Reflections on an Obama Meeting

For once I actually arrived to a meeting on time! My record of arriving to places on-time lately has been really bad but I did arrive here on time this time. An Obama volunteer was there smiling with literature and everything for people to read. Not only did she encourage discussion and catered to all views, both those supporting and undecided (I was the only person in the room that was republican). The Obama campaign is publicly committed to not bashing other candidates and she worked to keep the same policy in the debate even when I ranted on about McCain she politely re-directed the discussion to a more positive strain. The meeting participants were great including a very nice girl who shall remained nameless who worked very hard at asking tough questions even I was proud of!

Overall, I went into the meeting with a negative attitude about Obama and the whole matter and although I am still not decided on who I am going to vote for I think Obama just might be the man we need in office.

My biggest problems with his policies is that he wants to repeal the tax cuts (that's fine we really need the money) and he wants to give a $4000 tax cut to parents who are putting kids through college. That sounds good but where is the money the government won't be collecting going to come from? And that theme is a problem I see throughout his policies, he wants to reinstitute pay-as-you-go budgeting like Clinton did in the 1990's but what he isn't telling is where the money is going to come from. That was a common theme in his policies. He wants to empower teachers and pay them more which is great but there is no word on where the money is going to come from. He wants to invest in alternative fuels and give tax cuts to corporations who research them. Good idea too. However in his healthcare plan the greatest part of the cost is going to be on corporations (who hire people and keep them employed) and those same corporations will be paying excessive profits taxes which will encourage them either invest it in the company or to not work as hard to make as much money to avoid penalties.

There were a few things that I did like about his policies. The idea of making healthcare available and improving access is a great idea. Resurrecting our foreign policy is an amazing idea and working on a national debt solution and being committed to not plowing us into further debt is an amazing idea.

I did disagree with being against a privatized social security. The entire room agreed the social security is broken and needs a solution with in the next decade if not sooner and that most solution merely shove the problem off on future generation and that we can solve it here and now. I think privatization is the way to go and it will revitalize the economy and financial sectors with a large and steady infusion of cash into the banking system. However, I can understand his love of government its protection for something that keeps a lot of people from starving or working endlessly at walmart for their golden years.

That's my thoughts, I'll be giving Obama consideration.