It seems to me, at 9:00 PM Central Time that without a major miracle we will have Barrack Obama as the new President Elect of the United States of American and that Joe Biden will be our new Vice President Elect. I hope that by the end of the night, the miracle will take place, but the pragmatic in me looks at the map and sees that it is just about over with Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Ohio currently on the Obama camp there will not be enough electoral votes to push John McCain over the 270 needed.
Election day is an amazing thing in the United States. It goes back to the end of George Washington’s second term (1793 t0 1797), a term he was unanimously elected to, when he turned over the Presidency of the United States to John Adams in 1797 and then 4 years later John Adams turned over the presidency to Thomas Jefferson. The list of presidents goes on from Washington as the #1 president to George Bush the 43rd president. On the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, November 4, 2008 we held peaceful elections during a very heated campaign. The tradition started by Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and the rest of the early presidents, continues today and will continue on January 20, 2009 when the new president takes office.
Fears that I have as of this moment, for the future of the United States is that we’re going to lean too far left and the word socialist will come to be a common part of our political lexicon. I worry, as I have from early in this campaign that the economy will be severely damaged by the increase in taxes that are coming our way. Yesterday I posted a blog showing that, if Obama wins today, all businesses in the United States will start 2009 with a huge mountain to climb by 13.1% just to make up for the increase in taxes that large and small business will have to pay. Additionally I worry that the addition of Capital Gains and Dividend taxes going from 15% to 20% (if not clearly back to 28% as it was in the Clinton years). If capital gains taxes are going to go up 33% (5 point increase on 15%) then there will be a large push for the flight of capital investment for small business.
As I look at my friends business who runs a paving company and wonder if his investors are going to stay in much longer, since taking their gains in December will mean a 33% reduction in tax burden (pay 15% instead of 20%) for their capital gain. I also think about another friend who runs a IT Support company and wonder how they’re going to do, and if they are going to make the investments to grow their company. I worry about medium sized investors in Kansas City, one of whom in particular helped me make a run at a company back in 2000 – 2001; whether he and his partners will continue to value some of the more risky business investments. All of these, in my mind, affect the number of jobs that the economy may or may not create, and then the consumers that are not going to be able to spend money to power the economy.
This night, November 4th, 2008, I worry about the future in a way I did not worry when Jimmy Carter was elected, nor when Bill Clinton was elected; it all focuses on taxes, nationalized healthcare, and the impact on the long term economy of these United States and the other economies that depend on the former (and I pray future) power of our economy: Where ideas are rewarded, and freedom allows entrepreneurs the ability to prosper and hire others.
God Bless you and God Bless America
The Lee’s Summit Conservative
