1. I would immediately pull our troops out of Iraq with an apology to everyone stating that we never should have attacked in the first place. There is plenty of work for our military to do without getting killed in a foreign land for a foreign cause.
2. Every taxpayer would have the opportunity to send their taxes where they think the greatest need for spending is. Since we have so many agencies under the umbrella of our various departments (defense, education, transportation etc.) this could be done with a checkbox on the tax form itself. Then everyone will really have a say where their hard earned money goes.
3. It should be mandatory for our oil companies to take half of their profit and put it into safe alternatives for energy. Since they seem to brag about their profits, they should foot the bill for the building of windmills, solar panels and hydroelectricity generators.
4. We need a brand new fishing and hunting industry that will rid the oceans and landfills of plastic garbage and recycle it. It seems there is enough plastic polluting the world and instead of making more (wasting petroleum) we should develop industries that can reuse what we discard.
5. Healthcare should be provided to all people and the insurance companies (not citizens) need to subsidize those who can't pay. If they aren't willing to do this then they should be made to perform as non-profit. This would also work well for the pharmaceutical companies.
6. Every child deserves a decent education and the schools need a complete overhaul. There should be more choices for students to learn various trades instead of placing so much focus on the college bound. The school day should be in sync with the workday, which means more teachers that will have the ability to work shifts and teachers in poorer communities should be highly paid. A students should have a free college education, B students pay a little more etc. A D student should be mentored into a trade program that will fit their talent, and all education should be subsidized by all the Fortune 500 companies.
7. We need to remain a free country and our borders should be open to all people who want to make the USA their home. However, immigrants must work towards successfully learning the language, gaining citizenship, finding employment, and paying taxes. Community and business leaders should sponsor the new settlers, and corporations that do business in the countries from which the immigrants come from should foot the bill for the sponsorships, and for deportations for those who are badly behaved. If it is made easier to come here legally, perhaps we would not have all the problems of the illegal factor.
8. We need to decriminalize drug abuse in which no crime is committed. Instead, the profits made from alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals should pay for the building of rehab centers all across America, especially in the inner cities, and then employ the very people who they are successfully treating. Prisons for the criminal offenders need to perform as factories for manufactured goods, where everyone has a job instead of just caged housing between crimes.
9. A complete ban should be placed on any food that contains the following: MSG, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated vegetable oil, transfats. Any product that contains these ingredients should not be labeled as food. These ingredients can be offered to the public for addition to food, but they would be labeled as chemical enhancers.
10. Social security needs to be funded with the money saved on the war and war related contracts effective immediately. No senior citizen should ever worry about where they will live or how they will eat if we are to be considered a civilized society. If you have worked your whole life (motherhood included) and find that you can no longer work at age 60, you should be funded by the collective family of employers and family members who have profitted from your labor.
And that's just the tip of the iceburg.
