BLOGROLL

The following originally appeared as an op-ed in the The Uintah Basin Standard and St. George Spectrum. -Staff

Last week, the country's political echo chamber was abuzz with discussions and evaluations of President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office. While this was, of course, an arbitrary milestone with little meaning outside of the cable news shows, the past 100 days have provided us with some unique insight into this president and how he intends to govern.

The president came into office facing unprecedented expectations after campaigning on a platform of big promises. Not the least of these was a promise to move the country past the bitter partisan divides that have kept us polarized in recent years.

Unfortunately, I don't believe he's delivered on that promise.

Today, our government is as polarized as it has ever been. And, even under these conditions, this administration and the congressional Democrats have opted to push forward a far-left agenda the likes of which has not been seen since the "New Deal" in the 1930s.

Right out of the gate, the president eschewed what was a hard-fought, bipartisan compromise on the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and pushed through Congress a decidedly more expansive and liberal approach to the program. Not surprisingly, the final vote was divided along partisan lines.

Next, the administration brought to Congress a $790 billion "stimulus package" that basically read like a wish list of longtime Democratic policy priorities and had very little to do with actually stimulating the economy. Small businesses, which create 70 percent of the new jobs in this country, went virtually unnoticed in the "stimulus" bill, which focused more on expanding the federal government and providing "tax credits" for millions of Americans who don't pay any taxes.

The president had an opportunity to work with Republicans and include ideas that are proven to have immediate economic impacts -- ideas such as reducing the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world to keep businesses in the U.S. or increasing the home-buyer tax credit. Instead, he chose to cut Republicans almost entirely out of the negotiations and then blame them for being too partisan when the votes came down divided.

Unfortunately, at that point, he was just getting started. Next came the budget, weighing in at a whopping $3.6 trillion. In implementing this budget, the Obama administration will create more total debt than all previous administrations combined. It contains the largest tax increase in American history, roughly $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

It's not only the size of the budget that is a problem, but also its priorities. Like the stimulus bill, the president's budget reads like a policy manifesto for far-left Democrats. Even worse, the Democrats have announced plans to use the budget reconciliation process to pass unprecedented new policies, including an expansive government-run healthcare program.

There are, of course, numerous other examples of the administration opting for a more partisan approach when more evenhanded measures would be more appropriate. Indeed, the list goes on and on.

President Obama set a high standard for himself during the campaign when he promised to unite the country behind common ideals. Yet, with very few exceptions, the first 100 days of his administration have been marked by the president placing his liberal agenda ahead of his promises to bring people together. Going forward, I hope that he makes a real effort to listen to and accept ideas from both sides of the aisle, particularly as he tries to address our nation's biggest problems.

This, after all, is what he promised to do.