How would you improve the job market and national security?

[wetbandit2003]

If you were elected President and Commander in Chief of the United States this election cycle. What Kind of Policy would you impliment
to improve the economy, the job market and national security?

[Hoosier Democrat]

1. A few things

1. Crack down on corporations who send their jobs overseas.

2. Apologize to the World Community at the UN for our behavior under this regime

3. Encourage the new Iraqi government to nationalize all Haliburton and Bechtel assets in their nation.

3. Hand Bush, Cheney, and Rum-filled over to the new Iraqi Government to stand trial for war crimes

[rock]

2. Impeach bush*sucks

That would do it.

[toddzilla]

3. national security is a byproduct

it's a byproduct of how we treat other citizens of the world. You don't see switzerland or denmark having a huge terrorist problem because they don't invade countries simply because they want some extra resources and to protect business interests.

[Delarage]

4. I'd go with Gephardt's "Apollo" plan

I'd take a few "cookies" out of the Pentagon's package and institute massive incentive programs for conversion to solar electric, solar hot water, geothermal heat, insulation, etc. to reduce dependence on terrorists and Republicans for oil. I'd also push for greater CAFE standards and increase the incentives for hybrid cars.

The alternative energy initiative would create thousands and thousands of jobs everywhere--in manufacturing the equipment, transporting it, installing it, etc. All government buildings would be required to cut their energy use by at least half by using the above-mentioned technologies.

I'd scrap the "No Child Left Behind" bullshit and spend the money in fully funding IDEA for students with disabilities--thus hiring many, many more special education teachers and ending the 30 kids in a special education classroom phenomena.

I'd also institute water-conservation incentives (rain cachement systems, etc.) and that would again create jobs/preserve resources.

I'd scrap the Patriot Act and use any money allotted for its evil to expand Americorps and other urban revitalization projects (which could be tied in to the alternative energy initiative).

I'd let gay translators work for the military for intelligence purposes. Apparently some are unemployed just because they're gay and there are gaping needs for them.

Edit: I forgot that I would increase the pay for active military and veterans/veteran services by taking the Pentagon's money from the hands of evil corporate contractors and their pork projects and giving it to the men and women who protect our country (although they're currently protecting pipelines).

[swinney]

10. DELARAGE IS ON THE BALL.

I NOMINATE YOU FOR SEC OF TREASURY

[junker]

5. Simple. Start here...

Nat security requires reliable infrastructure.

Nothing creates jobs like building infrastructure.
So,
1) start building new facilities in ports.
2) bring army back and let them seal the borders
3) start with a newly designed national electrical grid, not the hodge-podge POS we have now (this is estimated to produce 95 thousand very high paying jobs in the first 6 months alone.) also upgrade this for security and build with hightemp superconductors.
4) start on a methane harvesting energy plan. Methane can be used whereever nat gas and propane are used and some more areas. Methane is hugely available everywhere from landfills to mining the methane ices in the bottom of the ocean.
5) then rebuild and upgrade every damn dam and bridge in the whole country.
6) while this is going on, put large amounts of work into underglass food production facilities which can produce 5 times the crops as bare-land farming.

7) of course all this means we need smarter and more educated humans running around here so we will need to really go back to education, not the PC schooling crap that takes over one half of all tax dollars (here in WA STATE) and produces some of the dumbest bastards I have ever seen...

