The Voice of Reason

The Election's Over. Kerry Lost.

Thanks to all of you that did so much to help the Democrats. We did so much work for the cause.

I am rarely in a gloom and doom mood. Today strikes me as a great time to get it out of my system.

As I like to feel positive, I am looking forward to Bush helping to provide our means to get our Republican friends out of office in the next election.

The Election

• Demographics changed, more electoral votes in the states Bush did win. With Kerry winning basically the same states that Gore won in 2000, the electoral votes come out to favor Bush. Kerry needed to win more states than Gore did in 2000.
• Hurricanes in FL - Floridians were happy about Bush's leadership during their catastrophe. But then again, would any other president have done things different? That state moved steadily toward Bush following the hurricane season.
• Younger voters - did NOT turn out to vote. WHY? Are they really happy with Bush? Young voters turned out to vote with the same percentage as previous elections. I thought that there would be a surge of young support.
• Blacks. I have not seen statistics as to their participation.
• Those who feel that they are religious and have a feeling of faith, voted overwhelmingly for Bush. Artificial issues added to the agenda to help divide our nation, particularly on 'moral values'.
• Those frightened by the big, bad world around us like Bush. They did not want to see a leader change in the middle of crises (even though he helped to facilitate the crises).

Following Bush's narrow lead, in addition to increasing leads in both houses of congress, Bush will certainly claim that Americans have given him a mandate for his second term. Here is what we can expect:

Appointments

Odds are that Bush will select replacements for most of the supreme court justices over the next four years. Bush has been reviewing judges with two qualities that presidents of the past did not use as part of their qualifications: 1) specific issues; 2) belief that the judicial decisions made in the 20th century did not follow our founder's original direction - and need to be remedied. This attitude can be dangerous for many rights that we now consider important.

Successor to Alan Greenspan.

Moral Values

This election was won largely on the people's perception of moral values.

My take is that most of the moral issues in this election were designed to pull at supporter's hearts. However, most are religious issues - not public policy issues. Unfortunately, that line seems to have been blurred.

Many people think that the 'values' issues put Bush over the top. Values include issues such as gay civil unions.

I look at morality as belonging to issues such as how we got into Iraq and do we really treat our own poor and aged well.

Homeland Security

You can expect Bush will start to do what Kerry proposed: improving security for incoming cargo, borders, etc.

The Patriot Act (one of the most un-patriotic bills ever enacted) has a sunset clause for this coming year. You can expect that it will be re-issued as a permanent fixture in American law.

Privacy and personal rights. Goodbye.

Writ of Habeas Corpus and other difficult to understand concepts. Goodbye. I guess they are too difficult for us to understand that we do not deserve to have these rights.

Are we really getting rid of terrorists? I would suspect that we ourselves are creating the next batch of terrorists that will flood the world due to our actions in the Mideast.

Economy

Short term, I expect the economy will grow. However, I do not think that the benefit of growth will reach most people.

The flow of jobs for overseas outsourcing will grow. There will be a push to lower wages in the United States - to be more competitive. Individuals will agree. After all, if they don't, they will lose whatever income they have. Profits of companies that push down labor costs will grow.

The tax cuts will become permanent. i.e., the wealthy will no longer pay estate taxes, and will be able to roll over non-taxed capital gains for generations. i.e., one can expect massing of wealth like in no other period of American history. The middle class will pay for these tax cuts over the coming years through a difficult to use and understand concept: Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). With this tax - which has been on the books for years - those that have deductions (medical, housing, etc), will see the deductions disappear if they do not pay a minimal amount of tax. Of course, since the tax rates have been lowered but the AMT threshold has not changed, you will be paying alternative tax, more than making up for whatever gains that you may have had in income tax reductions.

In the meantime, the deficit will continue to grow. Who will pay? The middle class (those that really pay the most taxes) and our future generations (you know, the ones that did not show up to vote)

Education

I fully agree with No Child Left Behind - that all children should be tested to ensure that we know where they are in the education spectrum. However, I firmly disagree with what are done with the results of testing.

Kids are placed into groups for the purpose of testing, where the schools have little control over the results. There are no resources to help if problems are discovered. And if problems persist - parents can take their children from the public school system, using vouchers to pay for their children to attend private school. Who pays for the vouchers? The public school system that was already in trouble, that really needed more money.

The real kicker is that the private schools do not need to face the same standards. We pay for kids to go to those schools. Yet, they do not need to pass the same tests. Nor are they required to produce the same services. For example, one of the most expensive programs, required by Federal laws, is public school handling of special education needs. This program, never fully funded, is required for all public schools. Private schools do not have to deal with special ed. If they have a student that needs these services, they ship them to the public school. Private schools can also pick and choose among applicants. They do not have to include in their rolls students that do not match whatever demographics they are looking for. Public schools have to accept all students.

There has been no funding to pay for No Child Left Behind. Oh - yes, there has been an increase to the education budget. However, that really just pays for administering the program in Washington. Yes - bigger government with no real returns to the tax payer.

If we create legislation that claims to improve education, we have to pay for it.

Foreign policy

War in Iraq.

Individuals from other counties used to view US Citizens as different than the hated US government. Well, we have shown that we truly do like how our government behaves.

Question: where will our next set of military inductees come from? Many of the National Guard are already being forced with extended tours of duty. That is just not right. Who will relieve these soldiers? When can they come home?

Health

Health Insurance. Expect rates to continue to climb. Expect drug costs to continue to climb. Expect millions of additional families to no longer afford the cost of basic health.

Stem cell research. Goodbye! It was nice knowing that there was a potential to rid fragile human existence of many forms of cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, many nerve diseases, and so much more.

There will be an initiative for a health saving's plan. Very useful if you already have money to save.

Environment

New senators are looking forward to making independent of Middle East oil. By ruining some of the last remaining untouched wilderness areas.

Global warming? Have we forgotten? In a just released report, after four years of study, the North Pole ice sheet has been shown to be melting at twice the historic rate. If melting continues at an accelerated rate, the Artic may be free of ice by as early as 2070! Some European scientists have gone on record that this report has been delayed until today so it would not influence the United States election.

Expect expanded logging in national forests.

Expect further decreases in water and air quality. Long term, look for attendant increases in health problems due to pollution. From cancer to asthma.

posted by The Voice of Reason @ 3:22 PM