I'm Ba-aack!

I decided to return to the blogosphere after all, and the topic for today is reforms.

Having grown completely and entirely sick, tired and disgusted of all politicians and of politics in general, I spent part of my hiatus from this blog thinking about what I'd do differently "if I were king," to rip off the Wizard of Oz.

If I were prez, this would be my agenda, in no particular order (recognizing that in the current environment in DC I could never accomplish it, and that some of these things would be beyond my purview as POTUS - either states' issues or congressional ones):

1. Complete campaign reform. This includes limiting campaigning for president to a nine-month period running prior to the election - none of this running for two years crap. Debates would be set in advance, limited to three for the primaries and three for the general election, and would follow the same format for each. Every candidate would have an opportunity to answer each question - no more limiting questions to some candidates, as happened to Huckabee and Paul in one of the last GOP debates. The moderator could not come from the mainstream media - I'm not sure whom I'd pick, maybe draw from a lottery, or maybe have all questions submitted from the people, electronically via a website, e-mail or phone. A switch would be placed on each candidate's mic, and when they hit their time limit for a question the mic would shut off. Likewise, if their answer were off-topic, or if they tried to veer off-topic after giving an answer, the mic could be shut off and we'd move to the next question. Three infractions, and they're out of the debate, and all subsequent ones. If they can't play by the rules in a debate, they're unlikely to in office.

There would also be significant campaign finance reform, including the elimination of all PACs, and a cap on funds raised - any funds donated above the cap would go to pay down the national debt.

2. Congressional term limits, two terms for senators and six for representatives. Twelve years is long enough to serve in any job. Also, congressional bennies would expire after a time period equal to the time the congressperson served. So if the lawmaker serves the full 12 years, they'd get 12 years of post-service bennies before they expired and they had to get a real job. If a rep serves one term then loses, they'd get two years of bennies. The bennies would be those they'd get during active service; the pension would be equivalent to 80% of their annual pay the last year they served, with no COLAs during the payout period.

3. Congress could no longer approve their own pay raises. They - and the president - would get an annual COLA equal to headline CPI for that year, period. And in any year there was a budget deficit, they'd get nada. If the deficit exceeded 5% of GDP, they would each take a pay cut that year equal to the deficit as a percent of GDP (this year they'd get whacked by about 13%), with the money going to pay down the deficit. And they'd get no chance to recoup that pay cut, just the annual COLAs.

4. I'd pursue real, meaningful tort reform. There would be caps on awards, including medical malpractice suits, maybe dependent on the nature of the injury. I'd want to consult more on that with my HHS Secretary, a very smart doc I know. I'd also streamline the FDA drug approval process - it shouldn't take any longer to get a drug approved here than in other developed countries. And I'd break the insurance companies' stranglehold on medicine - again, I'd defer to my HHS Secretary on the details.

5. Neither the president nor congress would have more than six weeks' paid vacation per year, and there would be no junkets. Camp David would only be used if the president had to be whisked out of DC for security reasons, or to entertain foreign dignitaries - never for a leisurely getaway. It would be a working retreat. AFOne could not be used for weekend trips on leisure, at least on the taxpayers' dime - if the president wanted a weekend getaway, he'd still use AFOne and have the appropriate security detail, but it would come out of his own pocket (or hers). In fact, the president and each elected congressperson would have an annual travel budget that could not be exceeded except if there's a national emergency that required travel, and any expenditures over budget would come out of pocket.

6. It would be law that former lobbyists could not be given cabinet appointments, and no elected official could serve as a lobbyist after their term for a period of time equal to the term served in office.

7. The Fed would function solely as a central bank and lender of last resort, and its balance sheet would be limited in size. It could not regulate. And it would be completely independent, by a constitutional amendment if necessary.

8. There would be a line-item veto. Also, no spending bill could be voted on until the people had a chance to review it for three weeks, and no lawmaker could vote on a spending bill without signing an affidavit, subject to legal action, attesting to his/her having read and understood it.

9. The IRS, Dept. of Education, and probably the DEA and ATF would be eliminated. A flat tax would be imposed in place of the current structure, with no itemized deductions.

10. Unemployment benefits could not be extended by Congress. Thirteen weeks, period.

11. Any state that wanted federal funding for education would have to make financial literacy a part of the core public school curriculum, beginning at the elementary school level and continuing through high school.

12. Usury limits would be put in place. Payday lending would be illegal. Any financial institution that offered car loans in excess of five years and/or mortgages other than fixed-rate loans with at least 10% down, documented income, and maximum debt-to-income ratios would have to hold all such loans in portfolio.

13. Derivatives markets would be regulated, and the old CFTC rules relating to hedging would be brought back. Wall Street firms could not qualify as real commodity hedgers, only qualified end users.

14. I'd kill the cap and trade idea.

15. Illegal immigrants would be just that: illegal. If they wanted to apply for citizenship, they could, following the same rules as anyone else, after the appropriate punishment for being in the US illegally. If someone was in the US illegally and had a child, that child could not be a US citizen without going through the application process. No free education, welfare, etc.

16. The US would pull out of the UN, and the UN would be kicked off US soil.

I'm sure I could think of more, but that's a decent start for my first term.