Having been a Never Trump during the past year, I’m giving president elect Trump a clean slate and a chance to show what kind of president he’ll be.
Here is a beginning list of things I’d like to see from him and Congress.
- Repeal Obamacare. If replaced, then replace it with a basic voucher or HSA for all families. This would be a Yugo level of basic coverage, with a catastrophic illness coverage after a deductible based on wealth status.
- Pass a national concealed and open carry right.
- Eliminate several departments, including Education and Agriculture, and zero fund base all else. Reduce the size and change the scope of the EPA and IRS.
- Eliminate or at least audit the Federal Reserve
- Replace the income tax with the Fair Tax. Going to a flat tax leaves the door open to create loopholes. Eliminate all loopholes.
- Send welfare and other issues not specifically given to the Fed in the Constitution back to the states.
- Reduce overseas military bases by 50 percent. Tell Europe, Japan, s. Korea and most other western nations to prepare to more defend themselves, as we focus more in the Americas
- Revoke NAFTA, GATT and other treaties that are not truly free trade
- Reject global warming treaties as scientifically and economically impractical, not making any difference in future global temperatures.
- Term limits for Congress. In fact, enact a Constitutional Convention to fix some court decisions, returning power back to the states, like on Roe v Wade, and on the Commerce Clause
- Fix immigration. Make it easier for Hispanics to legally immigrate. Give illegals a 2year work permit, during which new rules can be made to replace the current system. Allow illegals to earn a work permit, but not citizenship. No welfare for illegals.
- Protect our borders from drug dealers, terrorists and bad people.
- Stop being the world police force
- Shine the light of freedom and invite other nations to join us in liberty when they are ready. Don’t force democracy onto anyone.
- Decriminalize drugs. Allow judges to use corporal punishment and experiment with other methods, and leave prison only for the most violent and dangerous.
- Return most federal lands back to the states. Alternatively, give acreage to the poor, and to Native and African Americans as reparations
- Place strict constitutionalists on the Supreme Court
That is my current wishlist. What would be on your list?
TheMillennialStar: My Conservative/Libertarian Wish List https://t.co/Xbrz1nfYwT #lds #mormon
Just close the government and give us our money back. Full refunds.
Good luck with that.
#2 – no, each state should be able to enact their own laws so long as they do not violate the Constitution.
#10 – although a new Constitutional Convention sometimes seems appealing, I do not think that the scope can be controlled and likely many undesired or damaging things could occur within this framework.
#16 – reparations rarely work out well, just ask the Treaty of Versailles participants. Start giving the land back to the states. Giving it as reparations opens a a huge can of worms. By the way, how well are reservations working out? Now, some sort of new Homestead Act variant…
National Defense naturally includes excluding criminals and terrorists from entering the country. Having prior experience with the INS leads me to believe that most immigration policies are racist. All countries have laws to discourage immigration of those who threaten their material security. Customs has a similar function in terms of protecting the populace but with the additional benefit of income from tariffs. All the other laws, regulations and entitlements that require a huge budget are undue burdens. The news says various states are threatening secession over the results of the election. If the federal government had not grown to be monstrous in power and effect it would not be so fearful when the leader changes.
Not a bad list but #15 is not possible as most Americans would not agree, only libertarians. Issue #7 is impossible at present given the state of the world and the many threats by Muslim terrorist nations (Iran and North Korea). I would add issue #18 that every citizen should have an impossible-to-alter National ID card and would have to show it every time they vote.
My views are those of a WW II vet and one who has lived overseas for 17 years.
I have experienced first hand how other countries are governed and how they limit freedom. Our Nation is unique and now we finally have a president who may be able to overcome the errors of the evil, anti-Constitutionalist Democrats.
It’s a good list and I mostly agree.
Sorry for the length. I was kicking around ideas while working through work issues and some of the items mentioned may have already been covered by others in the intervening time.
Restore one of the most important checks and balances, which is the check of Federal power by the states, by restoring state appointment of senators instead of the current direct, popular election of senators.
Go back to the original number of representatives recommended by the Constitution, 1 per 30,000 people. It would make it nearly impossible to buy elections from then on.
Eliminate all sugar, corn, etc. subsidies.
Curtail the power of the Federal judiciary to limit it to disputes between states, things that cross the national boundary or issues involving Federal officials in the direct exercise of their office. Maybe a small handful of other things. Murder of an FBI agent while on the clock would be handled by the Feds. Murder of the same officer while at home sleeping would be for the locals.
