1) ECONOMY: Beyond the short term stimulus package there is a need for improved long term performance in the economy for growth. This requires improved competitiveness through Tort reform, education, healthhappinesslifetime.com care insurance, immigration and tax reforms. Independently each of these programs is not the most crucial but together, and they are interdependent, they are the most crucial socio-economic issue facing the US.
- The energy policy must be about developing all sources of energy except for OPEC oil. The focus should be plug-in hybrids (and natural gas for trucks) along with nuclear energy.
-TORT REFORM, so that most if not all of the punitive damages go to the government not to the Plaintiffs, because it is the government not the victims that should punish, and certainly not the lawyers.
IMMIGRATION REFORM: Having improved significantly border control; increase by about 100,000 people, the immigration to US, through H1B level IV visas, of doctors, lawyers, bankers, executives, engineers, (and simplify that process) and thus help bring the wages down of some excessively compensated professions, (helping in reducing Health Care costs as well.)
- EDUCATION REFORM: SCHOOL VOUCHERS: A minimum of 40% of per student cost, mandatory school voucher to whomever student qualifies for it and chooses it. Not paying any percentage of the costs of those that do not want public schooling and cannot afford all the costs of private schools is too stupid for the health of both the public and private schools.
-HEALTH INSURANCE: Health care costs will never be reduced as long as health care coverage is a cost plus system as it is now. Offer a government health insurance (through an organization that breaks even) that covers 70% or so of health care costs, no deductibles, no tricks and traps. Allow patients to visit any certified physician with online records; online billing.) The patient thus has some clear stake (at a direct 30% stake) in reducing health care costs.
Offer 2,000/yr tax deduction per year, per family to those that are not insured due to a pre-existing condition and those that are not covered by corporate health insurance.
Subsidize and/or mandatory health insurance for all US citizen children.
2) WMD-TERRORISM Renegotiating to amend the NPT (with the most critical determinant being the negotiation with China):
a) For non proliferation of enrichment and reprocessing facilities. A moratorium on any not fully operational new enrichment and reprocessing plants, (including of Iran) is the most critical world military safety item. Did you know that the NPT currently allows enrichment and reprocessing facilities in any nation so long as they claim that these facilities are not for the purpose of nuclear weapons? And such facilities exist in Germany, Japan, Netherlands and Brazil among others? Once one has these facilities they are less than six months away from being able to have nuclear weapons. So that saying "we don't like you nor trust you" is the essence of the argument with Iran; not a solid legal argument.
b) for an IAEA bank being a reliable source (not the only source) for the supply of fuel for nuclear energy plants; and for the increased oversight, control, and disposition of all fissile materials by IAEA and
c) For measured verifiable WMD and nuclear warhead reductions by each nuclear weapons state,
Restructuring the UN, as described in the next Chapter, will help a lot; Longer term a verifiable proportionate military expenditures reduction, Treaty is necessary. There are only 20 or so uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing facilities globally. Fissile materials are quite limited, and easily controllable down to the gram; not doing so criminal insanity. To do so requires a renegotiation of the NPT.
3) DEFENDING DEMOCRACIES: Establish an economic alliance to include all democratic nations, including (in sequence), North America, EU, Japan, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa and Australia is the most critical defense initiative for democracies. Expanding free trade within that alliance should more than offset trade reductions with dictatorial nations such as China and those within OPEC. This will be a result of appropriate import tariffs for Chinese and OPEC products.
Not recognizing that the standard by which free people should evaluate their actions is "what is best for the democratizing nations" is a major lapse in "common sense" among free humans. In terms of sequence, the increased political, military and trade alliance among nations that are democratic must be the first item because it is a prerequisite to all others.
There is a lot of chatter about the Georgia-Russia conflict and the implications for the West-Russia relations. Over two years before this occurred here is a quote: " The foreign affairs and trade policy treatment by the US of Russia that moved towards democracy as compared to the treatment of China that did not, has been terribly stupid and to the extent that Russia reverts back towards dictatorship it will be to a large extent the fault of the very stupid decisions by the last three US Administrations that supported the communist-fascist Chinese and not the Russians that attempted democracy." (p. 298, The World Anew,2006, by Paul Zecos that maybe found at Amazon.com Amazon.com )
4) GLOBAL WARMING: Renegotiating the environmental Kyoto accord by adding China and India in the accord with reduced emission reduction commitments by them is probably the most critical very long term action for the survivability of humanity and of many other species. Establishing a carbon tax (for things such as cars and SUV's with less than 30 m/hr mileage and private jets); for the "demand" side and cap and trade for national objectives and for the "suply" side (which domestically is best implemented by limiting it to utilities, refineries and iron and steel industry,) are the most critical strategic actions required domestically on this issue. The specifics of that renegotiation are discussed in the next Chapter however they are not achievable until items 1 and 2 above are achieved.
5) DEFENSE: MISSILE DEFENSE: Continued deployment of the anti-ballistic missile program, not in Eastern Europe, that does not need it and antagonizes Russia unnecessarily, but as near to the claimed potential threats as possible such as in Cyprus or Afghanistan is critical. This is central to moving Russia from aligning with fascist China. Fascist China is without question the major strategic threat of the free world.
