By PETER S. FERRARA<br>Record Columnist
I am writing this letter on the day before the election.
I do not know who the next president will be. Whoever it is, they will face some of those most difficult problems any American president has ever had to deal with.
Since I love this country as much as you do, Mr. President-elect, I'd like to offer a few suggestions for you to keep in mind as you govern.
This country will most certainly not survive as divided as we are today. On almost every issue, there is a near 50-50 split in the public's opinion of what is the best remedy.
The sad state of the American economy is at or near the top of the list. You will have to balance restoring the banks' ability to lend money and keep the credit lines open with the amount of debt which will be placed on future generations to pay off. This will not be easy.
Get the smartest people you can—especially those with whom you may disagree—to think through your actions before you take them.
Rescuing banks is vital, but do not let taxpayer money be used for any other purpose but to support lending. No dividends to stockholders, no mergers and acquisitions, and no golden parachutes for the greedy swine who got us into this mess. Do not reward bad behavior. The people's
opinion of their leadership and the direction the country is headed is low enough. Don't make a bad situation worse.
To help repair the broken mortgage system which is driving millions of Americans out of their homes, let the government buy every bad mortgage that affects the middle class. But don't pay the so-called original value of these bloated and deceptive mortgages. Only pay for what the house is actually worth in today's market, then construct affordable and sensible financing and sell it to the homeowner. Doing otherwise only rewards both the corrupt seller and inappropriate buyer's side of this equation at the expense of the rest of us.
Design and propose legislation to apply new, 21st century regulation to Wall Street and the financial markets, instead of the outdated, inadequate, and unenforced regulations which allowed this disaster to occur in the first place.
Greed is not good. The business world in general and the financial markets in particular have proven the fallacy of self-regulation. If we don't restore confidence in our free market system, this country's economy will continue shrinking and lead us further into the abyss.
Federal financing of elections will prove to be the only way to put choosing our leaders back into the people's hands and take control of the process away from the fat cats and K Street lobbyist crowd who call the shots today through legalized bribery. Make government more transparent with "sunshine" laws.
Let freedom ring!
End the war in Iraq. It's their country. Let them fight for their own freedom and pay for it themselves. We've suffered enough. Find a way. It won't please everyone. Democracy never does.
As genuine as the provocation from elements within countries like Syria, Pakistan and Iran may be, do not expand this war to include them. We are not fully able to sustain what we are already caught up in, so let's not spread this war into a wider theater which will only benefit our enemies Al Qaeda in 80 countries and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The only way this so-called "war on terror" can ever be "won" is by addressing the underlying complaints of our enemies. As long as we continue to exploit other countries for their natural resources, and use force of arms for this purpose, we will never see the end of this "war." The truth is that
it's poverty and ignorance—combined with our need for oil—which are the engines of terrorism.
Ultimately, the wealthier nations of the free world must help the poorer ones raise their standards of living. People who believe they have a future for themselves and their families will not become terrorists. Our military—by their own admission—can't win this war. Only economic aid, education, and diplomacy can.
Pakistan is a country with nuclear weapons which is on the verge of going broke. As the Pakistanis get desperate for cash to survive, does anyone think they won't sell any asset which can raise money? The bottom line is that no country, and this includes us, should have nuclear weapons.
Resist the Pentagon's desire to build a new generation of nuclear weapons at an astronomical cost to our nation. Can you name any scenario in which using them will do anything but hasten the end of the world?
Total worldwide nuclear disarmament and the destruction of everybody's nuclear and biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction should be at the top of your national security priority list.
Why spend money on something that we can never use and which only prolongs the chances of accidental annihilation? No nukes are good nukes. For better or worse, only an international organization like the United Nations has the capacity to work across borders and ideologies to implement this policy, so support them.
Take steps to address the everwidening gulf between the "have's" and the "have-not's" in America and in the world. The richest have never been richer. The poor, which includes one-fifth of all the children in this country, are getting poorer.
If you don't fix this, you will face the possibility of rioting and revolution on our streets which will quickly get out of control. Right now, wealth is being re-distributed from the poor to the rich. Admit that this is what is happening and take steps to correct it while there is yet time.
Make the huge investments necessary to get this country off its oil addiction once and for all. If that involves a transitional period of pain and suffering, then let it happen. We need to get off burning fossil fuels. It will take time but we must not simply opt for the easy way out because in the long run it won't work. Don't let us simply go from oil to coal when it is combustion and the heat and pollution created which are the long term threats. Cars, trucks, trains and buses need to run on electricity.
Wind, solar, geothermal, and other truly "clean" technologies must be heavily financed and supported if we are ever to cure our addiction to fossil fuels which must be burned to deliver energy.
Emphasize conservation and call upon us all to make some sacrifices for the greater good. Americans have done this before and we can do it again under effective leadership. This country must show the way here.
We are but 4% of the world's population, yet we consume a quarter of its energy and create more pollution than anybody else.
Take us in a new direction.
Stop the national trend blurring the dividing line between religion and politics.
Religion is a profoundly important personal matter and all should be free to practice whatever religion they want without interference. But whatever church, mosque, or synagogue a politician may or may not go to should have nothing to do with their electability.
Reach across all party lines to assemble your governing team.
Create as big a tent as you can, since America itself is a big tent.
You will need the political cover that will provide. Fix entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the rest before they become unaffordable and fall apart. Build a national health care system like every other advanced country in the world has.
We pay more and get less than all of our international friends do. Our hospitals are closing their emergency rooms rather than go belly up. Fifty million of us have no health insurance at all.
Above all, make your plans clear and explain the reasons for them in terms people can understand without politicizing everything. If we don't all "win" then nobody will.
There are many more difficult and challenging situations ahead of you.
I do not envy you the choices you must make. But call upon the American people to sacrifice and participate and they will not fail you. On behalf of all of us, I thank you for your service and pray for your success.
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Copyright 2008 Peter Ferrara
