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If you was President...

saturneptune

New Member
Lobbyists - I would say they have a right to do their job -
How would you constitutionally get rid of them?

(I agree 101% with ending pork spending)
If you had just left out the word "constitutionally." That is a good question. It is obvious they harm the conducting of the people's business. I suppose I would include it in the House and Senate ethics rules.
 

Salty

20,000 Posts Club
Administrator
If you had just left out the word "constitutionally." That is a good question. It is obvious they harm the conducting of the people's business. I suppose I would include it in the House and Senate ethics rules.

But I didn't leave the "C" word out -!

I think the real question is "Why do they harm the peoples business?"
Theoretically, our Congressman is to represent us - but there are two things too keep in mind.
First, they may not represent our views at all
Second, even if he does, he may disagree with us
on 2 or 3 major issues.

The job of the lobbyists is to totally represent our views. This includes Christian values as well. Here in New York, a group known as New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms lobbies for Christian values in Albany.
I may not be on board with every single issue they lobby for, but overall, I do agree with them.
 

saturneptune

New Member
But I didn't leave the "C" word out -!

I think the real question is "Why do they harm the peoples business?"
Theoretically, our Congressman is to represent us - but there are two things too keep in mind.
First, they may not represent our views at all
Second, even if he does, he may disagree with us
on 2 or 3 major issues.

The job of the lob byists is to totally represent our views. This includes Christian values as well. Here in New York, a group known as New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms lobbies for Christian values in Albany.
I may not be on board with every single issue they lobby for, but overall, I do agree with them.
You have given one positive example of lobbyists, amongst hundreds. Would you please explain how the lobbyists that lobby for the drug companies, insurance companies, gay and lesbian causes, etc, etc, help the governing and serving of the American people? I am sure the Founding Fathers received lobbyists all day long while they were writing the Consttitution. Do you not see the connection between lobbyists, unnecessary legislation and pork spending? Will you please explain how lobbyists whose job it is to enrich their cause help the American people? How do lobbyists trying to strengthen gun control laws help protection under the 2nd Amendment? How do those who constantly lobby against Christian expression in the public sector help our protections under the 1st Amendment? How do those constantly lobbying for pro-choice causes help the Declaration of Independence in the area of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness?

Maybe we can get a lobbyist to get a bill passed to have duct tape permanently put over Rush Limbaugh's mouth.
 

TomVols

New Member
Which is why abortion on demand is still legal. No one cares at the ballot box any more, and pols know this. They want more money in their pocket before they want the unborn protected.

That said, what you're asking is what would POTUS do. POTUS can't eliminate abortion by himself/herself.

In order:

I would actually take the Constitutional oath seriously. I would actually take the Constitution seriously. I would thus automatically be the first of my ilk in at least two decades.

I would do all in my power to overturn Roe V Wade and would work with Congress to draft a Sanctity of HUman life amendment to the Constitution (which is rendundant, but probably needs to be done just to appease Ron Paul and his ilk).

I would abolish our current tax structure and implement a flat tax, or a Fair Tax if they'd get rid of the silly pre-bate.

I would set about a slashing course that would make people's heads spin. NEA would be gone in a heartbeat. DOE would be next. Entitlement reform would be next. I'd work to slash the size of fed govt and a return to a citizen congress the framers intended.

I would take a portion of what we saved and set aside for military pay increases and for funding military infrastructure.

I'd bring our military home.

I'd fire Bernanke. No Keynesyian would head the Fed. I'd keep some around on the COEA just for fun though :smilewinkgrin:

SarbOx, CORA, and Marked to market would be in my sights. As would TARP, TAGP, et.al. I would commission a study on returning to the gold standard. I'm not convinced one way or the other yet. I know the comic books say it'd fix everything in America, but the grownups need to weigh in and dismissing the idea outright is as foolish as drinking Golden Kool Aid.

And I'd EO a playoff for College football and EO a reinstitution of the first MLB game of the season be played in Cincinnati, thereby sealing my electoral victory in the next election :) Speaking of Cincinnati, I'd do what was almost done once - move the capital there. Makes more sense nowadays to have your capital in the heartland than on the coast.

Obviously, Part of this is a wish list - going by the Constitution means you can't do a lot of what we'd want to do.
 

poncho

Well-Known Member
Wow! Three pages and nothing said about stopping abortion!

That's a job for the indivdual states not the federal government.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. 10th amendment.

Tom said...I would commission a study on returning to the gold standard. I'm not convinced one way or the other yet. I know the comic books say it'd fix everything in America, but the grownups need to weigh in and dismissing the idea outright is as foolish as drinking Golden Kool Aid.

