The "Blueprint" Part 1 -- Tony

When Eric and I decided to do this blog, the goal was for each of us to genuinely look at the other persons party platform, and really try to understand why they believe what they believe. Eric is great at this, he and I talk on the same wave length, he can express what he is thinking clearly for me. I think it's important for me to re-state this, because I'm not picking points in Obama's campaign to go after and ignoring the valid points. I'm not here to trick people into voting against him. I'm here to show Eric (and other Dems) what it is about their side we don't agree with and WHY, from our perspective. What Eric and I have found is that when we boil it all down, indeed, we really do want the same outcome, but we sometimes disagree on how to get there.

I downloaded and read "The Blueprint" yesterday. This is Obama's plan for America.

I give Obama some credit here. Being a person who loves to put things down on paper, organize, then re-organize, I love the fact that Obama took his ideas and put them on paper in a clean, easy to follow format. I really like this. I did some googling, and aside from some random bulleted items here and there, there is no "document" that lays out McCain's plan. Maybe he has one, but the Obamedia just hasn't covered it yet :) Anyway, kudos to Mr. B. Hussein Obama (Subliminal Conservative Trick) for doing this.

Now, I'm not going to pretend, like every other blogger on the internet, like I actually read every line of that long, long document. I did read about 80% of it. Got the major points. My first impression after reading it......The only thing he left out was this line: "Once elected, I will turn the sky from blue to red" or "Once elected, I'll move forward with my initiative to give goldfish artificial breathing tanks so they can play outside with other animals". Pretty far fetched ideas, but right in line with 50% of his other promises. Completely unachievable.

Since this document is soooo large (presumably because he addresses every issue in the world), I'm going to take this in multiple parts. I'll cut and paste from the document, then I'll give my comments. Then Eric can respond.


Google for Government
Americans have the right to know how their tax dollars are spent, but that information has been hidden from public view for too long. That’s why Barack Obama and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) passed a law to create a Google-like search engine to allow regular people to track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans online. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “It would enable the public to see where federal money goes
and how it is spent. It’s a brilliant idea.”

OK, he gets credit for using the word Google in his blueprint. I love google. That's the extent I agree with this. I do agree Americans have a right to know how their tax dollars are spent. The problem is, 90% of this data is already available. If you are a person who is genuinely concerned about how you tax dollars are spent and where there are abuses, you can contact the various agencies to request information. Websites like http://www.pogo.org/db/ already list Contractor misconduct. I understand he is trying to make it easier for everyone, but honestly, if someone is too lazy to spend time to find the information, do you want that person having access to the information. *SARCASM ALERT: That won't cause any misunderstandings at all. Someone with no knowledge of how contracting works, and no knowledge of government budgeting looking at a document with 20 zeros in the dollar box.

Shine Light on Washington Lobbying:
Centralize Ethics and Lobbying Information for Voters: Obama will create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format.

Hold 21st Century Fireside Chats: Obama will bring democracy and policy directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national broadband townhall meetings to discuss issues before their agencies. Make White House Communications Public: Obama will amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public.

Are you kidding. Obama is going to make his cabinet, a group of trained, educated, professional people, consult regular Americans on issues? Very idealistic, but it will not happen. In two years call me a liar, or call me a genius. Lets not forget the fact that it is technically impossible to have a "broadband" meeting with all of America. Keep in mind, these are government people running things.

Shine the Light on Federal Contracts, Tax Breaks and Earmarks
Create a Public “Contracts and Influence” Database: As president, Obama will create a “contracts and influence” database that will disclose how much federal contractors spend on lobbying, and what contracts they are getting and how well they complete them.
Expose Special Interest Tax Breaks to Public Scrutiny: Barack Obama will ensure that any tax breaks for corporate recipients – or tax earmarks – are also publicly available on the Internet in an easily searchable format.

End Abuse of No-Bid Contracts: Barack Obama will end abuse of no-bid contracts by requiring that nearly all contract orders over $25,000 be competitively awarded.

Yes, kill the government contractors. The evil scum that they are. There is a reason there are normally relationships between the government agencies and the contractors that work for them. Most of the contractors formally worked for the agency they now support. They saw a way to improve things, they realized an opportunity to start a business that will utilize their experience and training in that agency, and they capitalized. The American way. The best contractors are the ones that do have a relationship with their agency. People think that it is backhanded and shady, but it's not. You want the people who can do the job best to be your contractor. Do you want some joe smoe business that has no experience in your agency being hired just to be fair? I see, sacrifice skill and experience for fairness. That's a great way to maintain our status as the most technologically advanced and dominant country in the world.

As for no bid contracts....Halliburton. There I said it. Bush's personal company, or so the media makes it out to be. When we went into Iraq, Halliburton was awarded the contract to provide support in Iraq, w/o a bid from another contractor. Answer me this. What other company in America, had the experience and manpower to do what needed to be done in Iraq in that short a period of time? NOBODY. Sometimes, there are just areas where there is no competition.

In my old neighborhood, If I wanted more than 5 channels, I had to get the Satellite Dish. Why, because the cable company didn't come there. FiOS wasn't there either. Only one company was able to provide the service I wanted, so I had to go with them. Now that cable is available, I have a choice. That's how it works. At the time Halliburton was the only one that could provide the service......Again, it's great talk from Obama, but it just shows a lack of understanding of how things really work. Ideally, competition is great. Realistically, not possible all the time.

Lower Costs by Modernizing the U.S. Health Care System
(1) Reducing Costs of Catastrophic Illnesses for Employers and Their Employees. Catastrophic health expenditures account for a high percentage of medical expenses for private insurers. The Obama plan would reimburse employer health plans for a portion of the catastrophic costs they incur above a threshold if they guarantee such savings are used to reduce the cost of workers’ premiums.

