Frustrations Run Deep

I was curious while listening to Obama’s State of the Union Speech last night. Now, I’ve never been under any allusions that our current president is anything other than a centrist moderate liberal in the same vein as Bill Clinton. I’m not fond of centrists but supported him nonetheless because he was the only candidate with a positive message.

So, here we are a year in. To date I have been sorely disappointed at the ineptitude of the Democrats to take control and pass needed reforms. They have a majority, it’s time to show backbone. If the GOP insists on a filibuster then force them to use the old fashioned kind… talking 24 hrs a day until someone cries uncle!

But more to my current thoughts, last night’s speech. There were some elements I was happy to hear, like the blast to the 5 Injustices of the Supreme Court. But, there were many elements I find alarming.
• The statement that we need a massive construction project of “safe” nuclear power plants is a cause for worry. I have not heard of any regulatory enhancements to repair the damage the bush administration did to nuclear power safety. In case you didn’t know, under bush the rule requiring reactors to be able to be SCRAM’d (emergency shutdown) from outside the plant was removed. Why are we even considering more plants if we refuse to make our current once safe?
• While a desire to increase exports is sound, the idea that we will increase jobs by increasing farm exports is laughable. This is a dangerous idea that provides deep insight into the current administration. We are able to export a great deal of food due to significant government subsidies. We have put huge numbers of foreign farmers out of work through this practice. Mexico and Haiti have seen significant population movements as a result of our arrogance. Our current glut of illegal’s can be tied in part to this practice. Who benefits? About 90% of the food produced in the USA is controlled by 4 companies. Under no stretch of the imagination could this be considered a boon to family farms. This is a government hand out to agribusiness and nothing more.
• Elimination of the capital gains tax for small business. This one threw me for a loop. Small businesses buy equipment to produce things. This equipment depreciates as it is used. They don’t acquire capital assets that appreciate… unless of course the small business is a small investing firm. So I am undecided if this is a ruse to give the appearance that small businesses are going to benefit or a hand out to Wall Street. Let’s face it, if government wants to encourage smart investment the way to do it is to have a very steep short term capital gains tax followed by a very lenient or even nonexistent long term tax. This refocuses businesses to aim for long term sustainability and growth not the next short term bubble!

So, was I disappointed? Not so much, I really didn’t have very high expectations to begin with. What should Obama do? He should bring the key Democrat leaders into his office and tell them the gloves are off. No more useless attempts at bipartisanship. It’s time to take one from the GOP play book and run roughshod over the opponent! Begin passing meaningful financial reform if you want to fix the economy. Enforce better controls over energy speculation (one of the key triggers of the current economic slump). Go after big pharma, they have a bigger role in health insurance costs than anyone wants to acknowledge. This one is an easy fix; all the govt. has to do is negotiate prices using Medicare, the DOD and other federal entities. They talk a good line about the free market, why not use the free market? As for health care, why are we working on a one-size-fits-all bill? Tackle this in manageable pieces and progress will be made. As for the Supreme Court Decision, we don’t need a new law or Constitutional Amendment all we need to do is flood the courts with challenges to the idea that the 14th amendment had anything to do with Corporations. If the court can overturn a 102 year old precedent they can certainly overturn that one!

I tend to be a bit jaded. So, do I think any meaningful change will take place… not in my lifetime and likely not in yours.