Given that Bush has won a second term, and he feels that "the people have spoken", it seems obvious that he will move forward on a domestic agenda of some kind.

Up to date, the President's domestic agenda has consisted of tax cuts, education reform, homeland security, and some protectionist economic policies.

I think with the way things are internationally, Bush will turn to domestic issues much more in the coming term.

Questions for debate:

What two or three domestic issues do you think Bush will concentrate on during his second term?

What two or three issues do you think he should address?

What two or three domestic issues do you think Bush will concentrate on during his second term?


1. Making Tax cuts permanent in order to continue the economic recovery.

2. Social Security Reform will and absolutely NEEDS to be addressed. Its now or never for a president to fix this problem. If not now, the next opportunity won't come for at least another 8 years....assuming the next president wins a second term because of the fear any first term president has in addressing this hot potato issue.

3. He HAS to find a way to bring the federal budget under control. The only way to do this with the tax cuts and cost of the war in Iraq is to cut other spending. This will be a very difficult thing to accomplish as I predict Democrats will fight him every step of the way.

What two or three issues do you think he should address?

The above plus our huge problem with illegal immigration....the great undiscussed problem. He also needs to get his energy bill passed and I predict this will now take place.


With a larger majority in Congress and the Senate, there really is no excuse for not getting things done over the next 2 years. I guess we will wait and see.

I'm not sure that he has any domestic agenda for the coming months. I mean, he hasn't had one since last March, and what has changed since then except a 2 billion dollar ad war between the two parties?

The pattern over the past three years seems to be piecemeal engagements on domestic fronts to facilitate broad initiatives in other areas (like taxation, military expansion, etc.) For good or bad, Bush hasn't really had much of a domestic agenda aside from slowly using the courts and the Executive to change the discourse on individual rights.

What should he focus on? Three words: debt, debt, debt. I just checked the Debt Clock, and currently the Federal government owes $25,288.07 for every single American. That's a disturbing number. More disturbing is the total: $7,452,550,516,343.55

When you couple looming crises in military funding (Can anyone say Star Wars), SS, and the falling U.S. dollar, this debt could become completely unserviceable in the next five years; and the most optimistic plan by anyone in Washington only has the deficit being cut in half by then.

Now, I don't want to say that there will be a fiscal armageddon in the coming years; but it is a distinct possibility.

What incentive is there for the Bush administration to do regarding domestic issues? He has a Republican-controlled Congress again. I don't see them rallying to help the poor get health insurance, or to better fund public education, or to keep corporations from outsourcing jobs to other countries.

I would like to see what, if anything, this administration is going to do to improve the lot of middle class Americans. One of Bush's talking points was that more racial minority citizens own houses. So how do they keep paying the mortgage and property tax? With their McJob?

Without another election to worry about, I just don't see how President Bush will consider most domestic issues worthy of his attention. Please surprise us, Mr. President, in a positive way this time! I admit that my expectations of him are very low.

What two or three domestic issues do you think Bush will concentrate on during his second term?

What two or three issues do you think he should address?

I'm going to answer both of these questions at the same time because I'm elated after the big victory last night and quite optimistic!

1. Bush must reform the tax code. I'm leaning towards a preference for the flat tax, but would also consider a national sales tax. Either way, the current scheme is unfair, overly complicated, and results in a waste of resources.

2. Bush must also reform Social Security. Under the current system, younger workers are either going to get shafted when they retire, or their children are going to be in for a world of hurt. The government needs to allow private investment accounts to increase the rate of return on contributions.

3. Bush must reform health care. I think his health savings accounts are the way to go. Health care costs are inflated because consumers are not the ones paying directly for health care. Generally, third parties, such as insurers, are the ones paying health care, even routine medical check-ups. That being the case, consumers have no incentive to conserve their demand for medical services and the price for such services goes up.

With health savings accounts, insurance will be placed back in its appropriate role -- paying for catastrophic injury/illness, leaving most minor medical services to be paid for by the consumer. The consumer will thus demand less and prices will fall.

What two or three domestic issues do you think Bush will concentrate on during his second term?

1) The Courts, who sits on them.

2) Tax reform.

3) Social Security Reform.


What two or three issues do you think he should address?

1) The Courts.

2) Shrinking federal government.

3) Tax reform.

