Back To Work - Book Review

I’m a huge fan of Bill Clinton. I came to US around the time of his presidency and loved to watch the country prosper under his leadership. Despite his personal weaknesses, I believe he is a great leader and truly wishes to do good for people (all people) not only in the US but around the world. He started his own charity - Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) – which has become a global driving force in doing good for the poor around the world. Hence, I have been waiting eagerly for his next book to publish. After reading My Life and Giving, I couldn’t wait to hear his thoughts on putting our country back on track. And once I got it, I dropped the other reading material and got directly to it … 

 It shouldn't come as a surprise to the readers of this blog that I will side with President Clinton on speaking on behalf of the 99% rather than the 1% (in the Occupy Wall-Street lingo). The bottom-line is that the Radical-Republicans (RR) have taken the whole republican party hostage and are unwilling to give the people of this country what they deserve – a meaningful way of making a living. Their agenda seem to be fairly straightforward – let the rich get even more richer and push the middle class further into poverty. And, they use all their power, through advertising and sponsoring talking heads in the media to confuse and misguide the population. This fact is captured by Clinton in this book, where, he writes - during one of the town hall meeting with a congresswoman, someone shouted – “I want government messing with my Medicare”. In addition, another example occurred during one of the earlier republican debates - where Ron Paul (I think) sort of indicated that the freedom is all about a poor uninsured patient to die rather than government proving care and some folks applauded him for this thought. The RR have gone to the point where they would prefer a law-abiding US citizen to die rather than providing Obamacare for all. Have we reached to that level where the segregation is so strong that we don’t care about people dying as long as a few's needs are fulfilled? I hope not. 

I don’t prescribe to the philosophy that people should be handed charity either. I don’t think most democrats want this either. I like Republican Party’s core ideals of keeping the spending low and regulations to a minimal level. However, I would not mind if the government is financing plans for the people that are not as fortunate as I am! I would willingly contribute to that as well. Almost all religions teach this kind of compassion – I don’t know how RR can be highly religious and be this calloused (about poor and needy) at the same time. Also, I do believe that some form of government is definitely required. The current economic meltdown was due to NOT ENOUGH government oversight; where overleveraging of the investment banks went unchecked. Clinton compares all the countries out there that have no government whatsoever and the one that has adequate governments – and he concludes that the one that have some form of government social structure are the happiest and most content people in the world. Don’t we want to be happy?

So, now that we know that most future economic recoveries (from any future recessions) will be jobless since only a handful of people in the US can do design/development and the manufacturing is completely outsourced, where would most of people in our country get jobs? 

In his new book, Clinton gives great ideas for TRUE American Recovery (an honest buck for an honest hour of work) rather than 10% of people hoarding 90% of the profit. He gives lots of ideas on reinventing this American dream through leadership in Clean energy and biotechnology. Some level of tax increase for all and government-sponsored jobs to take us through the recession will be necessary. 

As Clinton states, President Obama is the right leader for the current times. Last thing we need is another clone of “W” to take us into yet another deeper recession while decimating our environment. Please vote for President Obama to keep our country on the path to compassionate recovery. 

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