(All-thanks to Chaim Amalek for his hard work in cobbling this together. I suggest you print this out and carefully consider where the two major candidates stand on each of these issues.)
1. America is not Mexico. Re-establish our borders with Mexico (and Latin America) by sealing them off against illegal immigration. Use our soldiers in Korea for this purpose, if need be. How could this be done? By offering an award of $1,000 for information leading to the deportation of each and every illegal alien in the United States, with the idea of deporting ALL the illegals from the United States, and by fining CEOs ten thousand dollars for every illegal found to be working for him.
2. Severely restrict legal immigration. With almost 300,000,000 people here that we know about, this country is now FULL, and we really don't need millions of Muslims from the failed civilization of Islam coming here. Let them go to France if they have their heart set on living in a society that was established by Christians.
3. No more outsourcing work that Americans want to do. To begin with, we should alter the tax code to severely punish CEOs who ship jobs that pay more than the median wage (jobs that by definition, Americans want to do) to foreign lands.
4. In 1980 the average Fortune 500 CEO paid himself about 12 - 40 times the pay of the median employee under his command. Now he (or she, as in the case of HP) pays himself about 450 times the median employee salary. This means that money is going where it isn't needed, instead of to R&D, marketing, manufacture, and other more productive activities. Establish a commission to regulate the salary of all CEOs.
5. Tax the very rich to death.
6. And speaking of death, we need an inheritance tax that will put an end to the political power of both the Bush and the Kennedy clans.
7. Tax gasoline so that tiny women in the suburbs stop driving really big trucks (SUVs) that burn both gasoline and the blood of American heroes in Iraq.
8. And speaking of Iraq, we ought not sacrifice any of our fine young sons and daughters to bring the blessings of democracy to any Arab or Muslim people. If they want this on their own that's fine - maybe we can send them some books on the topic - but as for imposing this on them, that is out of the question. Let's just buy their oil and leave it at that.
9. A bigger military, in case we need to destroy some other nation.
10. A draft to staff same, if needed. This would not include women who belong at home raising babies.
11. Means testing for ALL government programs, beginning with social security and strict Medicare tests.
12. Greatly increasing taxes on casino winnings and revenues in the event 13 proves unfeasible.
13. National health care of some sort for American CITIZENS.
14. More and better nuclear power. We have to generate power by means other than burning coal and other hydrocarbon. Let's get this done today, not tomorrow.
15. More diverse supplies of vaccines. We could do this by guaranteeing to purchase all the stock a company makes up to some reasonable level based on actual need, if not demand. Where estimated need = demand, this would cost nothing to implement.
16. Tort reform so that no lawyer can become rich by suing others.
17. Vouchers for every kid (whose parents make less than the top 30%) who is stuck in a school that is below average.
18. Use the bully pulpit to encourage the strengthening of unions in the private sector.
19. Tariffs on imports to protect strategically important industries.
20. Get us out of NAFTA NOW. No normal human being wants to hear a giant sucking sound from south of the border.
21. Return copyrights to the twenty years or so they used to be. Screw Disney. And while we are at it, encourage downloading music off the internet as a means of defunding our cultural elites.
22. Forbid both lawyers and investment bankers from working more than 40 hours a week, and watch America breath a sigh of relief.
23. Everyone else may work more than 40 hours a week, but would have to be paid double time for it.
24. A space program worthy of our nation. I propose the resurrection of Apollo, going to the moon, and establishing fuel depots there to make further exploration less expensive. All without international cooperation (except, maybe, from the British). This would be paid for by new taxes on rich people, casinos, alcohol, and tobacco.
25. Ban abortions based on gender, ban late term abortions (unless the mother is sure to die otherwise), otherwise leave abortion law as is.
26. Start a real national discussion on our drugs laws. Acknowledge that perhaps some drugs ought to be legalized.
27. Affirmative action for the smart poor, no matter their race.
28. No gay marriage, unless we permit polygamy as well.
29. Salary caps of $1,000,000/year on athletes and other entertainers. Before we bring the pain of socialism to the masses, let's visit it on our coddled elites.
30. Withdraw our troops from Korea. The Republic of Korea is so many times wealthier and stronger than North Korea that they ought to be able to stand on their own two feet. And if they refuse to and fall to the North Koreans, well, that's so much less competition for our industries.
31. Whatever form of trade is most beneficial to America, free trade or not. No trade with China unless it is balanced or in our favor.
That's my start. I am pretty damn sure that most of America would go along with most of this, and I'm equally sure that neither Bush nor Kerry would agree with more than one or two things on this list. Your comments would be most appreciated. Send them off to chaimamalek@yahoo.com.
