Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I won't tell you what I really call him

Well, we just watched Obama's speech. I don't usually write on a political bent here because it's not my style, but I had a few things about the speech I wanted to say. I know there are way more important things he talked about (the budget, the military, healthcare, etc.), but the (roughly) three things I'm going to mention are what jumped out at me. They're probably not in order either.

First of all, Obama says he doesn't want to be dependent on foreign countries for things like car batteries. He says we have new plug-in smart cars rolling off the lines, running on batteries from Korea. Then later he says that we need to be sending more stuff overseas. So he doesn't want to buy from them, but he wants them to buy from us? Isn't trade supposed to be a reciprocal thing? I buy from you, you buy from me? I'm all for using our resources here at home, don't get me wrong. I just think he's seriously understimating the advantage, and especially the necessity, of trade with foreign countries.

Secondly--and this is what really gets me, as a student--Obama says he wants to create jobs. That's a no brainer. But then, talking about education and the high cost of tuition, he was talking about how we all need to make sacrifices and volunteer our time to help out. He says if you will volunteer your time to help out somehow, the government will help you pay for school. He's not encouraging anyone to work. All he's asking is for everyone to spend a few hours so we can get free (or cheap) education. So much for all those jobs he wants to create. If he really wanted to encourage people to work and help them out with tuition, he would say something like, "Make this much and the government will supplement this much." I'm not even sure I would agree to that, but it would at least be better than giving out money for volunteer work. He also mentioned, almost in passing, that welfare would continue/increase. Not really a huge help, in my opinion.

Finally, Obama says that anyone who makes under $250,000 will get a tax cut, and that "big businesses" that ship jobs overseas will no longer get tax breaks (effectively leaving them with a tax increase). That's just going to make it that much easier for those big businesses to go under, creating that many more unemployed people. It also takes away incentive to work hard and make more than $250,000 a year.

He also said some things that really make me want to ask, "Who are you to tell us what we need? It's our money and our hard work. Give it back and let us work with it."

I'm glad I didn't vote for him.

(P.S. Feel free to contradict me, question me, or otherwise disagree with me. I'm open. :-) )

4 comments:

Shannon said...

I agree with you 100%. Your second point REALLY got me. It's not the government's job to put kids through college! SO ridiculous.

Star said...

I agree with you very much.
I don't think Obama is going to be good for our country.
However, he may be just the thing America needs to "wake up."
God's always got a plan.

Anonymous said...

Katie Beth, I disagree! I contradict! I question!!

well, uhh, I mean, not really. you just said you were open, so there ya go.

Hana Jenkins said...

Dear Lord,

What Katie Beth said.

Amen.