Thought I’d live blog about the 2nd debate of Obama and john that is going on right now. I tried to get most of the important thoughts out.
Question 1 regarding the economy was obviously regarding the middle class and the economy.
– Barack gave some fixed
– Treasurer secretary chosen that understand that its not enough to just help the people at the top. We gota help the middle class. Many of the people, wages have flattened. Tax cut policy, provide 95% working two jobs etc.
– John Maccain – I know how to get the economy working etc etc? HOW?… no thoughts were outlined. Started off by saying to bring the energy back to US. Stabilizing housing etc.
Question 2:
– Economic crisis – Bailout package – What is it about it that is going to help the people out.
– John: not bailout but rescue. “Economy WILL recover”. Catalyst were Fannie mae and freddie mac. Gave risky loans that they couldn’t pay back. Congress defended what they were doing. (Attacked Barack). Have to go into the housing market and buy out the loses.
– Obama: Whats in the rescue package. Credit markets are frozen up. Small/large business can’t get a loan. Can’t get a loan, can’t make payroll -> lay off. Imagine a million across the country. We should have been there in the first place. Biggest problem was the deregulation of the financial sector. (attacks john) about deregulation. Obama told everyone regarding the sub loans and regulation etc and everyone ignored and kept on deregulated. With respect to fannie mae claims john jumped on the boat and was a lawbiest. “Your not interested in the politics. You are worried about how this effects you”.
Discussion: Obama: Confident about the economy, if it sets out better regulations. Coordinate with other countries and make sure what ever we decide works. (Very compassionate regarding the people)
John: Depends on what we do? Attacks Obama again. Doesn’t address the question at all, goes on tangent about the strengths of US, not the right time.
Question 3:
How can we trust either of you with our money when both parties got us into this global economy crisis?
Obama: Understand your frustration and criticisms. There is alot of blame to go around. Little bit of history. When Bush came into office we had surplus. Now we had trillions of debt (~10 trillion). We have had in the last 10 years largest expense. I will spend some money on some of the things that are important, health care, energy, college affordability. Have to make spending cuts. Cutting more than spending, net spending cut. We need priorities working for you then the lobiest.
Mccain: The system in washington is broken.Situation today cries out for bipartisanship. We need to reform. (attacks on obama). Have to look at my record and his. Alot of attack on obama and how he spends on little things like a 300 million on projector etc. Very little on how to fix the economy but repeated some of obamas and that I know and have fixed plans on fixing this problem.
Tom: What will be your highest priority health care, entitlements or energy?
Work on all three at once (Mccain) I know how to do that… Health care, make sure everyone can make their premiums etc etc. All three must be done at once.
Obama: Have to priorities. Energy we have to deal with today, cause we are paying 3.80 for gas and it can go up. Bad for our national security cause Russia and Venezuelan are benefiting. Investment of 15 Billion over 10 years and after 10 years we are free of eastern companies. Healthcare is priority # 2. Education is # 3. We have to priorities our spending.
Question 4: (Internet) What sacrifice would you ask every american to make.
Maccain: eliminate some programs. examine everything and eliminiate some that doesn’t work. such as defense spending. Spending is going to have to be cut in American. Sending freeze. Some programs may not grow as we’d like them to. Goes back to Tom’s question we can still work everything together.
Obama: Tragedy of 9/11: We all came together. Bush did some smart things at the offset. Missed opp, go out and shop is what bush said. need for oil production. Explorer oil drills. Explorer offshore drilling. Clean core energy. How can we save energy? Fuel efficient car right here in America. Young people are interested in how they can serve. Doubling the peace core. Leadership in America.
Tom: Wall street got drunk! How would you break that?
Obama: Starts with Washington. If we pass up trillion in debt future will think the same. Think about the spending. people don’t feel like their sharing the load with everyone else. people making much more are living much better. Set a tone that all of us are going to contribute. Can’t do across the board freeze. Use a scalpel.
Macain: (attacks obama wants to raise taxes) We’ve lost 700K jobs in America. Only 300K jobs created by small business. Obama’s secret, will increase taxes on small businesses. Small business will have to cut jobs and won’t be able to hire cause of obama’s taxes. Lets not raise anybody’s taxes. I am not in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy. Give every american, give 5K health insurance get what ever health.
Internet: Huge unfunded for social security, medicare and will soon eat up our funding. Would you give congress a date to feform social security and medicare?
