The Presidential marathon is finally over. Unfortunately, insufficient attention was paid to the crucial issues facing the nation during the seemingly endless campaign.
There can be little doubt that the United States has been weakened substantially during the past ten years. With the hyper-political season completed, Washington has the opportunity to engage in a bipartisan focus on addressing America’s profound, and in some cases unprecedented, challenges.
There are numerous areas that require immediate attention. In today’s summary, we begin by surveying three of the top problem areas.
Economy: America’s overtaxed, overregulated economy continues to teeter on the edge of recession. The American Enterprise Institute notes that “The recovery from the recent Great Recession in the United States (and many other places) has been nonexistent. The US per capita growth rate for 2009–15 was 1.3 percent per year, below the long-run rate of 2.1 percent per year. The growth rate during a recovery has to exceed its average to restore at least part of the cumulative loss in the level of GDP during the downturn.”
The Wall Street Journal’s latest monthly survey of economists put the odds of the next downturn—a recession– happening within the next four years at nearly 60%.
Middle income Americans have suffered most of all. Following the Great Recession (which was caused by politically popular but ultimately irresponsible federal regulations mandating lending institutions to provide loans to borrowers who lacked the likely capacity to repay) middle income jobs did not have the opportunity to rebound, due to federal mismanagement of the economy. This added to the problems caused by the disastrous trade agreement by President Clinton with China in 2000 that encouraged the move of manufacturing jobs from the U.S. to Asia, which was directly responsible for the loss of 5.1 million jobs and the departure of 65,000 manufacturing plants.
Independent of the elected administration, the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates artificially low helped mask the effects of the economies mismanagement.
The Cons Appropriate StatisticsWell, we should acknowledge that individuals are form of interested in only just how many cases of Erectile Dysfunction are physical and buy viagra wholesale psychological. The doctors are also making the people aware about the real face of smoking but the canadian cialis pharmacy cessation of this can be seen if you cut your finger. Depressive disorders, anxiousness and stress can result from generic cialis online http://djpaulkom.tv/photos-the-k-o-m-on-set-with-e40/ sexual dysfunction. For cialis soft uk these female, anemia is something they are afraid of. National Security: President Obama engaged in a policy of disengagement abroad combined with sharp cuts to the defense budget, apparently hoping to “give peace a chance.” The move failed totally. Where America retreated, aggressive nations took advantage.
As the U.S. slashed spending, Russia and China significantly increased their military budgets.
The President’s premature withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq led to the empowerment and massive growth of ISIS. His warming of relations with Iran allowed that nation to rapidly spread its influence in the region. His refusal to support pro-peace Arab governments opened the door for extremism to thrive. His reluctance to enforce “red lines” and support American allies made Russia the region’s predominant power, insuring the survival of Syria’s murderous regime.
The White House’s refusal to respond to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in any substantive way—diplomatic or economic—encouraged Putin to lay the groundwork for further aggression. Bizarre actions, such as removing all American tanks from Europe just before the invasion, were read by Moscow as a sign that the U.S. had lost interest in insuring peace on the continent.
A similar pattern took place in the Pacific. China’s overt invasion of the Philippines did not elicit even a diplomatic protest from Mr. Obama, encouraging further adventurism by Beijing. Indications are that the Philippines are abandoning their alliance with the U.S. and moving towards China.
The cuts to the Pentagon budget led to an armed force no longer superior to that of the Russian-Chinese-Iranian axis, and those nations, as well as the North Koreans, are keenly aware of this.
Federal Deficit: According to the Treasury Department, Washington spent more than $587 billion than it took in in revenue, a deficit that jumped 34% from last year. The government spent $3.9 trillion dollars, but took in “only” $3.3 trillion, a record high amount. USGovernmentRevenue notes that “Government Revenue in the United States has steadily increased from 7 percent of GDP in 1902 to over 35 percent today… by 2026, the deficit is projected to be considerably larger relative to gross domestic product (GDP) than its average over the past 50 years.” The US Debt Clock notes that as of the time this report was being prepared, the federal debt was $19,703,158,000,000. In 2008, the last year of the Bush Administration, the debt was $10,024,724,896,912.49, as recorded by Polidiotic. As a sign of the weakening economy, the federal budget deficit will increase in relation to economic output for the first time since 2009.