Mr. President—Clean Up This Mess!

By William L. Garvin

Let’s pray that by the time this is being read on Wednesday, the election war will be over, the victories will be decisive, the armies of lawyers will be told to stand down, and the UN inspectors will be on the first plane out of town.  Good riddance to the latter and thank heaven we will not have to listen to any more of those disgusting campaign commercials.  As near as can be told, there is not a single decent person running for any office anywhere in this land!  Why worry about possible “voter suppression” when you have concrete evidence of “candidate suppression.”  So, whoever you are, Mr. President, get down to work!

There is no question that you have inherited quite a difficult situation.  The first order of business should be to bring the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House into the Oval office, bang their heads together and say “I want a budget!  No sequestration; no continuing resolution; no elimination of the “Bush tax cuts”; no trillion dollar deficit!  You will stay in session until the Peoples’ work is done!  When you’re done with that, come up with a feasible plan to reduce the ridiculous $16 trillion debt and restore the credit rating of the USA!”

Mr. President, don’t complain that “you’ve inherited a mess.”  You asked for the job so fix it!  You just spent a billion dollars to get it, so no whining!  Right off the bat, take care of those poor people who have been isolated, decimated, and aggravated in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  Make sure they have electricity, water, food and fuel.  It is heartbreaking to see those poor souls on Staten Island who feel they are forgotten and ignored.

Get people back to work!  There are hundreds of thousands of layoffs being planned so new economic directions are critical.  Stop the “strangulation through excessive regulation” strategy that has its foot on the throat of small business in America.  Forty percent of Americans have less than $500 in savings.  That’s unconscionable but predictable when one-sixth of the country is living in poverty.  GDP growth is anemic and the labor force participation rate is the lowest in decades.  Fifty percent of college graduates were unable to find employment last year.  That’s a disgrace.

Now that the election is over, assuming we have no hanging chad controversies and innumerable court challenges, there are some other messes to clean up.  Why is the cost of health insurance going up so fast when the “cost curve” was supposed to be going down?  Why are so many employers dropping health insurance coverage for their employees?  Why is the cost of college tuition going up so fast?  Additionally, what really happened in the “Fast and Furious” fiasco?  What really happened in Benghazi?  When will those investigations be completed and the results made known to the American people?  Why has it taken over three years to try Major Nidal Hassan, the homegrown terrorist, for the Fort Hood massacre?  It’s time to call it what it is: terrorism, not workplace violence! 

While you’re at it, how about developing a common sense approach to energy independence?  So far, the Department of Energy has been an incredible failure despite its incredible expansion in staff and budget over the years.  The promised five million green energy jobs never materialized.    In the green energy realm, company after company is falling by the wayside.  The same thing is happening to them in Europe.  Invest the taxpayer money in research and development but stop wasting money on unproven, ineffective, and inefficient technologies…even if those companies were put together by campaign donors!

When you’re done with that, come back to “We, the People” again.  We’ve got some other concerns regarding foreign policy.  Why are we pouring so much money into the United Nations?  Why are we pouring so much money into foreign countries, with no strings attached, who continually vote and act against our best interests?  How should we sanction those who threaten our national security?  How do we keep our American citizens safe in hostile lands?

Mr. President, we need our national media to hold you accountable for results, not promises; for deeds, not words; for truth and transparency, not half-truths and back room deals.  Of course, Mr. President, that will only happen if you are a Republican!  Nonetheless, Mr. President, clean up this mess.  We, the People demand it and we deserve it.