Prime Movers
President Obama has signal that education is a key Administration initiative. His goal is to enable the US to graduate more college trained students than any other country. Education is believed to be a critical route for anyone to exit poverty. President Obama, however, sees other objectives.
Providing everyone with health care protection is also a key policy of President Obama. It is incomprehensible for some why anyone should be denied coverage, but never the less, tweaking the current health care delivery system with the recently passed health care reform is a giant step towards that goal. Good health is a noble goal, but that is not President Obama’s only goal.
Weaning the country’s dependence upon imported foreign oil (and all the financial and political consequences) was an Obama campaign pledge. His recent announcements on opening the discussion around new nuclear power plants and oil exploration off the eastern and Gulf of Mexico shores, is a clear step in that direction. President Obama, however, has other goals in mind with these initiatives too.
The President appears to have considered long and hard about how to make the US competitive again in a world where base labor rates are out of reach for the US. South America and Southeast Asia can produce manufactured goods requiring large amounts of manual labor far more cheaply than can anyone in America. Import quotas and other trade restrictions are a dead end solution if intended to exclude goods produced with lower cost labor. President Obama seems to have concluded that the US must get more productive if it wants to revisit the glory days following World War II.
- Education for all citizens is a great starting place. It can level the playing field between all residents. Access to education is morally and ethically the right thing to do. It may, however, not be just about equality. An educated population can also do things no one can imagine today. That is what innovation and productivity are based upon. The President’s goal is to generate a society that produces economic growth and, as a natural by-product, higher tax revenues.
- Health care to many seems an obvious right. Health care, however, goes far beyond. Universal coverage is the route to the lowest cost medical expense. Prevention and proper consumption of health care services are key steps in controlling American health care cost, and President Obama is headed that way. Lower health care costs are essential to gain partial control of the cost side of the budget deficit.
- Expanding the sources of energy will enable the US to avoid some level of dependence upon foreign oil. Coupled with an alternate energy component and a robust green program, the US can reduce the trade imbalance and protect the environment. Expanding the US sources is a first step in capping the outflow of money and the long term incalculable cost of pollution (such as clean up, future fixes, and increased health costs). All of this will have positive impact upon the budget.
In short, each of these feel good initiatives have a direct connection to other goals. In total, all these other goals are consistent with growth, a stronger American economy, and a balanced budget.
This entry was posted on March 31, 2010 at 9:01 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Politics, Republican Party. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: domestic policy, education, energy dependence, environmental protection, foreign oil, health care, health care reform
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
