President Me.

Hey, I'll play, but I gotta give this some thought. As President, I should carefully consider and construct my platform. Back soon, I promise.

I'll play, and I'll shoot from the hip, because frankly it would be hard to do worse than Clinton or Bush.

(In no particular order...)

1) Push for passage of the Enumerated Powers Act (HR 384), and begin to look for ways to repeal existing legislation, programs and practices that do not meet a strict Constitutional muster.

2) Push for repeal of the 16th Amendment and the creation of a national sales (or VAT) tax to replace the income tax.

3) Withdraw most-favored nation trade status from China, pending real improvements in their civil rights record. (Fix other glaring foreign policy blunders as needed.)

4) Overhaul immigration and work to create real safeguards for our borders, and real policies for dealing with cross-border labor forces.

5) Hire the best looking 19 year old intern I can find and fantasize about her while making it with the first lady.

==========================

Oh, and someone has already begun my campaign... Scrat for President

I'll play along but these will probably come at random times.. I just can't organize 5 ideas at one time! lol

Anyway, one of them would be to work on getting a full and complete disclosure of who spends what in the Federal government.

That would quickly be followed with a restructuring of Federal level government as we know it. There is, IMO, little need for 17 different Intelligence agencies at the Federal level as well as 13 different law enforcement agencies (I'm talking badge carrying people there..), etc...

The Dept. of Defense has no business in running any Foreign affairs projects or being responsible for delivering foreign aid. There are way to many "agencies" running around out there all competing with each other just to maintain their own funding levels.

That's not to say that departments and agencies don't need others at times but if they do they should have inter-govermental contracts instead of the Congress handing the $$ to the other agency as is done now. The State Dept. is responsible for running Foreign Affairs. If they need the DoD for something then Congress gives the money to the State Dept. and the State Dept. pays the DoD's bills for whatever they need them to do.

All of this would allow the general public to see exactly where and how their money is being spent and it would reduce tons of bearucratic overhead.

Scrat--
The illegal border crossing and culpable hiring of illegals is a big issue, IMO.

I don't know what the ramifications of global trade would be re: MFNS and China--but I was very upset, when Bush I re-upped it after Tiannenmen Square.

Fishin'--
Sometimes I think the 'waste' in govt spending is camoflague for corruption. I can't believe they are no more accountable for where the hell all our money is going. I think your plan is a good way to address it.

I have settled on some priorities. I'll add the specific actions later (when I figure out what the heck some of them are...
1) Improve healthcare options for everyone.
2) Replace or supplement Medicaid, with the primary responsibility NOT resting on the govt.
3) Stop the outward flow of jobs. (Unions beware.)
4) Work to build an international group to replace the UN, considering the EU as one voice, to reflect the geopolitical changes since the end of the Cold War. And, look at NATO with the same critical eye.
5) Fiscal responsibility within and without. Take a hard look at the money spent internally, as fishin' states--and also the financial aid we send to other countries. Use most of the outgo to properly staff VA services, make government housing a decent place to live, build urban and rural free health clinics, pay good teachers more, pay police and firefighters more... I would take a pay cut, and so would Congress if I could force it.

They look sort of Isolationist. That's not intended. We can be good neighbors, without paying for everything. I might give 'em Kyoto. I could afford it with all the money I'd be saving. :wink:

Just one quick comment about VA services since you mention them Sophia - the fastest way to "fix" the VA problem is to repeal the legislation that was passed in 1997 or 1998 that opened the doors of the VA to millions of people that, IMO, should never be using VA services to begin with.

VA Medical care was setup to assist people with illnesses/disabilities due to their military service and has no business providing medical care to their families, family members of active duty military, and routine medical care for vets. Under the current law anyone that serves 180 days on active duty can use the VA medical system for the rest of their life. This is a benefit of unequeal proportion to anything else I know of and VA patient load has tripled in the 5 years since the legislation passed.

Hell, I did a stint in the US Navy a ways back. Are you telling me I've been wasting my money on health insurance for myself and my family?

LOL Well, I don't know that I'd give up that health insurance yet but.. Yeah, you probably do qualify. If nothing else you'd come in at priority "8e" (Noncompensable 0% service-connected veterans applying for enrollment after January 16, 2003 - in other words, you have no service related disability and are applying now..).

Go stand in line.. The doctor will see you in 237 hours.

ROFLMAO!

And how many Americans want the entire population served by such a system?

