If you ran the country...
 

I'm going to regret this...

This is bound to get really political and whatnot, so that's why I started it here, though a mod can move it if they think it belongs somewhere else.

Basically, say what you would do if you ran the country, not if you were president, but if you had full control over what happened and you could do whatever you chose.



I would start by reducing the taxes on oil companies, on the condition that to get the tax reduction, a certain percentage of it has to go to reducing the cost of oil. I would also allow drilling for oil in more places here, so we don't have to import.

I would require that all houses built over a certain budget be legally required to have solar power, not as the only energy source, but to help power everything. I would also require those who make over a certain amount every year to put solar panels on their house. This would, hopefully, make companies try to build better and cheaper solar panels, encouraging the use of them nationwide.

I would give everyone who unfairly uses welfare an ultimatum. They can get a job, or they can join the army.

I would get the leaders of the different groups in Iraq together to discuss and agree upon each of them getting their own regions of Iraq, because, the way I understand it, they can't really get along as it is. Then I would let the respective leaders run the regions how they see fit. Most likely there would be little or no democracy in Iraq after this, but, because of their religious beliefs and how important they are in their lives, democracy probably wouldn't work there, at least not for the time being, and it isn't logical or fair to force democracy on those not ready for it.

I would reduce foreign aid, because, although I have no problem with helping countries that need it, I think we should focus on getting our country back in top shape first.

I would reduce the military budget and stop using tax money to pay for some of the pointless and ridiculous studies that I've heard of the government doing. I would do several things like this to reduce taxes, especially on those making minimum wage or around there.

I would focus on making more nuclear power facilities.


I had some other ideas but I can't really recall them right now.

Moving this to general...this isn't really "discussion" material to be honest.

Reducing the tax liabilities for oil companies would be difficult not only to enforce but to regulate because corporate lawyers find loopholes in every way, and the savings in lower oil costs likely wouldn't be passed on to consumers anyways as they would more likely reinvest in themselves.

Your solar power idea is great on paper. In reality, there simply is not enough available silicon, a key component for solar panels. It would be increasingly prohibitively expensive on top of your budget idea and isn't economic, even in light of rising gas and oil costs.

I am honestly not keen on having that many freeloaders, liars, cheaters, vagabonds, thieves and the like are going into the army. Those people are already running the thing. (Bam!) I'd rather they just simply get cut off of welfare altogether.

The other stuff doesn't sound too bad.

If I were elected president, I would probably renounce my party affiliations shortly after election because the only way to make Congress work together is to give them a common enemy against which they can unite.

I would probably strive for lowering the prevalence of party politics in light of actually running a goddamn country, and execute this primarily through public statements of discrepancies or otherwise. Oh, how quickly I would become enormously unpopular! What a terrible idea it is. And yet I am sick of political parties.

I would probably enact a heavier windfall tax on companies posting record profits above a certain number value (profits meaning actual money earned after fees costs and expenses). I would make it pretty much blatant and straightforward, not modifiable by charitable contributions or anything. Enron made 60 billion more this year than they did last year? 30 billion of that is now America's money. There is simply no reason for record profits on the backs of record oil prices.

Shrug. A bunch of "common sense" things that everyone bitches about, I think I'd actually try to enact, but then it would take a lot more consderation than these halfwit ramblings of mine. It also assumes I were to be elected right now, and not after learning to cope with, work with and understand the complex political workings of our government, essentially becoming one of them.

Every response I can think of ends with "ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR," so that probably gives you a good idea of just about anything I'd do.

Tear down the free trade agreement. If you do that, outsourcing is reduced to near-zero, more jobs. Then the dollar begins to gain its value again, as we are actually making things other countries want to buy once again. As it is, we make very little. A stronger dollar and more jobs helps push our economy back up.

Ever seen 1984? I can see that for about 1/3 of the people there if they ran the country. Chances are myself as well.

Pretty much this right here.

Well I have ideas but even I would be scared with me in charge of a country.
So I guess the power would terrify me and I would instantly abdicate.
Total power is freaky. No wonder Superman's a tight ass.

I would require everyone who has ever complained about 'welfare cheats' to produce a report on the percentage of welfare recipients who are 'cheats', how they define cheating, and - most importantly - the dollar cost to the government of this cheating, compared with financial cheating by middle- and upper-class families and corporations.

Also, I would declare as being in the public domain everything produced outside of the last fifteen years. Honestly just to see what would happen.

Oh! And I would send all self-professed libertarians and anybody who thinks Ayn Rand is totally great to a reservation in say, South Carolina, and tell them there you are, now go build that free-market utopia you're so enamored of.

Sounds good, we saved Jersey for you socialist types.

EDIT: Also if I ran this place I would immediately return the majority of power to the states and diminish the office of President into virtually nothing. The system is too top-heavy.

I would totally vote for all that.
Though the problem is the middle/upper class cheating is so unimaginably large its hard to even concieve. That's why everyone picks on the little guys.

I get a horrid feeling that putting everything into the public domain would mean that we would just get remixes of classics. And that's all. Constantly.