Okay, politics aside, how would *you* fix the USA?

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JKing106

Platinum Member
Mar 19, 2009
2,193
0
0
Why is it every time I hear "State's Rights," I have visions of black people being ejected en masse from the southern states?
 

davmat787

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2010
5,513
24
76
Why is it every time I hear "State's Rights," I have visions of black people being ejected en masse from the southern states?

Because you are an idiot ruled by anger and other base emotions, instead of looking at what states have done in regards to progressive issues I assume you agree with, like gay marriage and medical marijuana.
 

JKing106

Platinum Member
Mar 19, 2009
2,193
0
0
Because you are an idiot ruled by anger and other base emotions, instead of looking at what states have done in regards to progressive issues I assume you agree with, like gay marriage and medical marijuana.

Fair enough.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
68,848
26,629
136
A strict balanced budget amendment w/ no exceptions. You want a war? Pay for it, right here, right now.

Get government out of the primary election business. Government has no legitimate role in helping parties pick their candidates.

Single payer health care system paid for via higher income taxes.
 

Zorkorist

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2007
6,861
3
76
I would immediately limit lawyers sueing anyone. Guess what, you choose to live here, so therefore, you cn't sue everyone, for everything.

I would then outlaw insurance companies. Stop stealing money (with the force of Government.)

Finally, I would pass a balanced budget amendment.

-John
 

Slew Foot

Lifer
Sep 22, 2005
12,381
96
86
1. Abolish currency
2. All Americans work 40 hours a week doing a job assigned to them by the government.
3. Those who dont work get executed
4. All services and products are free
 

BlueWolf47

Senior member
Apr 22, 2005
653
0
76
1.Campaign finace reform. Lobbying reform.
2. Term limits
3. Wait till the majority of elected officials are replaced by individuals who dont cater to corporations and other private interests.
4.actually address the issues. ex: reduce deficit( increase revenue, cut spending), entitlement reform, fix the wealth disparity ( tax cuts for middle class, tax increases for top income earners, increase captial gains tax), address climate change, reduce military spending, reinact the Glass-steagle act, invest infrastructure, invest in education, invest in clean energy, invest more in NASA, increase research grants, end corporate welfare and subsidies.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
62,678
11,019
136
Abolish all free trade agreements.
Reinstate Glass-Steagall.
Tax capital gains as income.
Raise income tax for the top bracket to pre-Reagan 70%.
Shut down all foreign military bases in countries that have not been antagonistic with 10 years.
Overturn Citizens United.

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

I agree with all of those above...but would also add...make political corruption a death penalty offense...and actually execute those on death row, plus, abolish the "corporations are people" interpretation by the USSC. Corporations are business entities made up of people...but of and by themselves, they are NOT people. (you can't put a dishonest corporation in jail...so they don't get to play politics.)
 

sportage

Lifer
Feb 1, 2008
11,493
3,159
136
liberalism is a mental disorder.

Thats rich. I believe its the republicans that see boogie men in the shadows.
Gay boogie men, black boogie men, female boogie men, hispanic boogie men.
Wanna talk about mental disorders???
 

JKing106

Platinum Member
Mar 19, 2009
2,193
0
0
Thats rich. I believe its the republicans that see boogie men in the shadows.
Gay boogie men, black boogie men, female boogie men, hispanic boogie men.
Wanna talk about mental disorders???

A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling 'Stop!'

William F. Buckley, Jr.
 

child of wonder

Diamond Member
Aug 31, 2006
8,307
175
106
Get rid of our stupid tax system and replace it with a much more simple and fair tax system, such as a flat progressive tax.

All money from $1-$20,000 is taxed at 1%, $20,001-$50,000 is taxed at 5%, $50,001-$75,000 is taxed at 10%, $75,000-$150,000 is taxed at 15%, %150,001-$250,000 20%, and so on. All these ridiculous loopholes, deductions, and credits would go away as well.

Welfare reform. Turn welfare into a temporary measure people can use to get back on their feet, not a career path. Offer incentives to those on unemployment and SS Disability to go out and work, such as previous year tax forgiveness on their benefits if they find a job within X months and get off the dole.

Anyone receiving government assistance would also be required to go on birth control, which would be federally subsidized. Anyone who wants basic birth control can have it free of charge.

Remove the tax exemption on churches and tax them just like any other business.
 

