I've been watching the presidential campaign for quite a while now as have most people with a TV set. After seeing what the major parties are offering as potential presidents I have decided to enter the race. I'm sure I could do a much better job than either McCain or Obama.

This will be a new kind of campaign. No flying around in private jets. In fact my whole campaign will be conducted from my living room. When elected my administration will be conducted mainly from Washington, DC. I don't have a ranch in Crawford, Texas or a compound Hyannisport. I do have a mobile home in North Carolina which I may want to visit when I get lonesome for the mountains.

This campaign will be conducted entirely by email. No campaign contributions, which I consider to be bribes, will be accepted. No tying up your phone with requests to vote for me. Just an occasional blog which you can read or delete as you wish.

That being said here's my Pro-America platform:


1. A BALANCED BUDGET

For the current fiscal year we have a budget of $3.2 TRILLION. This is absolutely obscene. The treasury took in a record amount of taxes and we are still running a deficit.

Here's how I intend to balance the budget. No more foreign aid. Since WWII the American taxpayer has been soaked for trillions of dollars in foreign aid. What have we to show for it? Our solid allies can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Poverty and privation are as prevalent as ever. It's time the rest of the world stopped using us as a crutch. A lot of the money winds up in the Swiss bank accounts of third rate dictators anyway.

All government agencies, except defense, must cut their budgets by 10%. That's in real dollars not in their projected budget increases. For instance if a particular agency had a budget of $10 billion this year next year it only gets $9 billion. Anyone who thinks this can't be done doesn't realize how much waste there is in government. Does anyone remember that in the Clinton administration the government was actually shut down for a time? If you just had to be reminded of this you can see how much of an impact no government at all had. So 10% less government should be a boon to all. Gain for us about $300 billion +.


A balanced budget would mean a sounder dollar and therefore a reduction in the cost of oil among other benefits.

For further enlightenment on stopping the giveaways do a Google search on "Not Yours to Give."


2. ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

Energy prices most notably gasoline and diesel have skyrocketed to unheard of heights. Americans in the middle and lower income groups, that is the people who really make America work, have been badly hurt by this precipitous rise in prices.

The candidates of the major parties have finally come around to the realization that we must increase the supply of petroleum by drilling to exploit our abundant oil reserves. Both espouse cap and trade which has been instituted in the European Union. This system has proved so expensive for certain industries that they are considering moving out of the EU. They would move to countries with less stringent pollution standards like Saudi Arabia. Both Obama and McCain say we should develop alternative fuels and renewable sources of energy. this may be fine for 2050 or 2075 but it's not the answer for the short run. There has been little mention from either of them regarding new (old?) sources of energy for which the technology already exists. Oil from coal was used to keep Hitler's Panzers running until the end of World War II over 60 years ago. We also have abundant deposits of oil shale from which petroleum could be extracted.

As President my first action would be to declare a national emergency, because that's what it is, even though the other candidates don't seem to think so. I would open up all sources of oil to drilling. I would start a crash program for bringing all sources of energy which are now practical to the American market. Nuclear, gasoline from coal, greater use of coal in electric generating plants, building oil refineries, etc.

Higher CAFE standards and new sources of energy are fine but not in the short term. Right now we need oil and lots of it. The other candidates either don't know this or are afraid they might offend the Sierra Club and their ilk. The answer to our energy problems is in developing our own natural resources.   

All we need is for the government nay sayers to get out of the way. American ingenuity and our attitude of we can do it are the answers to our problems. Our greatest enemies aren't overseas they are the Congress and the bureaucrats in Washington, DC.

As President I'll tell them to get out of the way or just get out.
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3. BORDER SECURITY

Our borders haven't been secure for many years. Largely because Presidents of both parties have violated their oath of office by not enforcing our immigration laws. The Border Patrol which is supposed enforce border security has been understaffed and hamstrung by ridiculous regulations. In addition George Bush's hatchet man Johnny Sutton the US Attorney in the area has taken every opportunity to persecute Border Patrol Agents for doing their job.

To remedy this situation I would withdraw our troops from Europe and South Korea and station them on our borders. The countries involved have been leaning on us to defend them for over 50 years. It's time they stood on their own two feet. there would be enough manpower to seal the borders and to rotate the troops periodically.

