If I Were Calling the Shots

I don’t often get political in this place, but the current political climate has had me thinking quite a bit lately. What would I do if I were in charge? I don’t actually desire the job for one moment, but if it were thrown at me here’s what I’d do:

• Plan on only serving for four years. Two terms for a guy like me wouldn’t even be in the picture.
• Flat tax. Everyone pays an equal percentage of around 17-19%. That’s way less than what I’m paying now, but the surprising thing is that if this were in place and we did away with deductions and loopholes, we’d have way more revenue. The current tax code is in the neighborhood of 60,000 pages. Mine would be one page that reads, “Every citizen of working age who makes more than $5000.00 per year will pay 18% of their total earnings to the federal government. There shall be no loopholes, no deductions no exceptions, and no amendments made to this tax code ever.”
• Let companies that deserve to die just die. The only companies that are worth saving is our auto industry. Let the rest of them flounder. The auto industry keeps our military going by making the armored cars and tanks and such. We can’t afford to lose them.
• No more pork. I will absolutely refuse to sign bills with pork and I will publicly name the people who put pork onto bills.
• There would be energy independence. I would pull all of the federal governments research dollars to go toward making sure we are energy independent in 15 years. And no one gets their research money back until it is accomplished. Alternative energy must be taken seriously and given a real moon shot.

That’s all I can think of right now. I’m sure I could think of more. Disagree? Let me know.

[UPDATE 4.22.2009] My friend, Mike Lauer, who is an accountant has corrected my tax policy. Apparently the way I would set things up means that I would actually pay more taxes than I do now. Again, a demonstration of how complicated this problem really is. So in my administration, Mike would be in my cabinet to keep me straight on taxes.

Rick Warren Hosting a Presidential Discussion

Tomorrow night Rick Warren is going to be hosting a presidential discussion at Saddleback. It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a debate. Rather what will happen is Pastor Rick is going to have a set of questions that each candidate will have opportunity to answer, uninterrupted, and apparently neither candidate will hear their opponent’s answers. McCain and Obama will both receive approximately 50 minutes. I’m actually intrigued by this whole event. To my knowledge, this is a first in presidential elections, and a first for an evangelical church. What I would advise you to do is not just listen to their answers, but listen to the types of questions which Pastor Rick asks. For this event, I am just as interested to see what Rick Warren has to say, as I am about the two candidates. Rick Warren is viewed now on a national level, maybe a world level. His leadership as an evangelical will send waves through the evangelical world (actually he already has) in the wake of this event. We should watch all three of them with a cautious eye.

For more information on the event, you can visit the website for the event. The forum will be broadcast on CNN, Fox News. The broadcast begins at 6:00 PM Mountain Time.