What's next


By Jim Killebrew

[November 04, 2014]  Today is the day, finally the nation's voters will vote for their candidates for the leaders across the land. For many it will be a wonderful day of winning; for others it will be a day of defeat and disappointment. For everyone it will be a day when the political ads, telephone calls, messages, tweets, and face book postings will be suspended temporarily until the next election cycle starts up again all too soon. With the decisions that will be made today, the question is, "What's next?"

I wonder if that is the most important question to ask during an election season, "What's next?" That especially becomes the question to ask about the incumbents since they might be re-elected to their position. The incumbent has a record of most recently being in the office sought, so the incumbent's record becomes vitally important if the voter wants more of the same.

Although many in our society seem to lose track of historical facts and events, it really is true we seem to live a cyclical life often repeating what we have done in the past. When we fail to understand our own history our routine behaviors of life tend to bring us around to the same forks in the road. Without remembering the outcomes of our last decision at that same fork, we tend to take the road for which we have a propensity to take. The result is visiting the same calamity we have experienced before. It is like being lost in a forest. Rescue experts indicate the person lost will wander in what they think is a straight path, but in reality they are walking in a large, circular pattern; usually the direction of their dominate side, right if right-handed or left if they are left-handed.
 

This election cycle has focused a great deal of attention on the republicans winning back the Senate and maintaining the majority in the House of Representatives. Those incumbents have a record on which to run. Most of the democrats this year have chosen to distance themselves with their sitting President. His unpopularity and loss of support among his base supporters, younger voters, ethnic voters, and women voters have created a climate of many democrats running from him rather than running on his (and their) votes for his (and their) laws and policies.

Although the President was not running for re-election during this election cycle, he proposes that his agenda continues to be valid for the next two years of his term. He insisted that all his policies are on the ballot for this election cycle, and those democrats who are distancing themselves from his are still his supports.

To know what his supporters will be voting for, one must look at what has already been accomplished. The following short list of accomplishments have been selected as a sample of what the President has done in office. The voter would be wise to examine those accomplishments, look at the immediate consequences and outcomes of those accomplishments, and then ask the question, "What's next?" if the President's supporters are re-elected for another term, we can be almost certain they will push hard to enact the President's final efforts to establish a "fundamental change for America." Start with the President's centerpiece legislation he and his party worked for and he signed into law.
 

National healthcare. This is a signature piece of legislation touted by the President as being the answer for curing the nation's ills regarding healthcare. It was passed without a single Republican vote from a Congress that was controlled in both Houses by Democrats. It has been reviewed by the United States Supreme Court and found constitutional. It has taken control of about 1/6th of the US economy. It mandates that people buy products they do not want and will pay a penalty (tax) if they don't. It forces faith-based groups to furnish contraceptives they don't believe in. The question to answer is "What's next?"

Gun Control. There is an on-going effort to take the guns away. This seems an on-going debate for every election cycle, but the so-called Fast and Furious program that created a Congressional investigation ended in Congress voting to hold the US Attorney General in Contempt of Congress. The President has countered with Executive Privilege to counter the Congressional vote in the House of Representatives. So, if re-elected the President's supporters will support the legislation for laws to limit gun ownership by American citizens, "What's next?"

Unemployment. Policies enacted by the current President have worked to continue to keep unemployment high. In 2007 the Democrat Party assumed total control through a majority of the US Congress; both Houses were given majorities. In 2009 the Executive Branch of government was taken by the Democrat Party. Unemployment from the previous President's Administration averaged 5.26 percent from 2001 to 2008 when the newly elected majority of the Democrat Congress assumed control. From 2008 to 2012 during the current Administration the unemployment has maintained an 8.2 percent unemployment with real unemployment being closer to 15 percent. The President continuously failed to meet with his Jobs Council for six months at a time. Although the unemployment numbers have fallen in recent months, the job market continues to be "soft" with so many having to work two part-time jobs just to make ends meet. "What's next?"

Energy. The President has closed the public land for purposes of drilling for more oil and continues to import oil from Canada, Mexico and the Middle East. Additionally, the President has continuously disapproved the building of the Keystone Pipeline which could have brought oil from Canada to the Gulf and benefited the Americans by keeping the price of gasoline lower. Again, "What's next?"

Enacted Executive Orders. More than any other President, the current Administration has by-passed Congress to affect the laws of the United States with immigration, appointments, welfare laws, which no longer requires a person to look for work while on unemployment. If the President's supporters are re-elected, "What's next."

Take-over of private business and banking. Through the stimulus money collected from the taxpayers the auto and some in the banking industries were brought under the control of the Federal Government. Even with a less than accountable explanation of what the stimulus money was spent on, and by whom, the President continues to want to have more stimulus bail-outs with even greater amounts of money from the taxpayer. If his supporters are re-elected, "What's next?"

Bowing to foreign Heads of State. The President started out almost immediately on an "apology" tour across the globe to several countries soon after his inauguration. During several of those visits the President apologized for what he felt was inappropriate behavior on the part of America and accentuated his apologies with waist-deep bowing to the leaders of those foreign countries he visited. We are now in the throes of conflict and war in the Middle East, Ukraine, Northern Africa, and the rise of ISIS or ISIL, and possibly in a short time Iranian possession of atomic weapons and delivery systems. If the democrats continue to keep control of the Senate and are re-elected, "What's next?"

The President has pushed the national debt as the highest in America's history. Since George Washington, all the way through the Administration of George Bush, the President has amassed a national debt greater that all the previous Presidents together. At the conclusion of the previous Administration the total cumulative debt amounted to 6.37 Trillion dollars. In the almost six years of the current President he has amassed a debt that is exceeding 17 Trillion dollars. If his supporters are re-elected, "What's next?"

Taxpayer money investments. The President has engaged in "venture capital" investments with tax payer money focused around his "Green Policy" in an effort to impact energy use with a reduction of fossil fuels and an increase of "alternative fuels." The President invested tax payer money in Solyndra for 535 million dollars; Ener 1 for 118 million dollars; Abound Solar for 70 million dollars, Olsen's Mills Acquisition for 10 million dollars; and, Evergreen Solar for 5.3 million dollars. Now even the President's Secretary of State has joined the President in declaring that Climate Change is the greatest threat to the American people, even greater than ISIL. Yet, even with spending all the money on his venture capitalism schemes, each one of these companies have gone bankrupt losing the tax payer's money. If his supporters are re-elected, "What's next?"

There are many other things that could be listed regarding the President's tenure. There is a significant increase in the number of regulations on businesses in America; the appointment of Czars without Congressional oversight and confirmation; a movement much closer by the Iranian government in completing their nuclear capability, and the promise of the President to the Russian government to hold off on their plans until "after the election" so it will give the President "more flexibility." If the President's supporters, incumbents who are running for re-election win their currently held seats in Congress, "What's next?"

[By JIM KILLEBREW]