The Honorable Barack H. Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington D.C.


Dear President Obama:
My name is Austin, and I am currently a high school senior. In my government course we are nearly wrapping up our chapter on the Presidency. After further learning about your roles and powers as the President I would like to make a few comments and suggestions. Overall, I believe you are the right person to run our great country of the United States of America, although a couple current international issues certainly caught my eye recently. These issues, along with an economic boost, should be listed high on your agenda.

As Commander in Chief of our military, Mr. Obama, I believe you are doing what is necessary for our national security. Although the drone strikes in the Middle East are highly questionable, I understand your intent. We need to eliminate any potent threat to our nation, but only two percent of the drone strikes have actually struck high-level targets. The death toll of non-militants by these drones has decreased significantly since their first usage in 2004. Still, the drones have killed potentially near 900 civilians in Pakistan and up to 200 civilians in Yemen. You must attempt to maintain our national security by eradicating out biggest threats, although it is inexcusable and intolerable to be murdering innocent civilians. Other than this slight flaw, Mr. President, I believe you have done a tremendous job with our military, and I was very proud to hear you announce the withdrawal of our troops in Afghanistan during the State of the Union address.

With North Korea performing nuclear test, as the president, I feel you need to enact on your foreign policy duties. Personally, I believe we need more influence in South Korea and Japan. Unfortunately, this would only anger China even more. I am not fully aware of your powers as foreign policy leader, but I do know we need to act before it is too late. In my opinion, you have done a remarkable job with foreign policy in the last four years though. People are going to dislike the U.S. for who we are, and there is nothing you can do about that. You have maintained peace with many nations, and have yet to have a major foreign, or inner, threat during your term. If you continue these trends I believe we will continue to see a satisfied populace.

The final subject I would like to discuss is your Council of Economic Advisers. It is indisputable that we need an economic boost. During your State of the Union address you made a few suggestions that you claimed would ‘not add a single dime to the deficit.’ Although, in Marco Rubio’s GOP response he stated you have said this before, which is true, and our deficit has been increasing. I have faith that you will not add another dime to our deficit. The only question I have is can you make a bipartisan agreement that spurs economic growth, creates jobs, and reduces our deficit? I fully agree that we need to strengthen our middle class, but I do not see how this goal is attainable when the Republicans in the House only want to lower tax rates for the wealthiest Americans. I could not agree more on your stand of cuts on education and Medicare. My favorite line during the State of the Union was, “We can’t continue to cut our way to prosperity.” We cannot make more cuts on those departments just in order to protect special interest tax breaks.

I truly believe you there is no better person in our country to run it than you. Other than the drone strikes I feel as if you have done magnificent performance as Commander in Chief. Your foreign policy has been excellent as well, although we cannot be ignorant of North Korea at the moment. Last, the economic state of America needs to be improved. I appreciate you for your consideration and taking the time to read my letter.

Sincerely,

Austin P.