My bid for the Oval Office

I don't think I will ever be in a position to run for President of the United States, but it days such as these I think it is natural to think what that would be like and what you platform would be. In such a fit, I was walking with Reuben and our conversation shifted from the two major candidates to what I would like to see happen, to my imaginary and not completely thought out platform. Since I can't seem to focus on much anything else to write on today, I apologize, but that is what you are getting. You have been warned.

Let me start, with what might be a hot topic issue for some people, gay marriage. I am religious individual, who has a very literal interpretation if the Bible and as such, I don't personally think there is any such thing as gay marriage. I believe this, though, not because of the government, but because of my personal beliefs and interpretations of the Bible. As such, I can't expect people with different beliefs and interpretations to believe the same way or even understand why I might believe that way. One of the problems I think the government has made has been making marriage a government contract, rather than a religious institution. As such, I don't think marriage should play into government law or protections at all. Remove marriage and the crazy bureaucracies which surround it from Washington all together.

This might lead people to a logic question, then, of what to do about taxes and joint tax forms, do those go away, do they let any two people to file jointly, what? My answer is neither. We want people to save money for their future and give money to charity, but we make it hard to fully benefit from these things. Save your receipts and you can only claim X amount and only if it met these conditions. Quit charging income tax, eliminate April 15th and that whole tax structure and start taxing expenditure instead. The tax breaks that are abused in the code go away. If you want to save your money, how ever you choose to do it, it isn't taxed. If you want to gift your money or give to charity, it isn't taxed. If you want to buy a house or a yacht, on the other hand, it is going to be taxed. If you spend more, you pay more. This seems to make much more since then having some pay none so the other have a heavier burden. The other advantage is this, we would adapt to this increased cost quickly and makes it nearly impossible to default on a payment.

Last issue for consideration is one of budgeting. The budget must always be approved, balanced and the people have the right to decide on major expenditures outside of the budget. As the payroll is part of the budget, it is crazy to me that we would pay people on a none approved budget, especially people who are responsible to getting the budget approved. If you can't come to an approval, you will stop being paid. Second, you can only budget the money which is coming in. Based on the plan above, if the United States spends 4.6 trillion a year and 10% is taxed, we would need to have an annual budget that came in under 460 billion dollars. As a note, this would be a drastic cut if my numbers are even close to right. The point is, we can't keep spending like we are using someone else's credit card, we need to be serious about righting the ship. In that same vein, if the government wants to propose something which is going to result in a tax increase, outside of the budget, they need to be clear with the people on why they are doing it, how much it will cost and let them vote. As it stands, the government spends the money and passes along the bill, which is wrong.

I have more issues, but no more time.pick it apart or ask questions as you see fit.