If you became the leader of your nation...

[ita]

Kick the fascists and liberals out of the government.

 

Renationalise the railroads, the electricity market and the mining industry.

 

Kick private enterprise out of the education and healthcare system, remove control of the schools from municipalities and return it to the state.

 

Immediately withdraw all troops from ISAF service and any other NATO-related cooperation.

 

Invest in catching tax evaders, any corporation or individual caught transferring funds to tax havens should be heavily fined/locked away for a minimum of 20 years and their ill-gotten gains confiscated.

 

Set aside a portion of the national budget to import fine chocolate from Belgium and Switzerland and whisky from Scotland. These items are to be used by the head of state as she sees fit.

 

Construct a palace for the head of state, staffed exclusively by strapping young men. 8)

[Beriallord]

I would make Senators, Members of House have term limits. 8 years maximum, once you serve that you cannot run for that particular office again. Although you could seek election in a different office.

 

Corporate lobbying shall be made illegal, to avoid loop holes, it will also be illegal for corporation to fund any organization who lobbies government in any form. Corporation should stick to running their companies and stay out of influencing the decision making in government. Also it will be illegal to give any politician anything of monetary value as a gift or otherwise, unless its a campaign donation, and corporations will not be allowed to donate to any politician's campaign. I insist that corporation stays out of government, period. It will also be illegal for foreign governments to lobby our government for any favors, and it will also be illegal for any foreign government or any organization that represents a foreign government to make any donations, period to any politician. This includes organizations that represent a "global" initiative. Any particular wealthy people who think they can just individually fund an organization that lobbies government with near unlimited resources, will find themselves unable to do this.

 

I am really adamant about the wealthy elite not having a bigger voice in government than anyone else. I think politicians having to answer to the American people, and only the American people. There will be no other distractions/motivations other than them answering directly to the people.

 

Any politician who takes a bribe, will not only be criminally prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but depending on the severity might even be found to be considered traitor. Which will get you life in prison. Like accepting bribes/favors from a foreign government.

 

I would recall all armed forces in the US stationed around the world from non-crucial bases. Basically 90% of the foreign bases would be recalled. I would secure our borders, with a National Guard presence, much more than is currently present. Around 60,000 - 80,000 National Guard troops on the Southern border, working in conjunction with local border patrols. I would encourage some of the enlisted men returning from overseas to apply to the National Guard, while maintaining their respective ranks/pay. Basically its going to be next to impossible to sneak across the border. What point is there in playing the worlds police force if we can't even police our own borders adequately?

Edited December 19, 2011 by Beriallord

[DeadSpace]

~Corporations would be banned from lobbying or supporting anyone seeking public office.

~All donations from private individuals to elected officials would be subject to oversight and investigation. Criminal penalties if they are found to have been a front for any corporation or religion.

~Term limits of 12 years for house of representatives, congress and president.

~Must continue to live in the state that elected them at least 6 months out of the year.

~Institute possibly the largest public works project in U.S. history, entire nation to be connected with fiber optics.

~Teachers: pay raise by ability, abolish seniority, and yearly qualification tests.

~Marijuana legalized and taxed.

~Federal subsidies for business concerns reviewed and canceled if sufficient evidence is not presented that they would become bankrupt without them.

~Federal Reserve brought under jurisdiction of Executive branch. Officials including chairman appointed by the Executive. Public record of all proceedings including past records become available to any citizen. (if they don't destroy them)

~Current illegal aliens deported. Businesses, individuals harboring illegal aliens fined and/or CEO/President subject to incarceration.

~FDA dissolved, new oversight committee appointed (FDSC). Appointees must have a doctorate and must not have been employed by any business or concern that would have products reviewable by the new dept.

~Penalties for accepting favors, cash, gifts, or any form of goods/services from outside agencies to elected or appointed officials would result in the officials incarceration (mandatory 5 year minimum) and Fines+ incarceration of the offending concern.

~TSA reworked from the ground up, due process required. any TSA official who oversteps their bounds subject to the same penalties as elected officials accepting bribes.

~Safety will always be more important than money. for the armed services, the country, it's citizens. That would only apply to TSA, the new FDSC...federal government will not get involved if you decide to have shopping cart races down the sides of mountains...in those cases the federal government will firmly follow Darwinism in action. ie: no federal laws to protect you from your own stupidity.

~First responders (firefighters, police, medics, etc) would gain much greater funding. (transferred from DEA and marijuana taxation)

~Penalties as described above for public or appointed officials would apply to any public servant, incliding first responders, and teachers. you betray the publics trust...you will pay.

~Any bill that attempts to circumvent or any law that already has circumvented constitutional guarantees banned and abolished.

