Interactive: You are elected POTUS. What is your agenda for America?

[Vosem]

-- Strengthening privacy laws. The Patriot Act is basically to be repealed; the NSA is to be cut back. Echoing other posters here.

-- Weakening most anti-drug laws, but strengthening anti-tobacco law. Marijuana would be pretty much totally legalized, and the drinking age would definitely be lowered. Penalties for non-violent drug offenders would be drastically lowered. On the other hand, buying tobacco will remain legal "in principle", but both the selling and the buying of it would become as much of a hassle as is possible without illegalizing it outright.

-- Universal Adult Age. Probably should be below 18 -- 16 sounds about right to my ears. Age at which you can vote/join the military/buy legal drugs (except tobacco, age might be like ~25 for that)/learn to drive a car/get a driver's license.

-- Balanced Budget Amendment. Rather straightforward. Would have two exemptions: an open-ended exemption for times of declared war, and a "timed" one for the immediate future so that Congress could get to the business of balancing the budget, which would logically take time. To motivate Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment, we'll say every year there is none (past the deadline, in a time without a declared war) every member of the House is thereon banned for a period of let's say 7 years from running for federal elected office.

-- Electoral reform. Wyoming Rule, splitline redistricting every 10 years, third Senator for every state, preferential voting, national single-day primary (six months before the general election for the Presidency, and four months before the general election for everything else). The franchise and gubernatorial elections are to be synchronized (the first one, those sitting in prison are disenfranchised, those released can vote like anyone else, as long as they present a government-issued ID; the second, all gubernatorial elections are to be held every midterm year). State Senates are to be set at 40 members, with half elected every 4 years through an Australian-Senate-type system (to allow 3rd parties to have some chance), with state Houses redistricted splitline every 10 years, permanently set at either twice the delegation to the US House or a minimum of 80 (so 80 in most states, but perhaps more in the largest states). Legislators are not to have term limits, anywhere. The President and governors are both limited to 8 years.

-- Flatten the tax system; national sales tax. A flat tax probably isn't practical, but I would try to shift a large amount of the burden from individuals to businesses. At the same time, a national sales tax, along with a broad income tax cut for everybody, though it would be disproportionately heavier for a general "middle class" (to be defined when I think about it more), with not much cut for the poor or rich. Try to remove loopholes where this is possible.

-- Gay equality. Pretty straightforward.

-- Education reform. There would be a "national curriculum", with more of a focus on science/history/foreign language than before, and rather less on English/Literature, set by Congress and enforced by the Department of Education. All students would be required to study certain things that are presently controversial (most notably, the theory of evolution). Homeschoolers would be extremely regularly given state-run tests, which will be significantly more rigorous than those given public schoolers; if they do not pass, they are to be forced to attend public school. Private schools would also be required to teach to the "national curriculum".

-- Cut the military budget, but wisely. The military budget would be cut, rather significantly. Bases that serve no obvious strategic purpose will be closed, and programs considered outdated are to be done away with entirely. This one is rather broad.

-- Repeal of ObamaCare. Pretty straightforward, again.

-- Immigration reform. While, on the one hand, somebody with no criminal record and a minimum amount of education is to be allowed into the US, essentially no questions asked, at the same time illegal immigration is not tolerated; anyone who enters the US unannounced after the passage of the relevant legislation is to be thrown into jail for several years, then deported to their native country. For illegal immigrants already here, they are guaranteed not to be deported; they can apply for citizenship as long as they have no criminal record anywhere (here or in their home country) and receive it. Those who do are to be deported to their native countries.

-- Privatize/reform Social Security. This one takes more thought than I've put into it, but the current model can't last forever.

-- Repeal affirmative action/Equal Rights Amendment. Neither the US government nor any business or educational establishment in the country is to discriminate on the basis of race, sexual orientation, sex, or age (when somebody is above 16). The Equal Rights Amendment is to become part of the Constitution.

-- Capitals. Neither of these fit anywhere else, so I put them together: annex Washington DC to Maryland so that its residents can elect Representatives to Congress like anyone else. And finally move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, along with recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

-- Vastly expand death penalty. Make the death penalty an option for serial rapists and thieves of a substantial enough caliber. In effect, I want to replace the sentence "life in prison" with the sentence "death".

-- Guns. No change at all

-- Pardon Snowden but not Manning. Everyone seems to be mentioning their policies on these two so I suppose I will too. Snowden is a very sympathetic figure to my eyes. Manning, not so much.

-- Legalization of prostitution. Pretty straightforward.

-- Energy reform. I thought I had this up there with the other stuff I really care about, that's where it belongs. Build the Keystone Pipeline, encourage fracking; but on the other hand, encourage nuclear power for all it is ing worth. Regulations against coal plants are to be kept and perhaps strengthened; 'clean coal' is to be made a reality as much as it is possible.

-- Try to make new free trade agreements with allied countries. Pretty self-explanatory.

-- Try to make access to abortion easier in hostile states. Haven't thought this one through, but everyone's writing their policy on abortion, so...