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Kamala's Inauguration Speech - Fiction [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-12-16  

"Today, I speak to you as your new President. I thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. We can now look forward, instead of into the past."

"With your help, I have broken many glass ceilings. The first female President. The first Black woman President. The first South Asian woman President. It would never have been possible without your faith in me. I intend to prove worthy of that faith."

"We start with a divided country. It doesn't have to be that way. The other side must give way to reality. We want what's best for them, too. We're all Americans."

"Over time, they will realize that hatred, bigotry and the faith in a false god, is not who they are, or what they want to be."

"We have come to a crossroads. As Yogi Berra once said, when you come to a fork in the road, take it. The choice in this election was two very different forks in the road. We will try to take the high road. I hope it will have the fewest bumps."

"It takes energy to go up. With your help and the new Congress, we can look to fortifying the basic rights of all segments of our society. The start is the enforcement of the new 28th Amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment. It has been a long road to get where we are today. It all started in 1923. It passed the House of Representatives and the Senate in 1972. It has been waiting for ratification by two-thirds of the states. That is done. I will direct the National Archivist to publish it and it will be part of the Constitution of the United States."

"It's text is not complicated. It says, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex."

"It is the missing kingpin in 'liberty, equality and fraternity. That is the national motto of France, where it is liberté, égalité, fraternité.'"

"I will do everything in my power to codify Roe v, Wade so it is the law of the land. We all understand the principle of states rights, but this should be a national right without question. Would you want the Freedom of Speech to be different, state by state? A woman's access to necessary health care was a right, until it wasn't. A decision by our highest court made a mistake. We can correct that. That's why Congress makes laws, not the courts. Courts are there to interpret laws when it is necessary. I and my counsels will investigate what can be done by executive order until the law is passed."

"Freedom. I promised it to you as the theme of my campaign. There is nothing I cherish more. It is what you are all entitled to as citizens of the United States. It means the freedom to think, to live, to be."

"We face a world fractured by problems of our own creation. Some of them must be solved if we want to keep living on this planet in the not too distant future. First, we must halt climate change. On our present course, food will stop growing, fresh water will begin disappearing, and we cannot live without both."

"We need to lead by example for the rest of the world. We must show our serious commitment to being the leader in renewable energy. Only that will allow us to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. We need to do this to leave a world to our children and our children's children in which they can thrive, as well as survive."

"The world beyond our borders is not a stable place. War continues in too many places. Whole populations attacked and dispossessed of their homes and homelands. We have to make it possible for wars to stop. This means a strong military to put out conflagrations. It means more than that. We have the strongest economy on the Earth, but can help in ways beyond finance. We lead in science. We can help them in ways they cannot conceive of themselves."

"In many countries, food security is unknown. A full belly does not need war, and has no proclivity to it. We don't have to give them a handout when we show them how to grow their own in their conditions. We can provide them with seeds that grow in distressed soil."

"America First does not mean a withdrawal from the world stage. We stay first by being the leader of it. We are great and are becoming greater each day we treat each other as equals. Peace at home means we can help the rest of the world more. It's not a matter of can we, it's a matter that we must."

"We must ignore those who try to divide us with the siren song of bigotry and hate. There was a time when the whole United States, children and adults, all sacrificed for the greater good that gave us the power to stop fascism in Europe. We have to stop it here, now. There is no place for it in our society."

"A wise man named Martin Niemöller said, 'First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one to speak for me.'"

"That's what fascism is. It makes you afraid to speak out, when it is your duty to do so. It makes you second guess yourself, when you shouldn't need to. It makes you feel small. Those that use it's tactics need to be shunned and rebuked. They can rejoin the human race when they give up their hate."

"You would probably like to hear specifics for programs I touched upon in the campaign. First would be extending the Child Tax Credit that took many out of poverty and kept them fed. We need to solve the Child Care crisis. To fund new programs, you need new revenue. The Inflation Reduction Act increased money for the IRS to go after the rich and corporations that were not paying their fair share. Studies have shown that for every dollar funded to the IRS, the return is six to twelve dollars. I would continue to increase funding to the IRS as is necessary."

"Tariffs are not a path we should take as a revenue source. It's a disguised sales tax on whatever you buy covered by the tariff. They should only be used in cases of unfair competition, such as when a foreign government subsides a product to sell below cost to take over the trading of a commodity, such as what happened with steel and aluminum."

The only regular resource for revenue growth is taxes. There is one area that is out of balance, and that is untaxed gains of the wealthy. A capital gains tax. I will carry on the policy of not increasing taxes of anyone making less than $400,000 a year. But it is time for the wealthy to pay their fair share."

