A Man with a Plan

You have to give President Obama an A+ for his enthusiasm during Tuesday night's speech to the House and the Senate. Yet, at the same time, when you really think about it, you also have to wonder if he was overly optimistic given the apparent high cost of his aggressive plans. 

The President focused on three major areas that he will try to deal with: energy, healthcare, and education. His plans were ambitious but definitely attainable. He also vowed to cut the country's trillion-dollar-plus deficit by a half by the end of his first term in office. Based on the expenditures, I'm not sure if this is realistic or perhaps more of a desire.

In the past, the White House has struggled when trying to deal with more than one major issue at the same time. President Obama will be trying to handle three problematic areas. For example, he wants to pass healthcare reform within his first year in office. No other President has been able to do this. The cost of healthcare has been rising significantly and the idea that every American is to be insured on more of less on an equal level will be challenging and costly.

In Canada, where there is universal healthcare available to every citizen, the cost has been massive and yet there are only about 34 million people living in that country compared to over 300 million in the United States. Moreover, the quality of healthcare is questionable in Canada. There are long line-ups and there appears to be an unofficial two-tier system as far as quality goes. President Obama should take a look at the Canadian experience when overhauling the U.S. system. At the end of the day, his ambition towards healthcare reform is commendable, but it will be costly and could see funding for other areas cut in order not to build up the deficit.

President Obama also touched on education and his desire to make Americans strive to higher education levels. His aim is to make the U.S. have the highest proportion of college graduates per capita in the world, Again, this is an excellent goal, but at what cost? Education is expensive. In addition, there will have been enough jobs to satisfy the supply of college grads. The last thing you want is college grads working at low level and uninspiring jobs, often referred to "McJobs" in the past, in reference to college grads working at McDonald's. Heck, I worked at McDonald's, but it was only a short two-week stint when I was 15.

As for the area of energy, I feel that President Obama is bang on with his views and strategy. The country's dependence on foreign oil, especially from unstable areas, is risky. The U.S. needs to cut its demand for foreign oil and instead focus on developing next-generation alternative energies, such as those green energies that use wind, water and solar power. The administration is also correct on funding research into technologies other than gasoline that can propel cars. The desire to clean up the greenhouse gases is a must and I commend the President for it.

All in all, President Obama has the right ideas. The questionable aspects are the cost and how realistic he is.

Profit Confidential

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