Top Stories » Expert Columns » Profiles & Trends

Can you imagine -- it seems we were just worrying about Y2K. Now it's a minimal remembrance -- many more have replaced it and now constantly invoke fear in the American psyche. Thankful that the election hype and blather is over (even though all the liberal prophets of doom have not yet moved to New Zealand who don't seem to want them either), we can now get on with the business of being America in reality, not in philosophical nuances and niceties.

The Bush Reelection
More comforting to the 3.5 million people majority who voted for him than those who voted otherwise, a continuing government usually has programs and plans saved for the second term, which, if revealed earlier, might create more political controversy than wanted in a close election.
GOP House margins were increased as were the Senate's but not enough to override the Senate's 60-vote super majority necessary to close filibusters. Strangely enough, the Dems were among the first to use filibusters to prevent minority voting rights to come before the Senate. Today, it is to prevent approval of more conservative judges and administrators. Times change.
Who lost? Hollywood types, trial lawyers, the UN, left-wing unions, college liberals, and unfortunately, gays who wish to get along and live their lives in peace.
Who won? Religion, business, defense, self-sufficiency, and standards of civil conduct.
Business owners surely can look for more favorable tax policy than if Kerry was elected. Plus, there should be permanent tax cuts; some attempt to rid successful, frugal families of the double-taxation estate tax unfairness; an attempt to simplify and clean up the tax code without increasing taxes on sub-chapter S private small businesses; a tighter approach to Medicare and Medicaid; an attempt to strengthen long-term Social Security with both smarter funding and some spin-off to handle some funds personally; and an out-of box approach to health care coverage, drug costs, and the doctor/hospital/insurer/patient interlocking relationships.
Alaskan gas and oil field environmental restrictions should be lessened to permit profitable supply from these resources. Weeping and wailing will be loud because the mating patterns of the bull moose may be disturbed but who can support continued dependence on the Mid East? Coastal states probably cannot politically support offshore drilling, which appears irresponsible from an overall America First perspective. The huge industrial growth of China, India, and other Asian societies now competes for all energy forms, which should make our own supplies both more valuable to us and more needed.
To the dismay of those playing the race-baiting card, the voting apparatus of nearly all counties and precincts worked better than ever. Counties with higher numbers of lesser-educated and minimally literate voter populations had more trouble than those with better-educated ones. How can one vote if one cannot read? Minorities were both pandered to and used ruthlessly and discarded once the value was extracted.
Illegal immigration problems, border security, and the financial burdens placed upon taxpayers will soon force the administration to start cleaning up the mess. Mexico will continue to argue that they need to dump their excess labor to us for their own political survival. This flies in the face of national security, the war on terror, and legitimate internal domestic safeguards. How do we secure ourselves from militant Islamists when we can't even keep out a poor Mexican worker who only wants to work?
The GOP controls Congress and the Presidency. The terrorist dilemma will not go away. Funds are needed to achieve progress internationally and domestically. A balance will be required. What must go away is GOP-allowed wasteful Congressional spending known as pork. The Dems criticized Bush for never vetoing a bill. You don't veto your own party's bills -- you prevent them from becoming an embarrassment beforehand. This administration will be in big trouble by mid-term if they permit Congress to continually overspend.

Business Climate
The years from 2002 to 2004 were iffy on the investment and expansion fronts. However, many small- and mid-sized businesses report acceptable profits. The bigger guys also report good news, even though news seems to dwell more on failures than on successes. If you have been looking to expand and have both an operational and financial plan to do so, the time seems right. Americans still have money, and want and need the same things or more, plus still possess sufficient faith in our economic system to borrow and use credit to fulfill wants before stuffing dollars in mattresses. Inflation does not appear to be a problem, a good situation for investing and for the increasing number of seniors.
The next round of gloom-and-doom prophesizing will perhaps be environmental violations vs. energy self-sufficiency, and were Iraqi elections fair enough to the bad guys who killed to prevent them, and should democracy be exported and to what extent and more pressing, should we give Michael Moore a peace prize along with Arafat, Castro, and Eminem? Somehow, I doubt that will occur.
Democracy had a good week back in November. The far-reaching effects will continue to pay dividends to the American experience for many years yet to come.

Jack Eikenberg is not always this foresightedly serious, but may be reached at JMEmgmt@aol.com, 239-498-0040, and fax, 239-948-3297.