[blue]

And your party, a bunch of yes-men who will bow to your every whim, has taken a 65-seat senate majority. You have a de facto mandate to accomplish your campaign goals.

What are the ten most important things you would do in your first 2 years in office?

Mine:

1) Reduce defense budget by 25% in first two years, close most foreign American military bases

2) Balance the budget (see 1), roll back Bush tax cuts. Close tax loopholes for corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

3) Withdraw from Iraq - push for UN control of the Afghanistan occupation (the UN is ineffective because of American refusals to cooperate, IMHO)

3) Launch a massive energy project. Devote billions of dollars to researching new methods of producing energy (hydrogen), construction of renewable energy plants, and construction of nuclear power plants. All with the goal of reducing fossil fuel usage to 10% of our energy needs within 10 years. Nationalize General Motors and roll out massive electric vehicle program.

4) Launch a second New Deal. Rebuild infrastructure - build viable national rail system utilizing electric locomotives. Rebuild the urban cores of cities with affordable housing. Rebuild American industry (see 7).

5) Nationalize the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Provide universal healthcare to all.

6) Revamp education system. Make financial aid relevant again. High school attendance mandatory. Establish national network of 2-year trade schools that are free to attend for high school graduates, who are strongly encouraged to do so. Pump federal money into universities to keep tuition costs low and mostly subsidized by financial aid.

7) Rewrite NAFTA and all other FTAs to require a living wage minimum wage from participant nations. Eliminate agricultural subsidies to make food produced by the developing world competitive again. Give aid to the rest of the Americas without drug and MNC strings attached. Share energy technology with the developing world. Lift Cuban embargo. Enact gradual protectionist tariffs against sweatshop-produced Chinese and Asian goods and commodities.

8) Decriminalize most narcotics. Provide treatment and rehabilitation services to addicts.

9) Require 1 year of public service from all residents of the country (draft). Military not required.

10) Peg the minimum wage to inflation. Increase to $10.50/hr to start (living wage).

 

[Westy]

Take peoples gun.

Take people money and redistribute it.

Enforce Sharia law.

Abortions for everyone!

Let the terrorists win

Ban different sex marriage.

Tax the **** out the hard working rich.

Nuke Israel

Force feed evolution and sex education to children Clockwork Orange style

Legalize weed and ban tobacco.

 

[sanjuro]

And your party, a bunch of yes-men who will bow to your every whim, has taken a 65-seat senate majority. You have a de facto mandate to accomplish your campaign goals.

What are the ten most important things you would do in your first 2 years in office?

Bullsh*t he has a mandate.

It might be less of a fight, but every Democrat knows this is the start of a new day, not the new day yet.

If things don't turn around in as soon as two years, the House will end up back in the Republicans' pocket.

 

[blue]

Bullsh*t he has a mandate.

It might be less of a fight, but every Democrat knows this is the start of a new day, not the new day yet.

If things don't turn around in as soon as two years, the House will end up back in the Republicans' pocket.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Obama. The reading comprehension, it pwns you!

 

[Silver]

This has absolutely nothing to do with Obama. The reading comprehension, it pwns you!

Bush claimed a mandate after a razor thin win.

A mandate now means winning, apparently. Who would have ever thought that would end up biting the Republicans in the ass?

 

[sanjuro]

This has absolutely nothing to do with Obama. The reading comprehension, it pwns you!

I don't know about the commune you live on in Santa Cruz, but most of these ideas are not kinda of socialist but is exactly socialism.

Obama was able to laugh off the socialist tag because his plans are based on the capitalist system.

Let's pick your last idea: "Peg the minimum wage to inflation. Increase to $10.50/hr to start (living wage)."

If I'm not mistaken, you work for a company that sells produce at Farmers Market.

Convince your boss to pay every employee $10.50 a hour, from the cleaning lady to the guy unloading boxes.

Then tell him to only buy produce from companies that pay all their employees a living wage.

Then markup your produce by the standard amount, I assume 100%, and go back to the Farmers Market and compete against the other sellers.

Unless you were planning on nationalizing the Farmers Market, it is not going to work.

 

[Samirol]

Only 25%? We can slash it by 90% and still defend ourselves just fine by removing bases in Germany, Japan, etc.

Sanjuro, it would be a nationwide minimum wage hike, not just at one farmers market. The farmers market would be competing with other farmers markets that pay out the same minimum wage.

