If I Were President I'd ..

Everyone has made the statement "If I were President I'd ..." I've heard enough of them myself and, rather than explain my personal views on the subject over and over, here is what your humble correspondent would do if he became the ringmaster of American politics.

Energy Independence and Environment

1. I would require the immediate remove restrictions of all offshore drilling, ANWAR, and federal land. I would favor provisions requiring that any future oil, gas, and other natural resource explorations be in compliance with vigilant, but reasonable, environmental protection legislation.

2. I would require that all municipally-owned mass transportation and non-emergency vehicles be converted to run on natural gas or liquid propane within 5 years of January 20, 2009. Tax credits and/or financial incentives would be extended to facilitate these conversions.

3. I would require all local delivery vehicles (meaning those operated within 50 miles of a home terminal or dispatch point) be converted to run on natural gas or propane within 5 years of January20, 2009. Tax credits and/or financial incentives would be extended to facilitate these conversions.

4. I would support, by tax credit and other incentives, private efforts to construct to construct no less than 20 nuclear powered electric generation plants within 20 years of January 20, 2009.

5. I would support, by tax credit and other incentives, efforts to develop viable plans that would encourage the use of renewable energy resources on both the local and national levels.

Iraq and Foreign Relations

1. Require a complete pullout of American forces in Iraq within 18 months of January 20, 2009.

2. I would limit foreign aid to matching those funds that are appropriated and delivered by other governments under United Nations sponsorship and guidelines. This would include limiting the United States' contribution to the the maintenance of the United Nations as an organization to not more than 5% of its yearly cost.

3. I would strengthen American support to NATO by offering defensive anti-missile units to any nation that requested such protection. This coverage would also be extended to any non-NATO nation.

4. I would support a 10%, across the board, reduction in all foreign aid.

Domestic Affairs

1. I would support a national health insurance plan that would be based on the existing Medicare Program. Under my program, individuals would be allowed to purchase health coverage under this plan at the monthly premium being paid by Medicare parts A, B, and D enrollees. Employers with more than 3 full-time employees would contribute ½ of this premium per employee by payroll deduction. The unemployed would be eligible for care under this program for 3 months following termination of employment and care for pre-existing conditions would be provided indefinitely.

2. I would, in consultation with the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the appropriate military commanders, require that certain military bases closed under the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRACC) be reopened as supply points where stockpiles of disaster relief supplies would be stored until needed in a time of national disaster. I would further order the appropriate military authorities to develop contingency plans under which National Guard and Reserve units composed of civil engineering, military police, mobile hospital and medical, and air transport specialization be placed on 12-hour standby status in times of a foreseeable natural disaster and 24-hour standby for unforeseen disaster response, utilizing the stockpiles of supplies previously mentioned.

3. I would support a national college scholarship/tuition plan for any student admitted to a vocational, 2-year, or 4-year educational program. At the conclusion of their sponsored educational program, the recipient would have the option of either directly repaying the cost of their education or having such aid forgiven on a year-per-year program of military or national service.

4. In order to help offset the costs of the above mentioned programs, I would impose a no exceptions; non-deductible, graduated national sales tax to be imposed as follows: 1% on all purchases and/or transactions having a value of less than $1,000; 1½% on all purchases or transactions having a value between $10,001 and $100,000, and 2% on all purchases or transactions exceeding $100,001.

Other Issues

I know that there are issues that I haven't addressed in this posting and I have solutions for these issues however, since these solutions involve either firing squads or guillotines, I doubt that even the current Congress would agree with me and I won't bother to list them.