Little fault to find with Obama’s intent

Tom Harper, Henderson

Sunday, April 25, 2010 | 2:04 a.m.

Regarding Harvey Talbert’s Tuesday letter to the editor, headlined “Obama behaving like a spoiled child with a wish list”:

Talbert compares President Barack Obama’s efforts to seek legislative reform of the financial industry, after passing health care reform legislation, to a spoiled grandson who continues to ask for toys even though his grandmother doesn’t have the money to pay for them. What is wrong with this picture?

Certainly the president cannot be accused of selfishness after passage of health care reform legislation, which will stop the unsustainable increase in health care expenses that would otherwise bankrupt America. Further, one cannot in good faith accuse the president of selfishness in efforts to stop greedy and irresponsible risk taking by Wall Street companies such as Goldman Sachs. This company is facing a civil fraud suit while it is reporting robust earnings, and Main Street continues to suffer from an unemployment rate of almost 10 percent and from the worst recession in generations.

Obama’s efforts to obtain health care and financial regulatory reform legislation are not the cries of a spoiled child but the wisdom of a president who believes in good stewardship — leaving this world a better place than we found it. This was also the subject of speeches last year at graduation ceremonies where CEOs and business leaders apologized to their parents and previous generations for not being good stewards of this nation.

Good stewardship. A noble principle honored by President Obama that should be embraced by all mankind.