"We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention."
I
watched the elections on Election Day and was not disappointed by the
rollicking events of the night.
It
is always fun to see the winners act like now they have a mandate to
do whatever they personally feel is needed for the country. And of
course the losers, standing firm that there is nothing wrong with
their agenda, they just did not get their message sufficiently
delivered to the people. Not even if they aired a thousand
commercials.
My
ear is always listening for what the economy can expect from the
winners. I do not mean the vacuous twaddle like, “We are going
to get the country working again,” or, “We are going to
solve immigration,” or a personal favorite, “We are going
to improve education.”
Speaking
a goal is not the same as having concrete, realistic steps to help
move a country from where they are to a better place. Yet it is the
plight of almost all politicians to not see this difference.
With
the Republican win this election, there was not much detail about
what they would do with their new Senate majority but the real battle
is just now ready to begin. Winning was easy for the Republicans
given the state of our economy, foreign policy, and popularity of the
President. The battle for what to do now is just beginning.
Let’s
name the combatants and their platforms:
The
Tea Party as it is currently constituted. Seal the borders and pass
the Balanced Budget, Traditional Marriage and Anti-Abortion
Amendment. Any conservatives not seeing things their way are RINOs.
The
Libertarians will push for more freedoms, less of a safety net, and
a marginal military. A bong is a right-of-passage to college.
The
establishment will try for a business as usual approach, trying to
appease the big donors while at the same time keeping enough of the
party happy that they do not get kicked out of office during the
next election cycle.
The
realistic group will see what is possible given the composition of
Congress and the current President. This group will try to make
incremental improvements.
Six
years ago, the country went into a recession. The financial system
in the United States almost collapsed. Since then the politicians in
D.C. have been focused on many things, healthcare and same-sex
marriage to name a few.
What
the people want is to be able to find a job. Here lies the chance
for the party that now controls both houses of Congress. Focus on
and pass legislation that will help create jobs.
Here
is my list of bills that should be passed in the first six months of
next year:
Pass
the Keystone Pipeline bill. It would immediately create thousands
of jobs.
Pass
a law that the EPA cannot regulate carbon dioxide. This will save
jobs and may bring back thousands of jobs to the coal industry.
Pass
a law allowing for the repatriation of money earned outside the US
to be brought back into the US without additional taxes.
Pass
a tax reform law that will lower the corporate tax rate and
eliminate carve-outs so that the bill is revenue neutral. This will
make the US more attractive to businesses outside the country and
help eliminate the recent corporate inversions.
Change
the definition of full-time work in the Obamacare legislation to 40
hours or more and do not raise the minimum wage until the job market
improves dramatically. Let’s give our teenagers an
opportunity to get a FULL-TIME JOB.
Passing
these laws will do more than just create jobs but will also signal to
the business community that they are no longer going to be considered
the problem. That it is OK to earn a profit and the government is
actually on their side and want them to be wildly successful.
After
the economy has started to expand and jobs become available, then put
together a few common sense laws that 90% of the country could
support and will move some societal issues towards a center that may
not be optimal but better for the social conservatives.
What
I am saying is that if the Republicans fix the economy, then the
citizens will give them room to do other things.
The
Democrats blew their chance back in 2008. If they had focused on the
economy and made jobs plentiful, then passing a healthcare law would
have been much easier. Nothing angers the citizens like a government
that refuses to focus on what is currently affecting their lives.
The
people are looking for some adults in Washington D.C. that can fix
some problems. The Democrats were completely blind to what the
people really wanted. Will the Republicans make the same mistake?
Adam Smith is obviously not the actual name of the author of this column. The real author has
worked for two Fortune 500 companies, one privately held company, and a public accounting
firm. His undergraduate degree was in accounting, and he earned an MBA for his graduate
degree. He also has completed coursework for a PhD. in finance. He continues to be employed
by one of the Fortune 500 companies.
The author grew up in the Washington D.C. area but also lived for several years in Arizona. He
currently resides with his family on the East Coast.
The author has held various callings in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.