I think this may be the first political type of post I have done since the election started. I refrained from doing any political post before now because I want everyone to vote but I want them to learn about the candidates themselves and vote for their candidates because they think they are the right ones for the job. I want people to be informed and to get informed on their own. I want people to discover for themselves values and issues they think are important and vote accordingly. I don't want people voting for candidates just because I am. I want people to think for themselves and do what they think is right.
I hope the election went well for everyone because it sure didn't for me. If you haven't figured out by now I tend to lean just a little to the right when it comes to politics. I have had people ask me how can you be a republican when both of your parents are democrats? The answer is simple and can be summed up very easily. In my view the republicans stand for small government where people should take care of themselves and not depend on the government. The democrats believe in big government and believe the government should provide for all our needs and services. I know this is very broad and simple definition of republicans and democrats but this is how I see it. Since I believe everyone should take care of themselves and not look for handouts from the government that puts me in the republican party. It shouldn't surprise anyone that I don't believe in taking money from one class of people and redistributing it to another. In its simplest terms it is called welfare. Welfare has been proved to make people lazy and even more dependent on government.
Obama doesn't worry me as much as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid do. I can't stand to even look at Pelosi she looks so clueless whenever she speaks. Pelosi and Reid will try to push their liberal agenda down the American people's throats but I think Obama will govern from the center and not agree with everything they try to do. I really think he will do what he thinks is best for the country whether or not I agree with him. I won't fault him or anybody else for doing what they believe in or think is best for the country I just hopes he has an open mind and listens to the other side too, I think he will.
I'm not real upset that Obama got elected I don't dislike him like I did the Clinton's. That just may be the best thing about Obama getting elected now the Clinton's will be out of the White House for at least another 8 years, that's something I can live with. If you remember the first thing Clinton did when he got into the White House is reneged on his tax cut promise to millions of Americans. After just 3 weeks in office he declared the country couldn't afford it and all tax cuts would be suspended. I will be interested to see if Obama does the same thing, it wouldn't surprise me. If he does the republicans will take over the house in 2 years and they will control the senate within the next 4. That is what happened to Clinton and it will happen to Obama if he doesn't make good on his promise to cut taxes to the middle class. Since I am squarely in the middle of the middle class (I think anyway, who can ever tell) I am looking forward to that tax cut but I'm not expecting it to arrive anytime soon. I just don't think it is going to happen.
The stock market went down today and I am sure that had something to do with the election results but it will bounce back, it always does. I think it will be a slower recovery than if McCain had gotten elected but that's my opinion.
I am not a big McCain supporter either. He is one of the problems with the republican party. Some of the republicans think they need to pander to everyone much like Clinton used to. I think the republican party needs to get some "balls" and go back to their roots. The party has lost its way and seems to be wondering around lost. Let's get back to the conservative values that made the party great.
Here is a list of what I think us conservatives need to do:
1. We need to get people to believe in themselves and take care of themselves.
2. We need to tackle the immigration issue, put up that fence in the southwest, throw the illegals out of the country and make them come into the country legally.
3. We need to get independence off foreign oil. We need to drill, drill, drill and drill some more baby. Wind and solar, while sounds nice, isn't the answer to complete energy independence.
4. We need to start building more nuclear power plants. We need to get rid of the red tape and fast track the nuclear plants and get them online as soon as possible. We need to further develop clean coal technology.
5. We need to start developing hydrogen fuel cell for cars no matter how long it takes to develop. Hydrogen fuel cells are a long term solution but there is no reason this country can't be leading the way. Hybrid cars aren't the answer. Do you realize that if everybody owned a hybrid car and plugged it in at night to recharge the batteries that there isn't enough electrical power in the country to charge them? And quite possibly when you plug that car into your wall outlet you may be polluting even more because your power maybe coming from a old worn out coal plant that is discharging more pollutants into the air than a gas powered car does?
6. We need to stop bailing out Neanderthal companies that just can't seem to keep pace with the needs or wants of the people. We need to even up the playing field by taxing imports as much as other countries tax our exports. I believe in free trade but I also believe in an even playing field.
7. We need to build a strong defense and a strong military. We need to be able to keep our country safe and strong. We're not safe from the terrorist and probably never will be again. We need to chase terrorist no matter where they go and let them know they can't hide from us.
