On to the topic at hand...November 4th, 2008 will be etched in the memories of everyone for a lifetime. The First Black President of the United States of America was elected to office in a over-whelming landslide that showed little chance of being derailed even as early as the first set of polls closing. President Elect Barack Obama, congratulations and we support you as you embark upon a challenging journey.
President-Elect is off to a fast start beginning to name individuals to their respective cabinet positions which appears to show songs that President Elect will govern more center than to the extreme left. I support this agenda of governing center at this crucial time in our country. I believe there should be several immediate focus':
1) Begin to heal the country by mending party relationships
- Many campaigns turned quite nasty and have caused damage among relationships and voters in their perspective districts. I believe that this can be accomplished via a bipartisan cabinet
2) Get Congress on the same page as President Elect and attempt to curb potential abuses of power.
- Democrats are enjoying a continued majority control of Congress and now the White House. President Elect has to ensure that Congress acts responsibly in favor of the American people and not in favor of their own personal agenda.
- This is a sensitive time and we have to make sure that Pelosi and the House do not abuse the majority and succumb to bad practices such as the American people experienced under W.
3) Strong Fiscal Policy
- We need to create a budget that begins to curb spending and allows for some capital to be used to pay down our deficit immediately. Our brothers and sisters fighting in Iraq need to begin to come home. I feel a 50% troop reduction in 2009 must be achieved and any immediate budget savings should be directed to reducing our deficit.
- We need to encourage investor growth and this can be achieved through not increasing capital gains tax higher than 20%. Numerous rumors and reports are stating that a increase to 24% is currently being discussed, however, that will be too high and will limit investment flows. 20% is what the capital gains tax was set at under the Clinton Administrator and is what the tax would increase to in 2011 once the current tax relief act comes to an end.
- We should explore modifying our current tax code. Instead of paying tax payers money, maybe consider adjusting our progressive tax levels. For example, the first $6,000 of every one's income is tax free; let's consider increasing that to the first $8,000 or $10,000 which would give middle, working and lower class individuals an instant tax break.
4) We need to hire a strong Treasury Secretary
5) Appoint a Secretary of Education that has some teaching and State Education experience.
- This will be a great opportunity to appoint someone who will initiate, execute and oversee strong education policies that will help increase the educational opportunities and experiences for the US. We are one of the richest countries in the World however, our education is no where close in comparison.
These are just a few points I wanted to discuss in this blog. In the upcoming days I will elaborate on these ideas in further detail. It was an awesome feat to see President Elect Barack Obama win the election in such grand fashion, however, the road will be an uphill battle to right the errors from 8 years of bad policies.
