First of all thanks for this thread Maggie. Even if the details are vague (nonexistent anyone?) on each side at least we can talk about specific perceptions we have, which in itself might reveal something better.
*Sdenote* I realized when I started this that it basically just turned into a huge rant of my own thoughts and perceptions. I then realized the reason for this is beacuse I don't trust either politician to even follow through with what they said they were going to do (if they even ever get down to specifics). So sorry this is kinda off topic but...there's no way for it to honestly be on topic with the tone of how things are without hyperbole. You can pass on reading my post if this isn't what you wanted to read.
[*]Job Creation to get Americans back to work
I believe we spoke breifly about this in a separate thread, it will be difficult to actually bring manufacturing jobs back to America how things are.
People are no longer trained for current technologically advanced manufacturing jobs. I hear reports weekly on NPR about positions in plants remaining open for long periods of time because people just aren't trained for them like they once were.
I believe to step forward we need to be a technological based economy, supplying advancements for other countries and then either training them or selling maintenance ourselves. I have no idea how we can do this but damn I love it. Like I said in the other thread I believe this to be an idea I heard from David Brooks.
[*]Overspending everywhere
Definitely an issue, but unfortunately we do need to spend right now. I definitely see the debt as an issue but...I've heard from MANY economists on both sides say that if we stop spending to enhance the economy we will fall back down, and it will be hard, possibly harder than the first fall because we definitely haven't recovered yet. I think this is an issue of currently working on spending more efficiently and working on a plan that would minimize the deficit later and then eventually lead to paying down the debt. We can't just assume it will pay itself off later, if we don't make plans now we're going to be hurting later.
[*]Tax Revenue -- with even the best of intentions, we need more money
We do need more money, but any money we apply towards the deficit right now will be directly taken out of the economy (unless we feel like reaching into bank accounts and seizing money that's not stimulating the economy (just to confirm, not a good idea if you believe in freedom)). The lower classes are mainly scraping by right now, taxing them more would take food out of people's months. I heard a report that 1 out of 9 families that consideres themselvse middle-class had at least one individual that couldn't get enough food this past year. This was either due to availability and/or funds available. This is a huge deal imo.
On the other hand you can't just tax the rich and expect everything to work out honkey dorey. We need to get our economy back in full swing one way or another to be able to get the funds needed to minimize the deficit. Everything can be solved separate ways but everything directly links back to the economy, usually in more than 1 unique way.
The honest way to do this is to minimize deductions and loopholes for everyone (which would be a larger burden for the rich) but then lower the overall rates. Our government talks about this every year but no one can actually get down to doing it. THIS HAS TO BE DONE otherwise this problem will only get worse.
[*]Immigration -- we've got to address this issue
To be honest, I have absolutely no idea how to solve this issue. It's incredibly complex and no answer I've heard seems to be the correct one. "Get rid of everyone." isn't going to work and is just going to end up costing more money in the long run and "Let everyone stay" is currently having major issues in different sectors. I honestly don't know...
[*]Student Loans -- our next horrendous bubble
This is another difficult one I don't have the answer to - probably because I don't have all of the information, there's still a ton of grey area for me. What I do know is getting the economy back up and running with help alleviate some of the pressure here but it still needs to be dealt with. I keep hearing reports on how tuition fees are increasing at a much higher rate than inflation. I think we need to address the issue of increased cost and how to minimize it. An uneducated public leads to much worse things than bad policies, it leads quite literally to the distruction of a society.
[*]Public Pension Funds -- our horrendous bubble after our next one
This is mainly a state issue, not a federal issue.
That being said, people need to learn (be taught?) how to plan for their retirement at an early age. This is similar to credit card knowledge but..100x worse?
[*]Outsourcing -- bringing jobs back home
Read above *Job Creation to get Americans back to work* - this isn't going to stop, it's a global economy and we need to figure out how to lead in a sustainable way.
[*]Financial Regulation --to make sure our housing collapse never happens again
I find this to be a tough topic to debate. Clinton signed *with broad bipartisan support* the laxing of the federal financial regulations that lead to the Citi merge which also lead to the initial economical downturn with the toxic loan assets. (please let me know if I'm wrong here, I know there were many factors in different areas, including this area of the economy (AIG)). The way regulations are implemented now - Our government adds a regulation, the regulation sits there until we decide we want it to do something else and then add an appendage to it. In a few cycles of this later the original regulation has 15 separate moving parts that usually contradict eachother and slows the process down. (not explained perfectly but meh I'm working today).
This needs to eventually be solved like the tax issues - revamp the system and start fresh with efficient regulations doing a simple and beneficial task of protecting everyone. This is an issue that truly falls in the middle for me - the left likes regulations but the right is correct that the system we currently have is horrible.
Two party system. I touched on it before but this is going to be my main rant here. This is going to include some backstory so please forgive.
The hate and hyperbole has really gone over the edge recently. To be honest I actually considered myself a democrat even as recent as last year. I took a look around at my feelings as why I disagreed with the right on some issues and came to the conclusion "sports teams." That's the only thing that made sense. My team is good, and I'm not a bad person, so therefore the other side must be misguided (never ever believe the right to be bad people). I made a concious effort to take myself out of the "team mentality" to find the true beliefs with absolutely no label. This takes time and I'm still struggling with it a bit but oh god has it ever opened my eyes. The angr directing the other way needs to stop. If we keep migrating towards the anger, this is only going to get worse (See elected officials yelling at the president in the middle of his speach).
The politicians follow our lead. Yes they perpetuate all the stereotypes but that's because we 1) act that way ourselves and 2) Basically tell them to do it with our votes and our rhetoric. Both sides honestly aren't that far apart in goals. Everyone wants to see america succeed, we just have the "hot button issues" crammed down our throats day after day because honestly the politicians need us to hate eachother for them to stay in power beacuse "our side isn't the bad one."
I'm probably a little too heated about this right now to give a full display of my perception but I hope it at least sparks some discussion.
