US Elect Barrack Houdini For President

There seems to be a feelgood factor around this morning from what I am reading and seeing on TV. Obama is in, in a predictably easy landslide. Who wouldn't vote for him? He's going to conduct the broadest overhaul of the U.S. economy since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. About the only thing he hasn't got is a white horse.

Beyond job creation and big investments in public works, Obama intends to shift the tax burden back toward the wealthy, roll back a quarter-century of deregulation, extend health-care coverage to all Americans and reassess the U.S. government's pursuit of free-trade deals. And that's only on Monday.

Now don't get me wrong, I like Obama. I'd much prefer him to the McCain & Palin package. And I hope he succeeds, as it will be of benefit to us all. It just isn't going to be easy. In fact it's going to take a miracle.

Its a bit like taking over at Newcastle, there's so much sh!t gone on before that is going to be very difficult to undo. As it is, Obama will likely become the biggest deficit spender in US history. Analysts forecast the budget shortfall may triple to $1 trillion in 2009 as costs mount for financial-industry bailouts started in Bush's final year in office.

Obama has proposed a $175 billion stimulus package that will do everything from creating jobs to fixing bridges. He proposes investing $150 billion over 10 years in clean energy initiatives that he says would create 5 million new jobs. He'd also push automakers and consumers to get a million fuel- efficient hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015.

Other proposals include a fund to invest in manufacturing research, new job training programs and an infrastructure investment bank that he says will create up to 2 million jobs.

And to deal with the credit crunch, Obama's advisers have called for the Treasury to hasten its recapitalization of banks with the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

And to top the lot, low and middle-earners will see their taxes cut.

I wish him luck, he's going to need it.