Smoblikat

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2011
5,184
107
106
1. Abolish currency
2. All Americans work 40 hours a week doing a job assigned to them by the government.
3. Those who dont work get executed
4. All services and products are free

You forgot about the part where you get rid of the amendments. Those pesky things always get in the way of good ol' communism.
 

lotus503

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2005
6,502
1
76
Hold a national tea party rally, when they all show up, dump a little anthrax on the crowd.

Country fixed!

Just kidding ;)


Publicly finance campaigns, outlaw all lobby.
 
Oct 30, 2004
11,442
32
91
and pull it out of this recession?

I would address our nation's problems with solutions. However, the general public would hate it. I would address our nation's problem with Global Labor Arbitrage, the concentration of wealth amongst a small percentage of the populace, our Malthusian problem, the money that we are wasting on unneeded excess higher education, and the money that we are wasting by keeping "consensual crimes" illegal.

In no particular order:

(1.) Complete moratorium on all immigration-legal and illegal--except for instances where someone is in the top 1% of performers in their field. Also, deport all of the illegals.

This would remove the huge social welfare costs our nation suffers for health care, education, housing, and criminal justice costs that result from the importation of impoverished people into a nation that already has tens of millions of its own impoverished people. It would also open up jobs for Americans.

(2.) I would impose a "Zero dollar trade deficit" policy on foreign goods and services. For every American dollar spent on foreign goods and services, people in other nations must purchase $1 worth of American goods. (In other words, end our trade deficit.)

(3.) The job and wage-destroying H-1B and L-1 visa policies would be eliminated and all visa holders except those who are in the top 1% of their fields would have to leave the country, which would open up jobs for American college graduates. Any company that wants to employ someone who is not an American citizen must pay a $50,000/year tax for each such person. ($50,000 doesn't seem so horrible in order to have someone who has "irreplaceable" talent.)

These three policies, which combat Global Labor Arbitrage, would also combat the concentration of wealth amongst the top 5%.

(4.) Raise taxes on the top 5% of Americans. Let's redistribute some of the wealth that was earned by the bottom 95% but that was improperly allocated to the top 5%.

(5.) Enact policies to encourage poor people to use birth control and to not have more children than they can afford to take care of. Do you want welfare benefits and do you already have one child? You need to get sterilized. We'll pay crack mothers to get sterilized. This policy would reduce the amount of money spent to pay for children born into impoverished families and it would help combat our nation's Malthusian problem. (Basically, the higher your population, the fewer resources you have per capita which means higher prices for those resources--such as land for growing food and raising beef, land for lumber, etc.)

(6.) End the costly and wasteful war on drugs by legalizing and producing drugs in this country. (Why should we send money to drug dealers and growers in other countries?) Also, legalize prostitution. Then tax all of it and use the tax money and the money saved on incarceration and on fighting the war on drugs to help people overcome drug addiction. (However, this might result in job losses amongst parasitic anti-drug law enforcement.)

(7.) End the problem of our nation investing far more money in higher education than it needs. Where is the sense in producing 2x or 3x the number of college graduates than our nation's economy can employ or utilize properly? I would create a system that ties higher education funding to the actual results. Instead of paying tuition, graduates would pay a certain percentage of their earnings back to the college over their lifetimes (a "human capital contract"), restoring market forces to higher education.

(8.) Invest in nuclear power and wind power. It's time to move beyond the outdated caveman means of generating power by burning stuff (which impose Global Warming and pollution costs).

(9.) Stop spending so much money overseas to engage in nation-building. I wouldn't end the war on the Taliban and Al Queada, but it would be targeted military strikes and not wasteful nation-building. Also, reduce our expensive military footprint abroad and our foreign aid budget. It's time to stop being the world's policeman.

(10.) Enact real Socialized Medicine. Our current system is wasteful and inefficient. Every other first world nation has some form of socialized medicine with 100% coverage, zero medical bankruptices, and businesses that aren't burdened by insurance concerns. Oh, they're also spending far less money than we are both in terms of % of GDP and in U.S. dollars. In contrast, our nation is spending 17% of it's GDP (compared to, say, 12%) while leaving tens of millions of Americans uninsured or under-insured and while suffering hundreds of thousands of medical cost bankruptcies every year while having a terrified populace and a business environment that's burdened with insurance concerns.
 
