BF2S Forums Presidential Election 2016

* FIRST, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;

* SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health);

* THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated;

* FOURTH, a 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;

* FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government;

* SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.

On the same day, I will begin taking the following 7 actions to protect American workers:

* FIRST, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205

* SECOND, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership

* THIRD, I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator

* FOURTH, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately

* FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars' worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.

* SIXTH, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward

* SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America's water and environmental infrastructure

Additionally, on the first day, I will take the following five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law:

* FIRST, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama

* SECOND, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States

* THIRD, cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities

* FOURTH, begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won't take them back

* FIFTH, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting.

Next, I will work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my Administration:

1. Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act. An economic plan designed to grow the economy 4% per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification, in combination with trade reform, regulatory relief, and lifting the restrictions on American energy. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class. A middle-class family with 2 children will get a 35% tax cut. The current number of brackets will be reduced from 7 to 3, and tax forms will likewise be greatly simplified. The business rate will be lowered from 35 to 15 percent, and the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10 percent rate.

2. End The Offshoring Act. Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.

3. American Energy & Infrastructure Act. Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. It is revenue neutral.

4. School Choice And Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to give parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.

5. Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.

6. Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act. Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-side childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.

7. End Illegal Immigration Act Fully-funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a 2-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a 5-year mandatory minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations; also reforms visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first.

8. Restoring Community Safety Act. Reduces surging crime, drugs and violence by creating a Task Force On Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.

9. Restoring National Security Act. Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment; provides Veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice; protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack; establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values

10. Clean up Corruption in Washington Act. Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.

On November 8th, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our economy, security to our communities, and honesty to our government.

This is my pledge to you.

And if we follow these steps, we will once more have a government of, by and for the people.

Cybargs wrote:

They're actually not bad policies.

It would be nice if cancelling UN money would equate to better environmental protection in the USA.

Trotskygrad wrote:

Cybargs wrote:

They're actually not bad policies.

It would be nice if cancelling UN money would equate to better environmental protection in the USA.

pipelines? nothx

"all energy" is bullshit.

Choose your education? lmao okay, way to reduce the US's global competitiveness

3 to 7 tax brackets is just a tax cut for the rich (read: over 90k a year)

Shahter wrote:

Trotskygrad wrote:

So the policy positions are out

'ere be policies

not much on foreign policy, apart from labeling China a currency manipulator, which is a total pot-kettle thing, and withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which just puts the last nail in the coffin of an already dead endeavor.

i guess we'll just wait and see.

November 9, 2016 at 9:47 am
By Garrison Keillor, Special to The Washington Post

So he won. The nation takes a deep breath. Raw ego and proud illiteracy have won out and a severely learning-disabled
man with a real character problem will be president. We are so exhausted from thinking about this election, millions
of people will take up leaf-raking and garage cleaning with intense pleasure. We liberal elitists are wrecks. The
Trumpers had a whale of a good time, waving their signs, jeering at the media, beating up protesters, chanting “Lock
her up” — we elitists just stood and clapped. Nobody chanted “Stronger Together.” It just doesn’t chant.

The Trumpers never expected their guy to actually win the thing, and that’s their problem now. They only wanted to
whoop and yell, boo at the H-word, wear profane T-shirts, maybe grab a crotch or two, jump in the RV with a couple
six-packs and go out and shoot some spotted owls. It was pleasure enough for them just to know that they were driving
us wild with dismay — by “us,” I mean librarians, children’s authors, yoga practitioners, Unitarians, birdwatchers,
people who make their own pasta, opera goers, the grammar police, people who keep books on their shelves, that bunch.
The Trumpers exulted in knowing we were tearing our hair out. They had our number, like a bratty kid who knows exactly
how to make you grit your teeth and froth at the mouth.

Alas for the Trump voters, the disasters he will bring on this country will fall more heavily on them than anyone
else. The uneducated white males who elected him are the vulnerable ones and they will not like what happens next.

To all the patronizing B.S. we’ve read about Trump expressing the white working class’ displacement and loss of the
American Dream, I say, “Feh!” — go put your head under cold water. Resentment is no excuse for bald-faced stupidity.
America is still the land where the waitress’ kids can grow up to become physicists and novelists and pediatricians,
but it helps a lot if the waitress and her husband encourage good habits and the ambition to use your God-given
talents and the kids aren’t plugged into electronics day and night. Whooping it up for the candidate of cruelty and
ignorance does less than nothing for your kids.

We liberal elitists are now completely in the clear. The government is in Republican hands. Let them deal with him.
Democrats can spend four years raising heirloom tomatoes, meditating, reading Jane Austen, traveling around the
country, tasting artisan beers, and let the Republicans build the wall and carry on the trade war with China and
deport the undocumented and deal with opioids and we Democrats can go for a long brisk walk and smell the roses.

I like Republicans. I used to spend Sunday afternoons with a bunch of them, drinking Scotch and soda and trying to
care about NFL football. It was fun. I tried to think like them. (Life is what you make it. People are people. When
the going gets tough, tough noogies.) But I came back to liberal elitism.

Don’t be cruel. Elvis said it and it’s true. We all experienced cruelty back in our playground days, boys who beat up
on the timid, girls who made fun of the homely and naive, and most of us, to our shame, went along with it, afraid to
defend the victims lest we become one of them. But by your 20s, you should be done with cruelty. Mr. Trump was the
cruelest candidate since George Wallace. How he won on fear and bile is for political pathologists to study. The
country is already tired of his noise, even his own voters. He is likely to become the most intensely disliked
president since Hoover. His children will carry the burden of his name. He will never be happy in his own skin. But
the damage he will do to our country — who knows? His supporters voted for change, and boy, are they going to get it.

Back to real life. I went up to my hometown the other day and ran into my gym teacher, Stan Nelson, looking good at
96. He commanded a landing craft at Normandy on June 6, 1944, and never said a word about it back then, just made us
do chin-ups whether we wanted to or not. I saw my biology teacher Lyle Bradley, a Marine pilot in the Korean War,
still going birdwatching in his 90s. I was not a good student then, but I am studying both of them now. They have seen
it all and are still optimistic. The past year of politics has taught us absolutely nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nada. The
future is scary. Let the uneducated have their day. I am now going to pay more attention to teachers.