As we approach 2009 and the end of the horror of the administration of George W Bush, and hopefully the end of 30+ years of republicans trying to destroy our government in the name of conservatism – but in reality a scheme to funnell the nation’s monetary resources upward – it’s time to start thinking of how do we extricate ourselves from the rubble the republicans have left behind. And make no mistake, THERE IS A LOT OF “RUBBLE.” The mess is huge, and from what I can see, the republicans are in a total state of denial as to why we may be entering the “next” great depression. One of the major problems that I see with the struggle to free ourselves from the disaster that is consuming virtually every phase of American society at this point is the aforementioned denial from the republicans and the refusal to “tell it like it is” from the “other side of the isle.”

I was watching Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC tonight, and I don’t think many would argue against the point that Maddow is decidedly liberal, and the one thing that I still don’t see happening from those who are trying to “guide” us forth – just ponying up the fact that none of this seemingly endless disaster is by accident. The republicans have been trying to destroy our government since at least Nixon, with “high gear” occurring during the Reagan years. So as the pundits intellectualize the circumstances, in my mind if they don’t start calling this purposeful assault like it is, the solution becomes infinitely more difficult. For anyone who believes that they (republicans) are satisfied with the damage done, just listen to people like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell – Republican leaders in the House and Senate respectively – and you will quickly realize that they are not finished. Not finished with the obstructionism of the past two years since they lost control of congress in 2006, and not finished with the idea that the best place for whatever money is left in this great nation belongs with the rich – whatever that means.

They will continue to fight the unions in this nation, they will continue to fight for consolidation of the media to continue the control they hold on information, they will continue to fight for deregulation of business, and they will continue to fight for the control of Congress through the lobbying system that has so generously rewarded them and their republican buddies over the last three decades. When it comes to greed, I just don’t see any sign that their insatiable appetite has been met. The negative spin regarding Detroit, Obama, and the upcoming “stimulus package” is already heading into full force. I’m convinced that the democrats are going to cave into the temptation to actually hold these theives accountable (probably because of the vulnerability of complicity) so we’re going to have to go forward while Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove/Gonzales/et al walk away “Scott free.” OK, I’ve finally come to grips with that (although, I’ll hold out hope that Obama is above that until the “cave in” is reality).

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with my first thought of a decision that would head us in the right direction – in several ways. I believe one of the first things President Obama needs to do is to put a significant gas tax on the books as soon as possible once in office. People can and will only spend so much on gas (as proved by the reduction in demand in reaction to the high gas prices of just the past few months). Now would be the perfect time to do this – and I’m talking about at least 50 cents per gallon. The prices have dropped more than in half, and you know that the oil industry is going to do everything in its power to get the prices up again. So why not help them. I don’t know how much this would raise for our government, but it would go a long way to pay for the infrastructure rebuilding that is presumably going to be a centerpiece of Obama’s stimulus package. For those of us who this would affect the most (myself included) we would be forced to drive less, take mass transit where possible, or drive more fuel efficient vehicles. Americans have a short memory and with the prices down over 50% I want to make sure that we don’t forget the real problem and make sure we work as a nation to free ourselves from this dependency on oil. A percentage of this money could be used to stimulate the research that will be necessary to find alternative ways to power our vehicles.

The other thing that I believe is important is that, in a sign of fortitude, President Obama needs to immediately rescind the “Bush Taxcuts” that provided un-needed and for many un-wanted tax relief to the people who needed it the least (most not at all). This is a “principal of the thing” move that would send the right message to all Americans that there is no elite group in this country that will benefit because they have the money to influence the political process in their favor. I realize the political process is in a constant state of being influenced, but we need to send the message that the people with the most benefit the most from this nation and the idea that somehow by giving them even more there will be huge benefits to the ordinary citizens is a clearly debunked myth. And the idea of our government actually operating within a balanced budget is a good idea. Now, there’s no practical way for Obama to balance the budget in his first few years in office, but I don’t buy into the theory that it’s not important, and these two ideas alone would, based on my mental “math” calculations, cut the deficit for the first two or three years in at least half – and more importantly it would send the message that all Americans are going to participate in the restructuring of how we do business and paying for the changes. People like me would pony up everytime we filled our gas tank and the millionaires and billionaires could feel like they were doing their part every April 15th (and, you know what – if President Obama just hiked their taxes back up to where they were during the Clinton years – they’ll all still have plenty left over).

We need to set the goal for a national surpluss again, as we had when George W took office. I still remember how disgusted I was when I listened to the republicans disdainfully claiming that paying off the national debt was stupid – “It’s not the government’s money, the citizens know better how to spend it.” The thing that bugs me the most about their argument is that somewhere in excess of 3 trillion of the national debt has come from the Social Security trust fund – with the apparent intention of turning Social Security into a “Ponzi Scheme” by never intending to pay the money back. And then, of course, after robbing the fund republicans complain about how Social Security will be insolvent in 2040 or some distant year – always with the idea that somehow maybe they can destroy it and get all that money flowing into Wall Street. Can you imagine what the result would have been had Bush and Company succeeded in “privatizing” Social Security? What we need to do is restore the money they have “borrowed” from the fund and tell the government to go elsewhere the next time they need a loan – as witness the recent $700 billion bailout of Henry Paulsen’s buddies on Wall Street the government can just speed up the printing presses if they need money bad enough.

So, my idea is to start the process of balancing the federal budget from day one of the Obama administration. I believe the two logical first steps that would significantly impact such a plan would be a gas tax of at least 50 cents per gallon (I forgot to mention – not for fuel used to transport goods such as deisel for truckers, etc.) and the repeal of the “Bush taxcuts” for the upper 1% of Americans who don’t need it in the first place. There are ways you could minimize the impact on low income people with something like food stamps only make it “gas stamps.” The idea would be that as a nation we all commit together to participate in restoring this nation to its rightful place as the “moral authority” in the free world. Of course there’s much more that would need to be done to accomplish that goal, but this would be a good start. All Americans need to understand that we all benefit from a sound economy that is not based on smoke and mirrors. Our sacrifice needs to be more significant than to “keep shopping.”