ANTI TERRORISM: Defense against terrorism is not war because the terrorist are hiding; you can't have war without knowing where the enemy is; it includes battles in which significant military forces maybe needed and must be quickly accessible, but it is not a war. It is not a police action because it is too big and within foreign, not too friendly, nations and laws, for police action; even though it should include police action. The primary instrument for anti-terrorism is indeed offense rather than defense. It is by a covert, with strong intelligence to clearly identify the enemies, and thus probably through the CIA, (with increased Congressional oversight), commando force, (coming from current special military forces), in civilian attire, (connected to an expanded NATO Global anti-terrorist intelligence agency as well) of probably no more than 20,000 operating primarily in Pakistan, secondarily in Afghanistan and Iraq; and also in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran.
Conflict against international terrorism is profoundly different than the wars that the military was and is designed to fight. The primary difference is that the combatants are dressed as civilians in civil settings. In winning modern wars the "moral" high ground and the "story" being disseminated to the public is critical. Having the military or police, dressed as such, operating in civil theaters, while a terrorist sometimes shows up, is by definition a losing "moral" impression to the public, becomes a police state, and a losing proposition. Conflict with international terrorism unfortunately, requires adjustment of our defensive combatants to be in offense, in the nations where terrorists operate, but mostly in civil attire and form. Increased presence in Afghanistan is necessary; the Taliban are now operating mainly out of Pakistan.
For as long as there are not at least 3000 US or NATO covert forces in Pakistan; preferably with the private approval of the Pakistani government, in exchange for the approx. $1.5 billion assistance they get for fighting terrorism; chasing Bin Laden primarily and other terrorist groups and the Taliban secondarily, nothing is being done against the center of terrorism.
It is expected that the governments of these nations will publicly refuse and deny the presence of US forces within their territory as part of their national sovereignty. Covert forces are called so because they are unacceptable politically or diplomatically as overt, yet are a necessary structural adaptation to the strategies of the terrorists. As a result regarding these covert operations, even though the public may not know for many years and thus is unable to judge whether anything substantive is being against terrorism, unless the covert forces as above are operating in Pakistan, nothing substantive is being done against the center of terrorism.
Strategic re-positioning of missile defense stations and the restructuring of how terrorism is to be fought, without affecting defenses against major wars, is the most significant strategic US military defense initiative.
6) DEFENDING US DEMOCRACY: CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM: Changing the laws on campaign finance to have all federal Senatorial, House and Presidential elections to be publicly financed, mostly through free ad time for Candidates, in the licensee's of public air waves, is the most significant action to restore and preserve US democracy.
In terms of sequence this is the first domestic agenda item that should be implemented. The current campaign finance reform (that was the major "accomplishment" of Sen. McCain's last Presidential Campaign) has left enormous amount of private money with self-only interest in the elections. The result is that the new definition of the best way to screw up any idea is to give it to the US Congress. Other than the example of Campaign Finance reform that came out as screwed up as it went in, is the current "global climate change bill" in the Senate. I have been advocating cap and trade for a long time until I saw this cap and trade bill, (about 500 pages of screwing everyone and their mama with bureaucracy.) It is truly disheartening. Campaign finance reform that takes all the money out of politics is a prerequisite to everything else because without it Congress will take each and all ideas and screw them to the point that they might as well never been offered.
7) WEALTH DISTRIBUTION: A one time re-distribution of some wealth (about one and a half-trillion dollars) through a small (average of about 15%) one-time tax, on those with net wealth of over 10m net, directly to the most vulnerable 70 million, current US citizen children, (all of the lower and middle class) at about $25,000 per child, without the government keeping any of it, and without increasing but rather, because of the reduced need for governmental programs, significantly decreasing (by over $50 billion/ year, through cuts and attrition) ongoing government spending; is the most critical social action within the US and within other nations that have the political will.
This action will automatically solve a series of structural imbalances that are now manifested in different ways. For example, the above action will automatically solve the current housing crisis as over 110 million US citizens will have significantly higher equity to allow them to maintain their homes.
Without this action the US economy is extremely likely to get into an economic depression, because the governmental spending and increased income taxes by the Democrats will lead there; and the socio-economic problems and increased military spending caused by the Republicans will also lead into a depression.
8) TAX REFORM: Changing the tax code to reducing income taxes of only the middle and lower class and simplifying the tax code as shown, and adding an equivalent in revenue Value added tax (a point of sale tax of about 20%, for not-manufactured here goods, with the exception of those goods coming from democratic nations) is the most significant trade initiative for the US. Strategically, increasing free trade and the economic, political and military ties with democratic nations must be done synchronously while having a regularly shifting targeted tariffs, taxes and barriers to entry structure, responding to the political actions of dictatorships, for products from dictatorial nations; specifically with China and the OPEC nations in mind.
Simplification of the Federal tax code would be extremely useful; I suggest the following:
Rate Income tax bracket One-time wealth tax Estate Tax Cap. Gains (years)
0% 4
10% 3
20% 2
30% > 300k > 300 m > 30m
1. The book: "The World Anew", 2006, may be found at Amazon. com. It is authored by Paul Zecos.
2. "THE BOOK OF LIFE" at lifeanew.org lifeanew.org
3. functionalalliances.com functionalalliances.com
