Surprise, surprise, Democratic and GOP leaders actually reached a deal on the Federal Budget. The real challenge is, however, making sure the deal translates into a Budget. In truth, the minor concessions made in terms of revenue increases, spending cuts, and spending increases seem to be rather nonsensical in terms of what our economy and government needs while the minor policy changes will affect minor segments of our population in disproportionate ways.
That said, the current state of politics probably demands a “baby steps” approach. Just passing a functional Budget and making minor tweaks is progress in terms of making government less dysfunctional. As such, legislators need to pivot toward fiscal issues like tax reform, which is also necessary to address economic inequality and debt reduction in order to fix America’s fiscal and economic troubles. A failure to do so will guarantee the legacies of our current elected officials will be marked by disaster.
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Tech giants like Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! have launched a campaign to address the uncontrolled spying activities of agencies like the NSA with an open letter to President Obama and US Congressmen. In doing so, they took political action in favor of democracy and US citizens as well as foreign citizens around the entire world. (This is done at some risk as these companies operate in non-democratic countries like China. Clearly, politicizing a firm operating in places where political activity is suppressed can lead to backlash.)
Frankly, the activities and technologies of these firms, which afford the NSA the opportunity to gather massive amounts of data, share more responsibility than they would like to accept at this point. That said, they are leading the charge in order to serve their broadest interest of confidence building. People need to trust the internet and the services of these companies or they will slowly move toward emerging alternatives. Furthermore, more needs to be done. There is no balance on the internet when it comes to regulation and freedom, which means the internet is unpoliced and lacks a “constitutional” structure. Any country (community) lacking a strong “constitutional” structure, where freedoms and rights are broadly defined alongside limits for authorities and the structure of governance (law), has been corrupted, has lead to the abuse of residents (users), and ultimately failed, whether that nation was an authoritarian regime or democracy. This is an important history lesson as proper structure is needed to promote stability and growth; the internet lacks structure where it needs it. Not only must governments be restricted from what they can do to the internet and user data, it must also be given a well defined structure for addressing national interests when it comes to information technology. Just as tech firms must resist the intrusion of government, government must regulate the activities of tech firms. Because the internet is the world web wide, the International Community as a whole has a major role in determining how the internet is governed. Because the internet is largely a power void, which means governments and other power seeking entities are moving to fill that void, the tech world can best serve its interests, including the need to restrain the NSA and address criminal activities, by working to empower organizations like the United Nations in addition to powerful governments like the US. December 5, 2013 was marked by the death of Nelson Mandela. The name of the South African activist and first black President is known around the world, probably better than the abdominal legacy of apartheid that he sought to undo. He is so important to Twentieth Century history his death dominated the news of the day, for good reason.
An era of South African history defined by the brutal oppression and torture of blacks, apartheid ended with individuals like Nelson Mandela turning away from the impulse to seek revenge and dominance over whites. Instead, they recognized there was no punishment, no form of restitution, and no means of prosecuting the myriads of individuals responsible for what had been done to black South Africans and sought reconciliation. Instead of tearing their nation apart along racial lines, leaders of South Africa formed Truth and Reconciliation Commissions to afford victims a channel to peacefully express their grievances, face their victimizers, and learn what had happened to their loved ones who disappeared. In doing so, Mandela and others started a healing process that today has helped South Africa thrive. This approach to resolving conflicts is unique and rarely pursued on a national scale, yet the lesson to be learned is an essential one. When wrongdoings cannot be sufficiently undone or addressed through restitution, grievances can be addressed and conflicts resolved through the expression and public recognition of those grievances. Given the revolutionary forces driving change and unrest in the Middle East, as well as other regions of the world, there are several populations that will soon face the need to resolve past grievances and ongoing conflicts with rulers who did wrong. Although how those grievances and conflicts are addressed depends on what will satisfy the interests of the parties involved, the history of South Africa and work of Nelson Mandela should be remembered when doing so. Based on the latest stories coming from Egypt, it seems the Egyptian military has chosen the path away from democracy. Perhaps, the US does need to further restrict military aid.
Will Egypt become a democracy? (http://washingtonoutsider.weebly.com/1/post/2013/08/will-egypt-become-a-democracy.html) Unfortunately, President Obama has decided to continue his campaign style push for the Affordable Care Act. The truth is that such a campaign will do nothing for Obamacare, except give everyone something to joke about. At this point in the healthcare reform process, the legislation has been passed, i.e. the reason for a campaign, and we are waiting for the results. People experience, or will soon experience, the benefits. Where there are faults in Obamacare, such as the those faults in the Health Insurance Marketplace website, we need to see continual improvement. We do not need to hear why the Republicans are to blame for any failures in the effort; we need to see cooperative legislative efforts that can bring about additional reforms.
In fact, the President is strong when he deals with foreign policy issues in a firm manner. At the moment, the Chinese-Japanese dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands is garnering his attention and the attention of the Press. He should focus his PR efforts on emphasizing his efforts to revolve a brewing international conflict instead of reminding people of the controversial healthcare law. In many respects, international conflicts of this nature are easier to solve, because both parties have interests in resolving the conflicts, i.e. war would seriously damage the world's second and third largest economies, while the conflict is not a major issue for America. Other people's problems can be easier to solve as the outsider can avoid being bogged down by emotionally charged and psychologically cutting details that often derail the resolution process. As such, the Obama Administration would better served by focusing on issues it can solve and by calling attention to those issues. Furthermore, focusing so heavily on Obamacare demonstrates a lack of priorities on the President’s behalf, as well as our Legislators. Unfortunately, the divisive issue is certain to further polarize Democrats and Republicans, thereby undermining other legislative efforts. We live in an environment where our leaders do not put aside their differences for the greater good of the Country. We live in an environment where politicians take a hardliner, all-or-nothing approach. Consequently, over focusing on the politics of Obamacare decreases the likelihood we will avoid a government shutdown and Debt Default in early 2014. |
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