REACTION TO THE ELECTION RESULTS

Thank God the election is over!! I could not have looked at one more political ad or hung-up on one more political telephone call.  Now if we can just get past the end of the world in December, it should be smooth sailing with no political nonsense until the mid-term elections in 2014.

I'm a fiscal conservative so I'm disappointed in the election results. My impression is that the message sent by voters was "stay the course", which I believe will lead to long-term problems for our country. We can't continue to have trillion dollar deficits. Also, I don't believe we can solve our fiscal by increasing tax revenues alone, we need some serious cuts in Federal entitlement programs, like Medicare. But, we lack the political will to seriously address these programs.

As previously noted, I'm also disappointed by the lack of understanding of the issues by the electorate.  I read the position papers of each candidate on their websites.  I wonder if others did likewise?  I realize I have a greater proclivity to read than others and more time to do so.  But, I wonder how many of the 90+% of the African-Americans and the 70+% of the Hispanics who voted for President Obama really understood the policies for which they were voting or did they simply vote based on their superficial impressions of the candidates?

The Republicans maintained control of the House of Representatives so I'm not overly worried about runaway spending.  Hopefully, they will compromise with Democrats on spending and revenue issues but not "give away the house".  The downside is that I anticipate that little progress will be made in reducing our debt.

To summarize, the election results were as I for told last December--see my December 26 post. I'm sorry to say that my 2013 prediction is that in four years our economy will be in worse shape than we are today. I fear for the economic health of my children and grandchildren.


 

MY BELIEF SYSTEM

To provide context for my blog, I believe it's important to share my belief system.

Some of my core beliefs are:

• People, companies, and governments must "live within their means".  That means that: Income-Savings=Expenses. Prolonged periods of deficits don't work for people, companies, or governments.
• Savings are critical to overcome future financial difficulties which will surely arise from time-to-time.
• I saw first hand the effect that pollution had on the town in which I lived.  I support the efforts of the EPA but believe their regulations need to be tempered with common sense.
• I know this will upset my Catholic friends and members of my own family but I believe in a woman's right to have an abortion.   I greatly value life but I also believe that a woman has the right to decide if she wants to bring a life into this world. I don't believe that the government has a role in that decision.
• I believe that we need support programs for the aged, the infirmed/disabled, and those who are unemployed. But, I believe that we need tighter controls on governmental programs which implement our desire to provide a social support system.  As an example, the current abuse of Social Security disability programs is ridiculous. I also believe that our support programs must be needs-based.
• Government should be small.  I have seen the exponential growth of government over my lifetime and the expense of government has significantly increased as a percentage of our GDP.  If our nation is to prosper, that trend cannot continue.
• Immigration laws need to be updated to reflect the current environment.  I have no problem with opening our borders to all non-criminal people.  More on that later.

These are a few of my beliefs that shape my thoughts about our current environment.