for our new President and Commander-in-Chief…

I expect no less than the following:
• Full health care should be guaranteed for all regardless of ability to pay.
• Every couple should be able to receive the full benefits of marriage, including the ability to call it marriage, regardless of the sex/gender composure of the couple.
• Begin the pursuit of the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons from the earth.
• No more spending resources on irrelevant cold war era systems, within the military or otherwise.
  
• Cut military spending by at least half.

• No more relying on our National Guard for overseas military deployments, except for training.
• Resolve the Mexican immigration crisis in a meaningful way.
• The funding primary education gets in each area must no longer be based on the value of their real estate.
• Spur growth and expansion of small businesses
  
• Housing and food should be guaranteed to all regardless of ability to pay, without having to accept anything from religious institutions.

• Equal pay for equal work should be guaranteed.
• It should be guaranteed that losing employment will not lead to personal and financial ruin.
  
• All able-bodied and competent adults who are not students should be guaranteed a living wage should they wish to work full time.

• He must renegotiate our relationship with Israel (military or otherwise) based on how they treat Palestinian refugees and those living in the territory of Palestine.
• distribution and use of low and moderate risk recreational drugs should be legalized
• high-risk drug trafficking should remain illegal and enforced as such, but addiction should be decriminalized
• gasoline and diesel must be taxed higher on the federal level: for revenue and to encourage alternatives
• begin a process to normalize relations with Iran and Cuba

I will blame the new president, if any of the following happens under his watch:

• if abortion becomes illegal or less accessible in any state or territory.

• if funding and success of the current university system deteriorates one little bit (its one thing that works fairly well right now)
• nothing significant is done to reduce greenhouse gases
• if there is a significant expansion of coal fired electric plants
• war breaks out involving Pakistan or the Middle-East
• relations do not improve with Russia (even if Putin is still there, and is unreasonable)
• if religion becomes any more involved with government (expansion of faith-based initiatives, etc)
  

Side-notes, Disclaimers, Explanations:
I know this wish-list is quite a handful, but they are all items known to be well within the federal power of the president. They are all pretty reasonable, and most would be able to be accomplished within the first term with proper attention. There are many complicated issues each of these items might bring up, and some of them entail thousands of details. That’s what a president does. I simply demand the end result described in each of these items.

Notice I did not say: every American is entitled to a house, or condo, or apartment, or even private living quarters. Boarding houses would be fine for that purpose. I did not say every American is entitled to plastic surgery and teeth whitening. I did not say every American is entitled to a cozy high-paying office job. I did not say that there should be no enforcement of immigration laws, nor that the act of unintentional wrongful immigration be criminalized. I did not say every American should be able to live anywhere they might fancy. I did not say everyone should be entitled to a car. Nor did I say that every American should be guaranteed access to mechanized transportation, mass or otherwise.

There must be means by which incentive to work hard and earn more money (greater productivity) occurs. There must be means by which deadbeats (those who are able bodied but refuse to be employed) are punished. Employee pay should still be based on the current market system, with a few extra safeguards. Employers should not be penalized for hiring employees by carrying the burden of being expected to fund their health care.

Competent entrepreneurs should have access to credit; the ability to take risk, with the security they won’t be completely ruined personally should their plan fail. This will encourage a continuous spurt of small businesses, increasing revenue and productivity, and generating wealth.

The financial markets should continue to operate and be regulated as they currently are with two important exceptions: transparency, and speculation. Financial products should be regulated based on their functionality instead of their name: for example credit-default swaps should be regulated as insurance, and so on. And there should be regulation that ensures product description and marketing do not obscure their actual nature: like equity products that are backed by many prime mortgages and then “poisoned” with a handful of sub-prime. There should be a percentage tax on financial product speculation: i.e. options, short selling, etc. This speculation tax should NOT include taxing of the purchase of commodity futures contracts, but it should tax options contracts of commodity futures contracts. A speculation tax set and rules should be such that it would provide some extra for income to offset what has been/will be lost by the capital gains tax cut, without stifling a reasonable free market.

Capital gains tax should continue to be low as it is, perhaps with a progressive system that lowers the rate if the owner of capital is an individual (not a corporation) and is not a millionaire. Estate tax should be permanently eliminated for estates valued below a certain amount, I am thinking around 5 million dollars, and taxed at the same progressive rate as capital gains after that amount is reached for each individual receiving property or money from an estate. That means each individual benefiting from an estate could pay a different amount. And like I said, the rate of capital gains tax should be based on an individuals wealth (income averaged over last 5 years, net worth), meaning, it should be near negligible for the poor, intermediate for the in between, and higher (but not penalizing) to the wealthy. Estate tax elimination should not apply to corporations receiving benefit.

Universal marriage rights includes a number of simple things currently denied by the system. The ability to call any union between two people marriage. The ability to receive full benefits of marriage should be available to all unions without having to be registered formally as “married”; and members of a union should not have to claim to be married to be valid, (that is a couple should be able to term their long-term relationship by any name, or none at all in legal records), yet still receive the benefits. That means there should be a formal process available, and a union should be able to be formally recorded under any term desired by the couple, but a formal process should not required to receive the benefits and protections. This includes the ability for either couple to file for divorce and custody protection in the case of a break up. This includes the protection of hospital consultation rights without formal documents should a member of the couple become unable to communicate. It also includes access to any and all inheritance laws applicable to married couples upon death of either member. When this happens, it will finally be fully legal to be LGBT like in other modern countries.

Immigration is vital and important to the well being and vitality of America and its economy. It should not be shut off simply out of fear, hate, loathing, protectionism, etc. This only exasperbates problems abroad and at home. Immigration of individuals from less-developed countries to more-developed countries is vital component to ultimately solving the population problem. While immigrants tend to have more children then their counterparts in their homeland, the 2nd generation of immigrants have about the same birthrate as the rest of America (which is slightly less than the replacement rate, excluding 1st generation immigrants and Mormons). Immigrants are an important because they have the potential to bring expertise and wealth generating ability with them, no matter what their country of origin.

As a nation we have a complete and justifiable right to control immigration as we sit fit. We should not be compelled merely because of geography to accept a flow of immigrants without regard to their ability to integrate. Without the ability to integrate, it makes conditions worse for the immigrants themselves and to our society.

Resolving the Mexican immigration crisis means settling on an acceptable flow of immigrants, ensuring they can be integrated into society. It is a problem when our society does not get to choose where our immigrants come from. The policy should be such that it can be enforced humanely, and the policy should be competently enforced. Shortly put: this enforcement should be as tough as it needs to be, but no tougher.

I did not say Israel should not defend itself against terrorism. It must begin to treat the people under its control with dignity and equality. It is not doing that right now.

Ahem, the office of the President can work out the details of implementation. If he needs any further explanation, assistance, or advice he knows where to reach me. Thank you.

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