What America SHOULD Do in 2015 with Divided Government

It's official. The people have spoken for divided government.

So here is the next big question: WHAT should a Republican Congress and Democratic President do for Americans in 2015?

We need three things:

(1) FIX our BROKEN Immigration System.  Do you leave a broken car in your driveway? We don't have a functioning system.

(2) INVEST in American Infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc) which is falling apart. Doing so would create JOBS. AND, since doing infrastructure takes awhile to gin up, we should juice wages NOW by immediately RAISING the minimum wage to 1968 parity. I made $1.60 in 1968 - minimum wage. That is over $10 today in 1968 dollars. We should keep that parity.

(3) Make American Education No. 1 again so we can compete in a space age, global economy

The GOP Congress is sitting on an Immigration Bill. The Senate has passed one. The House just WON'T VOTE on its bill! Why? Because it would pass!  It's been sitting there for over two years. How long does a guy wait before a lifeline gets thrown?

If they don't pass one the President has NO CHOICE but to take Executive Action just as President Reagan and Bush have done in the past.  We have millions of people in limbo and that is not right.  Failure to act by Congress for YEARS on critical issues like this is administrative negligence that a sane President and the American people cannot allow. 

The GOP dominated Congress has also failed to invest in American infrastructure. Instead they spent over $1 trillion on Afghanistan and Iraq infrastructure. It was a poor investment. Meanwhile we have 60 year old bridges collapsing from old age, and nothing is being done.  While China builds new everything we don't even fix our old. It's short sightedness to the point of blindness. It's nuts. We are throwing away our lead.

American education has fallen far from No. 1 due to the same lack of investment and interest by leadership.  Texas is still over $3 billion short in its education funding, and is not investing for the growth of 70,000 new students coming every year.  It has no full day pre K school program which has been shown to make tremendous different in kids succeeding in school (even Mississippi is ahead of us on that!)

America as a whole has a SKILLS GAP--and people in denial about that as well.

We have over 2 million high tech jobs that Americans don't have the job skills to fill. These jobs pay over $70,000 a year. Other countries have people with those skills, which gets us back to item (1) since we have to bring in high tech workers as part of a comprehensive immigration reform bill until we can train up our people. I say we help Americans upgrade their skills for them to get these jobs! What say you?

This is what our divided government SHOULD be doing to advance American interests. We have to do this while dealing with the latest foreign nuisance -- be it ISIS, Ebola or a Russian President who has become the World Bully knocking over the furniture at the party.  God knows what else we will be dealing with tomorrow--it invariably changes. We can't ignore the world that will bite us again (like 9/11) if we don't pay attention.

Congress could easily pay for this by reforming the tax code so that companies like GE who make $40 billion don't pay ZERO taxes when hard working average Americans are paying their fair share.

A more detailed plan for making America No. 1 again is in Agenda for American Greatness 

Lets get moving!  We have fallen behind. The good news is that we do have the potential to lead the world again if we put our collective minds to it. This isn't a partisan needs. Its a national requirement to avoid losing our country's unique leading role in a dynamic world.

 It's up to each of us to pitch in. But Congress must start ACTING and earning its paycheck -or be fired!