Effects Of Wildfires Obama's Fault Now

RW'ingers like Michele Malkin now say the effects of the wildfires are Obama's fault. You would think that he lit the fires himself when you consider RW logic. The RW claims he let the tanker fleet decline since he took office. In fact the decline began under Bush and Obama inherited an already depleted fleet. What was the size of the fleet when he took office compared to what it was in 2001? Obama did not act soon enough. Obama has been attacked as a tax and spend liberal (socialist) endlessly the last 3 1/2 years. The rhetoric is that we are broke and must cut everything including fire fighting. Conservative efforts have obstructed raising any taxes for any reason. Even if Obama could walk on water he would be blamed for breaking the laws of physics.

In one recent election a tax of 1 cent on $10 was voted down overwhelmingly in districts most directly effected by these fires. The tax would have been spent to beef up response to such events. All needed resources must be used to fight these fires before they explode. Extra resources early on may not guarantee success, but there is always a chance that quick response might actually prevent larger tragedy and loss of life. Extra resources cost money. Now that wildfires will be more common we must provide enough funding to have these resources available because the fires now are worse than ever. The forests are drier now than they have ever been.

Blaming Obama for the response to these fires is a sad commentary about political discourse in this country.