Which proposal of Obama should have the highest priority?

[ray245]

We all know that, even if Obama is elected, the budget deficit and the national debt means he cannot excute all of his proposals.

Which means, some of his proposed policy will be dropped in favour of others. So which of his proposal should have the highest priority and should be excuted first as the POTUS?

What policy and changes should Obama enact and enforce in his first term as the president?

[Ender]

Energy independence. To me that is the big one. If we don't get that under control and fast, national security, the economy, and global warming are only going to get worse. But if we get our domestic energy production issues fixed inside 10 years like he wants I think we can fix the others.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but we can weather this current economic crisis - and that is coming from someone getting butt raped in the rust belt. We have gone through worse before, and honestly with the return of regulations that were disassembled over the years we will climb back up. I've seen a few predictions stating that an explosion in the energy market will make the dot com boom look like a flash in the pan in terms of new wealth created, so that will help fix the economy as well. The new energy industry would create a ton of jobs here. Upgrading the infrastructure to handle it will repair most of what is falling apart today. So to me that is the big one.

[SirNitram]

I'm going to say his medical proposal. It's going to encounter a shitload of resistance, so hammering it through on the zeal of recent victory might be the main way to achieve it. His energy investment will have lots of corporates lining up for their bit.. The healthcare one will have them wanting his throat.

[ArcturusMengsk]

Energy independence. To me that is the big one. If we don't get that under control and fast, national security, the economy, and global warming are only going to get worse. But if we get our domestic energy production issues fixed inside 10 years like he wants I think we can fix the others.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but we can weather this current economic crisis - and that is coming from someone getting butt raped in the rust belt. We have gone through worse before, and honestly with the return of regulations that were disassembled over the years we will climb back up. I've seen a few predictions stating that an explosion in the energy market will make the dot com boom look like a flash in the pan in terms of new wealth created, so that will help fix the economy as well. The new energy industry would create a ton of jobs here. Upgrading the infrastructure to handle it will repair most of what is falling apart today. So to me that is the big one.

Agreed. I'd hope that Obama goes into office on January 20th with papers already drawn up to begin the transformation of the American energy industry. We have got to kick our reliance on all fossil fuels within the next several decades, not just oil.

[Stargate Nerd]

I think the most important one would be fixing the Healthcare system. It's utterly fucked at the moment.

The second would be energy independence and the developing of alternative energy sources. Not only would it create jobs as Ender mentioned, it might actually lead to poorer households being able to heat their homes in winter.

[The Romulan Republic]

Alternative energy. The energy crisis is affecting foreign policy, terrorism, pollution and related diseases (thus affecting health care costs), and the economy. You can kill a lot of birds with one stone here. There's really no issue that takes higher priority, or that can screw us over in so many ways.

[Darth Raptor]

SirNitram has a point, though. The urgently-needed health care reform will encounter stronger opposition than energy independence. Remember that the opposition is even more gungho about nukes then he is. That and, however urgent, it will take a decade at least to bring about the necessary changes. Socialized medicine is a much more immediately attainable thing.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

SirNitram has a point, though. The urgently-needed health care reform will encounter stronger opposition than energy independence. Remember that the opposition is even more gungho about nukes then he is. That and, however urgent, it will take a decade at least to bring about the necessary changes. Socialized medicine is a much more immediately attainable thing.

We're also going to be unable to afford it in twenty years if we don't secure our future sources of energy first. Socialized medicine will cease to exist, and our whole medical system will resemble that of Africa (highly trained specialists treating the super-rich, while everyone else makes do with herbs and witch-doctors) if we don't get a handle on our future energy situation. There will simply be no money for socialized healthcare if the economy is in a Permanent Recession due to our energy resources plunging by about 4 - 5% every year.

[Darth Raptor]

I didn't say it shouldn't be addressed, but rather that it's not an overnight process and so things like political capital and momentum are more or less irrelevant.

[Knife]

Personally and professionally I'd like to say healthcare. However, I'm siding with Ender on this one and say energy. Healthcare is a big thing but if it doesn't get fixed in the next four years, it won't be as bad as if energy doesn't get on the right track soon.

[SirNitram]

It's not an easy answer. Both need done ten years ago.

