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Back to the Forum Archives I'll be very abrupt with the situation between Israel and Palestine. We should not be wasting our resources there. We cannot solve that problem because the people and leaders on both sides do not want peace. These people have been fighting since God lived under a toadstool in Ireland. What we should do is stop supplying Israel with weapons of murder. Then we should use our good offices to put pressure on other countries to stop supplying the Palestinians. If we could get the UN to cooperate, we could even support an arms embargo on the whole area. If they want to kill each other, let them do it with sticks. I would pull out of Korea. I would apologize to South Korea for saving them from Chinese dominance and do a staged withdrawal of troops. Then I would let North and South Korea resolve their own destiny. I would also make a personal trip to North Korea and chat with the Napoleonic midget. I would be reasonably polite, but I would make it clear that he cannot have nukes. Under no circumstances would I pay any blackmail. I would simply point out what happened to Iraq, and notice that they did not even have any useful weapons. The point would be, Don't annoy the friendly giant or he won't be friendly anymore. We should realize that China is no longer in a position to muck around in Korea. They have major problems of their own with a revolution brewing. For health care I would propose a single law that would eliminate most of the dishonesty and criminal activity in the industry and save billions of dollars in costs. I would create a single national clearing house for all insurance claims. This would be very similar to the clearing houses for banks. Private companies would no longer be allowed to process their own claims. All companies including medicaid, and medicare would be required to participate and pay an administrative fee for doing so. The insurance companies would be the big winners in this. They would eliminate huge in-house bureaucracies. With the medicare and medicaid fraud savings, I would combine medicare and medicaid and extend limited coverage to all citizens. The standards for claim processing would no longer be private and arbitrary. They would be public and the same for all claims and claimants. The claim would be paid quickly by the clearing house, but only once. The payments would be by electronic transfer. There would be a standard encrypted on line form for providers to submit claims. The providers would be paid monthly for all approved claims. The insurance companies would be billed monthly and receive monthly statements as would the providers. All forms and activities would be standardized. The patients would receive a single report showing what was paid and to whom and how much is still owed if anything. The patient would not be required to pay anything until he received that statement. For the patient there would be a simple appeals process for rejected claims up to and including legal proceedings. There will be no appeal for the insurance providers. For them, the decision of the clearing house is final. For Cuba I would lift the embargo and normalize relations with that government. Cuba could be a dandy local trading partner. I wold make a personal trip to Cuba and perhaps have a Cuban cigar with Castro. I would ask him to grant complete amnesty to any Cubans living in exile. At home I would propose laws which would prevent the handful of crazy Cubans in Florida from interfering in American foreign policy. These people are an extreme minority and their issue is a fringe issue. Most of the Cuban exiles in Florida are decent hard working people. They are getting a bad rap because of these few meddling radicals. For Mexico, I would supply aid to Vicente Fox, but only in the form of food. This is a very good way to invest some of America's farm surplus. I feel Fox is the best hope for Mexico and an outstanding example for the rest of South America of what is possible with one relatively honest man. A man like Fox give hope to the people. We must have taxes to support the government. I do not object to an income tax. I do object to punitive taxes and loopholes. I would propose a comprehensive plan to close loopholes in out tax laws. I would further propose that all income be taxed regardless of the source. This would torpedo the off shore sweet deals. I would not tax people who live below the poverty level at all. On the other hand, I would not give them hokey tax rebates. I would set an upper limit on income tax at about 35%. This would help simplify the tax form, a reform which is sorely needed. As to energy, we need to put a final end to America's dependence on foreign oil. For this we need a two pronged approach. First we need to ensure the immediate future. We do this by developing America's own resources and the resources of our near neighbors. I am not convinced that it is necessary to exploit the resources of the Alaskan wilderness. I have little confidence in the large oil companies to do that safely. Their record does not support such a leap of faith. The second prong is to put some resources into developing viable alternatives to oil. Conservation is not the answer. We are a free people. We need to reach upward and outward not hunker down. Also, let us not make silliness about windmills. I'm not sure on solar energy. Someone would have to show me the possibility. At this time, however, I think our best hope lies in developing nuclear fusion. Finally we have the fringe issues. As I said, I define a fringe issue as one that does not directly affect a large part of our population. This does not imply anything about the people involved. These may or may not be important issues. The point is, they cannot command a large portion of our national resources. Until now, too many of them have done exactly that because of the loud mouthed stupid screaming polarized participants. In general, the louder they scream, the less real is the issue. The screaming is intended, consciously or otherwise, to conceal that fact. Also, many of these issues would disappear if we did education right. Abortion is one such issue. It directly affects a very small handful of women and their families. There are polarized madmen on both sides who want us to think otherwise. I personally cannot support abortion for frivolous reasons. I think most of the reasons for abortions are frivolous. Therefore I would withhold government funding for most abortions. The exceptions would be cases of rape or incest and imminent danger to the mother's health. On the other hand, I would not outlaw abortion. That should be a personal decision. I may be wrong about welfare, but I think it is a fringe issue. Do-gooders have inflated its impact on the rest of us. The real problem for people on welfare is employment opportunities. That is lacking. We probably could do a better job of helping these people train themselves for employment. This too is an issue that will disappear when we begin to properly educate our kids. Separation of church and state is only an issue because of dishonesty in government. I would stop giving taxpayers money to religious organizations under any pretext. If we need to fund a community service we must do it directly, not through some private organization with an agenda. We do not fund the Red Cross or the Salvation Army in their community work and we should not fund some fundamentalist church. I would propose new laws to vigorously reenforce the first amendment and put a stop to these peoples interference in public affairs, particularly as regards education. These people have no business teaching their philosophies to other people's children. As to spiritual values, you have a right to teach your own spiritual philosophy to your children in whatever way you wish. You have no right to teach that same philosophy to my children without my explicit agreement. To attempt it is a criminal act. Finally, I too will refuse to eat broccoli. I will also refuse to drink lite beer or smoke cheap cigars. I know I have not covered all of the issues, but I have covered
the big ones. That's it. If you run on this platform I will vote
for you.
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