Saturday, January 3, 2009

The Obama Agenda

Forbes has a pretty good summary here. Some comments:

Without real tax cuts for everyone, the stimulus package cannot work. Fundamentally, the US economy runs on people spending and investing, not on government make-work. Now, it can be argued that the make-work programs will put cash in consumers' pockets and maybe it will, but what about the rest of us who aren't involved in those projects?

I foresee a withdrawal from Iraq, but Obama will be advised by the Pentagon on how to do it without sacrificing security in Iraq. It will happen the way it would have happened regardless of who is President. Nancy won't like it. BTW, Pelosi will become irrelevant before the 2010 election. She won't like that, either.

Reregulation of the financials won't prevent people from being stupid with their money. There will be negative unintended consequences from this. There always are.

Healthcare reform is good. Government-run or controlled healthcare is the only thing worse than what we have. Healthcare from the same caring, compassionate people who brought you the IRS. You think you get poor response from your insurance company? What kind of response do you get at the DMV?

If it were worthwhile to drill where already allowed, energy companies would do it without government encouragement. I want to see the development of "alternative energy" so we can expose their folly.

Maintaining the status quo of abortion on demand with no restrictions will not play well with the majority of Americans. If the populace were aware that they are thwwarted at every turn on this, they would never have elected the Democrats. It is the Democrats number 1 issue for reasons I don't understand.

Bypassing the secret ballot for Union elections is Unamerican. People should have a choice without the potential for strongarming. Having worked in multiple Unionized facilities, I can tell you that many Unions will do just that.

Pay discrimination legislation is just another paycheck for lawyers. It is IMPOSSIBLE to prove pay discrimination. Period.

There are enough factions on the Democrat side, that some of this may be a non-starter. See here.

Republicans should strongly oppose bad policy and have a message of their own. Democrats continued to lose until this year because they didn't have one. The Obama is articulating a message. It's a populist message in the manner of William Jennings Bryan. He's an empty suit promising everything to everyone. Conservatives must counter it or become irrelevant.

No comments: