How much would could you support a candidate with this platform?

Now that I am back from christmas shopping instead of heading out the door, I will give you a more complete answer.

1. I will begin with reform of our 17,000 page tax code. I will eliminate every last loophole, subsidy and carve-out. I will use that revenue to lower rates across the board, for individuals and businesses. I will create a tax code that is flatter and simpler; one that opens up economic opportunities for all our citizens, makes us more competitive, and ends corporate welfare and crony capitalism, once and for all.

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Right now is the wrong time to make significant changes to the tax system. I would need a better definition of " loophole, subsidy and carve-out" at any time. I would also need to see the actual changes to the tax rates.

2. I will deal honestly with our mounting debt by cutting spending in every corner of government, leaving no sacred cow untouched. I will reform entitlement programs – based on the Ryan Plan – while holding true to our nation’s commitments to those in or near retirement.

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Entitlement reform needs to happen, but the Ryan plan needs to die. It is exactly the wrong plan.

3. I will ensure that no financial entity is too-big-to-fail. I will do this by breaking up the big banks on Wall Street, so that never again – never again – are taxpayers held hostage by a Sophie’s Choice: massive bailouts, or economic calamity.

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I could probably support this, depending of course on the details.

4. I will fulfill a promise presidents have made for six decades, and adopt a comprehensive energy strategy that frees us from foreign oil, that eliminates all energy subsidies, and that levels the playing field for competing fuels and technologies

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This strikes me as empty platitudes. I do not think all those are doable and think some are mutually exclusive.

5. All too often our regulatory framework becomes another tool for special interests seeking to use the state to protect privileges and insulate themselves from competition. I will systematically streamline regulations in order to create a free, fair and competitive marketplace.

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Way to vague to support.

6. I will bring our troops home from Afghanistan, while leaving behind an appropriately-sized counterterrorist presence. And I will set our military strategy and budgets based on long-term threats and vulnerabilities, not on spending patterns developed decades ago and reinforced today by armies of lobbyists.

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I feel we still have a mission in Afghanistan that is worth pursuing.

7. Finally, in order to ensure that government responds to all its citizens with the same level of urgency and fairness, and to lessen the influence of special interests, I will send to Congress a “Citizens Legislature Act.”

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Is Citizens Legislature Act refer to this: http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/termlimd.txt ? If so, absolutely not. I do not want politicians to limit my choice of politicians.

I will propose a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress: six two-year terms in the House, two six-year terms in the Senate.

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See above.

I will ban members of Congress and Cabinet officers from lobbying for four years following their departure.

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I understand the desire, but I don't think we can or should tell private individuals what job they can or cannot hold.

I will seek a lifetime ban on Congress members and Cabinet officers lobbying on any issue where they had significant responsibility.

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As above.

And I will also require them to publicly release all income for four years following their service.

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And similar to above. Oversite, possibly. Public, no.




Based on this, I would absolutely and strongly oppose such a candidate.

1. I will begin with reform of our 17,000 page tax code. I will eliminate every last loophole, subsidy and carve-out. I will use that revenue to lower rates across the board, for individuals and businesses. I will create a tax code that is flatter and simpler; one that opens up economic opportunities for all our citizens, makes us more competitive, and ends corporate welfare and crony capitalism, once and for all.

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Remove that bolded word and this sounds good to me.

2. I will deal honestly with our mounting debt by cutting spending in every corner of government, leaving no sacred cow untouched. I will reform entitlement programs – based on the Ryan Plan – while holding true to our nation’s commitments to those in or near retirement.

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Absolutely not. This alone is enough for me to give this candidate a solid thumbs-down.

3. I will ensure that no financial entity is too-big-to-fail. I will do this by breaking up the big banks on Wall Street, so that never again – never again – are taxpayers held hostage by a Sophie’s Choice: massive bailouts, or economic calamity.

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I agree, and this is the approach that Obama should have taken.

4. I will fulfill a promise presidents have made for six decades, and adopt a comprehensive energy strategy that frees us from foreign oil, that eliminates all energy subsidies, and that levels the playing field for competing fuels and technologies.

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Meh. This is the same meaningless boilerplate rhetoric that every candidate says and that never actually happens. So I'm neutral.

5. All too often our regulatory framework becomes another tool for special interests seeking to use the state to protect privileges and insulate themselves from competition. I will systematically streamline regulations in order to create a free, fair and competitive marketplace.

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Too vague to agree or disagree. I'd be interested in what kind of regulations he's talking about, especially since it comes just after he proposed major financial and energy regulations.

6. I will bring our troops home from Afghanistan, while leaving behind an appropriately-sized counterterrorist presence. And I will set our military strategy and budgets based on long-term threats and vulnerabilities, not on spending patterns developed decades ago and reinforced today by armies of lobbyists.

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This would have been a much better campaign promise without that hedge. By including the phrase "appropriately-sized counterterrorist presence," what this candidate is basically saying is "I'll tell you we're going to withdraw from Afghanistan because it's what you want to hear, then I'll do whatever I feel like once I get elected."

7. Finally, in order to ensure that government responds to all its citizens with the same level of urgency and fairness, and to lessen the influence of special interests, I will send to Congress a “Citizens Legislature Act.”

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I have no idea what this means.

I will propose a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress: six two-year terms in the House, two six-year terms in the Senate.

I will ban members of Congress and Cabinet officers from lobbying for four years following their departure.

I will seek a lifetime ban on Congress members and Cabinet officers lobbying on any issue where they had significant responsibility.

And I will also require them to publicly release all income for four years following their service.

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These all sound good. But since the president will need Congress to pass any of those things, the chances of them happening are not good. These seem to be a list of campaign promises for someone who is running for king, not president. But I can safely say that there is no way I would vote for a candidate with this platform. By the way, is this the ENTIRE platform? It doesn't even mention our sky-high unemployment, gaping wealth disparity, crumbling infrastructure, or disgraceful education system. Is this candidate even aware that we just had one of the worst recessions in the last 80 years? If so, I couldn't tell from his platform.

I do not entirely oppose this platform, but where I do oppose I must oppose it strongly.

1. I will begin with reform of our 17,000 page tax code. I will eliminate every last loophole, subsidy and carve-out. I will use that revenue to lower rates across the board, for individuals and businesses. I will create a tax code that is flatter and simpler; one that opens up economic opportunities for all our citizens, makes us more competitive, and ends corporate welfare and crony capitalism, once and for all.

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Reforming the tax code is great. Eliminating every loophole and subsidy-- at least from the tax code-- is great. But I will not, under any circumstances, support making the tax code flatter than it is today, except where removing the aforementioned loopholes and subsidies automatically makes it flatter, such as by eliminating rebates that apply to lower-income households. Further, I cannot support making the tax rates lower while we are so deeply indebted and while we are running such a staggering deficit. Furthermore, while I agree that the tax code is not the place to implement it, I believe that "corporate welfare" is a necessary function of government. I am also opposed to corporate taxes of all kinds, though they may be necessary to compensate for other flaws in our tax structure.

2. I will deal honestly with our mounting debt by cutting spending in every corner of government, leaving no sacred cow untouched. I will reform entitlement programs – based on the Ryan Plan – while holding true to our nation’s commitments to those in or near retirement.

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Necessary.

3. I will ensure that no financial entity is too-big-to-fail. I will do this by breaking up the big banks on Wall Street, so that never again – never again – are taxpayers held hostage by a Sophie’s Choice: massive bailouts, or economic calamity.

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I'd just nationalize the entire financial services industry. But breaking the banks up-- and keeping them broken up-- would be adequate.

4. I will fulfill a promise presidents have made for six decades, and adopt a comprehensive energy strategy that frees us from foreign oil, that eliminates all energy subsidies, and that levels the playing field for competing fuels and technologies.

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Hallelejuah.

5. All too often our regulatory framework becomes another tool for special interests seeking to use the state to protect privileges and insulate themselves from competition. I will systematically streamline regulations in order to create a free, fair and competitive marketplace.

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I do not agree with eliminating or reducing regulations, but streamlining them is entirely acceptable.

6. I will bring our troops home from Afghanistan, while leaving behind an appropriately-sized counterterrorist presence. And I will set our military strategy and budgets based on long-term threats and vulnerabilities, not on spending patterns developed decades ago and reinforced today by armies of lobbyists.

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I do not believe that we can afford to do so at this time. We made this crummy bed and now we have to lie in it.

7. Finally, in order to ensure that government responds to all its citizens with the same level of urgency and fairness, and to lessen the influence of special interests, I will send to Congress a “Citizens Legislature Act.”

I will propose a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress: six two-year terms in the House, two six-year terms in the Senate.

I will ban members of Congress and Cabinet officers from lobbying for four years following their departure.

I will seek a lifetime ban on Congress members and Cabinet officers lobbying on any issue where they had significant responsibility.

And I will also require them to publicly release all income for four years following their service.

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Absolutely not, under any circumstances. Moreso than my objections to #1, this is the reason that I can not and will not endorse this platform. Not only are you banning experienced and professional legislators from staying in office, you're prohibiting them from applying their professional expertise in a private capacity. Lobbyists provide an essential service to the government and we need to stop blaming them for all of the ineptitude and malfeasance of our elected representatives. The law is too important to be left in the hands of people who do not understand how the law functions, or in the hands of people who do not understand the industries that the law would affect.

Viktyr Korimir said:

I do not entirely oppose this platform, but where I do oppose I must oppose it strongly.



Reforming the tax code is great. Eliminating every loophole and subsidy-- at least from the tax code-- is great. But I will not, under any circumstances, support making the tax code flatter than it is today, except where removing the aforementioned loopholes and subsidies automatically makes it flatter, such as by eliminating rebates that apply to lower-income households. Further, I cannot support making the tax rates lower while we are so deeply indebted and while we are running such a staggering deficit. Furthermore, while I agree that the tax code is not the place to implement it, I believe that "corporate welfare" is a necessary function of government. I am also opposed to corporate taxes of all kinds, though they may be necessary to compensate for other flaws in our tax structure.



Necessary.



I'd just nationalize the entire financial services industry. But breaking the banks up-- and keeping them broken up-- would be adequate.



Hallelejuah.



I do not agree with eliminating or reducing regulations, but streamlining them is entirely acceptable.



I do not believe that we can afford to do so at this time. We made this crummy bed and now we have to lie in it.



Absolutely not, under any circumstances. Moreso than my objections to #1, this is the reason that I can not and will not endorse this platform. Not only are you banning experienced and professional legislators from staying in office, you're prohibiting them from applying their professional expertise in a private capacity. Lobbyists provide an essential service to the government and we need to stop blaming them for all of the ineptitude and malfeasance of our elected representatives. The law is too important to be left in the hands of people who do not understand how the law functions, or in the hands of people who do not understand the industries that the law would affect.

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The last-item, in my opinion, is not inherently anti-lobbyist in nature. It is meant primarily to deal with conflict of interest, not to **** on K Street.

Zyphlin said:

With your views on the Ryan plan, I fully expected to see you be one of the first in here to state that very thing

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Sorry as soon as I saw ryan plan I went to strongly wont support myself

StillBallin75 said:

The last-item, in my opinion, is not inherently anti-lobbyist in nature. It is meant primarily to deal with conflict of interest, not to **** on K Street.

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The problem is, what this does is tell private citizens what jobs they can and cannot hold. That is something I don't think the government should do.

I will begin with reform of our 17,000 page tax code. I will eliminate every last loophole, subsidy and carve-out. I will use that revenue to lower rates across the board, for individuals and businesses. I will create a tax code that is flatter and simpler; one that opens up economic opportunities for all our citizens, makes us more competitive, and ends corporate welfare and crony capitalism, once and for all

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This I agree with 100%, more detail is needed and what I would like to see is a plan basically stating that the new tax code will end up having us at the same $ of income we now have. That would include the lower end of the income earners paying some amount of FIT, even if it's just a few bucks a week. It's my belief that people have no interest in what the government is spending when it's not their money. Everyone in this country needs to contribute and have a dog in the hunt, maybe then more would pay attention.

I will deal honestly with our mounting debt by cutting spending in every corner of government, leaving no sacred cow untouched. I will reform entitlement programs – based on the Ryan Plan – while holding true to our nation’s commitments to those in or near retirement.

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Most of this I agree with, and it could be done in increments, first by finding and cutting the waste and fraud spending that is sure to be in every program. I can't help but to wonder why what we are always being fed is that all cuts have to impact those receiving benefits? Lets look at administrative costs and perks there first.

I will ensure that no financial entity is too-big-to-fail. I will do this by breaking up the big banks on Wall Street, so that never again – never again – are taxpayers held hostage by a Sophie’s Choice: massive bailouts, or economic calamity.

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Agree here also, if you believe in capitalism, then you must believe that a poorly run company is responsible for their failures, and should fail.

I will fulfill a promise presidents have made for six decades, and adopt a comprehensive energy strategy that frees us from foreign oil, that eliminates all energy subsidies, and that levels the playing field for competing fuels and technologies.

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Every president has made this promise, and thus far none have followed through on it. While I too agree that our tax dollars should be given to emerging technologies that would prove to be helpful in this, I also think the first step is to open our oil fields up to drilling so that we can immediately reduce the cost of oil, and in the short term help to reduce our dependency on imported oil.

5. All too often our regulatory framework becomes another tool for special interests seeking to use the state to protect privileges and insulate themselves from competition. I will systematically streamline regulations in order to create a free, fair and competitive marketplace.

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100% agreement, our regulations need to streamlined, concise, and enforced. We need regulations, I don't think that anyone will argue that point, you can point to almost every problem that we've had in our recent history, and find more fault with the enforcement of existing regulations, then the lack of them.

I will bring our troops home from Afghanistan, while leaving behind an appropriately-sized counterterrorist presence. And I will set our military strategy and budgets based on long-term threats and vulnerabilities, not on spending patterns developed decades ago and reinforced today by armies of lobbyists.

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Mixed on this one, I don't think we can now just pull out of Afghanistan, we've made a mess there, and like Iraq, we no need to do our level best to stay and clean it up. Give the country some sort of stabilization, that will give the country a decent chance at a democratic government. Withdrawing slowly enough to do so. But in the future we need to stop the nation building, and reduce our aide in all others areas as well, especially to countries that hate us, and will always hate us.

Finally, in order to ensure that government responds to all its citizens with the same level of urgency and fairness, and to lessen the influence of special interests, I will send to Congress a “Citizens Legislature Act.”

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Don't know enough on this to comment.

I will propose a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress: six two-year terms in the House, two six-year terms in the Senate.

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Use to be against term limits, thinking that we have them with our votes. My opinion on this is changing, seeing people from both side of the aisle that somehow get elected with terrible voting records. Have to say now I support term limits .

I will ban members of Congress and Cabinet officers from lobbying for four years following their departure.

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This will never happen, lobbyists will always be around in some form, it would be much more effective (IMO) to put strict limits on what elected officials can accept from anyone. Then have strict enforcement of such, and the punishment is removal from office. There are no excuses or exceptions.

TheNextEra said:

It's not possible without having a congress that will work with you. Until we can get someone that can do that, or a congress willing to do those things, these are just pipedream promises that are the conservative's equivalent to "Hope and Change".

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Right....so.....don't vote, unless it's for the status quo?

The President does not have the Constitutional power to do any of those things on his own.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

Zyphlin said:

How much would the following campaign platform by a candidate appeal to you in either the primary or the upcoming election:



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No - nevermind that I know who said it . . . I don't necessarily support candidates because of blanket "I will absolutely" and "I will make sure that it never ever happens again" type statements - these are always impossibel to fulfill, usually carelessly tossed around and merely talking points. I'd like a president to support caution, care and erring on the side of research and experts who know more.

More specific to the points presented - I support some of those measures, though - such as revisions of the tax code, more strict governance of corporate entities. But I don't support limits on Congress because they overthrow our system of checks and balances and I'm tired of my husband being used to further a president's candidacy - I find it offensive.

Redress said:

I made it to point 2 and was already totally against such a candidate.

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Same with me, my support ended at point 2. Not that my support matters, as Huntsman is near the bottom of the barrel in the opinion of the GOP base that will be picking the guy to run against Obama.

I tend to agree with TheNextEra, nodak, and Aunt Spiker. Much of this sounds great, but why should I allow myself to get all excited over stuff that the person most likely canNOT pull off? By themselves, I mean. To me, that's lying by omission, even if I do think what they say would be the best option in an ideal world. I don't like being lied to.

This reminds me of one of the recent Rick Perry ads. He says that if Congress doesn't toe his line, then he thinks they should just be sent home and their pay cut in half. :roll: He can't just do that on his own, and I think he knows that, so why the hell is he even implying that it would ever happen? (To be precise, he didn't say he would do it, just that he thinks it should be done. He still planted the seed while leaving himself an 'out'.)

