[Moneyguy1]

I don't care if it is "liberal" or "conservative"...

Simplify the tax code. Any real analysis of the current code shows that it is over complex and favors certain very small parts of society. Please refer to a recent article in "U.S. News and World Report" May 1 by Editor-in CHief Mort Zukerman which in part reeads:

" The 2001 income tax rate cuts and the 2003 capital-gains and dividends cuts have lowered the average tax rate for the richest one-tenth of 1 percent of Americans by 3.8% but reduced taxes just .03% for the bottom 20 percent. Of the tax savings on investment, the lion's share-more than 70 percent-went to the top 2 percent. Of the 90 percent of the taxpayers who make less than $100,000, only 14% benefitted from the dividend tax cut and onlu 5 percent from the capital gains tax cut. People who own stocks hold them in retirement accounts, which are inelegible for investment relief, and when withdrawn, the profits are reduced by the higher rate applied to wage earnings."
As a consequence, the tax burden on the richest has been reduced to where those who earn $10 or more pay at a lesser rate than those who earn between $500k and $1 million, and the top 400 Americans pay even a lower rate. The share of income going to the top 1% has jumped from 9% to 14%.


Plan for deficit reduction; reintroduce fiscal conservatism. Reagan had a policy of spending control referred to as "starving the beast". What he forgot was that the federal government can print and borrow money, negating the starvation concept. Voodoo it was, and voodoo it still is. Bush I was correct.

Apply some rationale to foreign relations, using the Capone axiom: "It is easier to convince people with a kind word and a gun than it is with a kind word alone".

Keeping property values? That is not a government function. Prices are set by the market place: availability, location, desirability, fear, greed and all the other attributes of a free market.

Immigration? Tough one, tabs...Probably enforcing current laws re: employing "illegals" might be a start. Working with Mexico and the Central American countries to improve conditions there might be a good but obviously long range plan.

Iran? N. Korea? These require more than just US involvement to repair. One thing that does strike me is that any country, when it feels cornered or threatened, has a tendency to sabre rattle. Reintroduce the Teddy Roosevelt policy of speaking softly but carrying a big stick.

Iraq? Let it divide into three parts and each faction has its own sandbox to play in. There is more than politics at work in a country whose tradition is steeped more in the word of "God" than in the concept of tolerance and acceptance.

If all else fails in the ME, containment might be an option. Until the majority (which we are told is peaceful and tolerant) can gain control over their radical bretheren, sanction the entire area. Sort of a 21st century equivalent of an Iron Curtain. No one in, no one out. Ideal, but doable (once we learn how to police our own borders, of course).

Education? Get the system to realize it cannot be all things to all people. There are smart people, there are stupid people. Deal with it. Stop seeking the lowest common denominator. Redo the student loan program to reward outstanding performance, tying the interest rate to over GPA. But with some monitoring.

Societal changes (not included in tab's list)...Public education that addresses this so-called trend toward "politically correct" behavior. A country that attempts to become all things to all people ultimately becomes nothing to no one.

JUst a few ideas from a fiscal conservative and political independent.