Exactly, Scrat! VA healthcare is a peek at what govt healthcare would be. It is currently imploding.

One at a time, and probably not in priority order.

Reduce the role of the Federal government to those essentials clearly necessary to govern the nation. This is one of those things that conservative Presidential candidates always promise, before finding out that it is almost impossible to actually achieve. There are far too many programs, offices, and regulations that serve little or no purpose.

One example, in the early part of the 20th century Congress established a committee to standardize screw threads. A laudable and important element in the development of interchangable parts. The committee was very successful, and standardization was achieved within a decade. That committee lives on and every year claims a sizable budget, even though there hasn't been anything for it to do in over seventy-five years. The examples of this sort of waste are so easy to come by that it is a national shame.

Pork-barrel amendments are a notorious source for these sorts of programs and legislation that add to the cost of government, while generally stiffeling initiative by the States and individuals. Military bases are a good example. The military for decades wanted to close the small, expensive bases scattered across the countryside, but Congress wouldn't permit any losses to their own constituents. The solution was for a panel to review the bases and produce a list of bases that needed to be closed. Congress couldn't revise the list and had to either vote the entire list up, or down. A similar process conducted more broadly, something the GAO should be uniquely qualified to do (hah), might help to trim some of the dead wood from the Federal government. A second tactic that would pay great dividends would be to give the President a line-item veto.

Reducing the number size of government should have two major effects: first, it should reduce the cost of government, and secondly, it should encourage individuals and States to act locally. Reducing costs might actually help us eventually achieve something close to a balanced budget. A smaller national debt would be good for the economy, and most citizens. On the other hand, few dollars wasted would mean that more dollars would be available for truely important programs.

By reducing government involvement in the nation's affairs, States and individuals would be freer to pursue those goals that are important to them personally. Reduced regulation itself encourages people to save and invest, to start businesses and develop new and better ways of doing things.

I think we, as a nation, need to stop expecting the Federal government to be all things for all seasons. We need to recapture the balance between the individual's rights and society's needs, between the States and the Federal government. In a free society some people will do wonderfully well, and some will fail miserably. That's a risk that comes with freedom. There is nothing wrong with success, and failure doesn't mean that a person is necessarily unworthy. When we reach too far and fail, we learn and try again, and again, until we succeed. Government should encourage that striving for personal success, not hamper it by overly regulating the world.

The Great Communicator might have been on the verge of brain death, but his efforts to reduce government were largely responsible for the the economic good times that followed. His military spending greatly inflated the national debt, but it also brought an end to the Cold War. When we were children we lived under the constant threat of nuclear holocaust. Our grandchildren may inherit a huge national debt, but the danger that they will die from the most horrible of war's weapons is virtually nil. Lets win another one for the Gipper.

Figure a way to hire Tony Blair as Secretary of state.

Hire American, Chinese, Japanese, and East Indian advisors to help me figure out how we can elevate engineers, scientists, ethicists, artists, and philosophers to the level of sports heroes. Certain authors as Stephen J. Gould and Carl Sagan would be required reading in the hope that a little critical thinking may rub off on the reader. This in turn would raise the quality of not only consumers of media products but the products of that industry.

Invest in education by trying to figure out how we can reward good teachers and encourage the best to flourish and remain in the profession. Make sure the resultant system is available to all children.

The last two would produce citizens capable of sustaining not only American Industry but a strong libertarian democracy. In turn these would feed on each other.

I would absolutely love to figure a way to have some sort of health care system that would be available and equal to those who work and pay taxes. I know, I know... but just think healthy, working, well educated citizens with Baloney dectectors!

But Sophia why just 5 wishes? Can we use the 5th priority to work for 2 more...or three or...?

Obviously, I am not in total agreement with some here and my definition of "necessary governmental services" may differ from others. I do think that after present Social Security committments are exhausted this abomination should be terminated. I could have done much better after 40 or 50 years managing my money than a couple of large a month when I retire at 65. Oh... and don't get me started on SS expansion into the Aid of dependant children and...

JM

Asherman - Good comments, as always. I would share your goal of trimming back the federal government to the minimum constitutionally enumerated powers, but assume that the way to start doing so is to stop creating new programs and powers that are beyond those mandates and then look for places we can rein things back in.

(And I assume that when you write "necessary" you mean "Constitutional". I think a big problem with our government is too broad a concept of what is "necessary".)