cguy610 wrote:
What would you do about unemployment and the housing market?
I would extend unemployment. Unemployment benefits can increase unemployment but in this case with so few jobs, such modest payments and an American cultural ethic that stigmatized public assistance, the US in 2010 cannot blame unemployment insurance for the high unemployment.
The short to mid run term solution to unemployment is to increase the demand for labor and you do that by reducing all of the non wage costs of employing someone. The long run solution to unemploymen tand low wages is to encouarge the buying of more capital and the way you do that is by getting credit flowing to businesses that want to expand and/or modernize their capital stock and you do that by eliminating government policies that divert too much capital into housing and by allowing banks to fail instead of becoming zombie banks that borrow at zero percent and buy treasury securities.
As far as the housing market is concerned, I might try to get a one time round of "cram downs" for underwater home owner and from their draw down government involvement in the housin gsector. Homes are supposed to be where you live and should be passive and long term investment, not a short term investment. Because homes became risky short term investments, it became a crisis, for many home owners, when home prices dropped. It should not be that way, most Americans are not home owners but would like to be some day and as long as the government props up home prices, it blocks out generation from bein gable to own a home. As president I am supposed to act in the inetrest of all Americans, not just the minority of Americans who currently own homes and feel entitled to a automatic 25% appreciation in their home value every year.
What taxes specifically and how will they increase productivity, profits, income or GDP.
I would try to compromise. While I dislike all tax increasing including tax hikes on a minority (high income earners) and/or policially powerless groups (smokers, drinkers, poor people who pay sales taxes ect.), in this time of soaring deficites, I would be comfortable raiing taxes on those making over a million a year or so and keeping the tax cuts on the small business owners and professionals who are in that 250 to 1 million range.
Iraq and the huge defense budget?
I would have ended all conventional military operations and nation building operations immediately. If I were in charge, The US government would not send young people to fight and die to prop up Hamid Karzai's kleptocracy.
I would opt for a policy of CIA operations, special forces and air strikes so that we can selectively damage and harrass terrorist groups. I would sned agents to ingratiation themselves with and to bribe local warlords and then use quick, special ops attacks and.or air and missle strikes to eliminate warlords who are hostile.
Healthcare? The number 1 or number 2 cause of bankruptcy.
I could go on and on about this issue but I will keep it short. I would largely reduce the role of third party payers, I would incentivize (and for the poor) subsidize high deductible, catastrophic insurance coverage in conjunction with tax free (and for poor people government funded) health savings accounts.
That way consumers of health care are exposed to the costs and will not over consume but there would still be market competition and high quality (in terms of advanced medical care quality the US is the best in the world) and with catastrophic insurance health care related bankruptcies would cease to be a problem.
Immigration and Arizona?
I would try to liberalize the immigration process and that way, people could cross in from Mexico through controlled and designated places. That way we could check for terrorist, criminals and people with infectious diseases and then let workers come in. If people pass through designated places, the problems of violence and filth caused by human traffic in southern Arizona would be very much alleviated.