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nextJin

Golden Member
Apr 16, 2009
1,848
0
0
While trying to be realistic;

- Over an 8 year time period reduce government spending to Clinton era budgets. (adjusted for inflation)
- Abolish the income tax (possible with #1)
- Freeze any regulations for 8 years which can only be changed with a super majority and public vote.
- Ban any form of lobbying, and make it a federal offense.
- Term limits for any political office.
- Abolish NAFTA
- Tax capital gains using a progressive system, with very little waivers/exemptions.
- End all foreign wars, and bring the majority of the troops home. (exception with South Korea and Japan)
- End the war on drugs and release anyone serving time in prison for simple use or possession.
- Abolish the Department of Education.
- Give States their rights back (abortion, Gay marriage, drugs, etc) no party platform can have legislation involving these issues.
- Enforce current immigration laws, only worry about illegals if they are caught breaking laws. We should not go door to door.

Obviously I do not agree with all of these but working within the real world I don't see why these could not be done. Some of the key things is preventing uncertainties in the market, and putting money back in average Americans pockets while having wealthy Americans still pay taxes. There are things from both sides including some Libertarian points in this platform.
 
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airdata

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2010
4,987
0
0
Make rich pay taxes

Tax off shores accounts that exist for the sole purpose of hiding money from taxation

Heavily tax outsourcing of labor

Make big companies actually pay their taxes and not simply get to write off 100% of their taxes.

Make elected officials work for the people of the country and not for lobbyists and corporations. Any elected official with any conflict of interest should be removed and treated like an average citizen
 

Vdubchaos

Lifer
Nov 11, 2009
10,411
10
0
#1 Make Lobbying (legal bribery) illegal
#2 Audit ALL politicians/Corp contributions past 50 years
#3 Prosecute politicians/corps
#4 go back and get rid of all the BS bills
#5 stop the pussification of our Justice system (lots of undoing here)

Regardless what you do, America is in for RUDE awakening once we realize the reality.

For now, live on in the lala land
 

crashtestdummy

Platinum Member
Feb 18, 2010
2,893
0
0
I should note that none of the following will ever really happen, but here's what I would do as dictator:

Short term:


Borrow and spend! I'm serious! The problem in the economy is that there isn't a reliable demand for goods, because we're in a feedback loop of less jobs for the middle/lower classes-->less demand for goods-->less production-->less jobs for middle/lower class. The best way to break the cycle is an influx of artificial demand from the government. The initial stimulus stopped the bleeding, but was too rushed (the money wasn't spend optimally) and small that it wasn't able to completely restart the economy.

Treasury bonds are at the lowest interest rate in American history. They're actually at or below inflation, meaning that the typical investor is willing to lose real value to give us money. This is an unprecedented discount, and we should be using it to rebuild the infrastructure of this country that is slowly crumbling. I'm talking a trillion dollar nationwide construction project. Spend 6 months cataloging our failing roads, sewer systems, power grids, and railroads and build ourselves an infrastructure to last the next 50 years.

Long term (after the economy turns around):

Overhaul the tax system. Another poster mentioned a progressive flat tax. This seems reasonable. At this point, tax deductions are a mess and don't actually encourage economically beneficial behavior. In particular, the mortgage interest tax deduction makes no sense. There's no fundamentally good reason to view capital gains as any different than any other source of income either.

Institute a carbon tax. There's really no denying the damage done by carbon emissions. We will soon no longer be the primary emitter of carbon (China is passing us), but that doesn't mean we don't have a responsibility to do our part. A carbon tax will drive people into cities, increase public transit use, and push power sources to change. While this may sound like a tax hike, it can be factored into the tax reform above: revenue from the carbon tax would offset a income tax break.

Along those lines, start permitting the construction of many more nuclear power plants. Wind and solar sound nice and all, but in reality they don't provide the kind of baseline power we need. Nuclear power is the cleanest, safest (on a fatalities per GWh basis) baseline power source available to us, and we should be replacing our old plants and expanding our number to replace coal.

Turn our nation's public schools into a massive science experiment. One of the problems when attempting school reform is that we have no idea what actually works. Even when we allow for charter schools, we aren't able to reproduce the results of the ones that work. The problem is that we have very little large scale, controlled data on primary and secondary education. My solution would be to have a massive, federally organized teaching experiment. Across our nation's schools, we will try every crazy education idea people came up with, controlling for race, income, gender, parent's education level, and rural/urban environment. In just five years, we could gather enough information to actually make substantive policy decisions backed by data. It might do some minor damage to the education of our children for a few years (although I'm not sure that would really be the case), but the long-term benefit would be immeasurable.
 
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