Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Election

Before I start I want to preface by saying that I am a moderate who in the last 16 years that I could vote has voted Republican and Democrat. So I am not one of those people that just go down the line of a certain political party. I even voted for Jesse Ventura as Governor of Minnesota. That was something I came to regret, but I am digressing. The point is I don’t have a solid coalition to either political party. So when I look at the 2012 presidential election I first have to come clean I voted for President Obama in 2008, but until recently I was indecisive who I was going to vote for in 2012 so I watched intently both political conventions. With that said President Obama has a huge speech tonight that could change a lot of minds on who they are planning to vote for. The Republicans had their conventions and I have to say I was underwhelmed by the speeches of Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan. It felt like they were being too vague about what they planned on doing if they were elected. First let me introduce myself I am a non- traditional college senior that is nervous about the job market that I will be going into in a few short months. The thing that I didn’t want to hear was a term I have come to hate because I don’t believe in it which is trickle-down economics. In my history the only thing that trickles down in that is the money trickles down into the top 10% pockets. Then another term I hate was brought up and that is tax cuts for top 3%. When opinion if you are making that much money you don’t need the tax cuts you are doing very well for yourself and I commend you for that. The thing that I am going to remember from the Republican Convention is Clint Eastwood talking to a chair. That did the party no favors and pushed people on the fence the other way.

The Democrats are having their convention right now and I have to say this is how you have a convention. The first night Michelle Obama spoke about the kind of man that her husband is. When I look to a President the first thing I look at is he a good man. Can I trust him the next four years because besides what everyone seems to think the President works for me not the other way around. Listening to Mrs. Obama talk about her husband made me think that she trusts him completely so maybe it is ok for me to trust him. Then what put it over the edge for me was last night hearing President Clinton talk. I know personally he is a flawed man everyone knows that. However, professionally he has been the best President of my lifetime. This country wasn’t in better shape in my lifetime than when Bill Clinton was President. So when he talks I listen and the way he spoke for President Obama really surprised me as not that long ago President Clinton and President Obama were staunch adversaries during the 2008 election. It would have been easy for President Clinton to hold a grudge, but he is above that. He made a great speech that left me wanting more and solidly put my support behind President Obama.

Here are a few reasons why I support Obama; The fact which I truly believe, that President Obama was put into an impossible position. George Bush bankrupted this country by fighting two wars which we should not have been in and sending our great troops into harm’s way. By the way I want to thank any veteran who reads this for their courageous service to keeping our country secure. I truly believe that freedom does not come free and many men and women died to allow a person like me to enjoy my freedom. That is why I love this country as two people can disagree on politics and have the freedom to criticize the government without disappearing late at night like in some other countries. However, I digress again with the wars and the end of regulations on businesses George Bush put into motion something so terrible that it could not be stopped. When the Financial Crisis happened Bush left Obama holding the bag, but not before he left him a parting gift and paying millions out to corrupt CEO’s to leave office. When Obama came in he had to bail out the banks because what choice did he have. The automobile restructuring has worked and made the auto industry more secure and more fiscally responsible. Obama is not perfect but the plans he put in place are working. The problem is they are not working fast enough for most Americans. For every hundred thousand jobs that he created there was thousands more that were out of work. When you or your family is struggling because of that it is easy to blame someone, but trust me the prosperity is coming. Like Bill Clinton said there is no one and I mean no one that could have done more to create jobs. It just is going to take a little more time and I just ask you be a little more patient.

Then when it comes to health care that is where I get peeved by the Republicans and a big reason why I am voting Democrat in the fall. I am one of over 3 million people in America that is uninsured so when Obama Care was passed I felt like my fears about what happens when I get sick. Or what happens if I get hurt where am I going to come up with the money to pay doctor bills. For those out there that have insurance through work there is nothing worse than getting constant calls from bill collectors to pay a bill you would love to pay, but if it comes down to putting food on the table and putting gas in the car to go to school then I do what I have to do. So my feeling was yes there is a way out and then all you hear from Governor Romney is he is going to repeal Obama Care the moment he gets into office and that saddens me. Then I get pissed off when I hear that they want to change Medicare which is something my parents rely on every day. Getting rid of the donut hole was so important to my parents that we all love Obama Care. When I hear things like that I think are the Republicans in bed with the Insurance Companies and the hospitals to make as much money off us poor people that can’t afford insurance.

