The Platform I Would Like To See

August 30, 2012 · Posted in Politics 66 views

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Being so close to the 2012 U.S. Presidential elections, I am bombarded with campaign ads in my e-mail, my snail mail, on television, on the radio and in website ads (including some Google sends to this site). This year I will be voting for the Libertarian Party candidate because their platform is more in sync with my views on what government should and should not do. I do not expect him to win, but the two party system will never be overcome if people always cast a vote for the lesser of two evils instead of voting for their issues. So what are my issues? What would I like to see a President do? Read on.

1. Bring all military personnel back to the U.S. Close all foreign bases, end all foreign leases. Obviously this would be done over a 4 or even 8 year period. What would we do with those service men and women? I’ll go into that later.

2. Cut the defense budget drastically. We need enough to cover our current payroll and maintenance expenses for our domestic bases. Put recruitment on hold. We will not involuntarily downsize our military, but we freeze recruitment and allow a natural downsizing occur (retirement, end of term of service, etc.). Existing members may re-enlist as they desire and as long as they meet current requirements to do so. In 2011, the U.S. spent $687 billion on military expenditures. That is over 44% of all the money spent by all the countries of the world. China, in comparison only spent $114 billion. {1}

3. Legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational use. The costs of making this drug illegal are enormous: enforcement, propaganda, court time, imprisonment, related violent crime because it is illegal. Treat it like any other crop, regulate the production and sale, just like you would any produce. If people want to grow their own, so be it. We let people grow their own tomatoes. Alcohol is a much more dangerous drug. I’m not going into that discussion here, there are plenty of resources available. Educate yourself and reverse the decades of government brainwashing. The cost of the war on drugs to taxpayers this year alone is over $27 billion. Someone is arrested for violating a cannabis law in the U.S. every 30 seconds. {2}

4. Stop imprisoning people for non-violent crimes. Release anyone who is being imprisoned for a non-violent crime. The primary purpose of a prison should be to protect the populace by removing a harmful threat. In the U.S. today, prison is used as a general punishment. You can be imprisoned for copyright infringement. Seriously. This is out of control. We have the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. For every 100,000 people in the U.S. 743 are imprisoned. At year-end 2007 the United States had less than 5% of the world’s population and 23.4% of the world’s prison and jail population (adult inmates). In comparison, the U.K. has only 155 people locked up per 100,000, Australia has 133 and Norway has 71 per 100k. {3} Why are we so eager to put people behind bars? Sadly the answer is private sector profits. What’s even worse? The trend is targeting illegal immigrants. {4}

5. Speaking of immigrants, leave them alone. If someone comes to this country to work, let them work. Their employer must pay them a fair wage and report those wages and those wages must be taxed. Any employer caught violating employment laws will be fined heavily. Enough so that the risk is not worth it. We will have the manpower to monitor businesses, there will be thousands of U.S. military that can be retrained to do surprise inspections. If an immigrant is working in our country, they will be paying taxes and be contributing to the society. They will also be expected to adhere to the same requirements as normal citizens. If they want to drive on the roads, they must pass the same tests to get a license, have insurance, etc. America can be the land of opportunity for anyone.

6. Every citizen will be given free education. Not just through high school. I’m talking about free college, free trade skill training and any other type of educational services we can provide. This can be easily subsidized with a portion of the savings from the defense cuts. Investing in education will reduce the unskilled labor force and provide for better employment opportunities.

7. Bring jobs back to the U.S. by applying tariffs. Any U.S. company that has a product created in another country and imports it back to the U.S. will have a tariff placed on it that will make the same product made by American workers competitively priced. Products made in other countries by foreign companies may also have similar tariffs, to be negotiated as needed. Build factories again. We have plenty of military engineers who are back in country and we can keep them busy. We have the resources to make everything. We have 8% of our populace unemployed. That’s about 25 million people. Millions of jobs have been outsourced by corporations taking advantage of lower labor costs. When those products come back into the U.S. the tariffs will remove that advantage. Big business might not care for it, but it will be better for the country over time. There will be more jobs for people, incomes will rise. Big business will lose that profit margin they had exploiting world labor, and some may try to maintain that margin by increasing product costs, but market competition will quickly correct that. The goal is to abolish the trade deficits we have with the rest of the world, primarily China.

8. Invest in alternate fuels research and implementation. We have the technology. The science is there. We can remove ourselves from oil and coal dependencies. We begin with foreign oil, shifting quickly to domestic oil as we begin to transition away from fossil fuels altogether. The oil industry will have to evolve instead of try and keep us in the 20th century. Times change. Some industries will just become obsolete. We have to stop protecting them at such high costs.

