trillions Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

State of the Union Address – My Hope

I know that there are many people who hope that Barack Obama will say X, Y or Z. I hope that Barack Obama continues what he stated in his inauguration address. These are the priorities that I hope he stays near in the State of the Union address.

Education – If we are truly going to compete against South Korea, Singapore, China and Europe, we’re going to have to do a better job of educating not just some of our kids, but all of our kids. Training some of our youngsters to be auto mechanics and plumbers, that’s fine. But we also have to train a new generation of computer scientists, nuclear engineers, astronomers and the like. We simply have to do better. In my opinion we simply need to put more resources into schools. Every child has to be able to work a computer by the time he/she graduates fourth grade. We simply can’t wait. Bill Gates started Microsoft when he was 19 or 20. He didn’t start using computers when he was in college. By the time he was in college, he was already miles ahead of his college professors. In order to get the next generation of Bill Gateses, we need to liberate our teachers from a lot of the standardized tests.

Strengthen the Economy – Four years ago, we were facing the worst recession that America has gone through since the Great Depression. The economy has added approximately 150,000 jobs per month for more than a year, but we need more. We still have a jobs deficit of over five million. We need to put America back to work. We cannot wait for big business. Big business is sitting on trillions of dollars. The only entity big enough to make the difference we need, if big business is going to twiddle their thumbs, is the US government. We need to invest heavily in infrastructure. We need to rebuild our roads, our schools and our bridges. Plus, we really need to infuse green industry. I propose a $100 billion investment in green energy this year, and in every year of the Obama presidency. That will put us in the driver seat with green energy. That will put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work. I like the idea of high-speed rail. I don’t like this particular map where it crisscrosses the whole country. Instead, I think it would be most effective along our most congested corridors – Boston to Washington DC, Dallas to Houston (including Austin and San Antonio), Tallahassee to Miami and possibly Chicago to St. Louis and Kansas City.

Immigration – It is time for us to get serious about immigration. So far, we’ve been listening to a lot of people who aren’t serious. The idea of “self deportation” is laughable. We need a serious path to citizenship. We also need serious penalties for employers who knowingly hire economic refugees (illegal aliens).

We need to reauthorize The Violence against Women Act.

We need to work towards Medicare for all.

By ecthompsonmd|2013-02-12T22:23:14-04:00February 12th, 2013|Domestic Issues, Economy, Energy, Obama administration|Comments Off

Are We Better off Today?

Are we better off today than we were four years ago? Okay, let’s do this. The campaign for the president of the United States officially starts now. I hate progressives being wishy-washy. It is time for us to step up. Paul Ryan threw a simple 70 mile an hour pitch right down the center of the plate only to have several progressives foul it off. Dammit. We’ve got to do better. This was easy. Paul Ryan asked whether we are better off now than we were four years ago. This is a no-brainer.

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First let’s look at the deficit which the GOP likes to talk about all of the time. Who has piled up the debt?

It is the Republicans who have burdened us with debt. Trillions of dollars of Republican debt. Let me just underline what the above graph tells us. George W. Bush saddled the economy with $5.07 trillion in debt. Barack Obama has come nowhere near this lofty goal.

Now, on to the all-important question, are we better off today than we were four years ago? The answer is a big and loud Hell, Yeah! Our economic output was actually negative when Barack Obama took office. We’ve seen real GDP growth go from negative to positive and remain continuously positive for the last ten quarters.

Finally, and most importantly, when Barack Obama took office our economy was losing over 600,000 jobs per month. We’ve seen private sector growth (really important to Republicans) for 29 straight months. It is time for Democrats, progressives and other liberally leaning allies to get our heads in the game. When the Republicans serve up a softball, we must hit it out of the park – every time. So, the answer to the question as to whether we are better off now than we were four years ago – (with a smile) Hell, Yes!

By ecthompsonmd|2012-09-03T21:01:53-04:00September 3rd, 2012|Economy, Obama administration, Party Politics|1 Comment

Mike Wallace veteran newscaster

After 9/11 and the billions if not trillions of dollars that we spent in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere around the world, one would figure that we would not support terrorism of any kind. I guess that’s not true. A new article by Seymour Hersh clearly suggests that not only are we training terrorists, we are exporting those terrorist other countries. I urge everyone to read this thoughtful and compelling article. (By the way, I deplore the foreign-policy axiom – the enemy of my enemy is my friend.)

Veteran journalist Mike Wallace has died at the age of 93. There are only a handful of journalists that I can name off the top my head who’ve actually changed the way news is delivered. Mike Wallace did that. Whether you liked him or not, he developed an “in-your-face” style of journalism that became extremely popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was a cornerstone of 60 Minutes for more than four decades. He interviewed Malcolm X shortly before he died. He was everywhere and interviewed everyone. 60 Minutes was must-watch TV. Throughout the late 1970s and throughout the ’80s, on Sunday evenings America watched Mike Wallace, Harry Reasoner, Morey Safer and the gang delve into some problem or issue which affected most if not all Americans. There’s no show on television that has ever done it any better. My condolences to his family.

The gift that is Scott Walker continues to give. As you know, Scott Walker is the governor of Wisconsin who’s about to be recalled in a special election. Scott Walker’s done more than restrict public workers’ ability to collective bargaining (you should read this as destroying public unions). He is a full spectrum ultraconservative. Therefore, he does not believe that everyone who is an American citizen and is an adult should vote. Therefore, we should have the voter ID laws. Finally, to round out the picture, we should not have women who can think for themselves and choose for themselves. Instead, the reproductive rights of women should be decided at the government level. If you’re looking around and trying to figure out why things are so discombobulated, you have to look no further than this new crop of ultraconservative legislators like Scott Walker.

The final round of the Masters is today. It should be some compelling golf. Tiger Woods has struggled. For all practical purposes, he’s out of contention. Peter Hansen and Phil Mickelson pulled away from the pack late yesterday. They are the ones to watch. Yet, there are a few other people who are still in the hunt. Among them are Lee Westwood (who had a heartbreaking lip out yesterday), Matt Kuchar, Louis Oosthuizen, Bubba Watson, Padraig Harrington, Henrik Stenson and Hunter Mahan. For some reason, I really like the way that Louis Oostuizen has been playing. He’s been consistently making shots the last several weeks. He has been hitting fairways, he’s been hitting greens in regulation and he’s been hitting putts. He is the one that I’m watching today.

Have a safe and happy Easter.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-04-08T12:28:06-04:00April 8th, 2012|Media, Sports, Terrorism|Comments Off