The Next Four Years

It's great to see a barrier fall in America by Barack Obama being elected the first black President in our nation's history.  Although, many people have what will turn-out to be unrealistically high expectations of what will happen over the next four years, no matter how good their reasons are - the Law of Unintended Consequences still lives.  While Obama is great in some areas he falters in others, and just because an issue wasn't across every news screen during the election season doesn't mean that it isn't important.  I wish him the best as President of the United States and making the best decisions possible considering the circumstances our country is in.  The issues:

Very Excited About

• Obama's energy policy.  I'm hoping he picks Al Gore as Energy Secretary and has T. Boone Pickens head a panel of industry advisors.  Energy determines our foreign policy, so making a smart pick here will be his most important decision.
• A cap-and-trade carbon market where all carbon credits must be bought by private industry.  Allocating them among participants for free would create loads of corruption.  Also, if Democrats want to make sure our company's aren't at a competitive disadvantage to those in nation's with more lax environmental standards, they can make any company that produces or sells products in the United States buy carbon credits.
• The closing of Guantanamo Bay prison and hopefully all the other secret prisons the U.S. has.  We should not deny any person on earth their right against cruel and unusual punishment and to a fair and speedy trial by jury of the peers, not to mention access to a lawyer.
• The ending of the war in Iraq.  We shouldn't have been there in the first place.
• Hopefully the end of most rhetoric from the White House being about terrorism.
• America's world image being repaired as we stop Bush's use of "Cowboy Diplomacy"
• Stem Cell research using federal funds being legalized.  It's about time we started taking the lead further in this very important field of research.
• Federal investment in basic research increasing, so that the pace of innovation in our country picks up again.
• Intelligent Design not being given the same standing as Evolution in schools, because it is not a sound scientific theory.

Excited About

• The ability for Obama to make the R&D tax credit permanent.
• Greater potential investment in education.

Lukewarm About

• Obama's ability to hold government programs accountable.  With rock-solid majorities in the House and Senate, he won't be under as much pressure to find what should be given more money and what should be cut.  This was the one good thing Bush started, while he was in office: The President's Management Agenda.
• Ability of the Supreme Court to contain the Democrats with their majorities to overextending the government's role in the economy as long as Obama doesn't turn into a tyrant like FDR, when he tried to pack the Supreme Court.  Currently the Supreme Court is leaning slightly conservative with a 4-1-4 break-down, so any attempt at overstepping their bounds should hopefully be struck down.
• The Democrats being able to re-privatize the banking system in short order.  The government has no place running the banking system and further destroying the balance between risk-and-reward in the financial marketplace.

Concerned About

• Corporate taxes.  If Obama closes the tax loop holes and does not lower the corporate income tax rate, businesses will be forced to lay-off workers or raise prices in order to stay profitable, especially given the current circumstances.
• Health care.  Moving towards a single payer system will not make our health care better.  If you think government-run health care will work well, how well does government-run infrastructure work?  Oh yeah, that's why our government has underfunded our infrastructure by $2 trillion, which is why our infrastructure is degrading to the point of being a developing nation.  The only way to cut costs dramatically is to cut access.  If you want to check out the future of health care, check out Qliance 
• Personal income taxes.  Raising taxes never helps the country as government is less-efficient than the private sector at using the money it has, which is also why government workers are paid less.  Not only that, but Obama wants to raise taxes on those citizens that make more than $250,000.  At a time when the United States desperately needs investment in the country in order to create jobs and get out of the financial crisis, Obama wants to tax the group of people that invest most of their money back into the economy.  If you want to pay more taxes, you should voluntarily mail the extra amount of tax burden you would like to take to the Department of Treasury as a gift.  Here's the mailing address, so it is easier for you to increase your own tax burden. 

  Gifts to the United States

  U.S. Department of the Treasury  

  Credit Accounting Branch

  3700 East-West Highway, Room 622D

  Hyattsville, MD 20782

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The Democrats will want to keep these institutions alive, but no company in America should be given an unfair, government-endowed advantage in the marketplace.  They helped to create the problem we're in today by creating excess liquidity in the financial markets due to their implicit government-guarantee, and now we're paying for it.
• Excessive Regulation.  Regulation in its current form is unnecessary.  We have already bestowed police powers on the Federal government, so it can prosecute companies and their officers for fraud and other crimes.  The Democrats will be tempted to over- regulate the markets, especially the financial ones, but hopefully they can't add too much regulation, or innovation will slow.
• The Government bailing out the auto industry.  The Democrats will be tempted to help the voters in Detroit that helped put them in power, but government intervention in industry only delays the inevitable.  If the companies are not able to quickly adapt to the market, they should be allowed to die, so that they stop draining resources from the economy.  If they want to invest in job re-training for these voters, then they should invest in job re-training instead of bailouts.

