With the New Year arriving in only a few days, Washington has turned to its favorite game: handicapping the next presidential race. \u00a0Like many voters at this stage, I don\u2019t have a candidate. \u00a0I have requirements. \u00a0My guess is they are the same as those of more than a few voters.<\/p>\n
Here they are.<\/p>\n
Spending:<\/strong> When you include the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, our government is \u2013 or is close to being \u2013 technically bankrupt. \u00a0It owes more than it owns. \u00a0Meanwhile, domestic spending that isn\u2019t on autopilot — discretionary spending \u2013 has soared to unheard of heights.<\/p>\n Like a large number of Americans, I see this as a problem of many parts including national security. The financial strength of our government has allowed us to successfully prosecute wars when we had to. \u00a0It has also allowed us to strengthen our security without fighting. \u00a0But now we hear that the global credit markets may be doubting our ability to carry the kinds of debts we are running up. \u00a0Financial markets are asking themselves, should they lend to us?<\/p>\n Getting this crisis under control will require great political skill and will and financial understanding. \u00a0I believe this is a deeply urgent need, but who among the current crop fits that bill? Convince me you do and I will follow.<\/p>\n Taxes:<\/strong> For me tax rates are not about the benefits to this or that group but about the character and vitality of our economy.<\/p>\n At least since the 1970s, net new job growth in the U.S. has been driven by the expansion of companies that began any period with five or fewer employees. \u00a0Normally in downturns, when unemployment has risen, the decline in jobs has not been because more jobs were lost. \u00a0In general job destruction has been nearly a constant, good times and bad. \u00a0Rather, rising unemployment has come when fewer new jobs were created.<\/p>\n Entrepreneurial job creation is extremely sensitive to tax rates, particularly on the upper end of the income scale. \u00a0Some say only 2-3 percent of taxpayers have incomes over the $250k threshold that the Obama Administration wanted to impose in determining who kept the 2003 tax rates and who got an increase. \u00a0But most net new jobs in the entrepreneurial sector are created by two to three percent of businesses.<\/p>\n So fights over tax rates are about such questions as: \u00a0Do we still honor earned achievement? \u00a0Do we still value experimentation, taking chances, building from nothing, imagining and pursuing a better way? \u00a0Or are we ready for the false security of the subsidized life?<\/p>\n I want a candidate who understands the stakes and what they mean to the nation\u2019s future.<\/p>\n Constitution:<\/strong> These last two years we have seen a vast increase in the size and reach of arbitrary government. \u00a0The health care and financial reform bills have been exhibits A and B. Each has called for hundreds of new regulations. \u00a0Even regulators have been heard to complain that the new laws give only the scantiest Congressional guidance.<\/p>\n