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Ranchers.net

Last night I watched a panel discussion on C-SPAN about the upcoming Presidential election- and what the new President can/should do...

One of the most interesting speakers was old Bill Brooks- former Chairman of the Republican Committee...He said that the Congress and President need to go back 40 years and start working together like they used to- both parties.....The parties have both catered to the far sides (left or right) of their parties and spend all their time working on those special interests and forgot about working for the people as a whole..Much of this has come about by the fact that if someone takes a position you don't agree with they are immediately labeled as a "liberal" or "rightwinger", Dem or Repub- and completely almost contemptously attacked- rather than being looked at as someone with a differing opinion...They are then attacked by the opposing party (hoping to get political value from it) , rather than working with them for a compromise for the betterment of the populace, like used to be done...

Brooks interestingly said that Republicans are going to have to get off this "Read My Lips" concept....He said in order to run government- taxes are necessary- and that there are good ones and bad ones- as well as tax money being spent for good things and for bad....

He says with the problems now facing the US he can see no way that taxes can not be raised- as our building debt alone with the slowed income could bankrupt the country in less than 10 years if we generate no new ways to start paying it off...

He went on to say that some conditions in the US are abysmal- and mentioned Health Care costs as #1- and that Liberal or Conservative- it must be handled- and he hoped thru working together on a compromise package...
#3 issue following the economy and health care he mentioned was education...He said that the US now ranks 24th in the world in people that are illiterate- with many countries that have been thought of as 3rd world countries having higher literacy rates.....
He also mentioned our failing construction infrastructure and small business as a huge problem...

Interestingly all 6 folks on the panel agreed that the Dems will control the next Senate and House- picking up seats in both- and have the edge on controlling the White House....

One thing they all also agreed on- was that if these Parties don't start working together for the people, rather than their special interest bases, the country is in dire straits....

They brought up one thing they thought was very encouraging- and that was the amount of populace involvement that Obama has been able to stir up amongst Repubs, Dems, and Independents- without directly attacking anyone- and the hope that if he is the next President he can have enough total backing across the nation to reach across Party lines...
They compared him to JFK in being able to stimulate the country...Brooks then told a story of when JFK was President and Goldwater was going to run against him...Goldwater met with JFK- and they agreed to not attack each other on any personal issues- do 16 debates in 16 cities, just on the differences of their plans on the issues- and even fly together on the same plane to save $...This didn't happen because of the assassination- and LBJ's political machines refusal to go along with it....
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