Social IssuesAbortion: Abortion should be banned (at the federal level if necessary) for all reasons except if the mother's life is endangered and rape/incest (admittedly I'm morally conflicted on the latter part). Abortion
after fetal viability shall be treated as equivalent to murder.
Same-sex marriage: This should be left to the states to decide. However on a federal level DOMA should be repealed and there should be full-scale anti-discrimnation legislation against homosexuals.
Drug legalization: Marijuana and other soft drugs should be fully legalized with the age limit at 18 with the drinking age similarly reduced to 18. Hard drugs (with some exceptions such as bath salts) should be decriminalized. In general drug use and addiction should be seen as a public health issue not a crime.
Prostitution: States and local governments have the perogrative here but I'm mostly opposed to legalizing it.
Guns: There should be expanded punishments for straw purchasing and a universal background check system. Otherwise no new gun control legislation is necessary
Education: A national curriculum with minimum standards should be instituted with more equalized funding. In addition the school year needs to be revamped by abolishing summer vacation but inserting more holidays throughout the year. College should be paid for with a Richard Nixon Scholarship for students above a certain grade level (and/or percentage) who are lower middle class or below in income level. Financial grants should in addition be more generous for students (this should be dependent on their academic record). At the same time, however, vocational schools should be promoted as a legitimate choice for students depending on their performance.
Immigration: Illegal immigrants without criminal records should have a path to citizenship with it being expediated for those who were minors when brought here, English-speakers, those with useful skills, and/or those who have served in the military. In the future, immigration laws should be loosened and all country-based quotas should be abolished and anybody with a graduate/professional degree or earning one here in the States should be guaranteed a green card provided they don't have a criminal record.
Stem Cell Research: Status quo of federal funding for stem cell research is fine.
Euthanasia: Ultimately this is a state issue but I am personally opposed to legalizing it.
English as the official language: English should be the official language of the Republic.
School prayer: Should be legal on a voluntary basis but no public school should allow teacher-led prayer.
Pledge of Allegiance: Status quo is fine although no student should be forced to recite it.
Economic IssuesAffirmative Action: Affirmative action should be limited and shifted towards income-based affirmative action rather than being race-based.
Trade: I love free trade. Get both the EU-US FTA and the TPP negotiated and ratified. In addition there should eventually be a free-trade pact covering all First World democracies (NAFTA zone+EU+South Korea+Japan+Singapore+Southern Cone+Australia/NZ+Israel) allowing the free movement of goods and people.
Health Care: Obamacare should be implemented aggresively and if it fails to appreciably rein in costs and/or fails to cover a significant amount of Americans should be replaced with a single-payer system.
Welfare: While I prefer programs that provide certain services for the poor (ie Medicaid) or towards certain goods (such as Food Stamps), welfare is necessary to boost consumer spending in many cases, so status quo I suppose with some of the more aggressive cuts rolled back.
Minimum Wage: Should be raised to 9 or 10 dollars and indexed to inflation.
Monetary Policy: While in normal times, a tight money policy limiting inflation is reasonable, these are not normal times and as a result stimulative measures and quantitative easing (basically the current policy of the Fed) is necessary to get us out of recession.
Taxes: All loopholes should be throughly eliminated while deductions should be set at a certain cash amount (indexed to inflation). After that estate taxes should be fully restored to Clinton-era levels and the income tax raised slightly. In addition a carbon tax should be instituted and perhaps a Value Added Tax (with exceptions for food and other necessary goods). The corporate tax should be cut with a view to eventually eliminating it (as long as its revenue neutral).
Regulation: Generally status quo seems ok but speed up approval of regulations especially those affecting workers' safety or environment.
Spending Cuts: Military spending and farm subsidies should be cut, otherwise spending needs to increase in the context of a recession.
Energy: Pass a national energy-infrastructure bill. Its energy components should include a large-scale program of building nuclear power plants, more reserach funding for energy, and a view towards phasing out coal completely at a set date. The infrastructure component of the bill will in addition to repairs to the current infrastructure involve the construction of a national high speed rail system and funding to expand public transit in metropolitan areas.
Social Security: The payroll tax cap should be removed and retirement age should be determined by a formula based on one's occupation, income level, health, employment status, dependents, and so forth.
Unions: Taft-Hartley should be repealed.
Foreign Policy/DefensePATRIOT ACT: Should be modified significantly at the least.
Afghanistan: Maintain the current Obama policy of continuing a withdrawal and shifting the role to Afghan forces while maintaining an advisory force after 2014. We should be very wary of negotiating with the Taliban however.
Cuba: The embargo on Cuba should be ended and America should pursue friendly relations with the country and reduce Russian or Iranian influence.
Iraq: Keep a wary eye on it and use diplomatic efforts to help keep Iraq stable and free from Iranian influence.
Israel/Palestine: A two-state solution should be pursued with Israel keeping all of Jerusalem and some settlement blocks. In addition Palestine, once independent, should sign a non-aggression pact with Israel and be neutral.
Iran: Continue the status quo of preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons with sanctions, diplomacy, and sabotage. However avoid a war with Iran at all costs unless Iran attacks us or our allies first.
Syria: Impose a no-fly zone on Syria to cripple Assad's forces.
Military Spending: Should be reduced especially on things such as missile dfence programs
Electoral Issues/GovernmentVoter Regulations/ID Cards: Most of it is a thinly-disguised attempt to prevent Democratic-leaning demographics from voting. Should be restricted and delayed by the courts. To solve the problem, institute a national ID card.
Electoral College: Should be abolished with Presidents being elected by direct popular vote with a runoff of the top two candidates if nobody wins a majority.
Washington D.C.
DC should be given a voting member in the House of Representatives and one Senator (see my Senate reform plan below).
Puerto Rico: Should be given statehood.
Senate: Should be made a largely advisory body limited to only delaying legislation, and be partially made proportional to population while ensuing all states have at least one Senator and none have more than three. House terms should be extended to three years. In addition the number of House seats should be increased to 800 single-member constitutencies and 100 seats distributed proportionally to ensure that the number of seats coincide with the percentage of votes.
Thoughts?
