No Third Term For the President!

The president is re-elected. Congress remains split.  

The main objective of Republicans in the 112th Congress was to deny Barack Obama a second term.  That is no longer an issue.  So nothing should now stop House and Senate to cooperate with the President on restoring the economy, reducing the deficit and improving the tax code.  

Mr. Nordquist will fume at any compromise.  But in the best interest of country and party, it is now time for a compromise that uses the best ideas on both sides of the aisle.

Over the next two to four years the economy will continue to improve. That's what economies do after a long and deep recession.  

Working together both partys can claim credit for their role in reducing taxes, simplifying the tax code, helping business or whatever other constituency is going to benefit.  

Cooperation also gives influence and will ensure that usefull parts of the Republican agenda get implemented. We can simplify the tax code.  We can make regulations much simpler and more effective simultaniously. We can replace complex "too big to fail rules"  with tougher anti-trust action and simply split the big ones in more competitive smaller companies.  We can encourage competition in health care to cut costs.  We can encourage school choice and reduce bureaucracy.  We can encourage stronger and more democratic unions, more responsive to their members.  We can encourage cooperation between government and industry in reducing reliance on fossil fuels and shifting the economy towards renewable.  With straightforward goals and solutions that use markets rather then regulation to build a competitive clean tech sector that leads the world. 

Republicans, new and old Democrats and progressives can work together on these issues over the next two years, building a stronger American economy and a more effective federal government.  And then both can claim credit.  Like Gingrich and Clinton did about the 1990s boom. 

Meanwhile we can continue to disagree about life and death, freedom of speech, the space race, affirmative action, the criminal justice system, the role of the courts and the future of Big Bird.  That's what democracies do.  But we can and should now work together on the obvious things: building a world class economy, making government  more effective and maintaining strong international alliances.

Lets take this responsibility so that in four years we can give our 45th President the best that we can be.