Since the Federal government is the creation of the states, the Federal judiciary (including SCOTUS) has no authority to determine what is or is not meant by any provision of the Constitution. All matters involving constitutionality of an action would be referred to a randomly selected court composed of the Chief Justices of 9 of the states. In the event that a majority of states disagreed with the ruling of the first court of states, refer the matter to a full court comprised of all fifty states plus the Chief Justice of SCOTUS if the number of states is even. Any existing SCOTUS decision not ratified by two-thirds of the fifty state courts is deemed to have been invalid ten years after implementation.
Break up all the assets of the myriad “Independent School Districts” across the U.S. and sell them to private companies to run under a profit / performance program with a defined maximize corporate size in order to minimize ADM-type entities in the education arena.
Mandate that whatever funds are provided for public education be used to allow parents to home-school if they choose.
Preferably eliminate Federal involvement in funding of education, but lacking that, eliminate lifetime tenure at any educational facility receiving Federal funds.
Eliminate Federal loan guarantees for education, with the possible exception of fields identified as critical, such as STEM fields. Require colleges and universities to provide loans for any non-exempt degree earned on their campuses, i.e., make them take the risk for the worthless paper they provide.
Eliminate educator participation on all education oversight boards.
Provide incentives to business, at least initially, to encourage appropriate people to move into vocational or apprenticeship tracks.
Prohibit lobbying by former members of either house of Congress for a minimum of 10 years.
Prohibit lobbying by former general staff officers forever.
The Texas legislature is in session for something like six months every two years. Pass a law that the U.S. legislative branch must do the same except in case of an emergency such as a natural disaster or war, or the need to act on Federal appointments.
Require Congress to indicate why, at the beginning of every year in session, we don’t have enough laws and precisely why they need to pass more. Make them delineate in excruciating detail why each new law is needed to fill a gap in the Federal register.
Put a filibuster provision in the Constitution with the provision that a session of Congress may eliminate the filibuster for any reason with the understanding that the filibuster will not be available to the party that eliminated it at the discretion of the other party when the power shifts. Make filibustering painful by not allowing them a cheap and easy way to do it, but instead make them stand at the microphone and talk through shifts not less than four hours each until they either yield the filibuster or it’s broken.
Since lawyers are officially “officers of the court”, make them ineligible to serve as Congressmen, Senators, the President or the Vice President while they are currently licensed to practice before the bar. Make their eligibility to even run for those offices contingent on surrendering their licenses before they make their runs. A member of the judicial branch of government cannot concurrently serve in another branch.
Restore freedom of association so that people once again have the choice who they associate with or provide services to.
Make no-knock raids unconstitutional unless the warrant being executed is directly for one or more individuals who pose an existential threat to the life or health of one or more individuals. If I don’t have the right to use deadly force to protect property that is rightfully mine, no government has the right to take away property it thinks I shouldn’t have unless that property poses a direct threat to one or more individuals. In which case it falls back under the first sentence above.
Sentence anyone who makes false accusations or prosecutions with the same punishment that the innocent accused would have received had they been convicted and sentenced. Mike Nifong would not simply be disbarred, but would go to prison for the median sentence for rape. The same would apply to individuals who falsely accuse others of crimes, cops that manufacture evidence or prosecutors that withhold exonerating evidence. A la the Nephite method of prosecuting justices, the prosecution of misconduct at the lower levels gets kicked up to the next higher level of law enforcement / justice.
Scale votes based on the net lifetime amount each voter pays into the Treasury. Make the maximum scaled vote equal to no more than two or three current votes. Those who are a net drain on the treasury do not get to vote. Obama is fond of saying we all must have skin in the game and those who don’t shouldn’t have a say in how we move forward. As he once said, if you maid the spill, you don’t get to tell us how to grab a mop and clean up the mess.
Give the states one year to come up with a comprehensive set of standards that provide the above mentioned concealed carry right nationwide. As long as the states do not collectively define the concealed-carry requirements, require reciprocity between states for any license that includes provisions that both teach the licensee the relevant laws they must follow and also includes a reasonable range test. CHL rights include any area that is considered a place of public accommodation. Allow the states to determine whether or not they will allow open carry.
Eliminate state laws that require background checks for ammunition, require serial imprinting of firing pins or coding of ammunition, prohibit black guns because they are scary or prohibit magazine capacities.
Provide subsidies (??) to states to allow them to train their citizens for a broad range of tasks at a level somewhat below that of the Reserves or National Guard in a fashion somewhat similar to the Texas State Guard. Make it voluntary for individuals but provide reasonable benefits for those who sign up. Allow anyone who chooses to sign up to fill some role unless they are manifestly unable to do so.
