The Third Economy

Here's another question Mr or Ms President. Our economy is still in very poor shape. The stock market may have come back, but the rest of the economy is still stuck in recession.  Your job, since you've accepted the presidency, is to get the economy rolling again. What is your first move? And since the congress has been unwilling to grant any favors regarding the economy for the past three and a half years, what can you accomplish in the next four years? On the one hand, you can try to stimulate by ordering infrastructure improvements and raise taxes on the wealthiest, as the president wants or you can cut entitlements including Medicare and medicaid, food stamps, education funding and much more while cutting taxes for the wealthiest and some for middle-class as the other candidate wants. But infrastructure spending requires congressional support and taxes on the wealthiest won't be enough to pay for those expenditures. On the other hand, cutting entitlements means more people losing their jobs, which means less confidence and in order to do that, you need congress to approve. Now you could suggest trying to get congress to get together and compromise. But then we tried that. Now, back in the old days, that used to work. Now-a-days, however, congress will have none of that. So, Mr or Ms President? Just how are you going to get around those problems? And remember, you have to stay within the law. See, as president, you don't own the country, you just manage it for the owners and your bosses are the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court. And the court hasn't been all that helpful of late either.