A New Day - A New Sacrifice

The U.S. will officially have a new president today, but don't get your hopes too high.

Barack Obama has already explained that he won't be able to get around to all of those campaign promises as soon as he'd like, and that all Americans should prepare themselves for personal sacrifice, since the economy is in such a rut.

In a January 11 interview on ABC's This Week Obama said, "Everybody's going to have to give."

Left unsaid was whom we're going to have to give it to. Apparently, the biggest benefactor of our giving will be Wall Street and the big banks, followed by General Motors and Chrysler. And let's not forget our friends in Congress who gave themselves a bigger pay raise than almost anyone, not on Wall Street, can expect to receive this year.

When it comes to personal sacrifice, I'm not sure our elected officials know exactly what that means, since they continue to exempt themselves from the equation. Maybe they should ask the IRS. Giving to yourself is not really giving at all.