"I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent," he said. "To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust. A new term is a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation. We have one country, one Constitution and one future that binds us."--President George W. Bush, 11/03/2004

Well, now is his chance. How about the jobs issue? How about a living wage for working Americans having difficulties making ends meet? If the work needs to be done, someone is going to have to pay bills and rent while doing it.

How about making sure more children (in particular) have health insurance?

How about not rewarding corporations that are outsourcing jobs, forcing employees here to train new, foreign employees how to do their jobs?

Then there is the issue of Homeland Security. What is Mr. Bush going to do to secure our southern border in particular? This is an issue where a domestic issue dovetails with an international one, as it does in corporate outsourcing.

In order to address a problem, one must first be able to acknowledge that it is a problem.

PE, this is a good post, and wanted to use it to illustrate how we can realistically work together on certain issues.

Homeland Security, and other issues, shouldn't really have a philosophical difference between the parties. Issues such as these can realistically be resolved without having to compromise one way or the other. These issues should be at the forefront in trying to get both parties to work together (pick off the low hanging fruit philosophy).

For the other issues you mention, there will be philosophical differences in approach. For Health Care and Outsourcing, while both sides might recognize that it is a problem, they will also have two philosophically different approaches to solving it. For issues that have a high priority among Democrats (as I think these two do), simply moving them up in the chain of issues is in itself a compromise, even if they get addressed from the conservative point of view. These are also the issues upon which a compromise solution can be reached, where each side bends a little on its idealogy in order to garner support across the aisle.

Minimum wage is an issue where the philosophical divide is over the issue itself, and not so much the solution. On these types of issues, it is unrealistic to expect that much will be done, unless those on the left package them up with a compromise on issues that are higher up on the right's priority list.

In short, it is not realistic to expect that the party in power will promote legislation it is idealogically opposed to. It is, however, very reasonable to expect that issues over which both parties can agree should be addressed, and that issues which are important to both parties, but on which there is disagreement over solutions, can be compromised upon to move forward.

Well I for one and almost 60 million other Americans are very glad Bush took the position in 2004 he so well earned during his first term. Despite all of the efforts of the 527's and big hit movies and an all out assualt by the media he stood his ground.

What two or three domestic issues do you think Bush will concentrate on during his second term?
Rewriting the code books. It's time to hit the tax law's and replace it with a fair tax. He's said it is an interesting idea but im not sure if he will run with it. Hopefully he will simplify the tax code one way or another. The debt. Cut spending across the board everything from education to pork barrel spending in medicare (he has allready begun this btw). HSA, Forbes called it "the cure to the health care crises". This is by far the best solution that I have seen. I believe it has allready been explained so I wont bother to repeat it.

What two or three issues do you think he should address?
Im actually in favor of his immigration policies. I keep hearing things spread around about "tax cuts" to companies as a "reward" to outsource job's but ive never actually seen any data on this. If anyone can provide a link by all means, im all ears. If that's the case those should be repealed. Outsourcing save's the company enough money as it is, why should you give them a tax cut?

To address the national debt in a time of war, we have to cut spending across the board to yield a surpluss and use that to only pay down the National debt.

It is a hard choice, but we have to do it.

Simplifying the tax code would reduce the overhead of enforcing it. The tax code we have now is a monstrosity. Simplifying the tax code would, also, give some incentive for businesses to move their operations here.

A small .1% to 3% tax for goods entering and leaving the U.S. (The tax has to be large enough to gather significant revenue, but small enough to not harm trade with other countries.) to revenue.

I for one and the other nearly 60 million voters don't trust Bush as far as we can throw Iraq. He's got quite a job ahead earning my trust. Don't think it is going to happen, but I will trust -- and verify. If he turns out to be Lucy with the football, once is enough to kill all future efforts at gaining trust. I am not Charlie Brown, nor are the rest of the other half of the country.



Typical Republican stuff:

1. Reduce government regulation of industry.

2. Reduce corporate and individual taxes.

3. Promote religion in public, government-owned places.



1. Finish up Iraq and bring the troops home, ASAP.

2. Bolster homeland security as Kerry proposed, and as many others have critically declared before the election season.

3-A. The economy is still a sickly creator of jobs -- needs to be a focus.
3-B. The deficit is a looming disaster -- reduce it.
3-C. Healthcare is still a major problem -- too much profit incentive. I will not expect anything from Bush on this one, but that's the problem.
3-D. Energy promises to become THE major middle and lower class economic burden, and a highly volitile (pun intended) one at that. Okay, so do something that *works*.