My last point and the main reason I voted Democrat in 2008 and will again in 2012 is who do you trust to run this country the middle class or the top 10%. This country was built through the middle class who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. This country was built on men who struggled to go from apprentices to working their way to the top. That is the American dream to go from the bottom to the top. That is why I trust the middle class to do this and the only way to do this is for the Republicans and the Democrats to work together. They need to strengthen the Middle Class not the Elite. If you strengthen the Middle class there will be more small businesses who will hire more employees which will bring the unemployment down. If you put the elite in charge all you are going to see are guys like Mitt Romney, Dick Cheney, George Bush, and Karl Rove get richer and richer. My only question can we afford to take a chance on the elite running the country again as the last time they were in charge we fought 2 wars, thousands of sons and daughters were killed unnecessarily, and we faced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. I don’t know about you, but after looking at all the facts I am not willing to take that chance. So in closing on November 6th reelect Barack Obama because we can’t risk this country’s future to Mitt Romney.

7 comments:

  1. I will start by saying I am a Republican but not a straight ticket voting republican. If I feel that there is a Democrat or any other party member that best represents my values, beliefs, and has ideas that in my opinion would help the country, I will vote for them.

    There was an awful lot in that post that was great information, but I think it is important to know that if you get most of your political information from very few sources, then you may be doing yourself a disservice. We all need to know that these politicians are not doing this for only a "public service" now. It is a job and a career, and just like anyone else trying to get you to hire them for the job, they will say anything to get your vote. Each person who spoke at those conventions, had their speeches written for them in a manner that was thought to spark interest in the listener. They are filled with rhetoric to scare, excite, inspire, and build hope within the American people. I didn't see President Obama speak last night, but from what I heard, it was similar content as Governor Romney. It was an exciting speech filled with aspiring goals, but there were not many specifics. (correct me if I am wrong, but these were reactions from people tweeting into MSNBC, which is a rather liberal media outlet) That is how this race is going to be until we get to the debates. Neither candidate wants to take the risk of laying out his plan until he has to. So when the debates come around, then we should find out more from each candidate what they expect to do in order to help turn this country around.

    To address the "trickle-down" and "tax cuts" that do not excite you. If you listen to only the negative things said by the Democrats then you are going to think that they are hand outs given by the republicans to their friends to keep their donations coming into their campaigns. This is an interesting article written about the Bush Tax Cuts and other tax numbers, but when looked at with a microscope, might have had a decent impact on businesses and investors.

    http://www.american.com/archive/2007/november-december-magazine-contents/guess-who-really-pays-the-taxes

    In 2009, the top 10% of Americans according to income, made about 43% of the income in America. Now if you only look at that number its rather high, but they also paid about 71% of the country's income taxes. That ratio is not so much in favor of the top 10%. The bottom 50% that year earned 13% of the income and paid 2% of the income taxes. I am not in favor of more tax cuts for the super wealthy, but I am also not in favor of raising the rates for anyone. I think we need solid tax code reform, because lets be honest, none of these families in the top 10% are doing anything that is against the law. They are being allowed by the government to write off certain donations, certain business expenses, and are getting rewarded for investing their money in certain businesses. With that said, these are all things, that all Americans, if they choose, could take advantage of if they would like. With that said, there are many families in America that do not need to take advantage of these avenues because about 43% of tax filers in 2009 paid a 0% income tax rate.

    ReplyDelete
  2. When it comes to Mrs. Obama and Bill Clinton's speeches, I am sure they were giving Democrats warm and fuzzy feelings, but at the same time, if we believe everything we hear, then it wouldn't be fair to ourselves. To be clear before you look at these websites, I do not believe that Republicans tell the truth all the time either. Paul Ryan tried to make us think that our President was responsible for a manufacturing plant shutting down in his hometown. In all reality, the plant shut down the summer before Obama was re-elected. Obama did say he would do all he could to keep it open, but he was not responsible for it closing. Back to the DNC, here are 2 sites and each fact check certain things, that like Paul Ryan, each of these two speakers might have stretched the truth to the max in order to get people excited to vote for our President's re-election.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/05/Fact-Check-Michelle-Obama-s-False-Fairy-Tale-of-Struggle

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/fact-checking-bill-clintons-speech-and-other-democrats-at-the-convention-in-charlotte/2012/09/06/55b9df68-f7e1-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_blog.html?wprss=rss_congress

    The second one not only fact checks this speech, but I believe you can fact check many other politicians as well if you choose.

    When it comes to the wars President Bush entered. Whether or not we believe they were right, I feel we greatly underestimate the difficulty these decisions are to make. Had he not entered one of the wars, Afghanistan, President Obama would not have had the privilege of carrying out the task of sending in the Navy Seals to do the job of getting Bin Laden. So I believe that war ended up being well worth it, unless there are people who think that was not a good thing for the U.S., which I am sure there are. In general, war is a tough subject because the President is always going to be making a decision that will result in American casualties.