"Corporations also need to pay their fair share. Too often wildly profitable companies do not pass along those benefits to their workers and instead give huge bonuses to CEOs and spend on stock buyback that only benefit the already rich. We can fix this."

"I intend to increase long-term capital gains from 20% to 28%, and the corporate tax rate from 21% to also 28%. Over a 10-year span, this could increase revenue by $7.5 trillion dollars. Key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are due to expire at the end of 2025. I intend to let them do so to increase revenue. They were only designed to benefit the wealthy and corporations at the expense of the middle class."

"The last area is how we spend what we already have. Social programs like Social Security and Medicare, I consider untouchable. But the military budget increases each year. When each audit starts with the Inspector General's "disclaimer of opinion," that means there has not been a clean audit. Something that the General Accounting Office can stand behind. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be spending on our military. I'm saying we should be getting our money's worth. Outmoded weaponry needs to be retired when the cost outweighs the benefit. It's almost always a given that for any military program, there will be cost overruns. The contractor doesn't pay for this. We do. That practice should end. It would never be accepted in the private sector. Why should it be in the military? This never-ending cycle is why the defense budget is reaching a trillion dollars a year. I simply ask that each taxpayer dollar be spent in defense of freedom, not to reward military contractors and subcontractors for mismanagement."

"I look forward to additional reports from the General Accounting Office that lay bare the usefulness of programs that do not produce the cost/benefit desired."

"We have ignored our infrastructure for way too long. It is time to refurbish the old and build new railroads. High-speed trains. While we start to build trains to go 220 miles per hour, China is building ones to go 620 miles per hour. Faster than commercial jet airplanes."

"Europe found out 150 years ago that trains were essential to the economy. It is the cheapest way to move people and goods. We need more, not less. Railroad workers need to receive the benefits they deserve."

"The effects of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure act are finally coming to pass. Bridges are being built and rebuilt. Roads are being paved and new roads being laid."

"The CHIPS Act is keeping science and technology here, where we can not only design chips, but also manufacture them. The jobs of building the facilities, and the permanent jobs of design and manufacturing will be felt far into our future."

"One of your biggest concerns expressed during the campaign was the economy and prices. Inflation has been brought down to a little over 2% yearly. Prices of groceries are controlled by supply and demand. But, some have taken the cost of supply chain problems, after they were solved, and kept prices high for more profit. We can't force price changes, but we can point out which ones are unrealistically high."

"Why are the price of eggs so high? Because the bird flu caused millions of chickens to have to be destroyed. That was for your safety. Less chickens, less eggs, demand causes prices to go up. The bird flu has not gone away and has actually spread to other animals such as cows, threatening the milk supply. The FDA is doing what it has to, to keep food safe."

"I have promised a federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries. The mechanism for this is being investigated. This is not something that I can do by Executive Order alone. There has to be legislation to pass both Houses of Congress. I will work with them in order to get the law written and passed."

"The price of gasoline was a common concern during the campaign. The production of oil in the United States is at an all time high. We surpassed consumption with production in 2019, and it has stayed that way since, so why are prices not coming down? This is complicated, so bear with me. There are different grades of oil companies pump out of the ground. Heavy oil and light sweet crude. It is cheaper for refiners to import heavy crude and refine it, and then export the light sweet crude at higher prices. This balancing act is worldwide, but oil companies are reaping large profits. There are even tax exemptions and subsidies for companies to expand exploration. Do we still need those? To restrict the increase in price and make it go down, would require an act of Congress. The government interjecting itself into business practices can sometimes backfire. Regulation has to be shown as necessary. I can only promise that I will do what I can legally do."

"Small businesses are the backbone of our country. My goal during my four years in office is to help 25 million new businesses get started. Tax incentives will be from $5,000 to $50,000. Getting started is the hardest part. This will make it more possible for more to succeed."

"Unfair trade practices by China will be met with a resolve to eliminate them. These can range from China artificially bolstering the value of their currency, the Yuan, to price dumping products on our markets. This allows them to sell below cost and strangle competition. They have done it with steel, and food products like crawfish. We will take whatever means necessary to prevent this from happening again."

"The Chips Act should be a start, not an end, to our path forward with technology. We also need to be the leader in clean energy and artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence can be both powerful and harmful. It should be a tool that we still control. Done correctly, it can benefit mankind. Used incorrectly, it could take his down a dangerous path. It may be necessary at some point to create some sort of regulation on its use, without hindering its progress. Congress will debate this in the near future."

