Dear President Obama,

I have written to you before through this blog and through your various websites. It is now 30 days since you were sworn in as our Chief Executive. While it is way too early to pass judgment, I have to say that what I have seen so far has dashed a great deal of hope for me and confirmed my fears.

Here are my points of concern in no definite order:

The Economy – the data continues to be woeful but I don’t blame you for the latest numbers. However, you either enabled or authorized Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, et al to pass a stimulus bill that few Americans understand. Here are my questions:
1. How is it stimulative to include $81 Billion for “Protecting the Vulnerable” as you list it on recovery.gov? What does this mean? Is this your idea of creating transparency. It is transparent only in its lack of transparency. Who is vulnerable? Who isn’t vulnerable? Who is deciding this? Where is the conversation? This is very disappointing to say the least. Frankly it is insulting.
2. $111B for “Infrastructure and Science.” This could be stimulative but again we are short on specifics. What is being spent / invested and for what? Who decides what “Science” we are investing in? Is it global warming? Is it stem cell research? Is it new energy research? Is it to cure oncological disease?
3. Tax Relief – am I mistaken or are we talking about direct payment in the amount of $400 or $500 per individual. One time payments. No permanent real tax relief in the form of lower marginal rates on income taxes and / or payroll taxes? What does this do for the economy? Is this your idea of a “bottoms-up” approach. What are the chosen recipients for this payment going to do next year? What incentive do they have to produce on an ongoing basis? What hope do they have that they will be able to keep more of what they earn.
4. There is precious little in here that has true lasting effect. Why have you ignored creating incentives like John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George Bush did? Each of these predecessors made serious cuts in marginal tax rates which was followed by multi-year strong economies. What about an investment tax credit to spur business investment like JFK did? What about increasing the incentives for savings and investment by increasing the yearly limit for tax-deductible IRA contributions like Reagan did? What about lower the marginal tax rates for ALL Americans like Bush did? These real growth incentives proven to work are completely absent from this stimulus bill.
5. Why didn’t you cut the corporate tax rate significantly. You didn’t cut it at all. Why? If corporations were allowed to keep more profit they would invest it back into their companies. Moreover, we would compete better globally with countries such as China and Singapore that have no corporate taxes. You want more American workers and so do I; however you failed to take a key sensible step by leaving us with a relatively uncompetitive corporate tax rate.
6. I am dubious at best about $59 Billion on Health Care and $53 Billion for Education. It appears that you seek to pave the way to Universal Health Care, a form of socialized medicine. It also appears that you have concluded that what is wrong with our public education system is all about money. There is valid doubt and debate on these issues and to include them in the “stimulus” package rings of old fashioned politics. This is change you can believe in?
7. You unveiled your $75 Billion plan to deal with the mortgage crisis (by the way, I wish you would stop using the words crisis and catastrophe as much as you do). Again, you are using anti-market, government-can-deal-with-this thinking. I feel really snubbed as I know 10′s of millions of Americans do. There are 9 million homes in trouble. Something needs to be done. Your solution as I understand it might address some of these issues on a short term basis, however, you are also not holding the parties to account. The future generation has been borrowed from without requiring a pay back when things return to more normal conditions. It is a slap in the face to future generations and to all of us that pay our mortgages and read our agreements and / or manage through our own problems without waiting for the roof to cave in. This is morally corrupt to simultaneously bail out those that could have and should have done better while completely ignoring incentives for savings, investment and growth. In short, the furthering of the “nanny state” combined with a sense of “victimhood.” This is not good for the country.
8. Timothy Geitner – need I say more. I haven’t seen anything this embarrassing on Capital Hill in a long time. How could you have said the night before in your Press Conference that he was going to lay out specifics. What am I missing here? What were you thinking?
The Tone so far
1. You spoke so much of transparency, a seat at the table, a voice. Then you railroaded overnight the largest single spending bill, loaded with social spending and called it a stimulus bill.
2. When Republicans spoke for their principals, your response was that you won. How is this in any way a sense of bipartisanship or pragmatism?
3. You railed against politics as usual. You swore change. Is this what you were talking about? Do you think the people that voted for you envisioned this?
4. A common thread in all of your domestic decisions, statements of policy are blatantly anti-capitalistic and anti-democratic. While you expect everyone to respect the results of your election and we surely do, you and those in your party’s leadership seem to not respect the choices that citizens have made. Here are some examples:
  1. The only reason there are very few liberal programs on talk radio is because they have never been able to achieve an audience. The people have spoken, President Obama. Why are you and Henry Waxman trying to interfere with the marketplace? The Fairness Doctrine is a ruse; it should be called the “we can’t win a fair debate so let’s force the media for equal time Doctrine.” Now we are hearing the same drumbeatr for the Internet. This is just insane. Everyone needs to “compete” in the global arena of ideas and opinions. What more democratic and “power to the people” medium is there than the internet.
  2. Despite the fact that the world is awash in oil now with much lower prices now that the speculators have been washed out of the market, you simultaneously are promoting alternative energy and doing nothing to explore for more oil, natural gas and coal. If we truly want to be independent in time, it is dishonest to not include aggressive exploration in America. We need to gain control of energy supply and production and you have done nothing to address that.
  3. Why have you completely bought in to the global warming issue as a man-made trend that can and should only be solved by man. There is ample debate and it is not as many advocates try to say “the science is in” … this is just another ruse to stop debate and move on to yet another anti-market, mainly political idea that has no basis in actual fact. Why are you clearly ignoring the counterbalancing arguments that would make any reasonable person at least pause and seek more information.

President Obama, I am very concerned after just 30 days. You are our President for at least 4 years. I see none of your actions so far that you will not regret. The economy and our financial system are in deep trouble, yet you have chosen a very curious path to actually stimulate our economy. Our economy is bigger and more resilient ultimately than you, me, or your policies to date. It will inevitably recover. However, I believe that the decisions so far will cause further pain down the road. I urge you to reassess your positions because you will have another turn at bat. Learn from your predecessors and promote growth through incentives and unleash the American natural entrepreneurship and capitalistic spirit.

My company is an Internet Marketing Company and I am just about to hire 2 new employees; this is good for me and good for America. Let me continue to be a winner. Don’t pick the winners. Let the market of ideas and natural competition be the deciders.

With Sincere Thoughts and Prayers,

Arthur Cooper