    To respond to a small topic you mentioned, the auto industry, we are being told that the bailout is working for GM. Here is a website from Forbes that may shed light on what is actually happening to GM, and may give you some info about how that whole situation worked.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiswoodhill/2012/08/15/general-motors-is-headed-for-bankruptcy-again/

    Then we get to health care. Republicans get a bad wrap for this because people hear they want to get rid of Obama Care and automatically they think that Republicans hate all parts of Obama Care. Everyone wants people to have coverage if they would like to have it, and I would guess that Republicans like parts of Obama care, but not at the cost that it was drawn up. It was too much money put back on the government. If you ask most people from Canada, a country that has universal health care, for most people it is a bad thing. I talk to someone who said they had a friend at work who need shoulder surgery, but was put on a waiting list for a year and a half because his surgery was not life

    ReplyDelete
  3. threatening. He needed it, he had the money to pay for it, but the government plan kept him from getting it. Lets think about this, there are roughly 30 million people in Canada. Do you think that the 310 million people we have here in the U.S. will not have delays?? And do we really think that our health care will not decrease in quality as well? These are the people we need to talk to about this; doctors and health care providers because they know the impact it will have on them, and eventually on us. And if you look online, you will find a website that lays out who will not be forced to have health insurance. If you do not meet the income requirements needed to pay for it, then you will not be required to have it, and in that case, we are right where we started, lots of people not having health care.

    Oh and by the way, to pay for this health care bill, President Obama took away funding from medicare. 762 billion dollars of medicare funding, and who do you think this will effect?? the people who you just said deserve it. Republicans do not want to take this away!! they want to make it a more efficient program. Anyone over the age of 55 will not see a change in their health care!

    Lastly, the U.S. government is a business; a multi trillion dollar business. (that number refers back to the 2008 or '09 budget considering this administration has become the only one to never pass or amend a budget for our country) Its easy to see why we have fallen almost 5 trillion dollars more in debt. Any family or business would if they run unchecked by a budget, or with any desire to operate on a balanced budget!! I completely agree that America was built on small businesses, and still today the success of small business will drive America. If you ask any expert on economics i bet that they say that the policies our president has put in place and will put in place are making it harder on small businesses to grow. As I have heard in the past few days, Reagan took on a much more difficult situation when he became president, and the first 2 years of his presidency were very tough, but he had it turned around in that 3rd year. We are being too lenient with this administration as a whole in my opinion, and this goes for the other branches of government as well. The Senate and the House of Reps need to evaluate what they are trying to accomplish. Because right now, both sides are not showing me much promise when it comes to getting things done. They are too partisan, and to get things done, they need to work together.

    Since I didnt get this done last night, I will throw this link on as well. It fact checks the President and Vice President's speeches.

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-09-07/fact-check-obama-biden-dnc/57672532/1

    There are probably lots of spelling and grammatical errors but hopefully you can read past them and get my main points.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kyle thanks for the response. This is what this blog is about is having healthy constructive discussions about what we would both agree should be America's goal and that is getting the United States back to where they rightfully belong and thats the best economy in the world. We have stark differences of opinion on how to get there. We are very different people in two very different positions in life. There is nothing wrong with that but it is a fact. I respect your opinions and I hope you respect mine. The final thing I will say about this is the American People have a choice to make in November. They can go for a future that has the possiblity to be great with new ideas and plans to bring this economy back and get people to work. Or we can go back to the past and the same old ideas that George Bush put in place that began this economic recession. Obama is for hope and Romney is for the good ole boy network that believes that this country was great when George Bush was in office. If you think this country was good when Bush was in office then by all means vote for Romney, but instead you believe that George Bush's policies started this mess than the answer should be clear Re-elect President Barack Obama.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think that is the misconception about Romney. He is a moderate like Bush, but Romney is much more of a business man than Bush was. We can argue till we are blue in the face about how Romney got to have the money he does from Bain Capital, but one thing we would be able to settle on, was he risked his own money to make his money. He invested in businesses to give them a second chance, and he did this sometimes on a large scale where he both lost and made money.

    Where we differ is how we think of the word "forward." Just because it is a gimmick that ironically both MSNBC and Pres. Obama are using right now, does not mean that is what he is going to do for the country. He has done a great job getting people to think that way about him, but I challenge all people who plan on voting for him, and for Romney for that matter, to listen to the debates. Don't listen who is the better speaker or who looks the best, or even who is smoother at answering questions, lets look and listen for who has the better ideas to take this country "forward." Forward to me means finding a solution to the problem, and one that will not take another 4 years. We do not have 4 years at this point.

