Greater Expectations
Published by Al Adomite on August 29th, 2008
As you’ll see next week, I’m not one to fall for the “hype” (maybe I’m too cynical) with anything either party pushes in America these days. But, in the most objective sense, Obama definitely gets a bump now from the convention. The gamble paid off by going to Invesco.
There was a political cost that will come back post-election, though. Obama made many promises last night in differentiating himself from McCain and GW Bush. The dramatic nature of the promises really surprised me.
After last night, “change” means the government providing a lot of new things to America, without raising my taxes. That’s the expectation raised after last night. For today, I’ll take Obama on his word that he has a plan to do all these things. Let’s review his speech.
Free education:
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy.
Free healthcare:
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don’t, you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves.
Free time off from work:
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their job and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
If you were like me, this was the point I was a little concerned about how much this was going to cost. I’m more fiscal conservative than anything, so giving him the benefit of the doubt…
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I’ve laid out how I’ll pay for every dime — by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don’t help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less — because we cannot meet 21st century challenges with a 20th century bureaucracy. [Emphasis added.]
Wow. A promise to cut antiquated programs. Reducing the size of federal government. Now you’re talking to fiscal conservatives.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility — that’s the essence of America’s promise.
More great ideas. Carry forth changes that rein in the indiscriminate social transfers of wealth.
But, now, for the greatest aspect of the speech. I was worried my taxes would be raised to accomplish all these lofty goals - goals Congress and the President could not achieve the past 16 years under multiple different governmental layouts. It wasn’t achieveable when the Democrats controlled everything in 1993, nor when the GOP was in complete control in 2003, nor when power was split in 1995 and 2005.
But listen to this line:
I will, listen now, cut taxes — cut taxes — for 95 percent of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
He’s not just going to hold the line on my federal taxes, but he’s going to continue the Bush strategy of tax cuts! That’s great news.
Actually, that’s great expectations. I’ll put away the general cynicism to these types of claims for today and take Senator Obama at his word. He will truly be one of our greatest Presidents if he can truly change Washington and achieve all of these things without raising my taxes and continuing the tax cuts. Heck, with where GW has left the federal deficit, there’s no more room to just borrow to pay for these things.
So, I’ll put the cynicism aside for today. I like the idea of putting Americans more responsible to helping make this country more “green”. Maybe I’ll go plant a tree in honor of Obama’s great speech.
Better make it a Money Tree with expectations like these.
Filed under National Issues
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