Reflections on the election

Well, the American people have spoken. Thank God for democracy! Mr. Obama and the Democrats have been soundly repudiated by the people who rejected their agenda and also the adamant way the party in power jammed their agenda down the people's throats. Duffy believes that is the primary lesson that Obama and especially Mrs. Pelosi will not learn from November 2nd. The unbelievable decision by Pelosi to continue on as minority leader confirms that opinion. The Republicans must be joyous at their good luck. Talk about a state of denial!

Moreover the Democrats are also in denial if they think the Republicans have to meet them halfway. Mitch McConnell, soon to be Senate Majority leader, is right, the Democrats have to come to them, a long way in fact.

What will the Republicans try to do now they can stop Obama? Duffy thinks it would be a waste of time and effort to try to repeal Obamacare. First of all, Obama will veto it. Secondly there are parts of Obamacare that are good and should stay that the public supports. However most of the bill should be repealed and replaced with a far less ambitious and smaller bill that will begin true health care reform. Duffy believes real reform will and should be done in stages over 10-15 years to really get it right. And that the people buy into the changes over a period of time instead of having a massive 2,700 page bill jammed down their throats.

How to fix the economy? Duffy thinks the best way is to undertake a massive bipartisan effort to simplify and eliminate regulations and red tape across all areas and levels of government. Make it easier to do business and business of all types will grow and expand and hire. With that we also need to greatly simplify the tax code. Not cut taxes necessarily but certainly make it fairer and easier to pay taxes. The people inherently know that the tax code is hugely unfair and too complicated, favoring to many special interests. No more social engineering using the tax code.

The next two years may be gridlock or Obama and the Republicans may get some things done. Duffy thinks the odds favor gridlock because neither Obama nor Pelosi will admit they were wrong. Either case the economy will (slowly) improve and the people will likely continue the housecleaning in 2012.

Duffy has been out for a while dealing with some medical issues (to put it mildly) but hopes to get back to sharing his thoughts with his thousands, give or take, fans in the weeks ahead.