"Something we must do, if we want to maintain our reputation on the world stage with authority, is to end the deadly scourge of gun proliferation. Death by gunfire eclipsed all other causes of death of children years ago. We cannot keep saying our thoughts and prayers go out to their loved ones and do nothing. It cannot be allowed to continue. States have relaxed, not strengthened, gun laws. Open carry and concealed weapons are allowed without licensing or training. Some states have gone so far as to say their relaxed laws superceed those of their neighbors. The only solution is for federal laws to be passed. Common sense laws like universal background checks. Closing the gun show loophole. Required safe storage and gun locks to keep children from killing themselves, their siblings and their parents. There should be a computerized registration database, not to take away your guns, but to be able to trace those used in crimes or stolen.

There is one gun type that needs to be banned, and that is assault rifles. Too often, these weapons of war have been used in school and other mass shootings. The Second Amendment is not sacrosanct. There have to be interpretations for modern weaponry. When the Constitution was written, what we had were single shot rifles and it would take a good rifleman 30 seconds to reload. Some as long as a minute. Compare that today with a semi-automatic rifle that can can fire in the hundreds of rounds a minute, especially with bump stocks and modifications that turn them into machine guns."

"The Second Amendment starts with the words, 'A well regulated Militia.' This was the army of the United States. Men needed to bring their own rifle to the fight. That was why the right to bear arms should not be infringed. King George tried taking ours away so we could not fight back. That's the reason for the Second Amendment. To believe anything else is to not understand history. Our gun laws are not to take away your guns. It's to keep people from killing others, as well as ourselves."

"All of the nation has something to say about immigration, positive and negative. We tried last year to pass a comprehensive immigration bill that would have begun solving the problems. Republicans and Democrats alike wanted to pass it. But a political opponent of mine made sure it did not pass, to give him a drum to bang loudly that nothing was being done. You saw through that subtrfuge. I will ask Congress to revive that bill and put it on my desk to be signed. Then we can start to fix other problems that solution did not accomplish. This is an ongoing problem, and we need to continue solving it each day."

"Crime is down across the country, but any is too much. We have to support our law enforcement officers and at the same time, give them clearcut guidelines on the use of force, so deadly misunderstandings no longer occur. In 2021, there was a law that passed the House, which died in the Senate, to address these problems. I ask Congress to act anew to pass a complete justice reform bill to address our present problems."

There are two conflicts I must address. Ukraine cannot be allowed to lose. Their people are fighting Russia instead of us. Make no mistake. If Russia overruns Ukraine, Putin will not stop there. He will invade another NATO country and then the cost is incalculable. We will lose troops on the ground and in the air because of Article 5 of the NATO pact. If one NATO country is attacked, we all act as one to defend. It is our responsibility to abide by it as NATO countries did for us after 9/11. That is the only time it has ever been called into play. I hope it is the last.

The Middle East is on fire once again. Israel did not start this, and we will always defend Israel's right to exist and defend itself, but a humanitarian solution must be found. A two state solution must be made. Too many innocent civilians are caught in a crossfire of a conflict whose origins go back literally thousands of years. The creation of Israel in 1948 did not solve the problem. It created a new one when Israel was attacked by Arab countries. There have been conflicts and all out wars since then."

"For a peaceful resolution, it is up to the Israelis and Palestinians to come to a solution. Each must realize that they will not get everything they want. It will most likely involve upheavals in both societies. Israel may have to withdraw from lands taken in war. Palestinians may have to give up their right to return to land that was divided between Israel and Palestine in 1948. If neither will bargain, negotiations are doomed. Too many have died on both sides of this conflict. It cannot be allowed to continue. We stand ready and offer whatever help is needed to start the permanent peace process."

Political slogans go back to the beginning of the United States of America. 'First in war, first in peace' was in 1852 by Winfield Scott. 'The Union must and shall be preserved' by Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Warren G. Harding said 'America First' in 1920. 'Happy days are here again' is what FDR promised in 1932. JFK proclaimed 'A time for greatness." In 1968, Hubert Humphrey said, 'Some talk change, others cause it.' 'Yes we can' and 'Hope' are what Barack Obama promised in 2008. 'Forward' in 2012. And 'Restore the soul of America' by my friend, Joe Biden, in 2020.

"Presidential politics are over now. I've got four years of hard work ahead of me. Hard work is good work and we will do it with joy."

"I look forward to a kinder, gentler time, where we all benefit from peace and tranquility."

"Thank you for giving me this opportunity to lead you into the future. God bless you and God bless the United States of America."

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