March Madness

With the start of the NCAA basketball tournament, there has been a lot of focus placed on the yearly basketball tournament. Terms like brackets, upsets and seeding are thrown around offices as folks try to win their tournaments and have bragging rights for the next year.

In Washington, DC March Madness seems to be taking on a different tack. While the Verizon Center is hosting some of the first round match-ups, other situations around the world seem to be giving the term March Madness new relevancy. The budget battle continues on Capital Hill. Earlier this week, both Houses of Congress passed a three-week continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded. In the debate related to the continuing resolution, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid basically laid down some markers as to what might be acceptable for any rest of the year budget. Off the table were cuts to federal funding of Planned Parenthood, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as well as Social Security. The first two areas are minimal in the overall budget battle. They are however examples of what a lot of folks believe is wasteful Washington spending. Why is the federal government funding a media organization? Why is the federal government funding an organization that provides abortions? Social Security and the other two main entitlements, Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupting the country. Social Security is basically a ponzi scheme at this point in that folks pay into the “fund” today with no hope of getting any of the payments tomorrow, unless the system is updated. The biggest issue related to the budget battle currently going on is that it was all avoidable. The Democrats had huge majorities in both Houses of Congress last year as well as the White House and yet they refused to even propose a budget. Why? Because they knew that if they proposed a budget with the cuts needed to satisfy the increasingly skeptical American public, they would anger there most loyal supporters. If they proposed a budget that didn’t include the necessary budget cuts, they would have likely lost more than the 63 seats in the House and 7 Senate seats. So they abdicated their leadership and punted until the next Congress was elected. The Republicans are also experiencing internal fighting. The freshmen House members want cuts much more substantive than those proposed by longer serving members. They ran on balancing the budget and are unwilling to accept a budget that doesn’t at least reduce the deficit in a meaningful manner. The President has basically sat out the discussion. The Administration tried to state that there proposed budget was almost as much as the proposed Republican budget, but that line was basically laughed at by everyone. It will be interesting to see what happens over the net few weeks as both sides try to reach an agreement.

Japan’s earthquake and resulting tsunami has caused the environmental community to scream that the world is falling. Reporters and commentators are projecting that the west coast of the US will basically see a mushroom cloud of radioactive material within the next few weeks. The situation in Japan is a tragedy and should not be taken lightly. However, the fact that there has not been too much of a radioactive fallout so far, shows that nuclear energy must be part of a comprehensive energy plan that reduces the US’s dependence on foreign oil. According to reports all four reactors have experienced explosions over the past week, yet there still has only been limited radioactive fallout so far. Many commentators compare this situation with Three Mile Island. The big misnomer with Three Mile Island is that no one died in that situation and that there are folks who live within site of Three Mile Island still today. Nuclear energy is a lot “greener” than oil and coal and if the US is trying to reduce its environmental impact, nuclear has to be part of the solution. Hopefully, as a result of the situation in Japan, the proposed nuclear facilities throughout the US will take a second look at how they would react to different natural disasters so that they will be prepared for anything that might happen.

The situation in the Middle East has also gotten much worse over the past few days. Libya is basically in the midst of a civil war. Saudi Arabia recently sent in troops to assist the leadership of Bahrain. Egypt has seen a change in its leadership. The situation across the Middle East is unstable and is having an impact on the US economy. The price of oil has risen over the past month with the increase in violence and protests. The price at the pump for a gallon of gas has risen to nearly $4. Should gas stay at $4 or rise even higher, there will be a huge impact on the US economy that the Obama Administration likely can’t afford. With independents only supporting the President at 37%, any additional economic issues will likely add to the problems facing the President and his administration. Yesterday, the Administration seemed to get a win at the UN Security Council with the passage of a “No Fly Zone” in Libya. The only issue related to the passage is was its passage too late? Has the dictator Gaddafi already basically won the civil war in Libya? Doesn’t the US typically stand with those who search for freedom and a say in the operation of their governments? Why is it that the Obama Administration seems to always be sitting on the sidelines when folks rise up against brutal dictators? The US didn’t help when students in Iran rose up against the tyrants. They didn’t do too much in Egypt when the protestors rose up against Mubarak. And they have refused to get involved with the protests against Gaddafi. Didn’t the President run his campaign on the theme that everyone would like us more if he were President? Unfortunately, it looks like the President’s self belief in his ability to “charm” other world leaders has fallen short and we are now taking a back seat to Italy and France in world leadership. I bet no Americans thought that was the likely outcome of the elections in 2008.

There are always a ton of issues facing the President. The decisions that he is forced to make are likely some of the most difficult and whatever the decision, its implications are felt across the world. The inability of the Obama Administration to come up with an adequate strategy for dealing with some of the world crisis has put the US in a bad spot. We are no longer thought of as the world’s lone superpower. Other countries have taken a larger leadership role in the ways of the world. This truly is March Madness and unfortunately it isn’t related to a college basketball game…