I have been trying to follow the run up to the new administration, and I am confused. And, while I am willing to give someone a chance, and I have seen the outrageous work; I do have my concerns. While the Obama presidency was fraught with problems; he did navigate us out of the economic crisis while other countries ae still struggling; the market doing very well, wages and employment up, housing costs up, 20 million having health care for the first time, I hate to see the progress made lost. We need to factor in that Pres. Obama had a no win Congress that was not only obstructive, but worked to undermine any efforts to fix the defects in Obamacare. We know that the medical, pharmaceutical, and insurance industries took full advantage of that to jack up costs. One concern is a Market driven Health Care is by definition profit driven, so people can expect higher costs. So much for our moral driven “heal the sick” directive of the Christ.
Another concern are that his cabinet picks, who were to be more in touch with working America, are Wall St., millionaire and billionaires, ( I am sure that they can relate to us) and others who want to end the depts. that they would be in charge of as: Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Environmental Protection. Of course the Republican Congress has talked about this for years, and with upper income and corporate tax cuts we can expect a whole lot of budget cuts to the States, so if you want to retain what they fund expect State and Local taxes to have to go up, pay out of pocket or do without. My opinion, is that the American tax payer has subsidized billion/trillion dollar industries enough. And, what did we get out of it: a recession and loss of businesses to overseas sites, thus jobs.
My next concern is Putin. He has long ago said his goals were to restore Russian greatness and empire. His hackers took down Estonia and stopped the Country of Georgia from defending itself, and spied on US corporate, governmental, and military; slaughtered 1,000’s including children in Syria (the price of winning). And, what about his anti-Democracy efforts in Russia: taking out competitors, and State control of the media, or his alliance with Iran? He reminds me of a Stalin quote: “Promise are like pie crusts, meant to be broken.” He is trying to undermine elections in Germany, Italy, and elsewhere in Europe. Another, is China, who owns trillions in American gov. debt. And, so too Arab countries.
My only suggestion is to find the real facts, and not on line, where opinion and self-interests are portrayed as facts to a gullible public. And, be prepared to respond. And, I do not mean with violence but with the exercise of our citizen authority. And, it has to be us; the Dems are in disarray and all I have heard from traditional Conservative Republicans is oh woe is us, but as Independent non-partisan voters not in a political party but by simply using the media to work together. While our hired representatives love the contributions, they love votes even more. We need to get off our duffs and take up the cause of our responsibility, without expecting someone else to do it for us.
Your former Ward 3 City Councilor Brian Hoose [email protected]