You obviously are unfamiliar with socialism if you think this is Marxism, it is far left, but not Marxist.

That being said, I agree with pretty much with blue's propositions, except for GM. Instead, I would just mandate that all new cars be electric within 10 years.

 

[blue]

I don't know about the commune you live on in Santa Cruz, but most of these ideas are not kinda of socialist but is exactly socialism.

Obama was able to laugh off the socialist tag because his plans are based on the capitalist system.

Let's pick your last idea: "Peg the minimum wage to inflation. Increase to $10.50/hr to start (living wage)."

If I'm not mistaken, you work for a company that sells produce at Farmers Market.

Convince your boss to pay every employee $10.50 a hour, from the cleaning lady to the guy unloading boxes.

Then tell him to only buy produce from companies that pay all their employees a living wage.

Then markup your produce by the standard amount, I assume 100%, and go back to the Farmers Market and compete against the other sellers.

Unless you were planning on nationalizing the Farmers Market, it is not going to work.

I'm well aware they're socialistic. Why would that be?

BECAUSE I'M A SOCIALIST.

And I like to tell myself I'm self-employed these days.

My plans would constitute a (inter?)national revamping of the wage scale in order to keep parity.

Samirol, I say 25% to try to minimize economic impact with eventual reduction between 50-75%...ideally you could transition the energies of those employed in the military industrail complex to the energy project and my "New Deal II" programs.

I picked GM because it will fail within the next year without government intervention, and that's a lot of manufacturing/engineering capability to go to waste.

 

[sanjuro]

I'm well aware they're socialistic. Why would that be?

BECAUSE I'M A SOCIALIST.

And I like to tell myself I'm self-employed these days.

My plans would constitute a (inter?)national revamping of the wage scale in order to keep parity.

Samirol, I say 25% to try to minimize economic impact with eventual reduction between 50-75%...ideally you could transition the energies of those employed in the military industrail complex to the energy project and my "New Deal II" programs.

I picked GM because it will fail within the next year without government intervention, and that's a lot of manufacturing/engineering capability to go to waste.

I'm not too happy about the eventual bailout of GM. We might as well become socialist if we are going to prop up businesses who are failing because of inferior products.

 

[sanjuro]

I'd like a pill that made me irresistible to women and a magic 8-ball with the winning lottery numbers.

Any suggestions about how to get that from my new President?

 

[blue]

I'm not too happy about the eventual bailout of GM. We might as well become socialist if we are going to prop up businesses who are failing because of inferior products.

I have no problem taking over large corporations and revamping what they do if the taxpayers take 100% control of the company.

 

[Samirol]

unfortunately, the world of finance is harder to seize than property, the property of Marx's time that was used to exploit people is now digital, which makes it harder to control

 

[sanjuro]

I have no problem taking over large corporations and revamping what they do if the taxpayers take 100% control of the company.

You mean the same people who voted Bush in twice?

Ultimately, most successful companies have one guy pushing thru.

From Henry Ford to Steve Jobs, it was one guy.

Unfortunately, the auto industry needs that kind of revolution, but that won't happen unless a new car company arises.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

1. Eliminate the fiction that a corporation is an individual with free speech rights.
2. Eliminate the entire insurance industry, linear reduction of coverage over twenty years.
3. Eliminate agricultural subsidies, same schedule.
4. Progressively increase taxes on corporations as they get larger. Phase in over ten years. Goal's to get smaller nimbler companies.
5. Limit lifetimes of corporations to twenty years. Might make 4) unnecessary and supplants Blue's nationalization, which has been shown to be ineffective.
6. All laws sunset after fifteen years. No renewal, start from scratch.
7. No elected judges.
8. Eliminate recreational surgery (botox, face lifts, sex changes...).
9. Eliminate marketing of drugs, including all the supplements, vitamins and herbal-gerbil "cures" and the whole pile of get high stuff.
10. Weed, crack, alcohol, tobacco strictly grow- or make-your-own.
11. Retrain the police so they're cops again, not a would-be military force.
12. Eliminate the FBI, CIA, NSA, and DHS. If we need an intelligence function, figure out one that works. Do it over time and with care.
13. Redirect the Coast Guard to search and rescue and maintenance of aids to navigation. Maybe let them guard the coast.
14. Military restructuring and reduction with great care. Try to reduce to two branches.
15. Stop measuring economic success by growth. Try rewarding usefulness of products.
16. One child, one tax break. Two children, lose it. Three children, tax penalty.
17. College students prepare their own food, shovel their own snow, wash their own clothes and bed linens.
18. Unions have same lifetime as corporations.
19. For houses, factories, and manufactured goods, require bonding to ensure proper disposal after useful lifetime. This would need to be phased in.
20. Eliminate investment as it has evolved. Dump the brokers and middlemen. Deal directly with a company or individual to invest. Regulate the company so it doesn't willfully screw investors. Investment repayment must be within five years.

