What are your main priorities for Obama administration actions?

[WilliamPitt]

Poll question: What are your main priorities for Obama administration actions?

We have a lot on our collective plate - a lot of a lot of a lot of a shitload of a lot - so I'm wondering in what order DU would place the following priorities. Vote for your #1 priority, explain why if you wish, or vote "Other" to add something I did not include.

[Idealism]

1. Health f'ing Care

We get single payer going, it will be as good as any stimulus package. A close second is prosecuting BushCo so the crimes of the past are not repeated in the future.

[NOW tense]

6. I think you are right

I think Health Care Reform should be first priority. It frees up money for businesses.

[LakeSamish706]

2. To bad that we can only vote on one item, cause they all need doing now. n/t

[bigtree]

3. the flailing, reflexive militarism

where do you start to reform all of that?

I clicked on Iraq.

[Greyhound]

10. Agreed, but reforming the military will take a very long time, time we don't have at the moment.

After 8 years of the idiot frat boy & the cabal, the whole of the Joint Chiefs, and several levels below, have to be moved out before we can address this black hole.

[Jamastiene]

4. Re-establishment of environmental regulations and protections

None of the rest will matter if we are swimming (or worse, drowning) in the aftermath of these killer super cell storms that wreak havoc and destroy homes and lives. Planet Earth needs to heal or we'll have no home, none of us.

The economy is also important. The two could actually go together as a stimulus package all their own.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

5. Economy/Recovery First, Health Care 2nd, Then Iraq Withdrawl, NSA Spying, GLBT Rights,

Education reform, Re-establishment of environmental regulations and protections, Withdrawal from Afghanistan and Prosecution/exposure of Bush administration crimes.

[lazyriver]

7. Tough choices but Iraq has to stop first if we are to be able to

get anything else done. It is the worst injustice and the biggest expense. We can start the investigations/trials and fixing health care and the economy once this national embarrassment and crime against humanity is brought to an end.

[Greyhound]

8. Economy/health care (NOT health insurance) are a toss-up IMO, but health care

would go a long way to helping the economy, so that's where I voted.

[NeedleCast]

9. I don't think I can pick just one

economy is probably what I'd choose if I could only choose one.

[Royal Sloan 09]

11. Legalize or Decriminalize

Free the Weed from prohibition, Tax it and use tax revenues to pay for the Social/Medical programs needed, Jobs for people and help with restarting economy. Stop ARRESTING Americans for using Cannabis, that will save a lot of tax dollars. So many issues within ONE plant, WTF!

[Enthusiast]

12. I voted "other"

First priority should be to reregulate the banking industry. This will do wonders to bolster confidence.

[LibDemAlways]

13. All of the above, but if I had to prioritize I'd say

1) Economic stimulus/recovery and health care reform (I think they go hand in hand)
2) Get the hell out of Iraq and work on mending relations with the rest of the world
3) Prosecute the Bush Crime Family to send a signal to the rest of the planet that the US is a nation of laws and no one is exempt from justice.

[Posteritatis]

14. I voted other

Part of the reason I like the guy is the intangibles. His plans - and, to date, his actions - are generally terrific, but a lot of what Obama's represented and represents so far is a giant, steel-gauntleted bitchslap against the "everything sucks, there's no point, cynics are the only real humans" attitude that's been so common the last decade and then some.

Just by actually being an honest politician (wtf?!), by doing some of the things he's done at the pace he's doing them so far, at firing up much of the population, and by actually engaging the younger crowd, he's probably already had an impact on things far out of proportion to words and bearing so far. Simply put, I think the main priority for the administration is getting the idea in everyone's head that the problems the world is facing can be fixed. If the president undoes some or most of the rampant cynicism these days, a lot of the rest will probably fall into place.

[mmonk]

15. I voted other. I see things such as Guantanamo and warrantless

spying, and prosecution of criminal activity by those that rule on the same plane. I vote my freedom and the freedom of my children first and foremost because on the economic plane, I know there will be an effort to help bring the economy back but freedom lost has no guarantees. Without freedom, I'd rather not be here.

[LaPera]

16. UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE!

For all!

[Shiver]

17. There's a key to getting all of this done...

The economy is the prevailing concern of the country right now. But these other issues are just as important to the long-run benefit of the country. Logically, the best thing to do then, would be to present ALL of them as a means of fixing the economy. I remember reading something about Eisenhower doing something similar in the fifties, relating every issue to national security.

Off the top of my head...

• Withdrawl from Iraq is pretty obvious - not spending a couple billion a month in a place we shouldn't be would put a couple billion a month back here at home.

• Environment. Green jobs and the like.

• Education. Better schools, better teaching methods, better everything. It's an investment in the future.

• GLBT rights. Aside from being basic human rights, marriage equality/civil unions would benefit local economies - renting of banquet halls/ball rooms/etc, wedding gifts... the entire marriage industry would benefit. This would also require a repeal of DOMA. I bet more connections to the economy can be made in regards to other important GLBT issues, but for now, I'll move on.

• Health care reform. Someone upthread already mentioned that better helthcare - specifically single-payer - would be an economic stimulus package all its own. Lesser plans would likely benefit the economy as well, but none so much as single-payer.


Those are what I came up with on the fly. People will better grasps of each of these issues could likely make even better connections than I could. I couldn't think of any way to connect prosecuting Bush/Cheney or ending NSA spying to the economy, other than giving people hope and easing fear, which usually results in people buying more...

[WilliamPitt]

18. .