Opinion If you were president of the USA, what would you do?

[helltoupee]

Good analysis. A bit too laissez-faire for me though.

I'm absolutely a fan of regulated capitalism and individual freedom. However I despise reducing everything to a profit motive. Things like government and health care can provide social value without having to succumb to profitability.

 

[Jack V Savage]

It's interesting what y'all, especially the crazy TS, think the president's power is and what current laws are. Literally nothing in the OP would be doable except the UFO thing and the last thing, which is already in place (where do people get the idea you can't say that stuff?).

I'd probably run into the same constraints to getting stuff passed that Biden does, and I wouldn't know as much about how to make deals and get things done. I think zoning reform is the most important issue that doesn't get talked about, but if a president started talking about it more, it would make it more salient but it would also ensure that half the population was totally set against it, which would probably make it harder to get done than it is now. I'd also like to see discussion of a land-value tax, but that could have the same problem (right now, most people are probably undecided, but if a president came out for/against it, you'd have a big bloc that opposed it/supported it). I would push for a long-term SS fix, which would just require raising the cap to tax. We'd also be better off reversing the Trump tax cuts for people who inherit eight-figure (plus) estates, among other things.

 

[EL CORINTHIAN]

Copy Canada healthcare system

 

[pinger]

The people saying "copy the canada healthcare system" might want to instead copy Germany, who has the best free healthcare.

Canada is among the worst free healthcare. Bloated administration positions. In fact we have 10x more spending on administration than Germany with way worse results in quality.

Australia does well with healthcare as well. Never perfect given our aging population, but pretty damn good

 

[Jack V Savage]

I would add to your list that the DoD (Pentagon) should be forced to pass an audit, which they have never been able to do. Routinely coming up with trillions of dollars "unaccounted for" is beyond insane, but nobody bats an eye. Imagine if you as a business owner tried to pass an audit in this manner - you'd be shut down and possibly jailed.

The entire DOD budget was $1.5T in the last FY so there's no way that trillions of dollars are unaccounted for. There's no single business that is as complex as the DOD. Here's the release on the latest annual audit: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releas...al-department-wide-financial-statement-audit/

Trump and Biden border policies are not really all that different. The border has been a problem for many years and spans partisan politics. In my mind, I don't understand the crowd that is vehemently principled against things like affirmative action and equal outcomes also wanting to artificially limit "the best man for the job" by closing borders. Regardless of that, the real problem is the employers and corps that hire illegals for cheap labor.

Unauthorized immigrants actually raise native wages (negligibly), according to the weight of the evidence. At any rate, the unauthorized immigrant population fell for a decade starting in 2007. The GFC obviously contributed a lot to that (just as issues in other countries have contributed to an increase in the number of attempts at illegal crossing more recently). Generally, "border security" is least effectively and cost-efficiently dealt with at the actual border. We can get better results and more bang for the buck trying to address the issue at the roots--which means aid and diplomacy to and with Mexico and the Northern Triangle.

 

[terrapin]

To people who believes in fairy tales, I suppose so. It's time to come out and admit the lunacy, allow your rational potential to shine through. You can do it.

the more i hear from you the less i like. united states of natural order!

 

[Domitian]

Begin making plans for my grand conquest of Europe to create the ultimate superpower.

 

[plataoplombo]

No more putting unrelated stuff into bills. For example trying to tie funding for Ukraine to a bill that's meant for state parks.

 

[My Spot]

Abortion for some, miniature American flags for others.

 

[Streeter]

Take the $ out of politics with a 28th Amendment.

28th Amendment

Returning Power to “We the People”

No money will be allowed for any political campaign, including propositions, or other ballot measures from any entity that is not a U.S. Citizen. Excluded from donating: corporations, special interest groups, unions, and any foreign entities. U.S. Citizens may only donate a total of $5,000 a year for all political donations and may only donate to political campaigns that affect their geography of residence.

If we got that done, suddenly those people in D.C. will represent you at home. What a world it would be.

I would then reject all budgets that were not balanced, after year 2. I'd tell them prior that they'd have 2 years to get it right.

I'd pardon Julian Assange.

I'd revert the border policy back to Trump's where they stay in Mexico.

I'd punish China on every front I could.

