Barack this house
Nov. 4, 2008
This morning I got to cast my vote for Barack Obama, the next likely President of the United States. Ironically, the last time I was this excited about a political candidate was when John McCain was running in the Republican primary in 2000. Here are a few of the things I'm looking forward to in an Obama administration:
Lower deficits. Obama will raise money by rolling back Bush's tax cuts on the richest Americans. Combined with lower spending in Iraq thanks to pulling our troops out, this should save us some money and get America back on the road to the budget surplus we had in 2000.
Increased infrastructure spending. I know this conflicts with #1, but one of the best ways to build economic growth, according to Keynes, is to increase government spending on durable investments. Hopefully we'll see increased spending on transportation and energy infrastructure. Other good investments would be in increasing the NSF budget (Bush cut this in half) and in alternative energy companies. Building our own native energy infrastructure would also reduce our trade deficits and create new jobs.
Getting out of Iraq. We're done with that country. The Iraqis might need some help, but it can't be from us any more, at least not much. Iraq needs to handle its own affairs now because we need to concentrate on Afghanistan and catching Osama bin Laden.
Incidentally, I managed to win the free lottery and have tickets to the election night party tonight in Grant Park. I'll post videos as soon as I can.