Originally posted by: Fern
What message do I suggest? (Probably not one popular around here
)
In no particular order:
1. Cut in spending. Earmarks need to be for investment in infrastructure. (In all fairness he does talk about this.)
Change in budgeting. I'd promise to stop Congress's habit of cooking the books. I.e., taking money from the gas tax to fund other crap than it's intended use would stop. User type-fees would be done strictly & fairly.
Social security funds would be invested in normal higher rate bonds. SS would look way better with that single move. This would put pressure on all other gov spending, but tough sh!t. Far too long SS has been ripped off by loaning it's funds to the gov via below market interest rates/yields.
2. Energy policy. Harp on high prices and Dem Congress's inactivity (and pull old quotes where many of them actually said high prices were a great thing etc) Drill ANWAR now. Come out and boldly say we're gonna be energy independant by so-and-such date. Eliminate subsidies for oil co's. Eliminate ethanol subsidies and requirments. Spend R&D for solar, wind, waste that's turned into energy (plants that use garbage - we've got a shortage of dumps - 2 birds, one stone) etc.
Dump cap-n-trade. Just get right to the objective and make power companies get the new equip to cut down on emissions. Maybe provide no-interest gov loans to lessen the hit on consumers, they're hammered enough by rising prices now. Borrow from Bill Clinton and talk about their pain.
3. Iraq. I think it's going a lot better than most here say. He needs to promote the h3ll out of that instead making jackass/flippant remarks about "100 years" or "not important when we withdraw" His campaigning on this is strikingly craptacular IMO.
4. Border control and increased measures to encourage self-deportation. While highly unpopular with the MSM, I think awfully popular with the average person on the street. Pimp the savings in Medicare, healthcare, education, food stamps/WIKI and welfare etc. I don't care who pulls what study out of their @ss that there's no costs, average people ain't buying it.
5. Health care. Insurance reform is the place to start. Policies that have caps on annual and lifetime payouts means major medical bankrupts families. Most people can't read or understand the complicated policies and likely have no real idea what their coverage is. Hillary's/Obama's just means you're buying insurance - but what are you getting?
Foreign policy? I don't know if I'd pimp it above the others. Too many things at once and they lose focus and import. People can't handle more 3-5 things at once. And I don't think foreign policy is at the top of the list this election year.
Taxes? IMO, we don't need cutting, except maybe shaving a few % point off the corp rate to fall in line with the rest of the world. But I'd majorly raise the exemption amount for AMT if not outright eliminate the damn thing.
High gas prices and cutting excessive/wasteful spending would prolly be my two big things were I him. Then I'd be over in Iraq every month or so checking out progress and pimping any/all signs of it. My belief is we're mostly out of there next year, and he ought to be shouting that at the top of his lungs.
So I like his position on cutting earmarks, and think he's fvcking up bad with campaigning on Iraq. Everything else I pretty much disagree with him.
Fern
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