Energy shifting will take such an absurd amount of time it needs started ASAP just to ensure the flow. But healthcare will have incredible resistance, and is at the core of the financial crisis(Don't believe me? Here's the abstract and a link to the study saying 49% of foreclosures are medical cause.). And both will run headlong into Blue Dogs whining about the deficit, an obstructionist GOP, and Clintonites insisting 'No, too bold, more incremental.'.

[Pablo Sanchez]

It's not an easy answer. Both need done ten years ago.

Or even farther back. Carter was talking new energy in 1980, and Nixon helped scuttle the first wave of social healthcare, IIRC. How is the GOP going to be viewed in 200 years, is an interesting question. Are the Americans of the future going to thank them for ending slavery but curse them for fucking the country to death?

Energy shifting will take such an absurd amount of time it needs started ASAP just to ensure the flow. But healthcare will have incredible resistance, and is at the core of the financial crisis(Don't believe me? Here's the abstract and a link to the study saying 49% of foreclosures are medical cause.). And both will run headlong into Blue Dogs whining about the deficit, an obstructionist GOP, and Clintonites insisting 'No, too bold, more incremental.'.

Hopefully the GOP will be in such a position as to be unable to obstruct (honestly, the Blue Dogs are enough to form the "loyal opposition" that is necessary to a democracy). Healthcare reform will help more Americans in the immediate sense, but in structural terms new energy is the key. If the government puts up the cash, America has the research and resource infrastructure to lead the new energy charge. This not only helps the trade deficit, it puts us back in the economic leadership position.

[Maraxus]

Frankly, I think this can all take a backseat to stopping voter suppression. One of the "other issues" Obama talks about is ending voter suppressing tactics like caging and intimidation by cracking down harshly on those who participate and having a general overhaul of the voting system in this country. By and large, the people who are on the receiving end of these tactics are people who tend to vote democratic, giving the 60something elder who constantly votes Republican, or at least conservatively, much more power in terms of an individual vote. If I were Obama, I would make comprehensive voter registration reform and revising offensive parts of the HAVA a top priority, especially because an increased voter populace the reforms could give will dramatically increase the likelihood that Democrats win supermajorities in the House and Senate in the 2010 races and increase the likelihood of winning re-election in 2012. Only if he has a 60+ seat majority in the senate can he get any of the other legislation passed, especially if Bruce Lunsford fails to unseat Mitch McConnell this year and leaves the GOP leadership more-or-less intact.

[Guardsman Bass]

Either energy or infrastructure, although the issues really blur into one "infrastructure" issue (particularly since enhancing power transmission and information infrastructure will be a major part of these projects). This also has the advantage that he can describe it rightfully as creating the conditions for future economy prosperity as well as creating jobs, which will hopefully allow him to get it past opposition by the deficit hawks (and I think he could).

Getting an achievement like this would give him the political capital and alliances in Congress in order to move on more difficult reforms, like that of health care (which is going to be a battle every step of the way if the 1993 health reform battle was any indication).

[Medic]

Energy independence. To me that is the big one. If we don't get that under control and fast, national security, the economy, and global warming are only going to get worse. But if we get our domestic energy production issues fixed inside 10 years like he wants I think we can fix the others.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but we can weather this current economic crisis - and that is coming from someone getting butt raped in the rust belt. We have gone through worse before, and honestly with the return of regulations that were disassembled over the years we will climb back up. I've seen a few predictions stating that an explosion in the energy market will make the dot com boom look like a flash in the pan in terms of new wealth created, so that will help fix the economy as well. The new energy industry would create a ton of jobs here. Upgrading the infrastructure to handle it will repair most of what is falling apart today. So to me that is the big one.

I second all of the above.

His energy proposals go hand-in-hand with a 21st century economy, will create jobs and take out one impetus for foreign adventurism. It's good for us, good for our image the rest of the world has of us, and it's good for the rest of the world, being as we are the #1 consumer of fossil fuels.

I frankly balk at the idea that McCain will take energy seriously. He may claim to be for "all of the above" WRT energy independence, but his Party hasn't exactly lifted a finger over the last 8 years to do much about it, to force Bush to even think about it, and it's really just a throw-away comment for all the deluded idiots out there that think 'if ONLY' we drilled in our own country, we'd find more oil than is in the Middle East. You know, why doesn't some contrarian, Democratic politician (like Obama) just go out there and say "according to the US Geological Survey, we have a fair handle on what's out there, how hard or easy it is to get, and the simple fact of the matter is new drilling is at best, a stop gap?" Is the anti-intellectual current so high that invoking science and scientists works is a complete non-starter? I know it is in the GOP (fruit fly research! *guffaws*) but what about the centrists that Obama's courting?

