Regarding Dana Milbank’s Aug. 9 op-ed, “The most powerful man on Earth?”:
From the outset, President Obama was dealt a bad deck of cards, but I cannot fathom why such an intelligent man would have forgone every opportunity to lead the country. He came late into the debate on health-care reform and finally got something done, but the outcome was rather messy. He has yet to present a detailed plan to deal with the fiscal situation and debt. The agreement he was forced into in the end is, in my view, exactly the opposite of what is required—more spending now to deal with a weakened economy and a credible, long-term plan, including cuts and other reforms, to put the United States on a clear path to lowering its debt burden.
And I respectfully disagree with his statement that “there will always be economic factors that we can’t control.” That is only partly true, if at all. There are always tools to mitigate the consequences of bad economic outcomes. Mr. President, I wish you and your advisers would try harder.
Ritha Khemani, Washington