Incidentally, one of the first actions I would take in my first day in office would be to pardon Ramos and Compean who are still imprisoned in Bush's Gulag and are two of Johnny Sutton's victims.
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4. STRICT INTERNAL ENFORCEMENT IMMIGRATION LAWS

Non-enforcement of our immigration laws has led to a flood of illegal aliens who are taking jobs away from Americans and legal immigrants. These illegal aliens are also depressing wages. Since rounding up the 20 million or so illegals would take untold years and resources the answer is to tackle the problem from a different angle.

The penalty for hiring illegal aliens is a $10,000 fine or 5 years in prison. As president I would attack this problem by prosecuting company executives who violate this law. I would also encourage judges to forgo the fine aspect and mete out jail terms for such violations. Some CEOs doing 5 years hard time should make others think twice before hiring these people. Their terms wouldn't be served in "country club prisons" either. Such posh prisons would be abolished. So-called white collar criminals would do their time in the general population just like any other crook.

If they couldn't get work the illegals would have no other choice but to go home.

5. REFORM CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS

As we have suffered through this seemingly endless primary campaign we have been treated to announcements that one candidate has raised $30 million this month and another candidate has raised $25 million in another month. This is absolutely obscene. I know I've used this term before when alluding to the amount of money in the Federal budget but that's exactly what it is.

Is the presidency of the United States and leadership of the free world for sale?

Something must be done to stop what amounts to large scale bribery in financing elections. McCain-Feingold is an unmitigated disaster. Let's repeal it. Let's let people donate as much as they want to the candidate of their choice. But.....Let's publish their names and how much they have donated AND LET'S LIMIT CAMPAIGN SPENDING. Let's put a limit of 25 cents per vote cast in the last election for campaign spending by all candidates running for president. That is if 100 million votes were cast in the last election for president a maximum of $25 million could be spent by each candidate. Any excess donations would go into the US Treasury General Fund. God knows we could use a little extra cash the way these people in Washington waste our money.

By limiting spending the campaign would be shortened. With a shortened campaign the candidates might talk about the issues and what they intend to do as president instead of engaging in personal attacks as they do now.

6. SENSIBLE TRADE POLICIES.

Our trade policies are ridiculous. We have ceded control of our trade policies to international organizations. Constitutionally our trade policies should be controlled by the Congress of the United States. The Congress has given control of our trade policies to these international organizations so they can work on more important things like National Orange Month and Take Your Daughter to Work Day. As a result we are being taken to the cleaners by other countries.

A number of years ago Japanese trade negotiators banned American made skis from Japan because they said their snow was different. Negotiations over this went on for months. Our representatives could have ended this impasse with one sentence, "Our skis in or your cars out!"

When the House wouldn't take up the Colombian Free Trade Agreement President Bush complained that it would be to our advantage because Colombia charged tariffs on our products but we didn't charge tariffs on theirs. I'm sure the answer to this problem is obvious to anyone not in government. We don't need another free trade agreement to solve this problem. All we have to do is tell Colombia to take their tariffs off or we'll put tariffs on their products.

We should also withdraw from all international trade organizations and take charge of our own trade policies. We don't need bureaucrats in Belgium telling us how to trade with other nations.

These are the kind of sensible trade policies I advocate.

7. OUR TAX SYSTEM IS A MESS. IT'S TIME TO GET RID OF IT AND START OVER

It seems to me that a flat tax would be the fairest and simplest way to go. Under this system you could fill out your tax return on a postcard. No more voluminous forms or complicated and confusing instructions.

We should also repeal the Sixteenth Amendment and at the same time pass a new amendment requiring a two-thirds majority to raise taxes except in times of national emergency.

The death tax should go. How fair is it to put a tax on dying. Especially on money that has already been taxed. Isn't dying bad enough without adding insult to injury by taxing the money the decedent leaves behind?

Corporate taxes should also be reduced. With lower corporate taxes industry would start coming back to the United States from overseas.

Almost everyone, except left wingers, recognizes that high taxes are bad for economic progress. My administration will endeavor to eliminate unnecessary programs and lower taxes as much as possible.



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That's my platform so far. Other planks may be added. I don't have a staff to help me formulate these things. Just me.