. Our government of change went to Copenhagen with no intention of changing status quo. There has been no change.

This withering and dithering on important public concerns is no less fruitful than our previous posture of smash, bash and bully. We still see money, unearned money, going to the rich. We still see body bags returning from the Middle East. We still see no meaningful control on health care. We still see no change in policy and direction regarding global warming.

Where is the change – where is the beef?