8. We need to privatize social security and let the people have the say how their retirement is handled. We need to make it mandatory everyone must have a retirement account (presently called social security) but have a choice where it is invested. If you were to take the money you pay into social security plus the matching money your employer pays in for you and invest it in your own plan and keep the capital gains without being taxed you will have over $1,000,000 when you retire at 62. Right now you are left with about $225,000 the way the government does it.
9. We need to have competition among all school systems. Competition and choices makes for better services and products. This is how it works in the "real" world why can't it work in our school systems? Our colleges and universitys' seem to do alright with the competition for students I'm sure the rest of our school systems would do just fine too. Competition would rid our schools of the bad teachers that presently litter our school systems. Would some school systems fail? Probably but so what, maybe they shouldn't be teaching our children anyway. People should be able to take the money from the state for each student and use in whatever school they choose. It can be either privite, public or charter, it shouldn't matter it should be our choice.
10. We need to get rid of special interest groups they are ruining this country.
11. We need to get rid of pork barrel spending. I am tired of senators and congressman taking money for their home districts for useless an unnecessary programs and projects.
12. We need to get rid of big government.
That's a few of my points I think the republicans need to do to get back to their roots.
I am not a President Bush fan either. I am grateful to him for keeping us safe ever since 9-11 and I don't think this was an easy job. But I didn't like him taking a big government under the Clinton administration and making it even bigger during his administration. I didn't like his stance on immigration, I didn't like his pandering to big oil and I didn't like his bailout of the banking industry.
We need to get new leaders for the republican party, leaders who will take us back to what the republican party is suppose to be. There are a few people out there that can fill this void but we need to find more.
It reminds of the title to Bernard Goldberg's book "Crazies to the Left of Me and Wimps to the Right." How true it turned out to be.
4 comments:
i am with you leaning to the right, brother.
i wonder what hillary was thinking last night? i wonder if she could have beat mccain? one thing for sure, i am glad it isn't her in the white house. i have had enough of the clintons to last me a lifetime.
let's see if i agree with your list of things conservatives need to do.
1. yup, we should take care of ourselves, and others, and not wait for the government to do it for us.
2. i have no problem with immigrants coming to this country because let's face it that's how almost all of us got here. just do it leagally. one good thing about the bad economy is that there has been of illegals back to their home countries.
3. we do need to break our dependance on oil. but drilling is not the answer. that will run out too. why not solve the problem now instead of putting it off on our granchildren. i like seeing gas prices coming down but i am afraid that will just encourage us to go back to our fat and happy ways until the next crisis.
4. i am all for nuclear power.
5. it's funny you mention that we don't have the capability to power all electric cars for the entire nation. d just mentioned that last night. let's take the gas price break we just got and tax gas to four dollars (that seems to be the price that got people's attention), then use that money to develop alternate ways to power cars. it would encourage convservation and help fund an answer to the problem.
6. no bailouts for car companies. that only encourages bad decision making and manaagement. their should be consequences for not running your company properly. and remember i lived for almost 20 years in se mi. i have many friends tied to autos. my own company will feel the effects detroit's demise. the market has the last word and i think the market has spoken.
7. i agree.
8. yes and no. many people would never save for retirement if not forced to through social security. i have mixed feelings of people being responsible and protecting them from their own stupidity. i know that i will never see near what i put in the system.
9. yes, yes, yes. the market, parents, will determine a quality education. i have never understood why the public schools are so afraid of private schools. if you do a good job then you have nothing to worry about. why they think they deserve to have a monopoly on the educational system i will never understand.
10. there should be a law that only the bill being voted on can be considered. if any pork is attached it should be automatically vetoed no matter what. which leads to number 11.
why not work for the good of the country as a whole and not your own special interest? if anyone was ever brave enough to stand up for the country's best interest and not their own they would have my vote hands down.
i guess we agree for the most part. surprise!
Here are some clarifications:
2. I have no problem with immigrants either, just do it legally.
3. Drilling is not the long term answer but a short term answer to bridge us to a long term solution. Do you realize Canada has what is called the oil sands I believe in northern Alberta somewhere. These oil sands contain well over a trillion barrels of oil, much more than Saudi Arabia. In our own country we have oil shale we can extract oil from. Estimates say there is over a trillion barrels of oil here too. Between the two there is more than enough oil to last our lifetime and our childrens lifetime. More than enough time to find alternative energy sources.