I want to hear what a candidate believes, but when it comes to promises tell me what you think you can actually accomplish. What will happen under your administration that will be steps in the right direction. I have no illusions that it will all be fixed in one administration.

Overall I'm relatively neutral on this. Whether I would vote for him would probably be decided by where he stood on social issues.

Zyphlin said:

1. I will begin with reform of our 17,000 page tax code. I will eliminate every last loophole, subsidy and carve-out. I will use that revenue to lower rates across the board, for individuals and businesses. I will create a tax code that is flatter and simpler; one that opens up economic opportunities for all our citizens, makes us more competitive, and ends corporate welfare and crony capitalism, once and for all.

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I definitely like the idea of simplifying our tax code. I'd want more information on what exactly his flatter and simpler tax code would look like, but for the most part I'm behind the idea.

Zyphlin said:

2. I will deal honestly with our mounting debt by cutting spending in every corner of government, leaving no sacred cow untouched. I will reform entitlement programs – based on the Ryan Plan – while holding true to our nation’s commitments to those in or near retirement.

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I don't like this one. The ryan plan is just shuffling the Medicare burden from the federal government to the states, so it doesn't seem like a net gain for the people. And I definitely don't like the idea that he isn't doing anything about social security.

Zyphlin said:

3. I will ensure that no financial entity is too-big-to-fail. I will do this by breaking up the big banks on Wall Street, so that never again – never again – are taxpayers held hostage by a Sophie’s Choice: massive bailouts, or economic calamity.

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I like this idea. Banks should definitely not be allowed to get too big to fail.

Zyphlin said:

4. I will fulfill a promise presidents have made for six decades, and adopt a comprehensive energy strategy that frees us from foreign oil, that eliminates all energy subsidies, and that levels the playing field for competing fuels and technologies.

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Again, I'd want some more information about what exactly he intends to do here, and what his comprehensive energy strategy would look like. If it's a well thought out plan to phase in renewable energy technologies while slowly phasing out fossil fuels, I'd be behind it. If it's just replacing a dependence on foreign oil with a dependence on American oil, coal, and natural gas, I probably wouldn't.

Zyphlin said:

5. All too often our regulatory framework becomes another tool for special interests seeking to use the state to protect privileges and insulate themselves from competition. I will systematically streamline regulations in order to create a free, fair and competitive marketplace.

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I don't support this. Lack of regulation was part of what allowed the recession to happen.

Zyphlin said:

6. I will bring our troops home from Afghanistan, while leaving behind an appropriately-sized counterterrorist presence. And I will set our military strategy and budgets based on long-term threats and vulnerabilities, not on spending patterns developed decades ago and reinforced today by armies of lobbyists.

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I'm tentatively behind this, though I'd want more information.

Zyphlin said:

7. Finally, in order to ensure that government responds to all its citizens with the same level of urgency and fairness, and to lessen the influence of special interests, I will send to Congress a “Citizens Legislature Act.”

I will propose a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress: six two-year terms in the House, two six-year terms in the Senate.

I will ban members of Congress and Cabinet officers from lobbying for four years following their departure.

I will seek a lifetime ban on Congress members and Cabinet officers lobbying on any issue where they had significant responsibility.

And I will also require them to publicly release all income for four years following their service.

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I think the impact of this would be neutral. As I said in the thread about term limits, they only work if the people coming in are less corrupt than the people they'd be replacing, and I'm not sure that's true.

1) I prefer HR25 (the Fair Tax) - but simplifying the tax code is a good start.

2) How about cut all entitlement programs to $0.00. They are state issues and the Fed does not have the power to tax and spend on these specific issues...even though they have assumed that power over the past few decades.

3) or let them fail

4 & 5) agreed

6) pull ALL the troops home from all over the world, we are not the worlds police.

7) term limits - awesome idea but the Congress it needs to pass through will never let it happen.

It's an interesting START. There are major issues which are not discussed which I need to know about (gun control, 1st amendment issues, morals & values, international relations) before I could start to actually support a candidate.

I will fulfill a promise presidents have made for six decades, and adopt a comprehensive energy strategy that frees us from foreign oil, that eliminates all energy subsidies, and that levels the playing field for competing fuels and technologies.

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Hahahahahah.

This platform comes from someone who is really bad at math.

Deuce said:

Hahahahahah.

This platform comes from someone who is really bad at math.

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Edit: wrong thread.