Please find my campaign donation for $2300. I wish there was a way that I could legally donate more money, because I would do it in a heart beat.

First, a little bit about myself. I am 49 years old, married with one infant, and another one the way. I have been successful my entire adult life in both academics (Cornell and University of Texas) and business. I rose to the top ranks of Gateway Computer, and currently, I reside in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where I operate a small, successful and rapidly growing American software company, PC Pitstop.

I have always considered myself an independent. That said, I recently received a 14 x 11 certificate stating that I am amongst the top 50 Republican donors in the state of South Carolina. I am still trying to determine whether I should burn it or frame it.

The reason that I am writing is that I am scared for our country. I am not an alarmist, and I can honestly say that I have never felt this way up to now. During our lifetimes, America has always been the most powerful nation in the world. Economically, militarily and diplomatically. In front of our very own eyes, it is slowly but surely fading away. Personally, I have already sold millions dollars worth of stock in the last 3 months, and I proud to say I am 100% cash. Two months ago, I also analyzed all of my financial institutions, and moved all my cash to only the ones that have strong balance sheets and minimal exposure to mortgages. The last portion of my plan is to move begin moving cash to other currencies in other countries as many of my other wealthy friends have already done.

The underlying problem with the United States are the fundamentals of the economy. Every single fundamental index is going in the wrong direction. It is amazing to see the number of financial failures during an election year.

I am writing this because I want you to change course. You need to be that force that will right the American economy. It will take leadership skills that no other American president has ever possessed. At the end of the day, it is the only thing that really matters. We cannot afford to have the best military with a crumbling economy. We cannot find the solution to our oil addiction when so many people are out of work. We cannot take care of our elderly without a strong economy. Same with health care, education, etc.

Here are my humble thoughts on the big issues that need to be addressed by the next president if there is any chance of restoring American greatness throughout the world.

Deficit. Balance the budget. This must be your first and foremost priority. The Republicans have been nailing you on raising taxes. That’s fine. Then start cutting expenses. Here’s a stat. American worker productivity has risen substantially in the last 8 years. How about the US government? The efficiency is horrible. Even if you throw out the costly war in Iraq, this government is the largest government in the history of the nation. It is fat, slow, and an unuseful. Someone needs to take an ax to it and watch expenses like any wise business owner would. Make a promise to the American people that come hell or high water, you will balance the budget. Don’t end there! The goal is not to break even, we need a surplus.

Here’s a hint. Use technology. By any standard, the US government is far behind business and many other governments in the use of the web and technology to reduce cost.

Taxes. The Republicans are hammering that you will raise taxes, trying to raise fear in low income earners. Don’t let them. When asked by Bill O’Reilly, “Why should I pay more taxes just because I make more money?”, your response was poor. Basically, because O’Reilly can afford to. Not that John McCain could have done better, but America requires the next president to be much more savvy about basic economic theory. Here are two reasons based on economics on the effective use of a progressive tax during a recession.

Velocity of Money. During times of recession (like now), the wealthy will reduce expenditures and increase savings. As savings increase, interest rates will go down, and then more people will be able to afford loans. They get these loans and spend the money. With a progressive tax, the end result is the same, but the time for the money to land in the hands of the people that need it is a lot less. Hence, the recession will last less time, and the recovery quicker. Reagan’s trickle down economics work OK in times of expansion, but the opposite is true, during times of retraction.

The gap between the rich and the poor. There is a tired old saying “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” Unfortunately, there is economic evidence that suggests that such a spiral exists. I live in Brazil and it has the largest gap between rich and poor in the world, and it stifles the economy. More importantly, this is not the American dream. Inherent in the dream, is that with the right ambition, hard work, and little luck, you can be anything you desire. You are NEVER trapped by your circumstances.

I think I over-made my points, but the reason is that I want you to become an expert on economic theory. You need to become someone that can articulate a credible economic plan with true measurable results. It is laughable to hear John McCain stating that he will remove greed from Wall Street. Perhaps, the tooth fairy will leave 10 trillion dollars under my pillow tomorrow night, John.

The dollar. All of our lives, we have had a strong dollar. Even in the first few years of Bush administration, and after 9/11, the dollar remained strong. And now it has fallen off a cliff. All of this is so intertwined. Our government is borrowing money at a record pace. Furthermore, there is a chicken and egg spiral between the rise in oil prices and the dollar falling. We have to break this spiral quickly. The reality is that the rise in gasoline prices are more a function of the fall in the dollar than supply and demand economics. I am truly worried about a spiral that runs out of control. Oil prices go up, which is inflationary. This weakens the economy which forces the dollar down…. and oil prices go up again. We must gain control of this situation. Yes oil prices will go up based on supply and demand, but not due to the weakness of our currency.

Pet Projects. I truly have enjoyed your speeches but there is a lot of soaring rhetoric. It is now time for that to end. The reason is that we cannot come close to balancing the budget and executing all of the dreams in your speech. Let me use a more concrete example. Universal health care. I personally agree with you and Hillary on health care. Our health care is abysmal when compared to other first world countries. But now is not the time to fix this problem, because we cannot afford to implement such an ambitious program during a recession.

I am really worried that the American federal government is addicted to deficit spending. It is clear that the Republicans are addicted, and to be honest, it is not clear whether under an Obama administration that things would really change. Just what projects the deficit would finance. Give us a sign that you are a man that knows how to live within his means. You can match your dreams and your accomplishments against a budget. Bring a new discipline to Washington.

