Don't Play the Blame Game

The latest news clips as we try to get out of the economic downturn have President Obama starting to be more vocal about blaming President Bush for the economic mess he inherited, while the Republicans are criticizing President Obama for signing a budget bill that contained lots of "earmarks". It is true that President Bush kept saying that the basics underlying the economy were sound and robust when they weren't. It is true that when Barack Obama was campaigning for President, he said that he would not tolerate "earmarks" if elected. Nevertheless, the important thing is for everyone to work together to get us from where we are now to where we want to be with the economy. President Bush felt that he had to say good things about the economy, because saying bad things might have made it even worse. President Obama felt that the pragmatic thing to do was to accept the earmarks this once so that the budget would go through in a timely fashion, and then work on rules to prevent them in the future. Whenever you have a problem, don't look to blame someone for having caused it. Instead, use all of your resources, human and otherwise, to develop steps for solving the problem and getting from where you are to where you want to be.