I'd have to say that the answers here so far are very interesting, considering Bush hardly mentioned anything about what he planned to do Domestically in the debates. He spent a lot of time talking about what he had done and what Kerry was going to do wrong, but I didn't hear any plans from him for his second term. I'm not even trying to be partisan about this, I'd just really like to know if he actually told the American people what he intends to do with another 4 years besides fight the war on terror. I may not have been listening, but I don't think I ever heard anything. So if anyone has seen some concrete plans in a speech or in the debate, please feel free to post them.

So, with that in mind these are basically guesses:
What two or three domestic issues do you think Bush will concentrate on during his second term?
1. Judges. First and foremost he'll concentrate on getting his federal judges confirmed (which he failed to do last term) and he'll make one or several supreme court appointments. I think that at a minimum Rehnquist will announce retirement when the dust settles, but there may be a few more judges that call it quits as well. I just hope that none of the traditionally "liberal" judges leave.

As far as the Republican party is concerned this very well may be the most important thing he does for them considering the kind of people he'll likely put on the bench. The effects of these decisions will be felt for years after he has left office.

2. Taxes. Expect more tax cuts and expect them to be "made permanent" as he so often said in his first term. I don't really think this is wise personally, but it is something he is determined to finish from his first term and I think that he is really obligated to do so given that he blasted Kerry so severely about raising taxes during the campaign.

3. The Patriot Act. Parts of the Patriot Act will be expiring soon, so expect for some new versions of that to come out, be discussed and pass. I am willing to bet money the new versions will be far more heinous than the original. In my opinion, the patriot act is kind of his crown jewel as far as homeland security is concerned. I don't see him really doing much else significant in this area since he has likely already thrown the 9/11 commission report into the fireplace.

What two or three issues do you think he should address?
It doesn't really matter what I think he should address because I'd be talking to the wrong party and my expectations would be completely unrealistic. The only person that would have even come close to addressing things I consider important is the candidate that lost. My hope is that he doesn't take the country too far away from my expectations over the next four years.

Edit to direct discussion of these topics to http://www.americasdebate.com/forums/index...=0#entry130689.

(Sorry, Jaime.)

Domestic issues which Bush will concentrate on:

1. Supreme Court Judges--The appointees will be very conservative and desire to overturn Roe v. Wade.

2. Strenghtening the Patriot Act and making government more secretive

3. Giving Businesses more tax breaks along with his "ELITE BASE

Domestic issues he should address:

1. Health care

2. Minimum wage increase(God forgive us if it lessens the CEOs bonus or pay)

3. Federal debt(7+ trillion)

Do I think he will address any of the above 3 issues. HELL NO!!!!!!!!

An outsiders perspective:

What two or three domestic issues do you think Bush will concentrate on during his second term?

1. Making tax cuts "permanent". (How can any government do that, by the way? I thought it was a founding principle of government that one government cannot set limitations on the actions of those that follow it?)
2. "Strengthening the moral character of the law" (I bet it will be called something like that). In effect it will equate to entrenching fundamentalist Christian ideas on marriage, abortion, stem cell research, and so on into Federal law. This will command widespread popular support and condemnation depending almost exclusively on what people do with their Sundays.
3. "Lightening the regulatory load on business" (again, it will be phrased in these terms). Lots of restraining regulation on businesses will be removed or weakened. In some areas this will be a good thing, but just as governments that impose regulations tend to put too many in place, governments that remove them tend to take away too many.
   
   I think he'll also continue to keep national security high on the agenda, but as this is linked closely with international policy as well, I'll gloss over it here.

What two or three issues do you think he should address?

1. Increasing the overall tax take (not necessarily, but probably, involving some increased taxes, and certainly lots of closed loopholes) to begin paying down the huge defecit
2. Decreasing federal spending overall for the same reason - yes, including on defence, especially the kind of expensive gizmos that get headlines but don't stop soldiers getting killed by someone wearing a Semtex waistcoat
3. Within this overall aura of fiscal responsibility, restructuring the healthcare system, with emphasis on increasing input efficiency. What I mean by that is that the output efficiency of the US health system is very high - the patients that do get treated are treated very well. But many people are excluded, or self-exclude, because of the high cost barriers to entry into the top-flight end of US healthcare. Currently, the best is the enemy of the good. A start would be some kind of tort reform to reduce the pressure on US doctors to carry out every possible test and surgical procedure to avoid the possibility of being sued for not carrying them out. Doctors should decide the appropriate treatment regime in consultation with the patient, not the patient in consultation with the doctor, and not (as now) the doctor in consultation with their lawyer.