Moreover, it is a sign that fixing this problem requires tough choices, and you are the man to make those tough choices.

Foreign Policy. I really hope that this recession changes our foreign policy. If we are going to balance the budget, we can no longer afford to be the world’s police cop. Nation building? It’s looking pricey now that we got a budget to balance. Furthermore, we will avoid like the plague unilateral actions (formerly called the Bush Doctrine), not because we are weak, but because we realize that wars cost money. We should let the world know that our focus is at home, because we know that a strong American economy is our strongest global contribution. I believe that a strong American economy will find the cures to cancer and Alzheimers. I believe that Americans will find the next alternative energy. It could be that balancing budget might force us to end the conflict in Iraq.

The debates. The Republicans did a respectable job giving Sara Palin a crash course in foreign policy. Senator Obama, you need a crash course on economics. You can already run circles around John McCain (by his own admission) on economic policy. But we need to set the bar much much higher. For me, it is not winning the election, it is winning the recession. You need to become the most astute president economically in the history of the nation.

Make the economy your laser focus in the debates. Make it the underpinning of each and every decision you make. If you think about it, what program or earmark or tax policy or foreign alliance is not in some way impacted by our economy and the federal budget? None.

We always hear politicians talk about our “hard earned tax dollars”. Show us that you are different. That you know how to spend our money wisely. Like no other president or administration in the history of the country. Make the tough choices, and the history books will be yours to write.

I am going to sign off now. One of our employees at PC Pitstop, Corey Munson, was your precinct captain in Sioux City, IA. He told me that perhaps he could find a way so that you would read this.

I write this in all sincerity.

Rob Cheng

PS – Here’s your new campaign slogan. Dollars and Sense. Yes, it is corny but so is Change You Can Believe In, and Straight Talk Express. Bye.

I guess I am the last to know that my good friend, Earle Grueskin, is running for President of the United States in a grass roots campaign. After the grueling, Democratic primary, I am actually thinking of voting for Earle for President.

I really think that he would make a fine president. Heck, he was the mayor of Sioux City, and ran facilities worldwide for Gateway. That makes him more qualified than either John McCain or Barack Obama in my view. Here’s the news reel below.

The entire immigration debate in the United States is bordering on ridiculous. It is almost unbelievable that legislation has been passed to build a wall along a small portion of the border between Texas and Mexico. On top of this, the more strident Republican legislators feel that hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars should be spent to expel all the illegal immigrants from the country. A witch hunt of a magnitude unparalleled since the Spanish Inquisition.

All of this defies logic for one and simple reason – economics. Here in Myrtle Beach, there is a large and vibrant population of immigrants. Where ever I go, it is just as common to hear Spanish spoken than English. But that is my point. The immigrants are out doing the things that consumers do. They are at Walmart and Best Buy. One observation. Unlike me, immigrants almost always seem to pay cash. Walmart and Best Buy must love that. One day I went to the dentist, and I was the only English speaking patient in the whole place. My humble dentist is raking it in.

So here’s the question. What if we boot all of the immigrants out of the country. What would happen? I’ll use one simple example. Immigrants don’t live on the street. They all rent houses, apartments, condominiums, etc. What would happen if suddenly there were millions less people available to rent apartments and houses? The price of real estate would plummet overnight. Pretty strange to want to boot out legitimate tenants from their houses, while housing prices are spiraling downward.

The reality is that the immigrant population has become an integral part of the American economy. Here’s a news flash! Immigrants rent houses, buy cars, go to the dentist, drink beer, and go out for a night on the town. They earn money and they spend money. The more people that our economy has making and spending money, the stronger the economy.

The American economy has been the #1 economy in the world. But that is going to end shortly. In the next 5 years, China will become the #1 economy in the world. There is one simple reason why they will overtake us – their population. China’s population is between 4-5 times the size of the US. Hello? If we are going to compete on the world stage, we don’t need less people. We need MORE people. Throwing the immigrants out would just widen the gap between us and China. Call me crazy but I still want America to be #1.

Overall, the American economy has done a splendid job of integrating the newcomers. Unemployment has never risen during this period of expansion. Yes, there are injustices where a taxpaying citizen loses priority in a government welfare office to a non tax paying immigrants. These are the friction points of the debate, but I view them as anomalies. Each and every American has benefited from the immigrants because our economy is stronger, and it helps us compete on the world stage with the Chinese.

But there is one big hole in this argument. To be honest, we have no idea on the number of immigrants in the country. In the news, we hear numbers that vary from 10 – 25 million people. But we really have no idea. How would anyone know? The reality is that no one knows how many people enter the country and leave the country. Worse yet. We have no clue. Not even close.

This election is going to come down Barak Obama and John McCain. McCain being from a border state has a fairly liberal attitude toward immigration, and so does Obama. Lost in everything is the real issue of border security. At the very least, we need to understand the numbers and the people coming in and out of the country. This will be the only way we can monitor and control our economic growth through immigration.

But I am on the opposite side of fence on this issue. We don’t need less people, we need more. We should be adding people into the economy as fast as possible as long as for each immigrant added, the economy expands. Here’s the beautiful part. If the economy stops expanding, we won’t have to turn off the spicket. The immigrants will just stop coming. The reason immigrants are in our country are purely economic. If the economic opportunity no longer exists, they will no longer come. So far so good, so bring them on!