Very Concerned About

• America's future trade policy.  It doesn't matter if the economists voted Democrat or Republic, 95% support free trade.  Why?  Because, free trade brings prosperity to all parties involved and has created more jobs than it has destroyed.  Yes, we should hold other countries to our environmental standards, but the best way to bring about this would be to make companies that produce or sell products in the United States to join our future cap-and-trade system and by permits.
• The deficit.  Government spending needs to be kept in check, and it should stop mortgaging the future for the present.  No amount of stimulus will help revive the economy, because consumers and the federal government are over-leveraged and need to cut back on spending.  Democrats being able to control spending?  I don't think this has ever happened, and the Republicans haven't done much better.  They need to get Keynes's influence out of there.
• Monetary policy.  The government has put $5 trillion into the monetary system in the last two months, which is completely unsustainable and will most likely over time as it has time to sit create massive amounts of inflation.  Again, they need to get Keynes's influence out of there.
• Entitlement Programs.  The Democrats will want to raise taxes to cover these, but no matter what they try, they are sitting on a demographic time-bomb.  Entitlements will eat-up our economy if the system isn't reformed.

Comments

[Charles Sipe]

The thing I am most excited about is the potential to restore America's image in the world community. One of Obama's greatest strengths is his ability to inspire people and I think that is the kind of leadership our country needs.

[Jonathon Ricaurte]

That was a good read.

[Jonathan D.]

A few things: While we agree that going into Iraq was a mistake, and certainly the current administration's strategies until late, have been nothing short of tragic/laughable, I would be very, very surprised if we ever truly leave their country soon. Last I checked we have 5 permanent military bases. Certainly troop deployment will be curtailed, but short of political upheaval in the U.S. I'm not expecting we will be leaving anytime soon. No one wants to let that oil get into "unstable" hands. In short, we will be there as long as the Sauds concur. The money is gone now, it certainly would have been much better spent on a whole host of alternative energy options, as well as shale oil processing, and possibly offshore drilling for short-term fixes.

Second, I think you like most people who make this argument are missing the boat on Guantanamo. If a detainee is not a citizen, they do not have the protection as to their "rights," that an American is theoretically provided. The issue is one of national security, as we are, from an international legal perspective holding citizens of sovereign countries hostage.

From a personal perspective, I have mixed feeling. I have roots in the East Coast. Let's just say, I probably would not have been overly torn if the CIA had just taken care of some of these miscreants to old-fashioned way, assuming we have been told anything close to "the truth," on these matters. The official story seems to defy some fairly basic laws of physics.

As to science, personally I wish they would leave evolution to some manner of history class. I want my science to teach observation, and mathematical recording. If it can't be verified in the present without speculation on top of speculation, then leave it for the humanities department. That said, intelligent design is certainly even more of a stretch.

I'll have to check out the healthcare link,that's right up my alley.

The suggestion as to gifting the treasury department is hysterical, I have little doubt we agree how detrimental the "progressive," income tax is to innovation, at least as currently as conceived, and practiced.

Indeed free trade has been very good for many parties, but it has also made some pockets of poverty worse off. Check out: Naming the System.

In addition if we think that we are going to survive in this country without a strong manufacturing base, we have another thing coming.

That said my prognostication is that the Dems will perpetuate the road toward American Socialism, that the Neo-Conservatives Republicans have started, regardless of what we may agree on or not.

I sum it up this way: Lenin once suggested that once in came time to hang capitalists from lamp posts, that the "real," capitalists would try and sell them the rope. He never truly understood anything other than his own ambition. The "real," capitalist simply shrugs and says, "How much rope do the people need?" and as long as there is still a money system, the "real cost accountant," will peek out from behind his shoulder, and add, "But, the people understand that we are still going to have expenses right?"

In conclusion, there is a really interesting speech on UWTV regarding religion in America, it turns out that this administration has been so incompetent that even the Christian Evangelicals are calling for a separation of Church and State! (Inference Added)

[Jonathan]

As a follow up to my previous comment, I have since seen a very interesting documentary by Ben Stein called "Expelled." I had not realized that the arguments over intelligent design are much more complex than I was led to believe. My presumption was (in error,) and it was that the intelligent design folks were mostly crackpots who claimed the world was created in 6000 years.

The interview with Richard Dawkins toward the end was very telling, as it became quite clear to me that his fight was with certain segments, albeit sizable ones, of Christianity, and in doing so he was quite prepared to toss out the metaphorical baby with the bath water, yet he didn't seem to mind speculating himself on an origin of life that was not simply a matter of accident on top of accident.

It hasn't changed my original position however,... hand such speculation over to the historians. Let science observe, and measure.