I'd have a full blast Fossil Energy policy as I built up modern nuclear plants throughout the nation.

 

[aerius]

1) Ruthlessly enforce all anti-trust and anti-competitive laws. This instantly drops healthcare costs to somewhere around 10-20% of what it currently is and takes care of much of the collusion & price fixing in the financial sector as well. Also kills Amazon as a bonus.

2) Glass-Steagall and all other depression era banking laws are back and fully enforced. This takes care of most of the financial fraud and bullshit in the banking system.

3) Shitloads of investments in heavy industry. We can't build bridges, nuke plants, or even large transformers since we can't even make many of the high quality steels that are needed for them. And even if we could, we don't have the tooling to turn that steel into the finished product.

4) All student loans are fully dischargeable in bankruptcy. This will fuck up the college system in the short to medium term, but it's the only way to bring costs back down without massive government overreach.

5) No more of this permanent emergency war powers shit. If you want a war, go through Congress and declare a war, otherwise no funding for you. You want to fund Ukraine & Israel? Fine. But you need to declare war on Russia and all the Arabs and pass it through Congress with a super majority. This takes care of many of the BS foreign interventions.

6) Education reform. Angry nuns with rulers are back. We're going to have standards, and we're gonna fail the fuck out of every student who doesn't meet them.

IDGAF about wokeness, LGBQT rights, abortion, drugs, or other social issues. None of that matters when the US literally can't build the infrastructure it needs to keep the lights on and the vast majority of the population are debt slaves.

 

[Broke Lester]

I'd put a senile old man to be the face of my presidency, then fleece the country for billions and blame it on his incompetence. I'd also leave the border unprotected. And I'd get a hyena to be his VP.

 

[Crawler89]

can the president give the order to audit the pentagon?

 

[Cid]

As an Australian I would:

Bemoan American hyper partisan retardation.
Declare Americans not worth saving.
Hand the reigns over to the inevitable Chinese ascension.


I fucking hate the CCP but credit where it's due the CCP can at least semi-competently play the game.

20 years of sherdog has convinced me that Americans are incapable of anything other than black and white understanding of issues. You aren't capable of shades of grey let alone the spectrum of colors available.

Your defining feature is being arrogantly stupid. It's like you're all proud of how dumb you are.

 

[GhostZ06]

its better then ours.,

 

[S Class]

Move to the country and eat a lot of peaches

 

[avenue94]

No money will be allowed for any political campaign, including propositions, or other ballot measures from any entity that is not a U.S. Citizen. Excluded from donating: corporations, special interest groups, unions, and any foreign entities. U.S. Citizens may only donate a total of $5,000 a year for all political donations and may only donate to political campaigns that affect their geography of residence.

If we got that done, suddenly those people in D.C. will represent you at home. What a world it would be.

Would individuals be allowed to self fund their own campaign?

 

[Natural Order]

the more i hear from you the less i like. united states of natural order!

Nah, time to shed the nonsense that keeps fueling babies being bombed in 2023. Ignorance is no longer a valid excuse. The theatre needs to end.

 

[avenue94]

There's a discussion to be had about providing real safety nets for the most downtrodden and poor. But we're WAY beyond that now, with expectations and entitlement for everything. Without input or effort.

What are these expectations and entitlements you find problematic? Which programs?

yes...I agree. And the age to vote to 25. Sick of these pimple nosed ANTIFA terrorists living in their mother's basement voting for the worst shit we all have to suffer with. They never paid taxes a day in their life.

That makes no sense unless they also can't buy booze, be drafted, etc. And do you not consider sales tax paying taxes?

 

[avenue94]

The entire DOD budget was $1.5T in the last FY so there's no way that trillions of dollars are unaccounted for. There's no single business that is as complex as the DOD. Here's the release on the latest annual audit: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releas...al-department-wide-financial-statement-audit/

Most of an annual DOD audit report is just saying how many segments/departments failed the audit. There's absolutely no excuse for the DOD to not have gotten its shit together given they've had at this point probably a decade too. It should be pretty straight forward, if your department can't pass an audit within x amount of time, you're stripped of funding or its frozen at current levels. I guarantee that would get the house in order quite fast. I'm not even a budget hawk and pretty understanding of the "rounding" the Pentagon uses, but it's pretty ridiculous at this point.