Having just complained about the choices on offer in this
presidential election, perhaps I ought to suggest what I would like to have
seen on offer. My “perfect” candidate
would have:
1.
Offered a plan for progressively reducing the
federal deficit and debt over the next decade or so, probably by a mix of
higher taxes and reduced government spending along the lines suggested by the
Simpson-Bowles commission (which Obama chartered, but then pointedly ignored
when he didn’t like the result).
2.
Proposed to massively simplify and reform the
income tax system, eliminating all or almost all of the special interest
deductions and loopholes, simplifying the nightmare complexity of the 70,000+
pages of tax code, and reducing the corporate tax rate (which almost no one
pays because of all the loopholes) to something more in line with our competitors
in the world market.
3.
Admitted that entitlement programs, especially Medicare,
are on track to bankrupt the country in the coming decades, and proposed at the
very least to start a national debate on how best to reform them to make them financially
sustainable.
4.
Admitted
that the 2000+ page “Obamacare” bill, well-intentioned as it might have
been, is proving to be a disaster (companies are already beginning to shift
full-time jobs to part-time jobs – less than 30 hours per week– to avoid the
bill’s insurance requirements) , and proposed a much more comprehensive, less ideological
examination of the entire health care
issue.
5.
Admitted that private enterprise, especially
small businesses, account for most of the jobs in this country and all
of the federal revenue, and proposed plans to make federal government
regulations less expensive, arbitrary and inflexible and more business-friendly.
6.
Admitted that America needs immigrants, and
proposed immigration reforms that would (a) have made it easy for more immigrants,
especially high-skill immigrants, to come to this country to work and start
businesses, and (b) offered a guest worker visa program for the low skill immigrants
we need to pick crops and work in meat packing plants, etc.
7.
Understood that we spend far, far too much on
our military, and that we could cut the military budget in half and still spend
more than the next 14 nations combined, including China and Russia. Of course the cuts would need to be made
rationally on the basis of what the military really needs, not on the basis of which
Congressional delegation has the most influence.
8.
Admitted that climate change is quite evidently going
on, and human activity is quite likely a major driver, and proposed at least to
fund more basic research to better understand the problem and its consequences.
9.
Understood that in todays’ technologically-driven
world, educating our workforce adequately is key to maintaining our economic
dominance in the world, and proposed some new and innovative approaches (more
than just throwing more federal dollars at the problem) to improving American education,
especially in the K-12 range. And that would include breaking the teacher’s
union’s opposition to reforms.
Of course, since some of these are anathema to Democrats,
and some are anathema to Republicans, any candidate who held these positions
would never make it through their own party’s primaries, let alone have a
chance in a general election. More’s the
pity…….
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