[many a good man]

6. Easy

1) Institute new rules regarding corporate governance (CEO criminally negligent for acctg fraud, revise general accepted accounting rules, etc)

2) Return corporate tax rates to Nixonian levels

3) Return top tax bracket to 70% for incomes over $500K; increase tax brackets 2% for income over 150K

4) Repeal tax breaks on dividends

5) Restore estate tax, threshold at $3M

6) Scrap missile defense plan in its entirety; review other big $ defense projects; investigate acctg irregularities at Pentagon; $ saved goes to eqpt for troops, homeland security, and alternative energy

7) Impose three year penalty on all off-shoring by multinational corporations: 3 yrs full pay to workers, equal amount in tax base to communities

8) Infrastructure improvement jobs program

9) Apollo Project for alternative energies development: research and infrastructure; 50% replacement goal within 15 yrs

10) Aggressive health care and pharmaceutical cost controls; government-run health insurance and prescription plan for individuals and small businesses at below-market rates

11) Rejoin community of nations and lead UN effort to combat ALL proliferation (conventional, nuclear, chem and bio) and terrorism mainly through intelligence gathering, banking, and crime investigation

12) Fully fund UN anti-poverty programs and increase foreign assistance to world's poorest nations fivefold

13) Ratify revised Kyoto Accord

14) Join Intl Criminal Court

15) Take Clinton's I/P agreement before popular vote in Israel and Palestine; if passed implement two-state plan immediately backed up by UN troops for security enforcement

16) Overhaul WTO to secure worker and environmental rights; agreements only binding between countries that meet minimal standards

[unblock]

7. false premise

despite the rampant fear, i reject the premise that national security is in any need of great improvement.

19 fanatics managing to commit a profoundly heinous criminal act, after years of planning and training, does not mean that national security is inadequate.

3000 people dying all on the same day -- a normal 3 weeks' worth of traffic fatalities -- is a tragedy, but doesn't mean we need to do anything different.

al-qaeda could commit a 9/11 EVERY MONTH and airplanes would STILL be the safest way to fly. but of course, the didn't do it every month. they did it ONCE. maybe they'll pull off something similar once every 5 years.

nobody is fond of the term 'acceptable losses', but i refuse to accept that there's a compelling need based on such an infrequent occurrence of death that are smaller in number than many other matters more worthy of our attention.

hey, people get robbed, too; maybe you buy a security system, but for the most part, you just get on with yoour life.

[wetbandit2003]

8. Here are My Ideas.

1. I think that we need to cut the largest Prescription Drug plan in history in half.
2. I would pass a bill to congress demanding accountability for Pass thru-Pork.
3. I would try to set term limits to congressmen and senators.
4. I would tax corperations 79% of every dollar made by off-shore labor to protect american jobs. Its time CEOs behave.
5. For national security, I would scrap that stupid immigration bill
that was resently proposed.
6. Bomb OSAMA!

[MisterC2003]

9. My plan

My ideas involve a combination of incentives and disincentives. Actually, there's just one incentive, but it's a lulu anbd should more than make up for the cost of the disincetives:

1) Start a government agency that will offer low-cost loans or even grants to the unemployed who can present reasonable business plans for new businesses they will start. This will be available only to people who have been unemployed for six months and have at least applied for unemployment insurance. A group of SCORE types will be on hand to provide help in developing biz plans and to evaluate applications for feasiblity (just to throw out the ones that are clearly submitted with no thought to becoming profitable). And there would be safeguards to prevent the kind of abuse that some Asians have been known to practice wrt low cost minority-biz loans. Point is, this would lead to the rise of a number of small businesses, many of which would fail, some of which would succeed however and drive down unemployment and build up the economy.

2) Invade Mexico. OK, they're our ally and all, but hey, Bush set the precedent on invading whoever the hell you want whenever you want. Invade Mexico, jail all the PRI leaders who've fucked things up so royally, and invite all the Mexicans who've been working in the U.S. for five years or more to come back and run the place along the democratic principles they will have learned in the U.S. And toss out all the damn Catholic preists that have been telling the people that birth control is wrong. That'll stem the flow of immigrant labor from Mexico big-time.

3) Major fines for corps that outsource to India, etc., with possible jail time for the non-compliant.

4)Install trade incentives for doing biz only with countries that do biz with the U.S. on an equal footing, i.e., match us in terms of wage and employee benefits, etc. Jail terms for CEOs of U.S. firms that do biz with contractors who work employees under slave labor conditions.