My Politcal Platform

MY POLITICAL PLATFORM:

Why I will never be elected President

My fellow Americans, with another election for major office coming up in the next two years I am now, laughingly, throwing my hat into the ring as a candidate for the office of president. What follows is the platform that I intend to use while running for office. My political party will not be mentioned in this essay, that way I take all the heat for my opinions.

Section 1)

A)     Let’s start with cost cutting measures in the transportation of our military forces to and from overseas duty stations on a daily basis. In the civilian sector the major airlines burned through 16 billion gallons of jet fuel in 2013, this was at a cost of just over $48 billion. Now, imagine the cost of fuel for multiple daily flights to overseas duty stations such as Germany, Italy, South Korea, and the Middle East.

B)      The USO’s mantra is “Until Everyone Comes Home”. I would like to suggest that we do just that. As a means of lowering the cost of jet fuel needed to fly our service members back and forth. An added benefit to this is we would be able to reopen many of the closed down military bases as home duty stations for the returning soldiers. For far too long we have been the keepers of our allies national borders, who decided that this was to be our national duty? Let them handle their own national crises, it is after all, their nation.

I)        There are many benefits to bringing our nation’s finest home following are just a few of them:

a)      Lower governmental expenditure on jet fuel costs.

b)      Reopening the closed installations will provide jobs for the civilian population in the area by hiring them to work in the various businesses on post. This would include the Post Exchange (PX), Commissary, food courts, bowling alleys and other morale, welfare, and recreation concerns on post.

c)       Housing that has been standing vacant for extended periods can be used for the housing of the returning service members once brought up to code.

d)      More business for the off post stores improving financial gains inside the community.

Section 2)

The current government standard is the Internal Revenue Service. There are far too many loopholes allowing the 1% who controls the financial wealth to get away not paying the taxes they should be paying. I believe that taxes should be divided up in a fair and equal manner. This is not the current standard.

My suggested solution:

A)     I propose a flat tax of 15% for each and every individual in this country. I am a disabled veteran and I would willingly pay 15% of my disability to help pay down our federal debt. No more loopholes, everyone pays at the same level.

B)      If anyone is found to be in arrears in paying their taxes and refuses to conform they will have both their personal and business assets frozen until such time as their past due taxes are paid for with interest.

C)      The interest rate due to be paid by those who are found to be in arrears will be 25% of the total amount owed to the federal government.

Section 3)

Another problem is with the rate at which our federally elected officials get paid. What can be done about this? My solution is relatively simple and looks something like this:

A)     The President should be paid no more than the 3 star Generals with the most time in grade at the time of their election. If they are elected for a second term the pay rate stays the same.

B)      Senators should be paid at the same rate as a 2^nd Lieutenant. If they continue to run for and get reelected then their pay grade should be commensurate to that of a 1^st lieutenant, and so on until they reach a pay rate equal to that of a Major at which time their pay grade should be frozen..

C)      The House of Representatives should have the beginning pay rate of Captain for their first term in office. Pay raises should be given upon reelection to the next highest corresponding rank in the military structure or major, and so on until they reach the same pay grade as a lieutenant Colonel at which time their pay rate should be frozen.

D)     The staff of each member of the Congress should be limited to no more than 10 people. Each of these people should be paid at the same rate as a slick sleeved private for their first term working for their congressional representative. Should s/he continue to work for the same representative upon reelection his/her pay rate should increase to that of a private E2, and so on until their employer has reached his maximum pay rate at which time the staff members pay rate is also frozen.

E)      Now we come to the judicial branch: Upon approval to become a sitting member of the Supreme Court your pay rate is that of Major, and only increases every 4 years at the rate of promotion to the next highest rank. Their rank will be frozen once they reach the level of a 2 star general.

F)      The staff members of the judicial branch shall be limited to 5 members per judge. Their pay rate will be commensurate with that of a Warrant officer 1, and will improve every four years with the next level of Warrant officer until s/he reaches the pay grade of Chief Warrant officer 4 at which time their pay will be frozen.

Section 3 Addendum:

If you feel you require a larger staff then it will be up to you as their employer to pay them and their taxes from your own pockets.

Section 4)

A full review of every Presidential or Congressional edict should be conducted and those found not to be in accordance with the United States Constitution should be abolished.

