You are given supreme political power to control your country for 4 years

[RGBVideo]

okay you do just that. now, half the companies (the small ones which force the large ones to keep prices low with their competition) go bankrupt, half (the market leading big ones which gain monopolies because competition vanishes) move their HQs to China. US economy collapses as you lose all of the corporate tax rate out of it's budget income.

Now what?

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by VJ
okay you do just that. now, half the companies (the small ones which force the large ones to keep prices low with their competition) go bankrupt, half (the market leading big ones which gain monopolies because competition vanishes) move their HQs to China. US economy collapses as you lose all of the corporate tax rate out of it's budget income.

Now what?

What corporate tax? I said there would be no corporate tax. Taxes will come from wealth tax.

There's no problem getting companies to manufacture here, because they will have to so that they can supply the US market. What are they going to do in China? China is the place where things will be hard. The US will be doing great. More families with more disposable income.

[Dinner]

I'd try to create a North American Union with Canada and Mexico. Like the EU the NAU would provide development aid to the poor member(s) in order to build roads, schools, and infastructure; in exchange Mexico would have to enact reforms to its corrupt political and legal system. This worked well in Europe and in just 20 years former economic basket cases like Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Greece have been successfully brought up to European norms.

Simply the tax code to get rid of as many exemptions as possible. Make it so the average person doesn't need $100 software and a personal accountant to file their return.

Standardize education so that it is as demanding as Japan or the EU. Massively increase funding and implement tough yearly tests which students must pass before going on to the next level. Make 4 years of college free. Also make after school child care free and make sure lots of arts, music, and creative stuff happens at there. Lastly mandatory PE for all students to help get people into good physical shape.

Term limits for all federal offices set at two terms.

The power to designate Congressional districts is taken away from Congress and vested in some sort of nonpolitical body which has clearly defined rules dictating how districts are drawn. Make sure these districts are as compact and geographically similar as possible; make it a capital offense to consider any information about how people vote in a given district when drawing up boundries.

Force all government contracts to be open bid. Make the government open up their books and processes to the highest degree possible; no secret meetings behind closed doors unless National Security can be proved clearly to a court of law. No more of secret meetings like Cheney's secret energy panels where special interests who donated to Bush/Cheney basically got to write their own laws.

Public financing of all elections. No politician can accept anything other then moral support or personal volunteer time from voters. Everything else is defined as bribery. Bribery is an automatic death sentence for both the briber and bribee.

Eliminate all direct subsidies for special interests including companies and farmers. They either make it in the open market or not but they don't get to keep sucking the public tit.

Universal single payer health care for everyone in the US providing basic medical needs. It is arranged like medicare while private companies and charities will continue to provide the actual locations where health care is dispensed. Government subsidies are provided to states so that rural and low income areas improve medical access. Individuals can buy private insurance to plus up their coverage if they so choose.

Eliminate the massive amount of pork and waste in the military budget. We have to many examples of the Air Force saying they don't want any more C-130s but every year gets more because a key Congressman has the factory in his district. Have every single new item studied publicly on a cost to benefit basis. No more 1% better items which cost 1000% more. Comb the entire defense establishment for duplication then eliminate any duplication which doesn't have a damn good reason; does the Navy, Army, Air Force, and Marines all need their own specially built item X or can we just build one which they all share?

Eliminate all cost plus contracts in the military and make everything firm fixed price. The reason every contract has cost over runs is because of the way the cost plus system works. You bid low to get the original contract but your profits depend on how large the bill is thus contracts purposefully drive up costs in order to enlarge contracts. Do what private industry does and require suppliers to deliver an agreed upon product for an agreed upon price by an agreed up date.

Eliminate 50% of all political appointee positions in the federal government. Some how professionalize the federal government to prevent the overt political manipulation of everything we've seen under Bush. Open to suggestions on how to exactly do that. Also require all political appointees actually have some relavent experience or training in the job before they can be appointed. No more "Brownies" in FEMA.

Change the way the Feds allocate the yearly budget. Currently it is a spend it all or lose it situation which only encourages people to spend more then they need to just so they can come back next year and ask for a bigger budget. Make it so that any civil servant who suggests a way to save money can get a bonus thus encouraging everyone at all levels to help improve efficiency. Remove the for life nature of government work and subject every single one of them to regular outside evaluations using easily quantifiable measurements. Fire everyone who doesn't measure up.

Eliminate all government pensions for politicians and make all government employees use the same medical system vets have to us. Gee, it sucks to when you don't get special privileges, huh?

Free trade with all first world countries who also agree to eliminate all forms of direct government subsidies.

Free movement of labor for all noncriminals in all first world countries (EU, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, etc...) but also including the other North American countries.

Massive subsidies to build light rail and subways in every city which can support it. Regional maglev trains (kind of like the TGV in France but with maglevs) so that regional and local travel can be done efficently with out having to use imported oil.

Absolutely massive building program for nuclear power plants. Make 70%+ of the US power supply nuclear with the remainder being hydro, wind, geothermal, or other nonGHG producing source where ever possible.

Big increases in CAFE and the gasoline tax. Dedicate funds to improving roads, highways, and building that mass transit.

Fix the alternative minimum tax so that it doesn't hit middle income people and then index it to inflation so that it never does again.

Big across the board cuts in Congressional pork spending. Make it a requirement that every Congressman put their name on all changes they make with spending bills.

Big cuts in new toys for the military but raises for the actual troops. Increase the size of the reserve and national guard.

Really start enforcing anti-monopoly laws which Bush has ignored. Find some way sort of institutional way to funnel money (both public and private) into start ups and small businesses.

Stop Congress from ever again raiding the Social Security Trust fund in order to hide their budget deficits. Make Social Security as independent as the Federal Reserve then let it invest it's money as any other Mutual Fund or Pension Fund would. Make a complete Chinese Fire Wall to keep politics out of the investing decisions and to prevent politicians from pressuring companies. This works at getting great returns for California's Pension system and it can do the same with Social Security.

Remove the cap on Social Security taxes which lets people stop paying them after $85k per year. Every pays the tax on all income earned. Also make everyone pay 1% of income into a personal retirement account. It's a forced savings plan to help Americans save more.

Force local cities to actually have balanced development. Most places in California and other high growth areas don't build low or middle income houses because politicians and developers prefer building a few mansions for the rich which brings in more revenue and require fewer services. The problem is everyone else needs a place to live too so requirements that X% of land be used for affordable housing needs to be in place.

Try to reduce and harminize business regulation where ever over lap occurs between Feds and States. Some how figure out how to weed out the excess regulation while still keeping the regulations which most help the people/consumers.

Make it much harder for the government to run a deficit. Any time the budget has been unbalanced for three years in a row then legally require the government to balance it unless 2/3rds of Congress agree it is a national emergency. Automatically suspend the balanced budget requirement in times of war. The fourth year and beyond of unbalanced budgets cannot continue in deficit unless 3/4 of Congress agree that it is a national emergency.

Massively increase the inheritance tax for the top 1% or so. America needs to be a meritocracy were people earn money based on merit. Having a permanent elite of inherited money prevents that.

Have as many government functions as possible and practical without harming citizens be forced to compete with private business. If a private company can do it for less then let them but if they fail to do a good job then they get black listed.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Ecthy
* Ecthy invades Czech Republic

Oops, I did it again!

Been playing the modern version of Hearts of Iron 2, huh?