Obama: we have to take on entitlement. Can’t guarantee, we do it in two years. I want to provide a tax cut for 95% of americans if you make < 1/4 million you will not see a single quarter go up. only a Small business make more than 1/4 $mill. Macain: Not that hard to fix social security. Medicare is going to be a little tougher. What we have to do is have a commission have the smartest people in America come up with suggestions. Vote congress up or down. Too many lowbiest working there. Lets have the American's say fix it for us. Interesting Point - Maccain took the few seconds at the end to attack obama so that his thoughts for the next question would not get answered and that macain will be flustered. Question 5: I want to know, we saw congress move pretty fast. What would you do regarding climate changes and environment would you move as fast? Macain: I've disagreed strongly with bush. traveled all over and seen the effects of climate change. Best way to fix is nuclear power. Nuclear power is safe and clean. Creates 100's of jobs. Obama is opposed to that. Clean up the environment, battery powered cars. Boosts Americans again no solutions. Obama: If we create a new energy economy we can create 5 mill jobs. It can be the engine that can drive us to the future. We are going to have to make an investment. Environment is a nation security as well. Obama has called in for solar, wind etc. We agree on something, big problem on energy is not adressed by bush administrations. We can't drill our way out of the problem. We are going to have to come up with alternatives than fossil fuels. Question 6: Do you beleive health care should be treated as a commodity? Obama: Most asked question. Gives facts on what he has seen. We have a moral commitment. Here is what I would do. If you got helathcare already, then you can keep your plan, we are going to work with your employer to lower your premiums. If you dont' have health insurance, you can buy the same kind of healthcare as us. Maccain has the 5K tax credit approach. He is going to tax your employer for the health care etc. So give in one hand and take from the other hand. Mccain: Stats. Lets put health records online... lets do alot of things... Fundamental difference. Government will do this and that. Is healthcare a privilege, a right or a responsibility? Obama: Its a right. People go bankrupt cause they can't afford healthcare. If you got a health care, keep it, I'll help you lower the premiums. It is absolutely true that I think that we crack down on insurance companies that fraud people. Foreign Policies: Question 7: How will all the recent economic effects affect ourself to be a peacemaker in the world. Macain: Boosts America again, doesn't get to the topic. We are peacemakers and peace keepers. When to go in and when not. Where America can prevent genesis, etc. Obama was wrong about many of the decisions. We dont' have time for on the job training. Obama: Why we are attacking a country that didn't have anything to do with 9/11, Iraq. Costly judgment. Have put an enormous strain on budget ~ 700 billion, might go over a trillion. Iraq only has a 79 billion dollar surplus. Macain has not explained how to do this. We are a greatest nation on the world. Discuss: Use of US combat forces, what is the use of force when we don't have a national security at stake? Obama: If we could have stopped rewanda, if we had the ability that we should tried to look and consider it. We should try and consider the world. We are not going to be everywhere in the world. Questin 8: Should the states pursue the Afghanistan. Obama: We got distracted for bin laden and went to Iraq while in war with Afganistan. Al queda are now stronger since 2001, they are the key cause of the 9/11. We are going to encourage demcorcy in pakistan. If we have bin laden in sight, we will kill and crush al quida. Mcain: Hero is tedy Roosevelt. Obama likes to talk loudly. Talk softly but carry a big stick. Follow up (feud btw two about the follow up) Obama: If Pakistan is unable/willing to hunt and take down bin laden. We should do it instead. Macain, bomb bomb Iran. We have to act responsibly and act softly. Macain: I understand what its like to send a young blood into harms way. I know how to handle these crisis. How do you reorganize afgan strategy? Obama: We have to make Iraq take more responsible. Withdraw from Iraq and put some more troops to afgan. Work with carsy government. Make the afgan people work correctly. Macain: We have to double afgan. We have to work much more closely with afgan. Obama wrong about Iraq. I have confident that gen. Patrizius will succeed. Internet: How can we apply without starting another cold war with Russia: Mcain: Russia's behavior is random. sees a K G B in the russia's president(?). We have to show moral support for ukrane. We have to make Russia show that there are penalties (Is he suggesting another war with Russia? ) Obama: We can't just provide moral support. We also got to provide them with financial and concrete assistance to jump start them. We have to see around the corners. We have to anticipate these problems. We tend to be reactors which is what we have been doing for the past 8 years. We have to be much more strategic. Energy is a key issue. Is russia an evil power under Putin? (yes/no) Obama: activing mischievously. mcain: maybe? Question 9: If iran attacks Israel would you support Israel it or would you wait for approval? Mcain: We would not wait for united security counsel. Iranins continue on the way to obtaining nuclear power. We need to modify Iran's behavior. We can never allow a 2nd holocaust to take again. Obama: We cannot allow iran to get nuclear power. I will do everything to prevent it. We will never take military options off the table. We can't provide vito power to anyone else. Important to use all the tools to prevent the scenario. If we can work effectively with other countries to tighten Iran. We need to prevent the export of Iran's gas, put the squeeze on them. I believe that we should have direct talks with our enemies. We need to send direct messages that if you go on the same path we will start counteracting. Question 10: What don't you know, and how will you learn it. Obama: Its never the challenges you expect, its the challenges you don't that end up consuming most of the time. Talks of his struggle to grow up and become this. Will the American dream continue that way? We need fundamental change. Didn't quite answer this. Mcain: I don't know? Whats going to happen. The challenges we face our unprecedented. There are challenges around the world that are new and different. I have spent the who life serving the country. Similar grow up tough times. I believe in this country. I am asking the American people to give me another opportunity. We need steady hands at the stiller. That concludes it. At the end of it I felt that Obama came out quite strong from this. Even throughout the debate we could see the support for Obama increase every time he came to speak. I felt that he carried himself very well. Obama was considered an underdog in this because of the fact that this is Mcain's ideal setup. I believe that Obama came out with a win. Anyhow these are my thoughts. Cheers, Thusjanthan Kubendranathan