Properly fund prosecution at the Federal level of anyone who knowingly lies on a background form and make sure the system is properly funded to ensure effective background checks.
Pass a constitutional amendment that, for Federal purposes, marriage is between one man and one woman and states are required to reciprocally recognize monogamous marriage. Each state is allowed to define marriage any way they choose, but another state is not required to recognize their definition of marriage. Except for monogamous marriage. No state is allowed to criminalize any consenting behavior or relationship arrangements between adults provided that “certain” activities occur within their homes. In the event that an individual contracts a non-monogamous relationship in one state and moves to another state that doesn’t fully recognize polyamorous relationships, he/she is required to define for the new state which relationship(s) are to be recognized under the laws of the state that they move to. Require legal contracts for all marriages.
Im told “good luck with that…” cuz its stupid to think a government in debt over 20,000,000,000,000 (20 trillion) should show an equal portion of restraint.
Ok, because we are in the “land of OZ” then… And everything the government does creates more inflation, this is my new recomendation. We need all available people working just to pay the ever increasing cost of living. Women in the workforce right along with the men and all legal age children to help pay rising costs. National workforces would be splendid. Nimrod built his tower of babel, Pharoah built his pyramids, we need ours!
Why bother with any recomendations if those with the restored gospel think they can be taught one way on sunday then throw it out monday-saturday because its not “practical.” No wonder secular society mocks religion.
But Ron…they say..Joseph stored grain for Pharoah and he was called of God, we need short term solutions too…yea short term do end and look at Pharaohs magnificent kingdom now…same for America too.
As for me and my family we are fleeing to Zion.
I think in a political sense it would be wise for Trump to pursue #1 before #10. However I think term limits would be a brilliant triangulation strategy that might get the American public to see him more favorably. Problem is McConnell was abruptly dismissive of the idea. Go figure.
Which is why we need a convention of states
People persist in believing that the federal government should be in charge of almost everything. Before unions were permitted for federal employees they were protected by an agreement that made it very difficult to fire them. Mediocrity is the norm. It is practically a miracle to run into someone who deals with the public as a federal employee who is actually helpful. Several times I thought I had run into a helpful federal employee at the IRS or Social Security office and then later I found out that they completely misled me about the problem I had presented and they smiled at me and agreed and did nothing. On the other hand I have encountered many rude and arrogant people dealing with the public in immigration and other functions. As a wife and mother of federal employees I have often heard them talk about their fellow workers. There’s an incredible amount of dead wood in the ranks. In government, blowing up the budget to ever greater amounts is considered a positive. In private enterprise it’s just the opposite. Companies who tolerate the kind of behavior regularly displayed by government employees go out of business. Many years ago my young husband working as an engineer for the Navy was rebuked because he designed and crafted a part for an experiment he was running. His supervisor pointed out that he had cost his division more than $3000 by going down to the workshop and making the part instead of sending a request through proper channels. That occurred shortly after he began to work for the federal government, but it was a hint of things to come. I have often been regaled with tales of similar boondoggles. Although we are told that we are being protected from many terrible things by the EPA and other departments such as the FDA, there are many terrible things that have been allowed even encouraged because somebody profits. Obamacare is just the latest most visible example of what happens when government decides to make things better. We are far too deeply stuck in the current state of affairs to make much progress, but maybe we can stop accelerating into ruin.
I fail to see the wisdom of term limitations, so long as civil servants and judges have lifetime tenure. It shifts the balance of power precisely the wrong way.
In many ways America has modeled its civil service on the British system. I have heard it argued that having a long-term consistent bureaucracy helps protect against the wavering path of politics. Now that a huge portion of the federal budget is for various social entitlements that more often than not cater to people in the know enough to take advantage of the bounty available and leave those in real need unserved, the civil service is highly politicized. For example an immigrant relative of mine wanted to get a job with the census. She had language skills that would’ve been very valuable. However after making her application she was called and asked various political questions. She replied honestly in a way that indicated she wasn’t particularly in favor of the current administration. I wasn’t surprised when she failed to get the job. But it would be obviously absurd to release all federal employees with every turn of the electoral choice. Expect to see a great deal of obstructionism from the bureaucracy.
Kent, if we term limit Congress and zero budget annually, there’s a greater chance government will shrink, rather than grow. Shrinking bureaucracy means fewer workers needed on the federal rolls.