The Stimulus is Not the Answer

Dear President Obama,

Congratulations on your historical inauguration. You have open doors, inspired, and motivated our generation and generations to come. History is in the making each and everyday you wake up and carry the burdens that our nation faces. You inherited one of the most ailing economy that our nation has faced since the Great Depression. Many may argue that this economy is, by many folds, more complex, more interconnected, and affected a wider reach than ever before.

As our economy continues to spiral down, showing signs of economic slow down, weak consumer confidence, high unemployment, and a poor credit market, it is without a doubt that government needs to take action to jumpstart our economy. Partisan disagreement between the philosophical debate between the right and the left have put our great nation in divide. Even your valiant efforts to reach across party lines and seek input from both parties was met with great opposition by the Republican Party when the House GOP voted against the bill.

The stimulus bill is mostly government spending, and some tax cuts. We cannot mortgage our future to spend our way out of debt. To improve our economy, you must ask the American people to remain strong while they tighten their belts. The road ahead is not a smooth one. It will not be a quick fix, but rather a long and painful evolution of the American economy. As bad investments are revalued, bad debts written off, failing companies close shop, and those who cannot compete are ran out of business, we will wean ourselves off the greed and unsustainable spending that got us into this state.

We must push for fundamental reform in the way Americans work, save, invest, and produce. We must not let bloated union contracts and inefficient manufacturing leave us behind in the world market. We must not put bad money into failing investments and artificially sustaining companies that cannot be sustained. We, like our parents, must let our children learn from their mistakes and let them fail. We must reform fundamental change to our tax system to remove impediments caused by a system that slows American ingenuity and hard work. Only by reducing the burden of government can our economy run freely again.

President Obama, please don’t rush to push the stimulus bill out. Do as you promised during your campaign, to go line by line and cross out pork barrel spending. Push for reform of our tax system and free the American economy to run the way it was founded to run: freely.

The American will is strong and continues to be strong. We will climb back to greatness. We will not relent and we will not give up. God bless America.

Published by Daniel Hoang

Daniel Hoang is a visual leader, storyteller, and creative thinker. As an experienced management consultant, he believes in a big picture approach that includes strong project leadership, creative methods, change management, and strategic visioning. He uses a range of visual tools to communicate business challenges, solutions, and goals. His change strategy is to build "tribes" of supporters and evangelists to drive change in culture and organization. Daniel is an avid technologist and futurist and early adopter.

2 thoughts on “The Stimulus is Not the Answer

  1. Ah, but the problem is Congress knows nothing about how to deal with the economic shitstorm we're in, so when the President pushes the stimulus the Dems won't say no. Because, if the stimulus is not the answer….what is? No one has an answer- that's the problem. And really, the size of the bad debt out there is so enormous that I'm not sure "tightening our belts" is the answer either. He doesn't want to be remembered as the President who didn't do enough…

  2. There is no doubt we need to do something, as we have seen, there's fundamental differences in the philosophies of the two parties. If you imagine the country as a household unit, when times are tough, we can go into debt to pay bills, go to college or trade school, and hope that we find a better job in the future to pay off the debt. Alternatively, we revisit what got us in this mess to begin with. Perhaps it was our wasteful spending, or hopes that times will keep going well, or not saving for a rainy day fund. Sure, we might be able to spend our way out of our troubles, however, until we make fundamental changes to our lifestyles, we'll just get back in that hole again. You can only climb out so many times before you get too deep in.

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