If you think companies are going to reflect a reimbursed amount by giving it back to their employees, who are already used to paying a certain amount. You are crazy. Just as crazy as those people who think the answer to gas prices is to tax the oil companies more. They will just raise the price of gas to cover their increased taxes.

(3) Lowering Costs Through Investment in Electronic Health Information Technology Systems: Most medical records are still stored on paper, which makes it hard to coordinate care, measure quality or reduce medical errors and which costs twice as much as electronic claims. Obama will invest $10 billion a year over the next five years to move the U.S. health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records, and will phase in requirements for full implementation

Does he think the health care industry folks are just idiots? Does he think they haven't been trying to automate since the 90's? Just another case where he is saying what people want to hear. No practical way to accomplish this any faster than what they are already doing. On top of that, you are asking private practice to go Universal, which would flatten out their rates, but yet asking them to have to hire more IT folks to support this new requirement of going "electronic". Doesn't make sense, it's like Eric said about Bush tax cuts. You can't cut taxes then go on a spending spree. You can't cut private practice income then tell them to hire more employees.


Wages are Stagnant as Prices Rise
While wages remain flat, the costs of basic necessities are increasing. The cost of in-state college tuition has grown 35 percent over the past five years. Health care costs have risen four times faster than wages over the past six years. And the personal savings rate is now the lowest it’s been since the Great Depression.

I agree with this. Colleges are out of control with their tuition hikes. I don't understand how he can tell a private college what to charge, but hey, I'll believe the hype on this one, because I want to. Wages are stagnant. Good. You want to tax the big businesses more (see next answer) yet want them to increase what they pay their employees?

Tax Cuts for Wealthy Instead of Middle Class
The Bush tax cuts give those who earn over $1 million dollars a tax cut nearly 160 times greater than that received by middle-income Americans. At the same time, this administration has refused to tackle health care, education and housing in a manner that benefits the middle class.

Ok, I want to believe this is great, I really do. Here is the problem with this one. 99% of those in the "wealthy" category who make over 1 million are business owners or celebrities/athletes who have a staff of paid employees under them, which, I guess, makes them business owners too. I'm lower (really low) middle class, so I'd love to see more money in my wallet. The Bush tax breaks are not going to "Rich People" they are going to business owners. It's all in the wording. They give these breaks to people who start and run businesses. Businesses that employee people. You give people incentives to operate a business, they take a risk, become successful, hire more employees, stimulate the economy. It's not like Bush said, "I hate regular Americans, I'm going to tax them more than rich people". It's that most of the wealthy are business owners and business owners get tax breaks.


Provide Middle Class Americans Tax Relief
Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families: Obama will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 150 million workers the tax relief they need. Obama will create a new “Making Work Pay” tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. The “Making Work Pay” tax credit will completely eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans.
Simplify Tax Filings for Middle Class Americans: Obama will dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes. Obama will ensure that the IRS uses the information it already gets from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return. Experts estimate that the Obama proposal will save Americans up to 200 million total hours of work and aggravation and up to $2 billion in tax preparer fees.

Before I comment on the "Making Work Pay" tax credit, I want to see who qualifies for this first. As for making taxes easier.... It's the typical Democratic stance. Let the government do everything for you. You are an idiot, let us handle it for you. Pre-filled tax forms? You want the government to handle electronically gathering your financial information from banks and putting it in a IRS database. You are nuts. Banks are the most secure computing environments around because they pay for top talent and pay for the most secure computing. Governments are some of the most insecure computing environments around, because they let bureaucracy get in the way of common sense security. Not only is it dumb, it's practically not feasible. Speaking as a systems architect, figuring out how to get info from a bank system to a government system and still maintain functionality and security. Impossible. Eric can't argue with this. He knows this.

Technology, Innovation and Creating Jobs
Support Job Creation: Barack Obama believes we need to double federal funding for basic research and make the research and development tax credit permanent to help create high-paying, secure jobs. Obama will also make long-term investments in education, training, and workforce development so that Americans can leverage our strengths – our ingenuity and entrepreneurialism – to create new high-wage jobs and pros

Wait, you want to tax businesses, yet want them to invest in research and development? And pay their employees to go to training. More idealistic talk.

Address Predatory Credit Card Practices and Reform Bankruptcy Laws
Create a Credit Card Rating System to Improve Disclosure: Obama will create a credit card rating system, modeled on five-star systems used for other consumer products, to provide consumers an easily identifiable ranking of credit cards, based on the card’s features. Credit card companies will be required to display the rating on all application and contract materials, enabling consumers to quickly understand all of the major......

Ok, I'm not against this. I think it's a fabulous idea. But wait, all this information is already available to consumers with a little effort. Is he saying we are all to dumb to find it ourselves? I just have a problem with this lack of trust in us on alot of his statements.

These are just some of the issues on the "BluePrint". There is a theme developing though, let the government handle stuff for you. Let us make it easier for you. But this is exactly how England is. A socialist society with silly taxes (about 45% or so). Yes they don't pay for health care, but I've been treated in a UK hospital, and it was disgusting. The doctors have no incentive to try harder. This is a whole different post. Obama says the middle class is under attack here in America. At least we have a middle class. In England they don't have one. It's the "very wealthy" and the "poor". I can expand on that if necessary.

Alot of his ideas are great in this Blueprint. The problem is that a good portion of them are so unrealistic it is obvious he is just saying them to get voters on his side. I'm interested to hear what Eric has to say. I'm tired and going to bed.