- Obama lost millions of votes compared with 2008, was the first president in modern times to win a second term with fewer electoral college votes than he had won in his first election, only won by about 2% of the votes and the GOP still retained control of the house and kept the Democrats`senate majority at a razor thin 51 seats which is well below the coveted super majority of 60.
- But even though the president is clearly less popular and cfredible with the voters and his mandate to create fundamental change is thus even weaker than it was in 2008, there is little doubt that he will use what he told the Russian prime minister is his second term `flexibility`to govern as if he had a strong mandate to transform US economic and fiscal and foreign policy in line with his view the America should be a more left leaning, government dominated and controlled, and entitlement rather than entrepreneurial society along the western European model.
- It is therefore reasonable to speculate that the US and its beleagured citizenry are in for four years much like BO`s first four years except probably even worse.
- The challenge for Canada as the US`s closest neighbour and trading partner is to protect ourselves from the economic scourge - and the political stench - of BO.
- In this regard, Ezra Levant has eight very sound recommendations that will help to ensure Canada continues to perform far better than the US in terms of the major economic and fiscal indicators.
- If anyone has any other sound ideas in terms of how we can insulate ourselves from the negative consequences of four more years of Obama, please post them here..
Column
Inoculating our economy: With another four years of Obama ahead, it’s time we unhitched our wagon from falling American star
By Ezra Levant ,QMI Agency
First posted: Saturday, November 10, 2012 08:00 PM EST
Barack Obama has been the worst president for the U.S. economy since Jimmy Carter. But Americans chose another four years of that.
What should Canada do to protect ourselves from America’s continuing economic decline? Here are eight things:
1. Pay down Canada’s government debt. The U.S. is $16 trillion in debt, and is racking up another trillion a year. Its credit rating has been downgraded, and surely will be again. That means interest rates will rise and borrowing will be more expensive. It’s a vicious circle. We’ve got to get out of that whirlpool ourselves. Our deficit is on track to be eliminated by next year. We’ve got to keep running a surplus, and retire our debt.
2. Obama ran a class warfare campaign to soak the rich. Too bad, because the rich are the ones starting businesses and paying the lion’s share of taxes. More practically, as both John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan proved, lower tax rates actually increase tax revenues, as economic activity booms. Canada already has lower corporate tax rates than America. We need to keep taxes low to stimulate economic activity.
3. Low taxes could also start a northward “brain drain.�� Let’s recruit the best and brightest from America to immigrate to Canada. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently returned from a similar trip to Ireland. Why not add on new recruiting trips to Silicon Valley, the Boston-area universities, New York and other pools of talent who might prefer our stronger economy and quality of life?
4. As a country of just 34 million people, we need more human capital. But we need more financial capital, too. Just to develop our oilsands could require $100 billion — more than Canadians could invest. What a perfect time to steer foreign investors away from riskier
U.S. assets and into Canada. We need to immediately modernize our foreign investment review rules, to avoid the confusion and uncertainty arising from our delays of $21 billion in proposed Petronas and CNOOC investments.
5. We need trade agreements with those parts of the world that are actually growing — especially Asia. The Conservatives are currently negotiating more trade treaties than ever before. Some, like with Panama, are small. Some, like with China, are rudimentary. But a few billion here and there starts to add up — and we need it all to offset our dependence on the U.S.
6. One of our biggest exports to the U.S. is oil — about 2.2 million barrels a day. But there are two problems with that: Because all of our oil is sold to the U.S., our oil sells for $25 per barrel less than if we could sell it to other customers at world prices. And there’s another risk: In his election night speech, Obama talked about “global warming�� again — signaling that he may permanently block the Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S., or add a new carbon tax, or both.
That means it’s more important than ever to build new pipelines to the Pacific — not just the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline, but the doubling of the existing Transmountain pipeline that already goes to Vancouver.
That’s six ways to inoculate our economy against Obamanomics. But we need to do two things to fix our democracy to guard our prosperity in Canada.
7. End forced union dues. Obama’s win was partly financed by big unions in the U.S., thanking him for his largess with taxpayers’ money. That’s a risk to our democracy, too. It is illegal for employers to force employees to donate to a political campaign supporting Stephen Harper. So why do we allow unions to extract dues from their members to finance ad campaigns that support left-wing candidates?
8. Voter fraud in the U.S. is rampant. But Obama didn’t win a single state with mandatory ID laws. Forget about the fake Canadian scandal of “robocalls�� that didn’t actually make a single person switch their vote. We need to require proof of citizenship to vote — and to end the bizarre Elections Canada rule that you can vote while wearing a mask like a burka.
