Abortion:I support leaving this issue to the states. While I’m personally pro-choice, I believe that if a majority of a state’s voters oppose a woman’s right to make her own reproductive decisions, the will of the majority should be heard.
Balanced Budget:I generally support a balanced budget. However, I believe the government should resort to deficit spending to invigorate the economy during a recession. I’m a proponent of fiscal discipline. Pork barrel projects should be voted on individually, rather than in omnibus bills.. This would force members of Congress to justify federal dollars being spent for parochial matters.
Business Tax:Eliminate the corporate income tax. While the U.S. tax burden is one of the highest among OECD countries, our corporations pay the second lowest amount in taxes. These companies spend billions on lawyers and lobbyists to create and exploit loopholes in the tax code. Eliminating corporate taxes would create a more attractive business environment for American companies. As economic conservative have pointed out, this would free up more capital for productivity gains, R&D funding, and general investments. If the government isn’t taxing corporation, it shouldn’t be giving them billions in welfare, either.
Campaign Finance Reform:Abolish 527s, ban 501(c)s from engaging in political activities, cap soft money contributions at the same levels as hard money gifts, and allow federal campaign committees to interact with IE outfits. It’s absurd that the NRCC, DCCC, DSCC, NRSC, DNC, and RNC, can’t direct IE expenditures.
Education:While I support charter schools and vouchers, I also believe the federal government should not fund them. Invest in after-school programs, create effective anti-bullying programs, adopt merit pay based on tests that aren’t proctored by teachers. The NEA and the AFT actively hinder education reforms. They must either allow the termination of incompetent teachers or they should be terminated themselves.
Environment:Fully fund the the 1970s era environmental laws, invest in renewable energy, protect national forest from old-growth logging, increase the EPA’s enforcement budget, levy fines of up to $10 billion on corporations to violate environmental regulations.
Free Trade:I’m a realistic free trader. I support dismantling barriers to the free flow of labor and goods/services. I also agree with Max Baucus that the WTO should penalize third world nations that don’t adhere to strict environmental and labor standards. Labor and environmental violations are a form of unfairly crafting a comparative advantage and they should be balanced with restrictions on that nation’s exports.
Gun Control:Like abortion, gun control should be left to the states to decide.
Health Care:Adopt Senator Wyden’s health care plan. According to CBO head honcho Peter Orzag, it’s the only revenue-neutral health care plan currently on the table.
http://www.slate.com/id/2160834Immigration:I support the unfettered immigration to the United States. Amnesty should be granted to non-criminal illegal immigrants.
Military Funding:
Cut spending on weapons programs that are irrelevant to the war on terror. The United States spend more on defense than the rest of the world combined. I support slashing defense spending in half.
Military Doctrine:Remove American troops from Germany and redeploy forces from Iraq.
Personal Tax:Eliminate taxes on the bottom quintile. Raise taxes on the top quintile to 40%.
Social Security:Eliminate the cap on payroll taxes. Bill Gates shouldn’t pay the same SS taxes as someone who earns $100k.
Nation-Building:The United States should resists its imperial instincts and refrain from nation-building. To quote George W. Bush, “America shouldn’t be the world’s policeman.”
Sex Education:Abstinence only sex education doesn’t work. The government should provide contraceptives to young adults and teach them about the drawbacks of unsafe sex.
Civil Rights:Affirmative action should be based on income. Affirmative action is inherently racist. The premise that a wealthy black who grows up in home with two well-educated parents deserves preferential treatment over a poor white foster child is absurd. Income and education of the parents, not race, are the two greatest metrics for predicting child’s chances of success.
China:The United States lacks the moral ascendancy to lecture China on human rights. Taiwan should be allowed to rejoin the mainland.
Crime:The government should not sanction murder. Replace the death penalty with grueling labor and mental torture for violent inmates. In China, inmates are forced to drag stones across a courtyard until they’ve completed a small wall. Once this task is complete, they must dismantle the wall and carry the stones back to their original place. This task is repeated until the inmates collapses from physical exhaustions. After a few years of this, the inmates would be shifted to chain gangs and would serve as cheap labor for building projects outside prison.