The "chairman of the board" already weighed in on this Tom.

[SIZE=-1][SIZE=-1]With a logic reminiscent of a generation earlier, statists argued that the gold standard was largely to blame for the credit debacle which led to the Great Depression. If the gold standard had not existed, they argued, Britain's abandonment of gold payments in 1931 would not have caused the failure of banks all over the world. (The irony was that [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]since 1913, we had been, not on a gold standard, but on what may be termed "a mixed gold standard"; yet it is gold that took the blame[/SIZE][SIZE=-1].) But the opposition to the gold standard in any form -- from a growing number of welfare-state advocates -- was prompted by a much subtler insight: the realization that the gold standard is incompatible with chronic deficit spending (the hallmark of the welfare state). Stripped of its academic jargon, [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]the welfare state is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes. A substantial part of the confiscation is effected by taxation.[/SIZE][SIZE=-1] But the welfare statists were quick to recognize that if they wished to retain political power, [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]the amount of taxation had to be limited and they had to resort to programs of massive deficit spending, i.e., they had to borrow money, by issuing government bonds, to finance welfare expenditures on a large scale[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]. Alan Greenspan[/SIZE]
[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]SOURCE...[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]I understand this to mean the modern warfare/welfare state could not exist as it does today if we were still on the gold standard. So, be careful what you wish for Tom we may have to give up on some of that glorious global interventionism americans seem to cherish these days. Conservatives would be unhappy about not having so many wars to fight abroad and the liberals would be unhappy about not being able to steal our wealth to fund socialist programs like "foreign aid". :smilewinkgrin:[/SIZE]

And while I'm speaking of socialists, another thing I would do is get us out of the United Nations and UNESCO. I'd boot them out of NYC and send them all packing over to Vienna. I'm pretty sure all the folks there would welcome them with a great big collectivist. . . :1_grouphug:
 
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BigBossman

Active Member
My list is so long, it would be hard to pick just two things. Under my administration, here's what you'd have to look forward to:

1. Americans are overtaxed & underpaid. I would lay out a plan to abolish the IRS. I would make it so tax payers could control the amount of tax they pay by controlling their spending habits with a national sales tax. The tax wouldn't be applied to certain items, primarily food.

2. Affirmative Action & "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would be thrown out the window. There would be no more quotas regarding race in the workplace. Homosexuals would not be permitted in our military or in our military schools, unless they change their lifestyle.

3. I would close off our borders to all immigrants for at least 8 years. I'd also ensure that our border patrols are "beefed up" to protect our nation from potential terrorists. Border patrols would also be tasked with keeping illegal aliens out of our country.

4. I would impose term limits on the senate & congress. Senators would be permitted to serve no more than two terms (12 years total). Congressmen would be permitted to serve no more than six terms (12 years total). After the term limits is up, if a congressman wanted to run for the senate, they could do so.

5. I would make abortion illegal. I would also be committed to appointing pro-life judges to the Supreme Court.

6. I would eliminate federal bureaucracies which would eliminate wasted taxpayer dollars. A few of the ones I'd start with are: Internal Revenue Service (as mentioned above), Endowment for the Arts - Uses taxpayer money to fund artists who have no artistic talent, Department of Education - Education would be left up to the states to decide, & Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms - The FBI would take over the most of the responsibilities that the ATF has (mainly in terms of firearms).

7. Since we provide the U.N. with 1/4 of its funding & get nothing out of it, we would withdraw ourselves from it. The U.N. would also have 30 days to pack up & leave our country. The U.N. would also never be placed in command of U.S. troops.

That's just the beginning. Also, if I could accomplish this within one term, I wouldn't see the need to seek out a second term.
 
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BigBossman

Active Member
Which is why abortion on demand is still legal. No one cares at the ballot box any more, and pols know this. They want more money in their pocket before they want the unborn protected.

That said, what you're asking is what would POTUS do. POTUS can't eliminate abortion by himself/herself.

Couldn't the president use an executive order without Congress or the Senate to make abortion illegal?
 

Salty

20,000 Posts Club
Administrator
Couldn't the president use an executive order without Congress or the Senate to make abortion illegal?

Only to the effect of the Executive Dept - ie military hospitals - preventing Medicaid - ect.

Otherwise he would be a dictator.
 

BigBossman

Active Member
I see. So then the only action a president could legitimately take would be to only put pro-life justices on the supreme court or sign a bill that outlaws it assuming the Senate or Congress puts it in front of him.
 
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