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| Originally Posted by BABRAM But it's still a fun question and her hearts in the right place. Also I agree with you on the guns and health-care issues. I had a very long day at work. Have a good shabbos.
Bobby |
Alright. In the interest of hypothetical questions, here goes:
1) I would make the Bush tax cuts permanent. As it turns out, lowering taxes has actually increased government income significantly, because more people are earning money, and therefore more are paying taxes. Everybody benefits from the tax cuts.
2) I would secure the border, using military and police assets at my disposal. One thing I would do is initiate a program wherein every National Guard unit would rotate through the various border states to practice military operations in desert settings. While there, those units would also be responsible for border patrol and monitoring. This will have the dual effect of lowering illegal immigration and training these units in border control operations in case they are ever sent to Iraq, Afghanistan or any other place where terrorists leaking across borders is a problem. This is a low-cost but effective means of using military assets to secure the borders. (I would also initiate a bonus program, wherein units that actually catch illegals coming across the border using approved methods are given a bonus for each illegal aprehended. That will result in the soldiers being MOTIVATED to do their jobs properly.)
3) I would push for progress in the "Future Warrior" weapons programs in order to get our soldiers in the field the best and most effective equipment available to the US arsenal. This would include new generation body armor, advanced infantry weapons, new tanks and armor composites, etc. I would also push for improvements in training methods in our military, including a bonus program for every additional skill learned by soldiers. The more a soldier knows, the more survivable he becomes while in the military, and the better the jobs he can find once he exits the service. If an infantry guy also learns logistics, combat engineering and demolition, basic combat medicine, earns his jump-tabs, and becomes a sharpshooter, shouldn't he be earning more than an infantry guy with no other special skills? And don't we want our soldiers to cross train in as many skills as possible so that they are able to take the fight to the enemy in as many ways as possible? (I would also make sure that every administrative specialist is also combat ready, just like in the Israeli military. In the US military, roughly 1 of every ten soldiers is a combat soldier. In Israel, 10 soldiers means 10 combat-trained, highly effective killers. That's what our military should be. They can specialize in administrative stuff, but let them be fully trained and ready for combat at any moment.)
4) I would fight against pork-barrel spending in Congress. I would veto anything that has pork attached to it, even if the main bill is something I support. I'm Jewish, I don't do pork.
5) I would reform the State Department by either firing or giving "an office with a window to the world" to any State Department official that doesn't tow the official line when it comes to government policy. If someone at Foggy Bottom decides to push for an Arabist solution to the Israel/Palestinian conflict when I am pushing for a pro-Israel solution, his foggy bottom will be gone from my State Department.
6) I will initiate investigations into any and every "anonymous leak" by government officials. And I will fire the of anyone caught leaking anything to the press or to any source outside of the Executive branch. It may be the job of the press to find out information and report it, but it is the job of the President to prevent them from doing so. That is the adversarial relationship between the media and the government, and that is the way I wish my government to operate.
7) HUMINT, HUMINT, HUMINT. And need I mention HUMINT? I would spend huge amounts of money to develop human intelligence sources against our enemies. While we have the best ELINT (electronic intelligence) capabilities in the world, our HUMINT sources are very lacking. We need to turn bad guys, establish spies, whatever. The CIA has never been quite as good as the Kremlin at doing HUMINT. Post Cold War documentary evidence showed that the USSR won the humint espionage war... they had the highest levels of the US government tied up in knots, while we barely got a few gadeners and custodians into the Kremlin. We did better on ELINT and SIGINT, but they destroyed us in HUMINT. I would spend huge amounts of money to change that fact, especially since the War on Terror is going to be won mostly at the clandestine level. Most counter-terrorism takes place at the HUMINT level.
8) I would enforce the employment laws regarding illegal immigrants. Even if a few illegals manage to trickle across the border past the National Guard units that are guarding the border, I will make the environment for them to find employment in the USA very hostile to them. If you want a job in the USA, come here legally.
9) Any University that doesn't allow ROTC or military recruiting on campus will not get federal funding. Period. You want to live off the government trough, you follow the government's rules. Don't like it? Get your money elsewhere.
10) Any foreign government or agency that gets foreign aid should support the US in the pursuit of its interests. If they actively stand against us, they can try to find their aid elswhere. NO YOU DO NOT GET A CHOICE IN THE MATTER IF YOU ARE TAKING MY MONEY. If you want the "right to choose", get your money from someone else. Kind of like how it is when you live in your parents' home... they make the rules. If you don't like it, get an apartment, get a job and and you can make your own decisions.
That's how I would spend my time (and your money) as President.
Elliot
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