Simple.
Here's the solution, minus the anti-Republican snark.
1.Tear Up NAFTA
Several Clinton and Gore interests would take issue with that, but that's another story that no one would listen to when Ross Perot tried to expose Al Gore on NAFTA (sigh, now we blame Republicans?)
2. Close all Corporate Tax loopholes
Oh, that one ranks right up there with, "no lobbyists / outlaw lobbying" -- Obama did great on that one, didn't he?
Side note: If you remember, I told you that it was impossible, and said Obama doesn't mean to lie, he's just telling people what they want to hear.
As long as people think "loopholes" and "lobbyists" are discretely defined terms, this will continue to be overplayed.
Remember, even a non-profit charity that sends a person to Washington to argue their viewpoint is a "lobbyist."
And a locale that offers tax breaks as an incentive for a company to relocate to their area is called a "loophole" as well.
Sorry, the world is not black'n white.
3. Universal Healthcare for All
Sounds great! Now define what that "universal healthcare" will cover! Not as easy as it sounds. The "if a procedure exists it must be covered" is not feasible. That's the problem, people think everything that exists will be covered.
4. Enact an Immigration TIMEOUT for 20 years. No Immigrants from any country, no student or work visas accepted. No "married" citizens.
Wasn't the US founded on immigration?
And if we don't have foreign nationals coming to US engineering colleges, then who will? Seriously, I say this as an engineer -- there are 10 as many lawyers in the US than engineers.
No, the problem is that we don't even have legal immigration any more! If people are uniquely qualified or educated, we don't let them stay. WTF?!?!?!
Every advanced degree awarded to a non-citizen without a Green Card in the US should have a Green Card stapled to it. We should kill the H1B Visa System and start focusing on keeping qualified people.
The ones that get in illegally will keep coming anyway -- especially if we have things like "universal healthcare" that doesn't require them to prove they are citizens anyway.
5. End Iraq and Afghan Wars. We do not need thousands of boots on the ground to capture/kill Osama.
I won't debate Iraq, but if you think just leaving Afghanistan alone will solve problems, then you're not listening to anyone. Not even Obama thinks that is a good idea (and feels Iraq is a distraction from it).
6. Cut Defense Dept Budget by 50%--fund education K-through-4yrs State College, green tech initiatives, and Univ Healthcare.
Cutting the DoD budget will
not make a dent in what you want to do. Honestly, look at how much it costs for states (not federal, they don't pay for it) to fund their education systems.
Furthermore, have you actually looked inside the DoD budget? There are a lot of non-defense DoD projects, like the tsunami sensor net and other, peaceful projects that make up a huge bulk. You're also talking about the cheapest labor, with the least benefits -- military personnel, who are employed for a bargain compared to other, federal employees.
If anything, I'd put the military in charge of running federal agencies -- you want to talk about efficiency at 1/10th the cost! Don't confuse that with R&D projects, the raw, personnel costs are unbelievable low of any federal program. R&D is another story (which I would do other things about).
7. Overturn Bush tax cuts from '01 and '03 (I just added that in. It should be moved up to #2 spot)
Even Obama isn't for that. He wants to keep the cuts in place except for the top tax bracket. Taxing more does not increase federal income.
JFK proved that. Reagan proved it again. Even Clinton recognized in his own 1994 figures for the budget through 2000 that the 1993 tax increases beyond the ones signed by Bush Sr. (drafted by Gore and others) actually reduced revenues.
There you go. I just gave you jobs, a better, healthier populace.
Now, if only Obama will take this list and get it done....
Obama says a lot of things that people want to hear, but even he isn't that simple in mind.