 

[Samirol]

1. Eliminate recreational surgery (botox, face lifts, sex changes...).

Sex changes aren't something you do for fun like botox, it is a major life improvement procedure. Classifying it as recreational and putting it with face lifts and botox is a bit

It isn't like the U.S has a major population problem, so I'm not understanding your child taxes.

I don't think your investment stuff really makes sense, since high capital high development time projects wouldn't be able to be in the U.S.

You really need 3 branches of the armed forces, land, water, and air.

Cops are trained the way they are because they are facing a populace that is heavily armed.

Honestly, I think your ideas overall would place greater emphasis on individuals with a lot of capital. I understand that the idea is small, nimble, companies, but it just seems like it would hinder investment in small companies that need a long development time.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

I'm not convinced on the sex change - I think it's unethical doctors making money.
So how would you adjust for longer development times?

 

[Samirol]

I'm not convinced on the sex change - I think it's unethical doctors making money.
So how would you adjust for longer development times?

I wouldn't have a time limit on corporations or an investment repayment time requirement. There are just a lot of products that require more than 5 years to start production and start making money on something to the degree to pay investors back. Limiting time on corporations won't work, because then you get a bunch of smaller companies that are controlled by the same people. That's also why anti-trust actions usually end up being ineffective.

 

[Defenestrated]

Mine:

1) Reduce defense budget by 25% in first two years, close most foreign American military bases

2) Balance the budget (see 1), roll back Bush tax cuts. Close tax loopholes for corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

3) Withdraw from Iraq - push for UN control of the Afghanistan occupation (the UN is ineffective because of American refusals to cooperate, IMHO)

3) Launch a massive energy project. Devote billions of dollars to researching new methods of producing energy (hydrogen), construction of renewable energy plants, and construction of nuclear power plants. All with the goal of reducing fossil fuel usage to 10% of our energy needs within 10 years. Nationalize General Motors and roll out massive electric vehicle program.

4) Launch a second New Deal. Rebuild infrastructure - build viable national rail system utilizing electric locomotives. Rebuild the urban cores of cities with affordable housing. Rebuild American industry (see 7).

5) Nationalize the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Provide universal healthcare to all.

6) Revamp education system. Make financial aid relevant again. High school attendance mandatory. Establish national network of 2-year trade schools that are free to attend for high school graduates, who are strongly encouraged to do so. Pump federal money into universities to keep tuition costs low and mostly subsidized by financial aid.

7) Rewrite NAFTA and all other FTAs to require a living wage minimum wage from participant nations. Eliminate agricultural subsidies to make food produced by the developing world competitive again. Give aid to the rest of the Americas without drug and MNC strings attached. Share energy technology with the developing world. Lift Cuban embargo. Enact gradual protectionist tariffs against sweatshop-produced Chinese and Asian goods and commodities.

8) Decriminalize most narcotics. Provide treatment and rehabilitation services to addicts.

9) Require 1 year of public service from all residents of the country (draft). Military not required.

10) Peg the minimum wage to inflation. Increase to $10.50/hr to start (living wage).

This + the nationalization of all natural rescources.

The natural resources of a country should belong to all of its citizens.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

Organizations, people, most ideas and capital equipment get stale and cease to be effective. What I'm groping for are mechanisms that encourage renewal without dragging a bunch of people down when an institution dies.

We ought to be able to find ways to have renewal that do not require war, rebellion or mass loss of livelihood. We also cannot grow indefinitely.

I have toyed with the idea of an alternation of generations approach. Town or state road crews ineffective? Privatize the work until that effort becomes stale and ineffective, then revert. We need to re-invent on a regular basis.

 

[valve bouncer]

Only 25%? We can slash it by 90% and still defend ourselves just fine by removing bases in Germany, Japan, etc.

I'm not sure how that would save much as in the case of Japan, they pay for the bases. It'd be a good thing for Japan then, but since the bases are part of an overall security pact between the US and Japan I don't see them going anywhere soon.