- But even though the president is clearly less popular and cfredible with the voters and his mandate to create fundamental change is thus even weaker than it was in 2008, there is little doubt that he will use what he told the Russian prime minister is his second term `flexibility`to govern as if he had a strong mandate to transform US economic and fiscal and foreign policy in line with his view the America should be a more left leaning, government dominated and controlled, and entitlement rather than entrepreneurial society along the western European model.
- It is therefore reasonable to speculate that the US and its beleagured citizenry are in for four years much like BO`s first four years except probably even worse.
- The challenge for Canada as the US`s closest neighbour and trading partner is to protect ourselves from the economic scourge - and the political stench - of BO.
- In this regard, Ezra Levant has eight very sound recommendations that will help to ensure Canada continues to perform far better than the US in terms of the major economic and fiscal indicators.
- If anyone has any other sound ideas in terms of how we can insulate ourselves from the negative consequences of four more years of Obama, please post them here..
Column
Inoculating our economy: With another four years of Obama ahead, it’s time we unhitched our wagon from falling American star
By Ezra Levant ,QMI Agency
First posted: Saturday, November 10, 2012 08:00 PM EST
Barack Obama has been the worst president for the U.S. economy since Jimmy Carter. But Americans chose another four years of that.
What should Canada do to protect ourselves from America’s continuing economic decline? Here are eight things:
1. Pay down Canada’s government debt. The U.S. is $16 trillion in debt, and is racking up another trillion a year. Its credit rating has been downgraded, and surely will be again. That means interest rates will rise and borrowing will be more expensive. It’s a vicious circle. We’ve got to get out of that whirlpool ourselves. Our deficit is on track to be eliminated by next year. We’ve got to keep running a surplus, and retire our debt.
2. Obama ran a class warfare campaign to soak the rich. Too bad, because the rich are the ones starting businesses and paying the lion’s share of taxes. More practically, as both John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan proved, lower tax rates actually increase tax revenues, as economic activity booms. Canada already has lower corporate tax rates than America. We need to keep taxes low to stimulate economic activity.
3. Low taxes could also start a northward “brain drain.�� Let’s recruit the best and brightest from America to immigrate to Canada. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently returned from a similar trip to Ireland. Why not add on new recruiting trips to Silicon Valley, the Boston-area universities, New York and other pools of talent who might prefer our stronger economy and quality of life?
4. As a country of just 34 million people, we need more human capital. But we need more financial capital, too. Just to develop our oilsands could require $100 billion — more than Canadians could invest. What a perfect time to steer foreign investors away from riskier
U.S. assets and into Canada. We need to immediately modernize our foreign investment review rules, to avoid the confusion and uncertainty arising from our delays of $21 billion in proposed Petronas and CNOOC investments.
5. We need trade agreements with those parts of the world that are actually growing — especially Asia. The Conservatives are currently negotiating more trade treaties than ever before. Some, like with Panama, are small. Some, like with China, are rudimentary. But a few billion here and there starts to add up — and we need it all to offset our dependence on the U.S.
6. One of our biggest exports to the U.S. is oil — about 2.2 million barrels a day. But there are two problems with that: Because all of our oil is sold to the U.S., our oil sells for $25 per barrel less than if we could sell it to other customers at world prices. And there’s another risk: In his election night speech, Obama talked about “global warming�� again — signaling that he may permanently block the Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S., or add a new carbon tax, or both.
That means it’s more important than ever to build new pipelines to the Pacific — not just the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline, but the doubling of the existing Transmountain pipeline that already goes to Vancouver.
That’s six ways to inoculate our economy against Obamanomics. But we need to do two things to fix our democracy to guard our prosperity in Canada.
7. End forced union dues. Obama’s win was partly financed by big unions in the U.S., thanking him for his largess with taxpayers’ money. That’s a risk to our democracy, too. It is illegal for employers to force employees to donate to a political campaign supporting Stephen Harper. So why do we allow unions to extract dues from their members to finance ad campaigns that support left-wing candidates?
8. Voter fraud in the U.S. is rampant. But Obama didn’t win a single state with mandatory ID laws. Forget about the fake Canadian scandal of “robocalls�� that didn’t actually make a single person switch their vote. We need to require proof of citizenship to vote — and to end the bizarre Elections Canada rule that you can vote while wearing a mask like a burka.
