Attacking the Deficit

Photo Copyright Doug Mills/The New York Times

Many Election 2009 voters will recall the "line by line, root by root" budget concept Obama proposed while running for presidency. During campaigns, the now-president distilled this idea from a government scale to the family-at-the-kitchen-table scale, where the family leaders group together and decide the next steps of the family budget.

Today, President Obama promised to cut the nation's current deficit by half by the end of his term. Considering the exact numbers of American dollars that're at stake here - namely, $1.3 trillion - this simple vow may indeed be one of the greatest undertakings in history.

A quick breakdown first: in order to obtain the label "trillion," first the dollar must surpass marks such as dozen, hundred, thousand, ten-thousand, hundrend-thousand, million and all its in-betweens, and also billions and its in-betweens. This is not by any means a meager number, and no one seems to be laughing.

Something great that's popped up on my Google news searches this week is the Obameter. Basically, it tracks Obama's many campaign promises from economy, energy, etcetera and rates the process of each so far in the campaign in a simple, but wonderful scorecard.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're officially grading our president.

The grades so far:

• Promise Kept... 15
• Compromise... 3
• Promise Broken... 2
• Stalled... 1
• In the Works... 20
• No Action... 469

Later on, I'll definitely examine where this famed Obameter gets all its information from. In the meantime, time will tell how Obama's campaign promises will pan out.

However, as a first-time voter, I will say that oftentimes my enthusiasm for my president is quelled when I hear the cynicism of my fellow older Americans, who are far too used to being promised with this-and-that, then forgotten once their man takes office.

We'll see how much of that will be the case these next four years.