Letters: U.S. at stake in this election
President Barack Obama and the Democratic leaders won big in the 2008 election mainly because of the bad economy. You would think they would take care of the economic problem first. Instead, one by one, they laid out the progressive agenda.
First, the “Cap And Trade” (Obama energy bill). It died because some senators from the oil and coal states refused to sign on. Can you imagine if it had become law? We would have to pay a higher price for electricity today.
Next, the “Stimulus Plan.” The big majority Democratic Congress delivered. The price tag for that was almost $1 trillion. The business world saw that big government spending on loans was piling up the nation’s debt.
That was followed by the “national health plan” (Obamacare) and again the big Democratic Congress delivered. According to the CBO, the price tag for the bill was over $1 trillion. Now it was clear to the world President Obama was growing big government, not the economy.
Our country is at stake in this election. Obama is unable to do any better on the economy with the liberal-socialist approach, but he is capable of doing great harm to our economy and making the United States a nanny state. There will be more people on food stamps, and Obama is trying to bring back the welfare program President Bill Clinton ended with his welfare reform act.
No question, Obama is a campaign master to have fooled so many people to vote for him in 2008 by his coined phrase “Hope, Change, Yes, We Can,” but he is not the right leader to fix the economy. A true leader knows the urgency. Stabilizing the downturned economy from further slipping should be the first priority. Had he stopped the Democratic Congress from playing the “Bush Tax Cut Expiration Game” by announcing on the first day of office that “Bush Tax Cut” will stay until after the economic recovery, we would have a different economic outlook today because businesspeople would feel safe to invest in business to grow jobs.
You don’t have to be an economist to know that in bad economic times, certainty and confidence are the most-important factors for recovery because without certainty of government economic policy, rich people won’t invest in business. Without confidence in the economy, consumers won’t spend money if they don’t have to.
When a new president came to office he had the advantage to convey certainty and confidence to the American people and the business world. Ronald Reagan did that. Obama could, too. Because of his intellectual ability and biracial background, I believe he could do great good for America, Too bad he couldn’t see beyond a liberal socialist agenda.
Chris Hsu
retired state employee
Baton Rouge