I wish President-elect Barack Obama well. I didn’t vote for him, but God knows, he enters office with major problems at home and abroad.

To paraphrase him, things will get worse before they get better, so I plan to pray for him, and hope his decisions lead the nation in the right direction.

Obama’s stimulus package is a good start. In my financial situation, a stimulus check would certainly help. Three hundred billion dollars in tax cuts for businesses will create jobs.

But any momentum the stimulus package creates needs to be sustained. I hope Obama is open-minded enough to try new initiatives to keep the economy moving forward.

One such measure is for the federal government to set aside impoverished areas, making them tax-free zones. Allow businesses to operate tax-free for a period of time. Give folks the incentive to move into America’s hardest-hit areas, start businesses, create jobs.

Free enterprise zones have been talked about for years. Luis Munoz Marin, a liberal, embraced free enterprise zones as a means to lift Puerto Ricans out of poverty. Jack Kemp imported that idea and President Ronald Reagan incorporated it into his budget proposals.

The Republican Congress in the 1990s, when members still acted like Republicans, wanted to turn Washington, D.C., into an enterprise zone. President George W. Bush called for enterprise zones in the Gulf region after Katrina. President Bill Clinton called for enterprise zones, as well. I’m hoping that the Obama administration actually implements that great idea.

Jim Sorcek, Lewiston