Is it just me, or is anyone else sick of everyone bitching, but not offering a single solution to any problem? So, I sat down and tried to figure out, if I was elected dictator of the good ole USA, what would I do. This should offend plenty of people on both sides and give us plenty to talk about. I'd be curious to see what type of feedback I generate on these solutions though, and also see what you guys think could be done to fix any number of our problems. 1) Overall spending has to be cut. So called "earmarks" and "pork spending" should not be allowed to be put in as a rider on major legislation. If a senator or congressman wants a particular project and money for his district, it must be able to pass as a stand alone measure. 2)BRING OUR TROOPS HOME from nonessential places in Europe, Asia etc. They can get their own damn armies and fight their wars, should one occur. We have our own fight right now, and we can not afford to continue being the entire Western World's army. 3) Raise the retirement age to at least 68, preferably 70. People are living much longer and healthier lives than when SSI was introduced. I would not change Medicare benefits at all because older and sick people generally have a hard time finding affordable coverage , so this part of the system would remain as it is as far as payouts go. 4)Remove the maximum income cutoff on SSI taxes, currently you stop paying SSI tax around $105,000 in income. I would keep the current tax rate on all income under about $80,000 per year, and on income over $80,000 I would tax at half of the rate taxxed under $80K. 5) Cut corp. tax rates by at least 25%. American companies are cuttently amongst the most taxxed in the world, its no wonder good jobs are leaving America, the suprising part is that more have not. 6) Cut long term capital gains in half and have no taxation on dividends. I would also change the definition of a short term capital gain to anything held for less than 1 quarter (ie 3 months). I would, however, raise the short term capital gains tax by about 10%, with exemptions made to critical liquidity providers such as Market Makers, Floor Traders, Specialists and other market professionals (Ie those claiming trader status) 7) Combine many federal agencies. Why do we need an FBI, ATF and DEA who largely do the same things and then fued amongst each other about it. Combine these into one Federal Force under a single adminstrative and command structure. Similarly I would combine the various branches of our Milatary in a manner similar to what Isreal has with the IDF, Canada with its milatary etc. I would cut overall milatary spending very little, if at all, however the admininstrative and other expense savings would probably be substantial by doing this. With the savings from this move I would increase the number of soldiers in critical combat arms, intel and logistical jobs such as Infantry, Special Forces, Logistics, armour etc. I would also use parts of the savings to add more funding for better training of our soldiers and better technology. Any amount left over would be used to increase the pay and benefits available to members of the armed forces, who are overall terribly underpaid. So, there you have it. I have more than enough things in here to piss off people on both sides of the isle I suspect. However, I do think that these ideas represent reasonable and practical solutions to very real problems. Of course our political parties seem more interested in their own agenda's, so its doubtful any type of program such as this would ever pass - but if this or something similar was done I think we would be in much better shape for it. Like I said, if any of you have additional ideas or thoughts on mine I'd like to see them. I am very proud to be an American and have always thought our country, people and system to be the best the world has- but this has been achieved over time by us working together to make the USA better. With the way politics are these days I sometimes find myself fearful of our future.
You've had all this time, and you obviously haven't read Obama's 60 page policy paper. So stop, take an hour, and read it. You might not agree with everything, but at least you'll be informed of what solutions he's offering.
No offense sport... but after reading all your IGNORANT crap on these messsage board in the past few months... I see people like you as a BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM... and not the solution. It's scary, really, that I am walking on the same streets as guys like you and a few others on this forum... in the USA!
Okay, okay, I'm sorry -- please feel free to create long posts which recap each candidate's policy stances as if they haven't already been covered.
Why is there the automatic assumption that if I do not support Obama I must then be an evil racist republican? In 2000 I was a delegate to the county convention for Wes Clark, and later served as a volunteer for John Kerry. This year I volunteered for Bill Richardson's campaign here in Iowa and also for Tom Harkin, who I voted for last week. From 1999 until 2003 I had a position with the county democratic party until they threw me off the island because I would not oppose the troops, support sex education to 4th graders that included an introduction to gay family dynamics and a number of other things that a large group of radical party members wanted to support, and ultimatly it was voted for. When I watched Barak Obama speak at the 2004 Democratic convention I saw a man who gave a great speach and hoped he would some day run for president. When I did I was every excited until I met him (which is very easy to do in Iowa btw) and started to look into his past, at which point I could no longer support him. I have no objection to higher taxes to take care of the current problems we have like Social Security, Medicare and the national debt. I don't think though that we should be increasing spending on anything UNTIL at least we take care of the problems we have, I do have an objection to higher taxes in that case. If being a fairly moderate and open minded person makes me a part of the problem then I guess I'm a huge ass problem.
Nah, I'm obviously just a big part of the problem with America But seriously I have thought of running in the past, even seriously looked at how to set myself up to be a member of the State of Iowa Assembly. The truth is though that at this point both parties are run by the radical factions and I don't feel very comfortable with either one of them, but then most of the independent parties are run by whackadoodle's too, so it really does leave a person who has issues he identifies with on both sides kind of out of the lurch.
I didn't assume that -- only that after months of campaigning you never read their stances. McCain is for your stance on earmarks. Obama, by contrast, helped set up a database so that people could track earmarks and see what their elected officials are doing. Plus Obama sponsored a bill to force officials who add earmarks to put their names on them (no more Ted Stevens bullshit). Plus his bill wanted earmark recipients to disclose any lobbyists who received any money involved, and the names of the lobbyists. McCain's stance is fine. Obama's stance is fucking unbeatable.
I never claimed that any of the idea's I posted are original with the exception of abolishing the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corp in favor of a joint service and the same for the Federal Law agencies (I've not seen that, though i'm sure some have proposed it as well). I freely admit to having ripped them off from various candidates running for various offices.