What are the top 5 issues President Obama must address?
Yesterday afternoon Barack H. Obama took the oath of office, becoming the 44th President of the United States of America.
In his inaugural address, he reminded America that we are in a time of "gathering clouds and raging storms.", referencing challenges he will have to face as the newly minted President, and the rest of us will face in our own spheres of influence.
What do you think are the top 5 issues facing America today, that President Obama -- and all of us -- must urgently address?
Read my most recent blog post to see the specifics of my list, including:
1) FOREIGN POLICY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
2) STABILIZING AMERICA'S ECONOMY
3) CREATING JOBS / INVESTING IN AMERICA'S FUTURE
4) REFORMING AMERICA'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
5) CALLING AMERICANS TO PUBLIC SERVICE
In his inaugural address, he reminded America that we are in a time of "gathering clouds and raging storms.", referencing challenges he will have to face as the newly minted President, and the rest of us will face in our own spheres of influence.
What do you think are the top 5 issues facing America today, that President Obama -- and all of us -- must urgently address?
Read my most recent blog post to see the specifics of my list, including:
1) FOREIGN POLICY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
2) STABILIZING AMERICA'S ECONOMY
3) CREATING JOBS / INVESTING IN AMERICA'S FUTURE
4) REFORMING AMERICA'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
5) CALLING AMERICANS TO PUBLIC SERVICE
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by dlw on -
This is me, I don't see these as all politically feasible but wd like them to become more prominent in debates in the public square regardless.
1. Restore Adequate levels of Trust in US Gov't. (This'll be a toughie.)
-High levels of transparency
-Increase public understanding of political-economic dynamics.
-Project Democratic Renewal.
2. Spread Democracy Abroad by Renewing Democracy Within.
-Project Democratic Renewal
-Pragmatic Campaign Finance Reform (tax all larger monetary contributions to politicos of all flavors and sizes.)
-Instead of simply rebuilding the Dem Party Machine of yore, reduce the tendency of our two-party dominated political system to tilt towards one -party-domination at the state and national levels.
3. Enable Political Outsiders/Minorities to Have More Voice, while Reducing the Volume of $peech.
-Project Democratic Renewal
-Support additional state-level reforms to enable proliferation of a host of local third parties with easy entry and exit to hold main parties accountable and make the main parties more dynamic.
4. Subvert Political Extremism in US/Work towards a Detente in Cultural Wars.
-Reconciliation-good.
-Give people more exit threat from main parties-Better.
-Reframe politics of abortion- Much Needed.
-Get gov't out of business of Legal Marriages.
-Allow for only bilateral civil unions, with every adult limited to two such unions w. full benefits/rights in lifetime and the right to make a pre-union agreement that will give the economically less-productive member more legal protections against the dissolution of the union by the other partner.
5. Comprehensive, Simultaneous Reform of National System of Public Finance and Welfare
-Shift tax burden from Income to Wealth.
-Land Value Tax (see wikipedia)
-Excise taxes on Nonrenewable energies.
-Taxes on Commercial Advertisements.
-Taxes on pollutant emissions.
-Taxes on larger $peech contributions to politicos.
-Transform morass of Nat'l Income Tax into simple Social Insurance plan, replace existing Welfare with it.
-Give an income transfer of say 10,000 (in monthly installments) to all non-incarcerated USAmerican adult citizens.
-Pay for transfers with a flat tax calibrated to almost like 95% or so of transfers.
-Set up Public Mutual Fund that combines the attributes of
an index fund(no managers to corrupt or pay)
a hedge fund(take away right of investors to sell short on stocks,
balance buying long on stable performers with selling short on unstable under-performers
so that in the event of a general downturn the US gov't will be fungible
and overall volatility in US Stock Market will be reduced to make it easier for
smaller investors and companies to do business within it.
dlw
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