    If I was to create one requirement for any high politcal office it would be a contract for what you promise Americans you will do while you are on your campaign trail. If you remember correctly, Obama predicted this would take 3 years to turn around, and he even was quoted as saying, "If I don't have this turned around in 3 years, then its probably going to be a one term proposition."

    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/fact-check-obama-and-the-one-term-proposition/

    He himself thought it should take 3 years with his policies. I have gotten off topic though. There should be a contract to hold these politicians accountable to the promises they make on the campaign trail. Then they make not throw out ridiculous statments. And even do it through their presidency as well. He said the stimulus would take unemployment down to 4% and without it we would be at 6%....once again i digress. They should sign this statement/contract and at the end of their presidency term or political term, we look back since its public record, and see how well they accomplished the tasks they promised. Maybe Pres. Obama promised too much? Maybe he was being too ambitious? Either way, he filled Americans with lots of "hope" about "change" and what have we gotten so far?? I know one thing we do have. We have people who have either been unfortunate or unlucky in life by catching a few hard breaks looking at the wealthy of our country and thinking they do not deserve to be in the situation they are in. I know Democrats are saying they are not causing class warfare, but lets be honest, with as many people as we have on government assistance programs (which were created to be helpful programs and are very much helpful is some ways), we should be saying thank you to the top 10% for keeping us afloat as a country. (metaphorically) Think if the people who have that amount of money stopped working for just 1 year. They have enough money as it is anyways, so they should stop working for 1 year and let everyone else make the money in our country....right?? You know how worse off this country would be?? Take away 60% of the government's funding for just 1 year and see what happens to those programs... Do I actually think its necessary for them to thank the wealthy, NO, but instead of accusing the wealthy of not paying their fair share in order to

    ReplyDelete
  6. spark excitement for a "president who will stand up for the middle class," lets come up with a better plan to get everyone involved that brings people together and doesn't separate us by income. I digressed again..i am sorry! haha

    Anyways, my point is, if we had to take all of these things Pres. Obama promised the American people in order to get elected, I think we would find that in some of the most important areas, he has come through on some of those promises. In my opinion, moving forward means giving someone else a chance to do just that. I am going to be honest, do I think Mitt Romney was the best choice for the president from all of the Republicans? NO. But do I think he deserves a chance to turn this country around just like Obama deserved the chance given to him by the American people 4 years ago? Yes. If Romney fails in 4 years then the same thing should happen to him when its time for his re-election. If Romney is successful though, then the Republicans should not go and stick their chests out and say I told you so, because all-in-all, we are in this together and for the good of everyone in America!

    Mitt Romney said in his speech at the RNC "That he wished Obama had succeeded, because I want America to succeed." I was hoping Obama was going to be right, I didnt vote for him, but in the end I wanted his plan to work. I will also want either Romney's or Obama's plan to work this next time around, but unless Obama comes up with a new plan for the next 4 years, i do not see that happening....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kyle no disrespect because I respect the heck out of you for what you have had to overcome the last year. However, I don't know what you see in Governer Romney. He epitomizes what is wrong with this country as he made his fortune on the hard work of others. He has never had to work a day in his life. He grew up in the Governer's mansion. So how could he understand what it is like to go paycheck to paycheck knowing there is not enough to pay everything and still put food on the table for those that are counting on you. Knowing that someone has to go hungry that night. Or how about having to find a way to tell your family you were laid off while people like Governer Romeny is sitting up in the office without a care in the world. There is a song that puts in perspective how I feel it is called shutting Detroit down by John Rich. I don't know that President Obama deserves another four years, but deep down I truly believe that Governer Romney does not deserve four years. I may be an idealist, but deep down in my core I believe in the American dream and you can throw as many stats at me as you want, but for me it comes down to trust. I believe we are all in this together if we want to see better days, and I trust President Obama to bring us there. Will it be easy of course not and are we there of course not. But I believe that now is not the time to give tax breaks to the rich. With the jobs report coming out yesterday President Obama did not make any excuses. He said that this is not good enough and we need to create more jobs faster. Thats why I trust the President because he is not telling us stuff we want to hear he is telling us stuff we need to hear. I just don't trust Governer Romney to pull this country together because if the GOP or as I like to call them the Party of No would have passed the Presidents jobs bill things would have looked alot better. I can't forget the comment by Senator Mitch Mcconnell saying his only job the next two years was to make sure President Obama did not get re-elected. Really Really is that what his constituents put him in office for. The stark differences between the two is one side wants to cooperate and the other wants to knock someone out of office at any cost. I truly believe if Govener Romney is elected the next four years will be worse than the last four and that is a chance I am not willing to take.

    ReplyDelete