Saturday, November 25, 2006

Democratic goals

Every news article about the incoming Democratic Congress details their goals. Here are thoughts:

Increasing the minimum wage.
Because it hasn't been adjusted for inflation, making the actual existing minimum wage anachronistic, any increase is a band-aid and meant to make people feel better without any actual results. No poor people will be less poor because of an increase.

Enacting the September 11 Commission's security recommendations.
No brainer. This is just plain obvious. To NOT do so is treasonous.

Allowing the government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare patients.
Use the buying power of government to save money for taxpayers.

Cutting energy industry tax breaks.
Energy companies say they can only survive with the breaks, but with several billion dollar profits, that is increasingly hard to believe. If their P/E ratio goes down, then reinstituting tax breaks can be an option.

Lowering financial hurdles for access to higher education.
Higher education in the United States isn't hard enough. This is obvious by the need for immigrant workers in hard sciences ande engineering. But if a smart person in the United States wants to go to college and work hard simply can't pay tuition, they should be afforded the chance to contribute to society through their knowledge and determination instead of financial status.

1 comment:

jennifer said...

hey panini,

randomly ran across your comment on my blog. I had some idea that you may have left gr. how are you? send an email if you have a chance.

j.

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