What We Should Be Hearing But Won’t From Campaign 2016

This was the first real week of the presidential campaign.

• Chris Christie is wooing them in New Hampshire. Granite state folks, we hear, are liking him again because he can take a joke about Bridge-gate.
• Hillary’s van tour Iowa was designed to attract Middle America and discourage big money but she announced she would need more than a billion from donors.
• Marco Rubio showed some smarts about not being about the past (Hillary and Jeb) even though most of his policies are stuck in the 1990s.
• And Jeb was being a nice guy wavering between moderate and Far Right.

Very entertaining; and yet these problems loom:

We are facing a Medicare financial disaster that we need to address now.

But no candidate wants to offend seniors because they vote. So instead, we will allow taxpayers over the next 10 to 20 years pay the medical bills of seniors; the 2/3rds of which they did not pay into. And Congress, with both party’s approval, passed another Medicare fix bill that only increases the deficit.

We are facing a workforce that is under trained and an infrastructure that is crumbling or outdated for the 21^st Century.

While in West Palm Beach this week working Economist and author Bob Wiedemer, he told me the real problem is American productivity. He told me, “not much focus on productivity (from candidates), which is the only reason incomes grow.”  Hugh Anderson, from High Tower Las Vegas, agreed saying “the machines that used to enhance human productivity are instead now just replacing humans.” Think about it. Which candidate has mentioned increasing productivity? Easier question: which candidate knows what that means?

This is inevitable no matter who wins the White House:

• Taxes are going up. We have anywhere from $20 Trillion to $70 Trillion of debt from the government or the Fed to take care of
  
• Spending will be cut on all programs across the board
  
• We cannot afford to go to war again and again. Other countries will have to fend for themselves and get some support from us. And there is no way we are going to take sides in a Sunni vs. Shia battle this summer in the Middle East or in the future.
  
• When the Fed stops QE, the stock market will drop.
  

So when a candidate says he will cut taxes and make sure seniors get their Medicare ask them these two questions:

Who will pay for Medicare?

And how will you increase American productivity?

I guarantee you there will be a lot of ums and ahs.