After nearly two years we have selected the leader of our country for at least another four years. At the time I’ m writing this column, I am sitting in a hotel in Berlin. I woke at five this morning to see what CNN had to say about yesterdays election. By the time I got the television on’ it was all over but the shouting.
At breakfast this morning, the English papers were reporting the event. Now the long knives start to come out. Not much of a honeymoon if you ask me. No, the papers in this part of the world, who had previously been so pro-Obama now are starting to question what effect his election will have upon the European community. Will his election and his lack of experience work for or against the other nations in the world’ Questions were raised concerning the amount of money Senator Obama had raised for his campaign. How could a junior first term senator raise over 600 million dollars in such a short time’ An unprecedented amount. Where did this money come from and who will Senator Obama be beholden to as a result’ Where do any of these candidates of any election come up with the huge sums they need to get into office’ You and I both know the answer to that question.
The Americans at this conference were being asked many questions. The European’s
attraction to Obama had quickly translated into a growing fear that his promises cannot or might not be fulfilled without major changes to the United States economy. There can no argument that our economy has a direct effect on the world. It’s fairly easy to identify those of us from the States, and at least ten Europeans have advised me that they are certainly glad that the race is finally over. They seem to be as tired of it as most of are.
The issue at it now stands is whether or not the new administration will actually get anything done. One of the more watched you-tube videos this past month was of an Obama supporter claiming that she hoped he was elected as she believed if this happened she would not have to pay her mortgage or ever buy any gas for her car.
Bunkie, this isn’t going to happen. I hate to disappoint her, but she shouldn’t be looking for this kind of new deal anytime soon. If it does happen, we’ re all in bigger trouble than I thought. I hate to burst this woman’s balloon but in case she didn’t know it, the government is not a for-profit entity. In spite of what we see on television, they do not ‘ make’ or ‘ create’ any money. Oh sure, they ‘ print’ money, but they don’t actually earn any money. We, the taxpayers and business owners are the ones who actually create the wealth in this country which is then passed along to the government as required. Contrary to what a lot of people believe the word ‘ profit’ is not a four letter word. If there was no profit in being in business, very few of us would do so for any length of time and more of us would go to work for the government in some form or fashion. The basic laws of economics suggest that unless you have more revenue coming in than you have payments going out, you will go broke. We’ve all been in the situation at the grocery store where we had to take something back as we didn’t have enough cash or credit to pay for everything we had in our baskets. Now, multiply that concept millions of times over and see if we give our more than we bring in, the shortfall has to come from somewhere. This somewhere is either through inflation (printing more money) or increased taxation. In business we would either increase the revenue by attracting more customers or reduce our cost by becoming more efficient. When was the last time you heard of any governmental program becoming efficient’
We should admit that the election does show that the United States has made a great deal of progress along racial lines. I have always contended that racial issues in our country were blown out of proportion by those who could benefit from continual conflict. Be that as it may, the Europeans took the position that a change from the previous 43 presidents would indeed be a good thing. We will all have to wait and see if looks and charisma can achieve anything of major significance.
For our sake as well as the rest of the world, I certainly hope that it does.