Personally, I am a HUGE fan of a president using technology as a tool. This post was written while watching the first Online Town Hall meeting with President Obama. An experiment focused to ‘Opening the White House for Questions’ with the goal of explaining plans to the public.
Really liked what Obama had to say with the Educational plan. Reform + added funding. I was raised to love my country, and helping contribute to the educational system is ok with me. But if that country is working to improve education, it makes it easier to love a more competitive America.
So, now I’m watching the first online video submitted question, and thought, “So am I watching a streaming video of a guy watching a streaming video?”
Obama dodged and danced the shipping jobs overseas question. We (well maybe just I) want to hear you say, “NO MORE TAX CUTS for business sending jobs overseas!” I don’t care if a company does it. Hell, the government should NOT tell me how to run my business… but don’t reward them for shipping jobs out. In fact, why not flip that and offer incentives to keep the jobs here? Just my $.02.
Interesting topic on the Smart Grid. Really want to dive more into that.
Having talked to someone who experienced universal health care in Europe, with a pretty major surgery for her child, I am holding my views on it. Before that talk, I was 100% supportive of universal, now just leaning towards it. The woman I talked to was a republican so I imagine her views are in line with the party. She did say there were great doctors. Fantastic doctors. But the facility was garbage. In my opinion, our hospitals are great and doctors are as well, for those who can afford it. So how do we take the system that is in Europe and mix it with our system of hospital structures and systems already in place. Obama did not do it for me on this, and healthcare is a high topic for me.
In the umbrella subject of Education is Higher Education. I am extremely disappointed with our colleges. Obama told me about the situation, but did not really explain a plan to change it with the exception of ‘spending money.’ He did not use the word reform on his talking on Higher Education. However, in my finance college classes they explained there were only TWO kinds of ‘good debt’ one was on your house and the other is on education. Now, this was before the housing crisis but I still believe that those are two good reasons to go into debt. If that is how I believe, then maybe the government ‘investing’ into our education is ok by me.
In my opinion he needs to hire Ross Perot, is he still alive? Get him to bring in some charts on the budget. Obama constantly referenced the route we were going in spending is a ‘fraction’ of what our deficit is. Here is some simple math for you. If you add up enough ‘fractions’ you eventually get a whole number. That whole number starts with a 1 and has 13 zeros behind it. Guess what, if you keep adding ‘fractions’ you can even go over that whole number. I’m pretty anal about numbers, so show me a chart of your projected ROI (Return On Investments). It makes it simple for people and will probably help get more people on board.
The question from the lady about defining terms like ‘charter schools’ was a good one. Also I am happy with the answer he gave. ‘Hey America, here is 1min definition of something you hear tossed around in Washington all the time.’
I had two phone calls and had to get the door so I did not get to cover the entire Town Hall meeting.
Mr. President, I appreciate you being realistic that the economy has a long road to go and it will get worse… but don’t stray too much from your campaign on hope. Infecting us with hope was a good thing.
You have plenty of critics and they don’t need you to say it will get worse. They need you to communicate the plans you have and explain them to us… work to get people to understand your plan… get the word out, like in an online town hall. This experiment was a fantastic idea and in my opinion a success.