A New Beginning, or More of the Same?

On Sunday, January 20, 2013, President Barack Obama will be sworn into office in a private ceremony. The public inaugural will take place on Monday, January 21, and life in the United States will go on. The question many are asking is "Go on to what?"

 A small majority voted for Obama in November, either because they thought he is doing a good job, or because they didn't like Mitt Romney, choosing the devil they already knew. Since winning re-election, the President has made clear his "my way or the highway" position, refusing to compromise in any meaningful way with the Republican House. He has made clear to Republicans in the House that he will not yield on matters pertaining to budgetary cutbacks, claiming a mandate to continue the policies which arguably have done little to improve the economy, and forgetting that voters also voted to retain the GOP majority in the House. He has hinted that he might issue an executive order raising the debt ceiling, circumventing the constitutionally mandated responsibilities of the House. He is using the New Town Connecticut massacre to push a strict gun control agenda, giving rise to fears that he will try to abrogate the 2nd Amendment, or push to have it repealed. He is reportedly contemplating new regulations requiring industrial polluters to slash their greenhouse gas emissions by 20%. And one member of the House is trying to introduce legislation to repeal the 22nd Amendment, which established term limits on the office of the president, so that Obama could, like FDR, run for the office repeatedly.

Add to all of this, the encroachment of "Obamacare," which has already placed a heavy financial burden on those who can least afford it in the form of sky-rocketing health insurance premiums, and the expiration of the payroll tax holiday, a de facto tax increase on the very people he swore would not see a tax increase

At a time when unemployment is still hovering near 8%, and record numbers of Americans are receiving food stamps, one wonders just whose side the President is on. The middle class, whose cause he professes to champion, is the very segment of society that will be hardest hit by rising costs inflated by tax increases and the latest slew of regulations. And many wonder how, on January 20th and 21st, he can swear to uphold the constitution of the United States when he continues to show so little regard for it.

Although the new year promises new beginnings for some, it appears that, in Washington, at least, it will bring more of the same.