If You Could Be President...

[HipKat]

What would you do?? I thought about this and here's what I came up with

TBH, if I were President, and could enforce my ideas, I'd do a lot of things different.

WASHINGTON
End of lobbyists. Period.
End of bills for one thing that have clauses for another in the small print.
Congressional wage freezes until the budget is balanced and the deficit is gone. I like the idea of ALL budgets WILL be balanced yearly. That transcends right down the line to the states. Unbalanced budgets equals cuts in Federal services
More transparency, for sure. Obviously we cannot know every detail of every thing that happens in Washington, but still.
And mostly, the amount spent on elections needs to be severely regulated. Elections should no longer be allowed to be bought instead of earned.

Repeal or overhaul the Patriot Act.

The Borders
Face it, we're at war with idealists who have no restraint. The borders get sealed to the south, more heavily guarded to the north.

The military of the United States is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world, with over 160,000 of its active-duty personnel serving outside the United States and its territories and an additional 110,000 deployed in various contingency operations. US troops are spread across the globe: approximately 68,000 are stationed in Europe; approximately 80,000 in East Asia and the Pacific region; nearly 4,900 in North Africa, the Near East, and South Asia; over 1,750 in the Western Hemisphere; nearly 400 in Sub-Saharan Africa; and less than 100 in states of the former Soviet Union. Of those in Europe, most of the military personnel are located at installations activated during the Cold War, by which the US government sought to challenge the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II.

It's time to bring them home and let them serve their country IN their country. We can keep advisers in other countries assigned to various embassies but there is no need to that many soldiers to do nothing but live in Europe, South East Asia, etc for 18 months doing nothing but hitting the motor pool every day and the field for training every week or so. Overseas duty anymore is just a chance to play soldier in another country.

Our borders are unsafe and being over run by drug cartels and illegal immigrants. I still say we welcome your poor, tired, etc, but by LEGAL means.

Taxes
Strip the tax code, completely and institute a flat tax. I watched Jerry Brown talk about a 15% flat tax in 1980 on the Phil Donahue show, I still remember it, 15% across the board. It made sense then and it does now. Close the loopholes, that give people the chance to be fraudulent in the way they escape paying their fair share.

Welfare
End all corporate welfare. No one in Washington is helping me run MY business, why should Wall Street be any different? If a business is not self sustainable, then too bad. Competition is always ready to step in.

Food stamp restrictions. You cannot stop someone from buying Dorritos, completely, but you sure can limit it. In Korea, we had Ration Cards for the PX. They were designed to stop black marketing of goods to Koreans for cash. Everything had a limit. Say for example, 4 Cartons of cigarettes, 2 bottles of whiskey, 5 loaves of bread, 5 gallons of milk, etc (All made up numbers, btw).

The same thing should be in place for Food Stamps. Hell, we did it without computers in 1984. ID needs to be supplied with any Food Stamp Purchase, ending the sale of Link for Money.

In the 70's people on welfare were more supervised. My mom couldn't get welfare; we had a car that worked. Stricter regulations and supervision would decrease Welfare fraud. Limits, with bona fide exceptions should be implemented. Peoria's, for example, job market is bad, but not THAT bad that the Social Services office should have a line out the door every single day. We need more hands on job training and education for people of working age to not just find jobs, but how to spend their money, how to climb the ladder, how to look for the next job. Make working a lifestyle, not collecting welfare.

Welfare should be hard to get, not easy

Education
It's disgusting that we rank so low in Education. Curriculum needs to be overhauled. Parents need a stronger voice in their children's education.

I think that's a good start....

[FisherRd]

I'd make sure amputees got half off well drinks on Fridays.

[HipKat]

I'd make sure amputees got half off well drinks on Fridays.

Winning!

Really makes the phrase "I'd give my left arm for..." a lot more compelling

[nickelcityhomes]

Amputate myself so I could drink for half-off.

[joe d.]

How about requiring Social Service recipients who are physically able to do COMMUNITY WORK daily for their free money ! Sweeping streets, picking up garbage, helping out in Community centers..there's a whole agenda of assistance that could help our city to improve in our quality of life.

[Save Us]

Abolish the Federal Reserve

[qu1nn]

end emergency war powers
reinstate the original 13th to make the accepting of emoluments a crime with the removal of "citizenship"

[WNYresident]

If You Could Be President...

You should not mislead the public.

[Save Us]

If You Could Be President...

You should not mislead the public.

Then ye shall not elected.

It's about giving things to people, and we're fresh out of stuff to give away.

[WNYresident]

Lying to your country is so wrong on so many levels.

[joe d.]

Lying to your country is so wrong on so many levels.

But...it has been a successful method of election at all levels of politics...and so this is why it continues!

[WNYresident]

But...it has been a successful method of election at all levels of politics...and so this is why it continues!

Us property/business owners need to expose this. Lets just review the endorsements of the www.ecdems.com party.

They endorsed Obama. The you can keep your doctor, health insurance and rates would be lower candidate... Along with other BS along the way..

They endorsed Hillary when she was carpet bagging looking for a spot in New York State.. Wasn't that promise upwards of 200,000 jobs?

They endorsed Cuomo. I'll get to the bottom of corruption in Albany.. BUT if you come near my corrupt friends we'll just stop the commission...

and so on...

[HipKat]

Abolish the Federal Reserve

That's such a good one, right there

[Sam_Eagle]

If I was President, I would create my own laws. Who cares about the Constitution?