5. I don't believe in hiking gas up to $4 per gallon because sooner or later, probably sooner, we will see $4 per gallon gas again. I am sure when Obama takes office the dems will claim the recession is over and that's when gas prices will go up, I predict $4 by summer.
8. Social security is a joke. We should be able to have a choice how our money gets invested after all it is OUR money. If you want to put yours into Treasury bills and I want mine in mutual funds we should have that choice. Imagine what it would do for our economy. It would stimulate it much more than interest rate cuts or increasing or reducing capital gains tax. When people pull their money out at retirement it would be a gradual pullout and never be felt by the economy. The only reason government wants to keep social security under their watchful eye is they can spend the money in there to help offset deficits in the federal budget.
1. We need to flat out tell the American people to stop looking at the Dow. Sure, times are tough, but the Dow is not the tell-all sign of economic troubles. The stock market reflects lack of confidence in the people. After they get this fright out of their head, we can start to shift the responsibility back onto the people.
2. I'm right with you immigration, however, it would cost us a lot of money that we don't have to do that right now. This is why I say station the National Guard there for now, and continue with the fence that we already have in the budget.
3. Drill baby drill. We need to drill, and we need to do it now. Just like you said, it's a short term bridge to a long term solution. The sooner we can give Ahmendinijad and the rest of the middle east the finger, the sooner we can get our economy back at the top.
4. I'm still not 100% sold on nuclear energy, but I do think it's a great start. We need to build the plants, reprocess the waste, and power this country on something other than coal and oil.
5. I don't know much about Hydrogen fuel cells, but I did think the same thing about electric cars. What a nonsensical solution.
6. Two wind generators just went up in McBain, and guess where they were built. Germany! WE NEED TO MANUFACTURE THESE THINGS IN AMERICA! Why, if we have the best workers in the world, can't we manufacture these things here? We need to lower the corporate tax rate (we have the second highest in the world at 35%) to encourage people to start up businesses that would manufacture these things, and create jobs!
7. Now that Obama is elected, Russia has already pointed missiles at us again. Barney Frank just said he plans to cut 1/4 of our defense budget. Why!? We can't fix our economy if we don't exist! National defense is the number one priority of the Fed! We need to increase the budget, increase recruiting, and win in Iraq. If we win in Iraq, we will be once again the strongest nation and people will want to join our military.
8. We do need to privatize SS, however, I don't believe in mandating retirement accounts. I think there should be an incentive to saving. If you save 10% of your wages you could receive a $1,000 tax credit to also deposit into your account - that's how I see it. Leave it up to employers if they want to match every dollar as well. I just don't think it should be mandatory.
9. Competition is the backbone of success. I said this in my debate too. Someone asked me about funding for public schools. I told him that it's not the lack of funding, but the waste of money, and lack of competition. At the end of the day it falls back on the student and teachers, not the funding.
10. Back door deals seem to be the staple of Washington, DC. They will never be gone, sadly.
11. I think this is extremely important as well, however, I think pork barrel spending makes up 1/2 of 1% of the Federal Budget each year. However, once you get rid of that, it opens the door to stopping other unnecessary spending.
12. There's a 10th amendment for a reason. Too many Federal laws restrict the decisions your state and local governments make.
I have looked for wind generator builders here in the US and they're aren't any, at least that are publically traded. There are all sorts of them in Europe though.
I don't want to get started on corporate tax rates.
Barney Frank is a moron and that's all that needs to be said about that.
You have to mandate social security savings because if you don't the people that don't save will become a burden on the government when they retire. My plan takes nothing out of your weekly take home check it would be financed from what you already pay into SS plus what your employer matches. Figure it out if you make $60,000 a year you pay in approx. 7% of that into SS and your employer matches it and if you retire at 62 and your portfolio averages 9-10% a year (which it should be close) you will end up with over $1,000,000 at retirement. Now let me see $225,000 or $1,000,000 at retirement? Which one would you rather have? You'll never get that return from SS.
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