Minimum wage goes up on it's own. Wal-mart start's out at 7/hr with no experience. 8/hr with little experience. I dont see the min. wage needing to be adjusted. McDonalds start's out around those marks as well. Raising the min. wage will only increase inflation.

Im sure there are some job's that still pay under 7/hr but they will also have a very high turnover rate costing them more money. It's in their best interest to compete over wages even in the unskilled labor sector.

The only jobs that pay under 7/hr currently off the top of my head are jobs such as waiters, bellboys, valet parking, and other jobs that they make up the money plus some in tips.

A living wage is a good idea for certian area's but once it becomes national it will only speed up inflation and become once again - minimum wage.

Not only will this increase inflation but the initial impact will stunt job growth.

You cannot expect higher wages so long as millions of unskilled cheap labor continues to flow in through the border.



The flat tax or consumption tax will become a huge surplus of money flowing in without the effect of consumer's losing money to spend. It's a win - win, I dont see why this is still not in the senate.

Reducing the complexity of the tax system would reduce the overhead in money and manpower in both the private and government sectors. These savings could go into more useful endeavors: creating more jobs, putting more manpower on security, and etc.

Well, according to a Washington Post editorial (registration required) the two issues will be tax reform and social security. The Post credits the president with desiring to convene a panel to make recommendations on tax reform. On a more measured note, they urge caution in regards to possibly ending up with a regressive tax system that already forms a "have" and "have not" gulf between those who can bypass a "reformed" system through savings and dividends, while most of us will be whacked by the income or consumption type of taxes. In regards to Social Security, the president undoubtedly realizes it's in bad shape, but privatization also comes with some caveats. For one, private companies will charge fees upon fees for the "services" that they provide. Having dabbled in mutual funds and things like that, I can testify to that.

The president looks to start his second term on some decent domestic issues that democrats can play an important role in. Hopefully they will be included in panels and asked to help out on key legislation, much as senator kennedy was asked to help on NCLB.

While that is true you are missing the bigger picture.

If you tax all transactions in the US at a 4% rate it estimates to be $2,120,000,000,000.

The federal budget for 2005 is 1,962,000,000,000.

This also forces illegal immigrants to pay federal taxes.

The IRS will become a shadow of what it is today also.

I think that this little tidbit from the AP is very suggestive of what we can expect. Arlen Specter( R ) is next in line for the chairman position on the senate judiciary committee because Hatch is stepping down due to a self-enforced rule the Republicans made. The only problem with that is Specter happens to be a moderate and he is pro-choice.

The fact that certain elements of the party are opposing him so vociferously, leads me to believe that the point I made in my post above is very valid. It is going to be all about judges for the next four years, because judges give a presidency a sort of immortality in the way it can effect the country.

What two or three domestic issues do you think Bush will concentrate on during his second term?

Appoint judges that fit the 'strictly interpreting the Constitution' mold (some may say Conservative judges)
Tax Reform
Sadly, I think that Social Security reform will die yet again.

What two or three issues do you think he should address?
Tax Reform - fair tax, flat tax, something / anything better than the mess we have

Securing the (mostly southern) border. Leverage your relationship with Vicente Fox in his last year and get something done on this / maybe negotiate guest workers. And then start deporting people and doing the perp walk for all companies (Tyson Chicken, hello) that are employing large numbers of illegals. This would be the most pro-union, pro-labor thing Bush could do.

Taking a flyer with this one - since this is MY opinion of what BushCo should address - gay marriage. Whether it passes or not, make the DOMA a moot point, by taking the initiative and legislating domestic partnership standards. Work with Congress, work with industry, work with the states, get it done in two years. Bring fiscally conservative, pro-security gays and lesbians into the republican fold. Maybe co-opt other domestic arrangements to make it more inclusive - parent / adult child comes to mind, looking ahead at boomer retirement. A guy can wish, no?