Nose on the grindstone

It would be interesting to gauge the feelings of the youth movement that elected Barack Obama to the presidency. Once one cut through the veneer of happy daze, 'we did it we're the best generation ev-ar,' would one find any misgivings?

After all, these young people who elected Obama are that of the first adult demographic, 18 to 24-year-olds, who are still kids in many respects. It's hard at this age to consider the future, 10 years down the line. It's hard enough to remember four years ago. So did the youth of the nation elect Obama expecting he would just get it done? Or did they realize that they had elected a man who espoused the wisdom of a nose on the grindstone?

Obama's budget plan is mostly out in public now and it represents a significant shift in policy from the Bush years, which it will be inevitably compared to until we scream. Obama stacked the deck nicely; if his budgets and plans do even half of what he's proposing, he'll garner another place in American history.

Then again, he'll get another place in history if he fails, too.

The deficit spending that we've become accustomed to will stay for the time being, but it's hard to see any other choice. We have no money, but we can't exactly let socio-political evolution stagnate until we stop seeing red. Now, however, we will be pouring this money into health care, education, energy and other social infrastructure programs, as opposed to the military.

The military itself is to be stripped down with spending in Iraq and Afghanistan diminishing over the next several years and Iraq ceasing to house U.S. combat troops in 2011. One is forced to wonder whether there will be an official "non-combat" force left against our hopes, though.

Various facets of the plan, such as revamped carbon credits and tax hikes for those of us who can afford to pay them, will go towards tax credits and loan programs for what could effectively be called "the needy." And, as we've all known, a massive chunk of change is heading to the banks and financial systems, a massive surge of credit to save us from the mistake of buying too much on credit, bought on credit against the ability of any college student reading this to make a lot of money in the future and pay it back.

If there's any silver lining to being in this situation, it's that the man in charge at least seems to want to be as transparent in his dealings as possible. More than that, he understands the wisdom of a sacrifice. Maybe, with those two attributes in mind, we can weather this.