Here is what President Obama should do to help the country and fight against a Republican take over of Congress. He must first declare a moratorium on any healthcare premium increases. While we wait for most of his healthcare reform to go into effect, insurance companies are jacking up their premiums and making a mockery of the idea of containing costs. These increases, sometimes over 30%, are killing businesses and hurting citizens. Meanwhile, another eight million people have joined the ranks of the uninsured this year.
The President should also impose a moratorium on foreclosures, and he must push for a new system to help people stay in their homes. The government has to oversee the re-negotiation of bad mortgages, and bankruptcy courts should be empowered to help keep people in their homes. A million people are now losing their houses each year, and the president has to make this a top priority.
Obama also needs to institute a job creation plan that will immediately fund a million jobs to rebuild America. These jobs have to be visible, and Obama should stress that instead of giving away $700 billion to the wealthiest Americans by continuing the Bush tax cuts, he will use the money to put Americans to work. He also needs to stress that the more people who are employed, the more we can pump up our economy through increased demand.
To help quell the deficit hawks, President Obama can get rid of most of the Bush tax cuts, and he should propose a plan to reduce our military budget by a significant amount. Part of this reduction can be related to decreasing our troops in Europe and Japan and drawing down our presence in Afghanastan.
Obama also needs to defend social security and medicare, and he can do this by showing how they are currently well funded, and by proposing to increase the amount that high earners pay into the plan. Instead of only taxing the first $106,000 of earnings, all earnings should be taxed at the 6% rate, and this should include wealth gained by capital gains. In fact, the best way to wean America off of its Wall Street gambling habit is to tax capital gains at the same rate as general income. Not only will this help to bring down the deficit, but it will also work to reduce the power and influence of financial institutions.
Obama should also stop the current move to demonize teachers, tenure, and unions by showing how most American public schools are doing a good job. The problem is that we have some very low performing schools that need to be restructured, and this can be done in conjunction with unions, but it will also require increased funding for schools in low-income areas.
Finally, Obama needs to come up with an economic strategy that protects American jobs. This could be done through a combination of subsidies for green technology companies and a tax for corporations that shift jobs abroad. Currently, China is not only making its good inexpensive by devaluing its own currency, but it is subsidizing its green businesses. In order to compete in this global economy, we shouldn't join the race to the bottom; instead, we need to grow jobs that offer fair wages and benefits.
If Obama promotes this type of progressive agenda, he will be able to bring back the people who supported him in the 2008 election. However, if the president fails to tackle these pressing issues, he will not only sink the Democrats, but he will also send the country in the wrong direction.