rincewind

Okay, after watching Michael Moore on the best Bill Maher episode to date (watch it again on HBO next week, they'll rerun it), I was inspired.

What would you do if you were President of the USA for just one day?

Now this goes beyond making immigration easier for UK citizens (due to America's original origins) and releasing important Roswell documentation (hey, that was when I was on a UFO kick....I'm fully recovered).

But, if you were Commander and Chief for a day, what issues would you address to improve the American way of life?

As with all countries, America has it's pros and cons so I'm not saying America is a bad place (if it was, I wouldn't be here as would many of you). But there are some issues that need addressing.

A national health system for all.

Removal of religious education from public schools (not because I'm an atheist, but because there are many religions and it's best taught at home or at church).

A better welfare system.

I could go on but Michelob has the better of me and I wanted to pose the question before I hit the hay.

But if you had the chance, what would you change or implement while in office?

elfman

Cancel the insane missile defence star/wars boondoggle.

Scrap all computer/electronic voting machines and replace with something that produces a verifiable paper voting record.

Make the tax system simpler.

Make it illegal to be Sean Hannity or Ann Coulter.

rincewind

Can you add Bill O'Reilly to that??

Duncan Roberts

Make it so you have to pay the minimum wage of the country you're based in.

Put sales tax at 10% for the entire country.

Fund schools better, expand the curriculum and take out all vending machines.

Ban Atkins and make people aware that it is actually very bad to not eat carbohydrate.

Have the rules of the road and speed limits defined nationally, not locally. Make it so roads don't change name while you are driving down them. Make the driving test like more like the English one.

Make breweries brew proper beer!

Brit'n'TX

Deport Dr Scrumpy

just kidding - even a retard like him has the right to be here.

But I would lock him up and force him to watch GWB speeches 24 hours a day ...

doctor scrumpy

A retard is a level of intellegence you could only aspire to reach Brit.


Easy choice, bring an end to the obscene situations where 85 % of the homelss on DC's streets have 1 or more jobs. Build affordable housing for them.

Brit'n'TX

sounds like a tacit admission of being a retard doc ... and I don't think I'd use the word "aspire", but I'd never want to reach your particular level of intelligence ...

by the way ... why would you want to take jobs away from the homeless? sound kind of fascist to me ...

edwords

Privatize most government "services," particularly education.
Get the government out of health care, which drives up costs for everyone.
Eliminate mimimum wage laws.
Nominate Supreme Court justices who believe in the constitution.
Build a strong national defense and stop meddling in the internal affairs of other nations.
Get the nation back to the idea of a republic by reverting responsibilities for an array of things back to the individual states.
Eliminate a bunch of agencies and departments, including Education, Labor, EPA, etc.
Get other agencies, such as the FCC and FAA, back to their original regulatory missions.
Crack down on illegal immigration while broadening legal immigration.

Actually, a president can't do most of these things by dictat, but must work with Congress to repeal a variety of laws and enact selected new legislation.

rincewind

What about the constitution?

It will never happen but does anyone else believe that the constitution is a factor in the American mentality?

Would you remove it?

Is the constitution being abused beyond what it was originally created for?

elfman

You forgot to say "turn the clock back 200+ years".

edwords

Ever wonder why more people want to move from Europe to the U.S. than the other way around? Could it be that socialism doesn't work?
Making people work for the state, as in the days of the omnipotent monarchies, is indeed heading full speed into the past.

elfman

Exactly which "omnipotent monarchies" coerced their populations into working for the state or state-owned corporations? Significant employment by the state in any form is really only a 20th century phenomenon. And the reason why governments take on things like education, health, environmental regulation etc is because under an unfettered capitalist system the attibutes of a decent civilised society rapidly become the exclusive preserve of the wealthy, everyone else can go **** themselves, and the seeds of social conflict are sown.

The world has tried the kind of every-man-for-himself profit-is-god libertarian society you seem to be advocating and that didn't work any more than you think socialism does - the upshot was (for example) mass illiteracy, cholera in the cities, and children working in coal mines.

edwords

Feudalism or socialism, you're still a slave. It doesn't matter if your labors are being taken for the benefit of a lord or "the people."

Patrick

If you do something as dumb as leave religious education to the church and parents you will end up breeding intolerance, hatred and ignorance.

If you make the curriculum cover all religions and beleives and orgins of religions you will give children a more rounded and open religious education which will make children less intollerant.

Taking religious education and giving it to the parents and churches is without a doubt the dumbest idea you have come up with (and boy have you said some dumb stuff). Just because you are a bigot it doesn't mean to say you have to make all our children intollerant, uneducated bigots.

rincewind

Thank you for your kind words I assume you couldn't just simply disagree rather than launch an attack? Bigot is the tamest I’ve been labeled so far.

Supported religious observances in schools infringe upon the religious liberties of students.

If you want a child raised a Baptist, Catholic, etc. Then send them to a Baptist or Catholic school. Send them off to Sunday school at your local church. Public schools should be neutral.

Religion only fits into the history category as its historical merit is the only thing worth teaching. In that sense, you can discuss other religions. "This is where the Jewish/Christian/Satanism faith came from little Johnny.� But to indulge in prayer is unconstitutional. As is the Pledge of Allegiance.

If you claim that kids will be raised bigots if taught at home or in church, then what does that tell you about the religious right?

As for breeding intolerance, hatred and ignorance....I see it everyday in the good ol' South.