9. Using a portion of the money saved from the defense budget cuts we will also begin a massive upgrade of our services grid, electric, roads, etc. This equals even more jobs.

10. We have thousands of carpenters, electricians, plumbers and earth movers in the military who have the training and resources to build new housing as well as upgrade and maintain housing and public parks. They can also assist with infrastructure projects. Remember, we are bringing almost 200,000 military men and women back home. We have lots of things they can be doing to improve the lives of Americans and it doesn’t require shooting anyone. We can retrain soldiers as needed.

11. While actual numbers are not available, a recent PLoS Medicine study estimates big pharma companies spend around $60 billion annually on marketing and only half that on actual research. This is absurd. Drug companies don’t need to be direct marketing to patients. Doctors go to school to learn about medicine. We should trust our doctors to know what medications we need, not what a drug company commercial tells us we might need. We restrict alcohol and tobacco advertisements in print, on television and radio already. I suggest we do the same for prescription medications as well. This will lower the cost of medicines and increase the money spent on research.

12. Build more medical facilities. Train more doctors and health care professionals. We are providing the education at no additional cost to the students. There’s about $30 billion or more a year in savings from legalization of marijuana, not counting tax revenues from sales. Add to that the savings from the tax cost of no longer imprisoning non-violent criminals and take $70 billion or so from the defense cuts and you have the majority of the costs for a nice universal health care plan without having to pass the costs on to the populace with mandatory additional taxes.

13. Stay out of people’s personal lives. If gay adults want to get married, that is their choice. Let people live their lives however they want and protect their right to do so. Lifestyle choices should not be a point for discrimination of any type. The primary role of government is to ensure the safety and fair treatment of the people who live under it. This includes harassment and discrimination of people based on their religion. Stop trying to prevent people from their religious expression. I’m not a Christian, but I don’t mind seeing a nativity or a representation of the ten commandments. Nor am I offended by seeing Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Iron Man, Batman, or any other made up characters. Let people believe what they want, and reasonably express those beliefs. I support not placing these symbols on government owned property because the government’s role has nothing to do with promoting any religion. Let people build their temple’s of worship where they have need. Protect their rights equally, whether it be a church or a mosque or druid ring.

14. I know some people will dislike this, but the money we spend on foreign aid should be used to help our own citizens. Yes I know there are people suffering in other parts of the world, but the truth is, there are people suffering here as well. We have children in America going hungry and without warm clothes for the winter. A household making $50,000 annual has about $82 spent on foreign aid. That may seem small, but look at it on a bigger scale. For every billion dollars of taxed income in the U.S., that’s $3.3 million that could be spent domestically. America is not the world police nor are we its caretaker. I have nothing against private donations by charitable citizens or corporations who want to help those in need all over the world. I just don’t think it’s the place of my government to make those choices for me. Let us choose how much we want to give to other countries. Spend our tax money on assisting our own hungry and cold elderly and children.

15. Revamp the tax code. Preferably a flat tax with a very minimum amount of deductions. This should apply equally to everyone, even big business. People will be much more happy about the taxes they pay when they see so many new benefits and know that they are being taxed fairly.

16. Revamp social programs. One of the most harmful things we have done to many of our citizens is to make them dependent on social programs such as welfare. I believe in helping those who come into hard times. But instead of just writing them a check each month, let’s get them trained in new skills, get them educated, and get them employed. Despite what some people think, I don’t believe people want to live on government assistance. They need opportunities to improve themselves so they can be productive and have a good quality of life.

These are my main interests. While I’m sure many people would disagree with more than one of these proposals, I believe they’re each a step in the right direction. They may not be the ultimate solution in every case and I’d be willing to dialogue about better options. But I think most of us can agree that the status quo isn’t working and we’re likely not going to see the kinds of reform we so desperately need from the entrenched political parties who count on us to not consider other options.

My message to them is: we’re tired of being divided like sports fans in a stadium and we’re tired of buying tickets to the same old game. We’re going to start looking for new teams.

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Brian Weatherley

I've walked a wildly varied path over the years and look forward to finding out where it will end up. I love writing, painting and photography. I believe one of our most valuable qualities as individuals is our perspective. Sharing how we see the world and how the world has influenced us is a legacy we all can claim.

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Tags: 2012, Democrat, election, Libertarian, Obama, presidential, Republican, Romney

Comments

One Response to “The Platform I Would Like To See”

Ronald Sims on August 31st, 2012 8:42 pm

This is great. I believe that people should at least look at this and see if that would work or not. But what really stood out to me is the point about welfare. Many people want to get rid of welfare, but really have no alternative to it. While some people can get by without welfare, other may struggle. I believe people use welfare as a last resort. Great post as always.

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