Addressing the Issues

My environmental stance is pretty easy to understand; invest in alternative fuel sources accross the board. I'm tired of people saying Solar is too unreliable, wind is too unreliable, etc. Here's what you do, see: Where it's windy, you put turbines. Where it's sunny, you put solar panels. Oh, and put solar panels on the turbines. Geothermal? Hell yes. Water? Well...I don't want to build any more dams, because there's really no way to do it without incurring a little bit of environmental damage. But we can utilize what we've got in place. I don't think we should build any more coal plants myself, and I thought that even why Kathy's paycheck depended on new coal plants. As for oil, we need to invest in better public transit systems in metropolitan areas. St. Louis' Metrolink is, since the addition of the cross county line, little better than a joke. I know we don't have the large population or urban acreage that cities like Chicago, Boston and NYC have, but that doesn't mean we don't need to build a better mass transit infrastructure. And also, as part of that, we should make our cities more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. And locally grown food? Yeah, it should be cheaper and not more expensive. Tax incentives for those who power their homes with wind or solar, who buy cars with a certain EPA MPG estimate. Oh, and we need to increase the MPG standard. 33 mpg standard? Okay, fine, but that's shy of Europe, and they seem to be doing just fine over there. So...incentives for cities and individuals who take steps themselves, and government mandates and higher standards.

Strengthening the dollar? First off, improve the economy, but really, we should cut back on defecit spending. You see, state governments have to balance their budget every year, but the federal government can just keep borrowing from China? Right...like where are we getting all of this money for the economic stimulus package? We're borrowing it. And, considering the sub-prime lending crisis helped put the economy in the tank this time around, I think borrowing money to fix it is laced with a fair enough amount of irony already. The irony will be complete if we're borrowing with an adjustable interest rate. Which, when you think about it, we are; with the falling dollar value, borrowing a billion dollars from China now may mean paying them back seven billion later, or more. We just need to pull the American economy back to America. I'm not saying we shouldn't trade with other nations, or that we shouldn't help other nations with their finances. But...it's like building bridges, schools, and hospitals in Iraq. Shouldn't we tend our own garden first? Trade is good, I'm not saying that. But we need to remember that a good measure of an economy is looking at how many exports vs imports. You want more exports. Just look at the labels at your local Wal Mart. Most of it was made where? China! Great. But that means the money doesn't stay here. It goes there.

You see, the economic stimulus package will take...borrow...money from China, and give it to the people of this country. They will take that money and they will likely NOT save it. They will pay down their high interest credit cards, just so they can then put more on the credit card and max it out again. And what will they buy? Stuff made in China. Which means all that money goes back to China, twice. Once now when we buy their stuff, and again when we get around to paying them back the loan. This is a terrible system upon which to base what should be the strongest economy in the world.

Anyway...turns out, I actually am too young to run for president, by ten years. So I can't actually run until the 2020 election, during which I will be thirty-seven years old. But hey, I've got twelve years to put together a stellar campaign. So let's get going on it folks! Rauscher for President in 2020!