Mr. Next President . . . tell us the truth . . . PLEASE!

By l.t. Dravis

MSNBC NEWS – Sunday, October 26, 2008 – Alright . . . what if Barack Obama wins the election?

What if John McCain wins?

Does it matter?

Frankly, between you, me, and the gatepost, I’m wondering why either of these two men would want the job.

Think about it . . . bank failures are continuing, business and consumer credit is nonexistent, foreclosures are skyrocketing, job losses are increasing at exponential rates, world stock markets are falling like flies, deficits are daunting, the national debt is profoundly overwhelming, the infrastructure is crumbling, our educational institutions are woefully inadequate to prepare the youth of America to compete in world markets, the Iraq War is costing $10 billion a month, we’re losing in Afghanistan, and Dancing With The Stars has evidently jumped the shark.

So, Mister Next President, how on earth can you restore confidence in our economy – domestically and internationally – in time to save significant numbers of businesses and jobs?

Can you take the right steps at the right pace to prevent us from becoming a second-rate power, economically, politically, and militarily?

After all, we’re in the economic fight of our life against some pretty powerful opponents like the European Union, China, India, and Japan.

You’re going to have to have the wisdom, determination, courage, and bipartisan support necessary to create the kinds of dramatic, powerful, economic initiatives necessary to resolve not only a national economic crisis but a worldwide crisis as well.

So, what can you do?

On the economy, the $700 billion so-called bailout package puts money into the wrong end of the economy because it doesn’t do anything to create jobs and it does nothing to even guarantee that banks will loan one single dime of that $700 billion to business or consumers.

Without enough people working to generate tax revenues for local, state, and federal coffers and consume products and services, nothing you do to pump cash down the funnels of banks and other financial institutions will impact families who live, love, and work on “Main Street”.

You’re going to have to find ways to put people to work . . . in energy related jobs, in rebuilding the infrastructure, in revamping our educational institutions, in improving and expanding health care, in taking care of the environment, and on and on.

So, how are you going to do everything that needs to be done?

It ain’t going to be easy . . . but ‘easy’ doesn’t matter . . . not these days.

The problems left us by eight years of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush are enormous and too unforgiving not to challenge head on.

But where’s the money going to come from?

You can’t just print the cash and you can’t continue to borrow so all you can do is increase revenue (raise taxes and/or increase jobs) and reduce costs (cut programs and/or eliminate waste in government) which means you’re going to have to make some tough – and unpopular – choices.

So what?

Rest assured, Mr. President . . . we’ve learned our lesson.

We can no longer try to consume by ‘virtue’ of home equity loans and credit card charges and cash advances . . . ergo, we can’t have it all.

No more, no way.

We might grumble, we might groan, we might even complain, but we’re ready to follow your lead.

We only ask you to be creative, be courageous, be realistic, be willing to work hard, and most of all, be honest with us.

We can take it . . . even if Dancing With The Stars is canceled.

After all, whatever you ask us to do to get out of this mess can’t be as bad as staying in it.

Can it?

Copyright © 2008 by LTD Associates West, Ltd. All rights reserved.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns, Email me at ltdassociates@msn.com (goes right to my desk) and since I personally answer every Email, I look forward to hearing from you soon.