[Illuminatus Primus]

SirNitram has a point, though. The urgently-needed health care reform will encounter stronger opposition than energy independence. Remember that the opposition is even more gungho about nukes then he is. That and, however urgent, it will take a decade at least to bring about the necessary changes. Socialized medicine is a much more immediately attainable thing.

We're also going to be unable to afford it in twenty years if we don't secure our future sources of energy first. Socialized medicine will cease to exist, and our whole medical system will resemble that of Africa (highly trained specialists treating the super-rich, while everyone else makes do with herbs and witch-doctors) if we don't get a handle on our future energy situation. There will simply be no money for socialized healthcare if the economy is in a Permanent Recession due to our energy resources plunging by about 4 - 5% every year.

Socialized medicine is a net save compared to the cost of the current health system. Making the switch actually frees up more societal resources.

[Ender]

I think that those calling for health care have it right in their reasoning. But the thing with fixing the energy problems that we face is that it both kills multiple birds with one stone and that it would give him the political capital to push through health care reform. Plus I think getting health care reform through is more plausible after the 2010 elections, when in all probability the Dems will have a firm and solid majority in congress.

[Dark Hellion]

I believe Duchess' point (if it isn't please correct me) is that if we do not fix the energy crisis soon, then it won't matter what kind of healthcare system we have because nothing above what she has stated will be capable of working. I think that it is perhaps a bit alarmist, but not an inaccurate picture.

[Guardsman Bass]

I think that those calling for health care have it right in their reasoning. But the thing with fixing the energy problems that we face is that it both kills multiple birds with one stone and that it would give him the political capital to push through health care reform. Plus I think getting health care reform through is more plausible after the 2010 elections, when in all probability the Dems will have a firm and solid majority in congress.

I agree. I've heard that that is part of what helped sink the Clinton's plan for health care reform back in 1993- Clinton lost a lot of political capital because of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" spat, and because he had to come up with a budget that reduced the deficit (but also meant that he had to cut back on a lot of the initiatives he had planned). When the time came around for health care reform, it was that much harder.

[ray245]

I think that Obama's experience as a community orgainser really helps him if he becomes the president. The reasoning is due to the fact that he has to work within a very limited budget, and get enough things done. Another reason to vote for Obama, as compared to McCain.

[Solauren]

I'd have to say, in order

#1 - Energy.
#2 - Health Care
#3 - Environment. (Get the US onto Green Energy sources, or at least off fossil, would start this earlier before it became a focus)
#4 - Educational reform.

[SirNitram]

I think that those calling for health care have it right in their reasoning. But the thing with fixing the energy problems that we face is that it both kills multiple birds with one stone and that it would give him the political capital to push through health care reform. Plus I think getting health care reform through is more plausible after the 2010 elections, when in all probability the Dems will have a firm and solid majority in congress.

I think predicting a third consecutive wave election is getting out of the realm of optimism and into that of discarding observed evidence. Frankly, it's crazy and bizarre enough that we're looking seriously at a second wave. A third big win for one party is unprecedented, IIRC.

[DaveJB]

How is the GOP going to be viewed in 200 years, is an interesting question. Are the Americans of the future going to thank them for ending slavery but curse them for fucking the country to death?

I get the feeling people might split them into an "Old Republican" party, covering Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt's reigns, and a "New Republican" party covering Harding to Dubya's reigns. Really, you could say that the original Republican party died with the Roosevelt-Taft split in 1912, and it ended up being reformed into a more conservative party afterwards.

In answer to the OP, I'm gonna go with the flow and say energy.

[Darth Fanboy]

Between Energy Independence and Health Care Reform I'd have to side with Health Care Reform. Of the two I think Energy Independence is the more important one, but I think there is more time availiable to address it when compared to Health Care. As Nitram posted last week, almost half of the foreclosures currently sticking a shiv in our economy right now are a result of medical costs. Fixing that would also have more immediate results, and Obama could then captialize on that and have more momentum and clout when energy becomes the focus.

[Knife]

I think the healthcare bit is more self interest. I still vote for energy, rather than personal or professional hook ups.