Barack Obama

Senator Barack Obama, the President-Elect, was elected upon a platform of "Hope and Change," and "Yes We Can!" Unfortunately, as we've seen, very little is actually known about Barack Obama. We as Republicans can in fact wish for hope and change, but we know that democrats are, in fact, merely deluding themselves into electing one of the biggest advocates of larger government, as well most elitest and populist president to date.

Evaluating an Obama Presidency
The following are campaign promises as described by Obama's campaign web site.

Taxes

 * Promise: Decreased taxes for 95% of Americans.

''Discussion: 40% of Americans pay no tax. (See Understanding Income Taxes.) Obama has promised them a check for working (ie a negative income tax). Under his plan, another 10% will pay no taxes. They are part of the remaining 55% which should expect to see a decrease in income tax by 2010.''


 * Promise: increased income taxes for those earning $250,000/year.

''Discussion:marginal rates will go up to 39.5% with loss of deductions. Government revenues should decrease.''

''Discussion: rates will rise from 15% to 20%. What effect will this have on securities markets?''
 * Promise: increased tax rates on capital gains and dividends.

''Discussion: this amounts to a "windfall" tax for gas and oil companies. We should expect less oil exploration in the US.''
 * Promise: increased corporate taxes for select industries.

Energy Independence
Discussion: did anyone actually believe this?
 * Promise: $150 billion over 10 years to create 5 million new green energy jobs.

''Discussion: consider the GM Volt as the Democrat's car: made by GM, a bankrupt union company, the car will cost $40,000, a price at which GM loses money. The car will get two government subsidies: a direct $7500 tax handout and a mileage rating of 100 mpg. This will allow the company to amke more gas-guzzlers under the "fleet-average" rules. The car will be able to drive 40 miles, not far enough for the average commute, after which it will require 6 hours charging. See wikipedia: trabant''
 * Promise: 1 million new plug-in or hybrid cars at 150 miles/gallon by 2015.

''Discussion: Renewables currently account for less than 2% of energy. (Really less than 1%, depending on how one defines "renewable.) There is no renewable technology currently ready for mass production.''
 * Promise: 10% of electricity from renewables by 2012, 24% by 2025.

''Discussion: 2050 is far enough into the future that Obama cannot be put in political jeopardy by this promise. Why not promise 100%? What is the difference?''
 * Promise: 80% decrease in greenhouse gasses by 2050.

Health Care
''Discussion: Health has risen 7-9% / year for decades, so this is a serious challenge. Methods include bulk buying of drugs by gov't (some help), better quality savings (always promised; never delivered), information technology (see previous comment), insurance reform (this means eliminating a minor gov't/private sector option -when did more gov't ever decrease costs?), disease management plans (if well done, this would be huge as 75% of medical costs are chronic diseases) and increaseed mandates for screening (let me see, more procedures will mean lower costs, hmm...).''
 * Promise: $2500/year decrease in the average individual's policy.

''Discussion: this would allow individuals the ability to buy into the same plans now available to congress. A great idea, but the question, as always, is paying for it. At present, the CBO predicts health care will increase its share of GDP from 16% to 25% by 2025.''
 * National Health Insurance Exchange

Foreign Policy

 * Iraq: out by June, 2010
 * Iran: no nuclear weapons
 * Afghanistan: military solution
 * Increase the size of the military by 100,000 people

Entitlements

 * No changes to Social Security before 2018
 * No changes to Medicare except that government will negotiate for bulk drug prices.