To answer that question, we need to decide what exactly is the most important problem the country faces. A brief list of problems includes:
How to end the wars in the middle east
How to manage the debt
How to create jobs
Of these, only the third, “how to create jobs”, should be given priority at this time. It requires immediate attention, whereas the other two can be dealt with in due time. The difficulty is that the present Administration has no clue as to what is causing this weak jobless economy. But the answer is not complex. It is this Administration and its penchant for increasing taxes and adding more and more regulations on US businesses that has caused the business atmosphere to be so murky and uncertain that our entrepreneurs are frozen into inaction. What is required is strong leadership from the President to encourage entrepreneurs to free the trillions of dollars of capital that are on the sidelines waiting to be invested in businesses that will create jobs.
It is amazing how easy it would be to reduce the uncertainty. The government’s plans and/or lack thereof, has destroyed job creation and weakened the dollar. What is sad is that the President has the power under the Constitution and present law to take actions unilaterally to clarify and remove the uncertainty.
Accordingly a presidential candidate should boldly and consistently state that as President he/she would, within the first hour after inauguration, implement the following list of actions, effective at once.
Remove all restrictions on drilling and the development of our indigenous fossil fuel
Resources to get us off of foreign oil which will strengthen the dollar.
Place a moratorium on all regulations which would increase the price of energy, especially those related to so-called man-made global warming.
Dismiss all Czars and shut down their organizations that have anything to do with unduly regulating businesses, especially those that have to do with determining the remuneration of business executives.
Place a five year moratorium on implementation of the new regulations which might derive from Obamacare
Remove or freeze the implementation of all US Government regulations that require the use of agriculture based fuels, e.g. ethanol, biofuels, etc.
Move to implement all outstanding and stalled trade agreements.
Instruct the Secretary of Commerce that the major tasks of that Commerce Department are: (1) to take every action to level the playing field for our manufactures so they can compete globally with China, India, Brazil and others, (2) to immediately develop a package of legislation that will permit US industrialists to become totally competitive with foreign competitors who have access to special financial aid from global competitive countries, (3) demand that the Secretary report progress to the President on a daily basis.
Then, on the second day and from the Oval Office with the Secretaries of Commerce, Defense and the Attorney General by his/her side, the President should state publicly and unequivocally that any new taxes that thwart capitalists from investing in the United States will be vetoed. That he/she will lobby Congress and use the Bully Pulpit to implement new legislation that makes US capitalists able to compete fully with China, India, Brazil and other global competitors. Then as Commander in Chief, he/she should state that the primary task of the military is to develop and enhance the techniques to find, chase down and capture or kill all terrorists, and that the military should be modified to accomplish this objective and reduced in size in accordance with the need to satisfy current obligations. Finally, he/she should state that the Attorney General has been instructed that, starting at once, all terrorists captured on foreign soil will be sent to Guitanimo and tried by the military as enemy combatants
As important as the need to get our debt under control is, it is clear that there is no mood in the country, and the Congress lacks the will, to rein in the entitlement programs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. So, let these alone for now and stop wasting time. Rather, depend upon the development of a robust economy, with high employment and attendant taxes, derived from the employed, to pay for the costs of these programs. After the economy is humming again, then maybe some progress can be made to control the aforementioned entitlement programs.
Now, if our republican presidential candidates would adopt this message right now and talk constantly about the key parts of it, and especially explain that he/she, as President, would be empowered to take these actions the very day he/she is inaugurated, then we would have a chance to beat this “non-leading non-presidential” President..