A)     It is my belief that the so called “Patriot Act” is one such illegal edict.

I)           It allows for the federal government to monitor phone calls from both hard lines and cellular phones. This is a clear violation of the First Amendment which guarantees our right to freedom of speech no matter what the medium being used.

II)         It promotes the idea of search and seizure whether there is a just cause for said search or not. This again violates the Bill of Rights, in particular the Fourth Amendment which is supposed to protect us against illegal search and seizure. This is perhaps the most egregious violation of our rights simply because we as citizens can be stopped simply because of the way we look.

III)       Warrants can be issued merely on the perception of illegal activity by the investigating body of government whether it is the local enforcement agency, state agency, and or federal agency.

B)      The Federal Government has for years been working to eliminate our right to keep and bear arms. And has been stated by Samuel Adams “The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” It appears that from all of the gun regulations flying around this country now that this is exactly what our elected officials are trying to do.

C)      And finally I come to the Tenth Amendment which states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Section 5)

It is my contention that the Constitution and the Bill of rights as written by its original framers, our founding fathers needed nothing added to it, and as such all amendments after the Bill of Rights needs to be reviewed for legality and when in question be abolished. Those which should not be included are those granting the right to vote to women and people of color as well as the abolishment of slavery. The right of women to abort fetuses will be amended on a special case basis. Fetuses that are conceived as a result of incest, rape, or may result in harm to mother or child or both should it be carried to term may also be considered as just cause for having the fetus aborted.

Section 6)

As there is always a difference of opinion between two let alone among more the size of the Supreme Court should be limited to a maximum of 5 Justices.

Section 7)

Abolishment of the Electoral College should be enacted. The choice of president and vice president should be left up to the popular vote of the people of this nation. Recently the person occupying the office of president has been under fire due to questions about how the votes were cast and tabulated. It should be left up to the popular vote. The majority of the people should be the determining factor in who occupies the highest offices of this country.

Section 8)

A line item veto privilege will be granted to the President. This will allow the President to remove any additional unnecessary items added to bills being presented for consideration of passage into law.

Section 9)

The President and Vice President will be responsible for finding their own lodging and paying their own rent. The same goes for their office space. For far too long the people have been footing the bill for housing our executive level officials. As a result the White house and Oval office will be turned into a National monument complete with tours and gift shops which will help raise money to balance the national debt.

Section 10)

Delegation of intelligence gathering and use of this intelligence information will be combined into one intelligence agency. Each branch of the military, the defense intelligence agency, the national security agency, and the central intelligence agency will be combined and will be overseen by a special congressional committee and any disputes will be decided by this oversight committee.

Military oversight will be carried out by a select group of former military personnel to ensure that our armed forces have proper equipment and training to carry out any national defense missions.

We will withdraw from both NATO and the United Nations as neither organization is capable of carrying out its mission due to the political games that are played as a means of gathering power to carry out an agenda that is not in the best interests of any of the “lesser” nations who are members. In short the United States will no longer be the world’s guard dogs, each nation will be its own guardian.

Section 11)

Each state should provide members to the House of Representatives and the Senate that are familiar with the needs of their state and its makeup. For example any state whose major concern is farming shall provide at least one representative familiar with the needs of the farming community. Each state is different and as such should provide a balanced group of representatives providing for the needs of the nation as a whole.

Lobbyist will no longer be admitted into the halls of Congress; any elected official who is found to be in collusion with a lobbying group will be reprimanded and fined for their first offense. Second offense will result in the elected official being removed from office and replace by another representative from the state that s/he represents.

No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness without due cause.

Section 12)                                                          Personal Information:

Since the election of President Barak Hussein Obama there has been squabbling about whether he is a native born American. I was born on Clark Air Force Base, which at the time of my birth was located on the Island of Luzon in the Philippine Islands, and as such was considered to be American Soil.

I am not a professional politician and have never before held any aspirations of holding a political office. However, with the current situation in this nation I believe that the time has come for sweeping changes to be made. This once great nation has fallen into disrepair due to apathy of the leadership and the voters alike. This is the only reason I am even contemplating running for political office. If not me, whom? And if not now when?

Thank you and good night. Peace