Ideas on Early Win for Obama Team

The exciting new team taking shape for President-elect Obama offers a real change on how business is done in the Nation's Capital -- albeit with some very experienced hands providing counsel and expertise.

But here's the "trapdoor" that awaits if we're not careful -- (1) a strained Federal budget with absolutely no "wiggle" room -- meaning few new discretionary dollars to pump into every need (a mere18 percent is non-military discretionary spending -- the rest is mandatory spending such as Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Defense, growing interest payments on the Federal debt ... thanks George Bush...)

(2) An economy stumbling along leaving hard-earned pensions dropping in value and too many employers putting off contributions required for current employees; local and state governments falling very short in revenue -- New York hopes for a $ 58 billion assist in closing its budget shortfall, for example, and whole sectors of the economy are too shaky -- similar to what is happening with the auto industry -- feeling the trickle down from Wall Street et al... leading at a minimum to more lost jobs and businesses closing down ...

So, as the best and brightest on the new team look for remedies to put the economy back on track... our new president needs something from all Americans rarely granted -- patience. He needs a very patient Nation to allow him TIME to put in place necessary solutions that reverse the damage of 8 years of Republican rule ....

If you have ideas... ideas that might bring some early success to the Obama administration -- as I suggested a fix to SBA might render -- let's hear about them. As President-elect Obama charts a new course and brings fresh ideas to our country, let's gather up ideas from the heartland that if viable will enable the incoming Administration to realize some early successes ...

Let's hear from you, America...

Comments

[tompoe]

My tolerance for patience will exponentially increase with each word I hear about Congress initiating the impeachment hearings. We already know there is an Obama push to close Guantanamo and replace it with "preventive detention" and a "national security court". So, maybe Obama might want to short-circuit his appointment of Brenner, the right-hand man to Tenet, Malik, the chief operative for false intelligence reports leading up to the war, and other appointments that seem to be little more than a gathering of war criminals under Obama's new skirt.

[fairguy]

Unemployment is rapidly emerging as the chief economic concern.

Therefore, modify the corporate income tax to encourage companies to retain headcount. This will discourage the masses of profitable companies conducting massive layoffs purely as a defensive measure and not out of necessity.

If a company complies with the following criteria, it will receive a 5% reduction in its income tax rate. If it doesn't, there will be a 5% increase. Apply this starting with the 2008 tax return.

Criteria 1: annual head count retention of USA-based employment
Criteria 2: annual retention of payroll $ amount of USA-based employment

This will encourage local employment faster than infrastructure projects which will take some time to ramp up. At the same time, struggling businesses that have to reduce headcount to move from loss to marginal profitability will not really suffer from this measure.