So, let's play another game...

We've all spent a lot of time pissing and moaning about Obama here at the Bund... and we all fancy ourselves as pretty smart, well-read individuals. Let's all put our money where our "mouths" are...

What would YOU do, if you were President tomorrow morning? It's your turn, you decide, you pick the Cabinet positions, you name the legislation you'll veto or sign into law, and you detail the foreign policy you'll follow as the new Commander in Chief of the United States of America.

As I proposed this "game", I guess I'll start...

Following close on the heels of the "hope and change" that put the US $1.2 trillion in debt in less than one year, the first thing I would do is make it abundantly clear that I will be expecting Congress to overturn Obama's and the last Congress' legislation, from top to bottom. How would I do that?

The first thing I would do is STOP all funding for the following Cabinet departments:

Commerce. Labor. Health and Human Services. Housing and Urban Development. Transportation. Energy. That's roughly 306,000 jobs cut from Federal Executive budget by either early retirement or transfer to other departments that NEED the personnel... Homeland Security, or Interior, or Defense. I also think that, buried somewhere deep inside each of these departments are agencies and bureaus that ARE worth the money... NOAA, for example. These would be funded through the remaining Cabinet offices (Interior, for example). Even with my "pick-and-choose" hack and slash reduction of the Executive Branch, I still feel like I could reduce the cost by nearly 30%. I would appoint no Secretary to these positions, and funding would end or be diverted to other departments.

And all within the enumerated Executive Powers as defined by the Constitution, too.

I would propose legislation calling for a 40% across-the-board reduction in the national income tax rate, a 25% cut in the corporate tax rate, and the elimination of capital gains and the "death" tax. ALL health care costs incurred by the public would be tax-deductible, including the cost of employer-provided health care insurance and all co-pays.

That means that the average Joe paying in the 33% bracket now would owe only 19.8% in my first term, while his employer would owe only 28% (on average) and both could claim additional breaks based on what they SPENT on health care... not on what they could afford to pay regardless of money spent.

My next plan would be to use my influence and ability to encourage the 55 members of the National Governors Association to build on the 10th Amendment movement and to find the places and means to take on greater and greater authority at a State level and to reverse the more than 145 year trend of surrendering State rights to the Feds.

Over the course of the four years I would serve, I would work as hard as I could to lay the groundwork to also delete the Department of Education... at least in its current role as the "standard setting" institution for 50 states-worth of school districts encompassing 350 million people's lives, in one way or another. The primary control of education should be in the hands of those at the State, county and district levels... the Feds should be the last course of regulation and funding, NEVER the first. I wouldn't do this from the start, however. This nation can't afford to see even 4 years of education wasted... not with "No Child Left Behind" still in place!..., so I wouldn't want to stress the systems and districts by interrupting funding and standards without SOME time-table effect.

So, who's next?