There will be an enormous task ahead of the Democrats once/should they assume power in January.  We will be facing a healthy recession with the potential of economic stagnation and growth recession following it.  The financial system will be fixed.  The bailout indicating that policy makers are not afraid of moral hazard on wall street, we will continue to buy up bad debt and inject liquidity until the market stabilizes.  Afterwards, the Democrats will need new and innovative techniques to spur long term economic growth.  Here is how we should do it.

Fix Healthcare and don't let Obama's plan pass.  The biggest threat to our economy today minus the housing crisis is healthcare.  Our healthcare sector far surpasses all other OECD countries in percentage gdp, cost of insurance, and the cost of individual health services.  Obama's plan barely addresses many of the issues that cause this.  We need to pool risk broader, address moral hazard appropriately, regulate health markets and doctors salaries, force doctors to serve as general practice doctors for an extended period of time before specializing, provide litigation protection, prevent insurance companies from spending money on skimming applicants, etc.  Obama's plan does not adequately address many of these issues. 

Trade More Not Less Let's see how republicans like it when its the wealthy having their jobs outsourced.  Make doctors compete with doctors in canada who charge far less, let students overseas take the bar exam and argue cases before court via videophone, let the best professors from foreign universities teach classes here over the internet, make pharmaceutical companies compete with foreign competitors, etc. etc.  Make competition work for all of us, not just the rich.  Provide one time grants to people who lose their jobs overseas to train themselves for a new position.  Simple economics, let the winners compensate the losers, make them invest in their skills to better compete in a global marketplace.

Fix Education Invest invest invest in education.  We need to have the most compelling workforce in the world.  Education is a positive externality, everyone else benefits from you being highly educated.  INVEST in education and we will all be better off.  We need the world's best scientists, engineers, mathmaticians, etc etc.