~federal government will hold that an individuals religion (or lack thereof), sexual preferences, sexual identity, and/or lifestyle choices are the citizens own business until such time as they interfere with life threatening consequences to one or more citizens.

~There will be no federal religion. The government of a nation as diverse as the U.S. must remain neutral since the sole purpose is to function for the prosperity, safety, and well being of ALL citizens.

 

 

yeah...i'd last about 1/10000 of a second in office >.>

[ginnyfizz]

Kick the fascists and liberals out of the government.

 

Renationalise the railroads, the electricity market and the mining industry.

 

Kick private enterprise out of the education and healthcare system, remove control of the schools from municipalities and return it to the state.

 

 

*Sigh* as I said to a previous poster, we had that kind of nationalisation here in Britain and it didn't work. We were held to ransom by the trade unions. Latterly Gormless Gordon bloated the public sector, now we can't afford to pay for it. I really don't think you'd get elected with that manifesto, people would not want to pay the level of taxes necessary.

[grannywils]

Well, I'm with Silver on this one. I would immediately resign for pretty much the reasons he stated. However, Vagrant has my vote!!!

[IndorilTheGreat]

This video describes exactly what I would do. It is possibly one of the most moving speeches I have ever heard in my life.

 

Charlie Chaplin was definitely ahead of his time.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXsoakk3GRk

Edited December 27, 2011 by IndorilTheGreat

[JimboUK]

The problem with nationalised industries is they have absolutely no incentive to innovate, provide a decent level of service or make a profit. What nationalisation tends to be in reality is the nationalising of losses, an industry that should be contributing to the nations wealth becomes a drain on it. Margaret Thatcher gets the blame for destroying British industry, the truth is it was the unions that destroyed it, by the time she came to power these industries were already on taxpayer funded life support. We were making products no one in their right mind would buy, why buy a poorly specced British made car that fell apart when you could buy a well made, well built Datsun (now Nissan) for a fraction of the price?

 

People complain about our privatised railways, they're not great but those complaining either don't remember or never experienced the nationalised "service" known as British Rail. The trains were absolutely filthy, the food sold on-board was a health hazard, the things turned up when they felt like it and may or may not have made it to the destination within several hours of the time stated on the timetable. Of course these problems only occurred on the rare occasions they weren't on strike.

 

The last government here squeezed the productive part of the economy to fund a huge enlargement of the unproductive part, the result was a massive deficit before the banking crisis hit, that deficit greatly reduced our ability to deal with the crisis. They've also left the private sector weakened right at a time when we need it the most, anyone suggesting it should be clobbered further is naive at best.

[grannywils]

This video describes exactly what I would do. It is possibly one of the most moving speeches I have ever heard in my life.

 

Charlie Chaplin was definitely ahead of his time.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXsoakk3GRk

 

 

I agree with you Indoril. It was, and still is quite moving. Mr. Chaplin was quite an incredible man, and extremely brave for those times...

[ita]

Kick the fascists and liberals out of the government.

 

Renationalise the railroads, the electricity market and the mining industry.

 

Kick private enterprise out of the education and healthcare system, remove control of the schools from municipalities and return it to the state.

 

 

*Sigh* as I said to a previous poster, we had that kind of nationalisation here in Britain and it didn't work. We were held to ransom by the trade unions. Latterly Gormless Gordon bloated the public sector, now we can't afford to pay for it. I really don't think you'd get elected with that manifesto, people would not want to pay the level of taxes necessary.

 

*Sigh* I'm not talking about Britain here, let's have a look at how your beloved private enterprise has made a couple of things better in my country :thumbsup:

 

Railroads: under the supposedly efficient and service-minded eye of the private sector, 31% of all trains ran late in December 2010, not counting a significant number of train departures that were cancelled because the subcontractors couldn't be arsed to get out and clear the snow off the tracks. In some cases the army had to be called out to provide relief to passengers stuck on trains out in the wilderness.

 

Electricity: since the electricity market was deregulated in 1996, electricity prices for the end consumer have doubled. Thank private enterprise for that.

 

Mining: the state runs a 100% stated-owned multinational mining corporation that made over 12 billion in profits in 2010 with a profit margin of 43,3%. How's that for having no incentive to make a profit?

 

Healthcare: a large healthcare company owned by (surprise surprise) foreign private investors filed in some banana republic tax haven has been caught cutting costs that probably never should have been cut, with the result of elderly people literally dying in their own faeces. The abhorring revelations caused hiccups in even some of the most liberal, pro-business municipal politicians and prompted them to immediately 'review' the contracts with the company in question.

 

Tl;dr vote for me and I'll make the trains run on time. http://1e400.net/i/bUH/emot-smug.gif

[marharth]

Why would deregulation help? Can someone explain that to me?

 

Doesn't seem to make much sense.