My ideas of the major issues facing our country in order of importance:
1. Illegal immigration – This issue has several points.
a. Because of misguided policies and decisions like Plyer vs Doe 1982 which forbids states from denying education, services to illegal immigrates, some reports suggest that the US government and the state governments spend more to support Illegal’s than the war in Iraq is costing. The documented cost to California alone is greater than $10 billion a year. The documented cost to the US government is about $26 billion a year. Estimates run to about $150 billion a year total for states and the federal government. According to the CBO we are spending about $9 billion a month or $108 billion a year on the war in Iraq.
b. We need to seal our border with Mexico to prevent both people and illegal goods (drugs being the biggest) from moving into the US.
c. We are creating a Hispanic population the will be able to dominate many States politically in the next few years. I have no problem with Hispanic peoples, but they need to enter the country legally.
d. Illegals have a higher crime rate than legal residents, both violent crime and non-violent --- mostly identity theft so they can produce documents allowing them to work in the US.
2. Supreme Court – The president sets the tone of the Supreme Court by nominating candidates. Since the Warren court in the 50’s the Supreme Court has increasingly set legal precedents that have undermined the congress and legislatures rights and abilities to make laws in this country. One example noted above is Plyer vs Doe. While the court has moderated in the last few years, the process needs to continue.
3. Energy – The oil crisis of 2008 underscores the fact that the United States needs to have a comprehensive energy policy that will work towards ending our dependence on foreign oil. We should
a. Open drilling in Alaska, the continental shelf, and the Bakken Shale formation.
b. Begin to build Nuclear power plants again. We have not built a nuclear plant in the US in the last 20 years. See argument for:
c. Continue to develop alternative power sources. Solar, wind, water, geo-thermal, et al. unless there are great advances in technology, none of these are capable of supplying the needs of the US either by themselves or in conjunction with each other.
d. Build more oil refineries in the US so we will not have to import gasoline and diesel fuel. There have been no refineries built in the last 20 years.
e. Build plants to covert coal into gas and diesel fuel. This technology has been available for many years. With oil hovering around $50 a barrel the return on investment may not be very good but without such measures the price of oil will make its way back to more than $100 a barrel. See information:
4. National Security – The United States has been beset by external threats for most of its existence. Today is no different. The militant Islamic groups that have sprung up since the Carter administration abandoned Iran to them in the 1970’s are growing into more of a world wide threat now then ever. Many of the ideas promoted by the militants were part and parcel to the ideas and policies of the fascists who took over several governments in the 1930’s. Because the French, British and the US did not react to this threat when it could have been stopped easily, more than 40 million people died in World War II. If we do not aggressively pursue the militants all over the world, we could easily be faced with a conflict that could double the deaths in WWII. I don’t want such a slaughter on my conscience.
5. Economy – Regardless of the election the economy will recover (unless, of course, we make the same mistakes we made in 1930 of raising taxes and tariffs which restricted international trade). The pressure Housing and Urban Development put on the mortgage companies to take more risk in making home loans started with the Carter administration with the 1977 community reinvestment act which started the banks on the road to the current crisis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act). The current problems should be resolved in the next year or so as the moves made by the Bush administration and the moves proposed by Obama appear to be proper. The economy will probably not begin to recover until 2010 and such recoveries typically last 5-7 years. Here is a link to a good article on the Great Depression: http://www.shambhala.org/business/goldocean/causdep.html
6. National Healthcare – This is a thorny problem for the United States. Complete national heath care would require standard clinics and would be similar to the way the VA works. Most Americans will not accept that. I don't know the answer to this question. However a couple of Obama's ideas have merit. Reinsurance for catstrophic claims and a national electronic data exchange system would reduce the risk and overhead for insurance companies thus reducing costs and insurance companies reluctance to insuring high risk people and previous conditions. In addition we need to address the these issues:
The amount of paperwork doctors and hospitals are required to provide to both the government and insurance companies. This administrative burden is passed on to the patients and their insurance companies.
Insurance companies should be restricted from excluding people (or charging rates that discourage people from signing up) due to high risk or previous medical conditions. The reinsurance proposal will help here.
The number of tests required by medicare, medicaid and insurance companies before approving treatment needs to be reduced.
We need to reform the malpractice situation in the US. One of the major issues is the lack of guidelines for malpractice claims leading to outlandish awards. Another point is the over charging by insurance companies for malpractice insurance. This link gives a good overview of the situation: http://www.circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/109/24/2939