One thing that made Barack Obama so appealing as a candidate was the ambiguity of his message. He favors Hope, Change, and ‘Yes, we can’. Those things sound good; I suppose I favor them as well. Policy was less prominent in the Obama campaign, which allowed different people to project their own views the candidate. He sounded the usual noise about impracticable tax cuts, ending dependence on foreign oil, and anti-Chinese sentiments. These statements are safely ignored but some of his rhetoric such as opposition to trade and liberal labor markets could possibly be more worrying. But, while Obama campaigned with some rather backwards populist positions, he surrounded himself with high quality advisors. Thus, it is possible for some, like the editors of The Economist, to speculate that he doesn’t really mean any of that rhetoric, and that it is only the necessary noise of the campaign. I hope that this is true, but it’s also possible that having been dependent on them for his election, Obama will be beholden to the reactionary elements he has stirred up.
That said, this is what I am hoping for from an Obama Presidency:
- His support for Eliminate Right-to-Work laws and instituting ‘Cardcheck’ (which would eliminate the secret ballot in Union organizing), will be forgotten or safely blocked by Republicans in the Senate.
- The noise about renegotiating NAFTA and CAFTA, and halting new trade deals should only be noise. He can just say ‘I have assured that they have adequate protections for American workers’, ‘Columbian union organizers’, or whatever such nonsense.
- Plans to government control of healthcare ‘to hold down prices’ should also be blocked by the Republicans. The Democrats can campaign on this one for another 50 years.
- Obama should work with the Bush Administration to have consistent policy for the financial crises. Support the bailout, but wind down government intervention in the system. Barack Obama should not allow any extreme interventions in the market such as using government funds to buy individual mortgages or declare a mortgage foreclosure. Ideally, the Obama Administration would break up Freddie and Fannie, repeal the CRA, and eliminate the tax deductibility of mortgage interest – I put the probabilities of these things happening at 10%, 2%, and 0.1%.
- Plans for bizarre government interventions into the economy like bailing out the Auto-Industry and a ‘Windfall Profits’ tax on oil companies should quietly disappear.
- He should and probably will basically continue Bush’s 2nd term mainstream foreign policy. Increase attention to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and don’t withdraw suddenly from Iraq. This is what Obama says he will do, although he doesn’t cite Bush. I expect Obama to be a very successful President in the world policy arena, due to his international popularity. Someone like Hugo Chavez gets less traction railing against a United States led by Barack Obama, and countries like Germany would be more willing to help with say Afghanistan.
- Also, increasing spending on infrastructure wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Doing just these things, would make for a fine Presidency in my opinion. One gets the impression that Obama is inherently a cautious man. That’s an excellent temperament for shaping policy.
Update: Greg Mankiw and Will Wilkinson both have excellent advice for the President-elect.
That said, this is what I am hoping for from an Obama Presidency:
- His support for Eliminate Right-to-Work laws and instituting ‘Cardcheck’ (which would eliminate the secret ballot in Union organizing), will be forgotten or safely blocked by Republicans in the Senate.
- The noise about renegotiating NAFTA and CAFTA, and halting new trade deals should only be noise. He can just say ‘I have assured that they have adequate protections for American workers’, ‘Columbian union organizers’, or whatever such nonsense.
- Plans to government control of healthcare ‘to hold down prices’ should also be blocked by the Republicans. The Democrats can campaign on this one for another 50 years.
- Obama should work with the Bush Administration to have consistent policy for the financial crises. Support the bailout, but wind down government intervention in the system. Barack Obama should not allow any extreme interventions in the market such as using government funds to buy individual mortgages or declare a mortgage foreclosure. Ideally, the Obama Administration would break up Freddie and Fannie, repeal the CRA, and eliminate the tax deductibility of mortgage interest – I put the probabilities of these things happening at 10%, 2%, and 0.1%.
- Plans for bizarre government interventions into the economy like bailing out the Auto-Industry and a ‘Windfall Profits’ tax on oil companies should quietly disappear.
- He should and probably will basically continue Bush’s 2nd term mainstream foreign policy. Increase attention to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and don’t withdraw suddenly from Iraq. This is what Obama says he will do, although he doesn’t cite Bush. I expect Obama to be a very successful President in the world policy arena, due to his international popularity. Someone like Hugo Chavez gets less traction railing against a United States led by Barack Obama, and countries like Germany would be more willing to help with say Afghanistan.
- Also, increasing spending on infrastructure wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Doing just these things, would make for a fine Presidency in my opinion. One gets the impression that Obama is inherently a cautious man. That’s an excellent temperament for shaping policy.
Update: Greg Mankiw and Will Wilkinson both have excellent advice for the President-elect.
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