Open Letter to Mr. President Elect 2008

A good friend of mine , and a loyal reader of this blog is Grand Prairie City Councilman Rick Sala. Rick has submitted the following open blog letter , to Mr. President Elect McCain or Obama . Often times I engage in deep political conversations regarding city and national politics . Rick Sala has some view points that need to be taken in consideration . In Grand Prairie we joke that Rick has just as much foreign experience as Governor Sarah Palin . Which is none. America has to look very carefully at small town mayors and councilmen . You never know what they are going to do next . Wasilla, Alaska population where Sarah Palin where the population is 9780. Rick Sala represents the Dallas , Texas suburb of Grand Prairie with a population of 153,000.Lately small town officials have been making a major impact.
Rick Sala has opined on military industrial complex and what can be done to stimulate the economy and protect America.

Rick Sala Letter to the Future President Elect 2008
Subject: Economy and U.S. Jobs

Mr. President,
You ran your campaign on fixing the economy and created jobs in the U.S. Here are my suggestions:
1) Do not fall back on the old methods of job programs and corporate welfare. Jobs will be created when there are manufacturing and construction needs in the economy and industry will train the workers they need when the economic incentive is there.

2) Place a 2-year moratorium on all H1-B visas and any guest worker programs. Let’s get our citizens to work before bringing in supposed low cost labor. The market collapse has erased many Americans retirement portfolios. Many experienced technical workers, such as programmers, machinists, engineers, etc. will need to work another five years to regain sufficient funds in there retirement accounts.

3) With the above in mind, you should pursue legislation to allow all 401-K, IRAs and other similar retirement accounts to be rolled into tax free retirement plans with no penalty.

4) Don’t give out any corporate loans or subsidies, instead, BUY STUFF. Don’t give GM a loan, buy thousands of Hybrid Tahoes and Chevy Volts. The day after you enter office, give GM a PO for a fleet of Chevy Volts and retire all the vehicles in the Government Fleet. Buy Toyota Priuses as well and vehicles like them, but stipulate that the vehicles have to be built in the U.S.

5) Increase, don’t decrease the number of F22s and F35s to be purchased so that aging planes in the Air Force and Marines can be retired.

6) Rapidly modernize the Navy.

7) Begin immediate construction of 35 Nuclear Power Plants as U.S. Gov’t Facilities. Treat these plants like many of the Dam Projects of the 1930’s especially Hoover Dam, where the government generated energy is then sold to commercial providers. This will solve the problem of over regulation of the inception of the project, and the need for industry to have the capital resources available upfront for projects of this scale.

8) Let the oil producers drill off shore and in ANWR.

9) Build high speed rail lines across the country and when complete lease the tracks to the railways. In this way the government covers the initial cost of construction of the rails, which is the huge upfront cost in high speed rail. This initial cost can be recouped over time through the leases. It will also create a long-term revenue source for the government. This will also allow the government to kill AMTRAK and get out of the passenger train business.

10) Do not attempt to save the Airline Industry. Let the dinosaurs die. The high speed rail above will solve a lot of domestic connectivity issues. The Southwest Airlines of the world will become larger regional carriers and then there will be some Trans-Continental airlines. The moneys that would go into bailing out the airlines should instead go into upgrading the aging Air Traffic control system. The one thing that can be done for the airlines is to allow them to purchase new airplanes and tax-free, (they all get around paying the tax anyway) and allowing them to expense the new planes very rapidly. The only problem with this proposal is that there is only one domestic plane manufacturer that could benefit from this. (SO WHAT?) Again, put Americans to work. While you are at it, the tax free purchase of the Aircraft should apply to any Aircraft purchased in the U.S. by anyone. This will create a huge renaissance in the U.S. Aerospace industry.

11) Finally, anyone wanting to build a manufacturing facility in the U.S. should be granted a five year tax abatement across the board on their investment. This means the building, fixtures, equipment, etc.

I believe these proposals cover all aspects of the U.S. Economy and will have a greater impact than any jobs program ever considered.

Rick Sala
Grand Prairie Texas