Though I do not expect to be nominated or elected, I have decided to propose my own 2012 platform:
TAXES
Restore the upper bracket taxation rate to what it was when Ronald Reagan left office.
Cap mortgage deductions at $60,00 per annum (which is $5000 of interest a month).
Raise the gasoline tax to $1 per gallon.
Tax each purchase of stock $1. (Maybe also transfers of inheritance, not reinvestment of dividends.)
Raise the tax rate on capital gains to 18% for the first million, 20% for one million and one to $1,999,999.99 and to 22% above that.
MILITARY FUNDING
Sell off the land and buildings on half the overseas US military bases, and all of those in Texas (since its governor has claimed that it can revert to being a separate republic).
End all military aid to Israel and Pakistan, while aiding the sale of non-nuclear weapons.
End all military aid to countries that use child soldiers, that is, those less than 16 years of age.
End the embargo on trade with and visits to Cuba (which is not approval of its regime).
Abide by the War Powers Act and the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners.
Withdraw US personnel other than advisors and trainers (recognizing that these are particularly fuzzily bound sets!) from Afghanistan.
HEALTHCARE FINANCING
Replace Romneeycare with a single-payer system and no individual mandate.
Negotiate rates for prescription drugs for the national system of healthcare coverage.
FOREIGN POLICY
Back the inclusion of Taiwan in the UN and other international agencies receiving money from the US. Welcome democratically elected officials rather than attempting to limit their visiting the US. Recognize a Republic of Taiwan.
Stop treating the Vatican as if it were a country. Demand the extradition of Cardinals Law and Levada for racketeering in covering up priestly child molestations… and the former Cardinal Ratzinger who presided over the coverups as the previous pope’s rotweiler.
Withhold any aid to nations that discriminate on the basis of race, creed, sex, or sexual orientation.
Abolish the CIA (which has been wrong about most everything in its sordid history) and the separate intelligence agencies of military branches.
Also see Military Funding above and drug decriminalization below.
DOMESTIC POLICY
Turn over $.25 of every dollar collected in federal income tax to the state in which the taxpayer is resident.
Campaign for and then sign the Marriage Respect Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, The Shumer-Lee Visit USA Act, and the DREAM Act.
Abolish the Connect American Fund and reallocate its $4.5 billion per year funding to paying for reviving the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
Ban “pay for delay” (de facto bribes) of companies manufacturing generic drugs when patents on the drugs expire.
Require positive assent of any changes in policies of sharing member/customer data and/or postings by Internet sites.
Repeal the “Mickey Mouse Act” copyright extension. Limit copyright to 30 years or 15 years after the death of the creator, whichever is longer.
Tax all properties other than schools or places of worship owned by religious organizations.
Legalize and tax marijuana and cocaine and empower the FDA to ensure purity of the products. Abolish the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Set up pilot projects on the Dutch model for heroin distribution.
Phase out agricultural subsidies for anyone owning more than 160 acres and other forms of corporate welfare.
Modernize air traffic control systems; abolish the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Insist that airport screening procedures meet a rationality test, particularly any not adopted by other nations.
Abolish the Department of Education, while turning over administration of Pell grants and student loans to the Department of the Treasury.
Forbid monthly charges on debit cards.
Support a constitutional amendment stating that corporations are not persons with rights (especially corporations not registered in the US and not paying US taxes!)
Push for higher requirements of gasoline mileage, particularly from SUVs/vans and for construction of high-speed rail lines from San Diego to Seattle and Miami to Boston. Designate $.24 of the $1 per gallon gas tax to these programs and $.50 to the maintenance of interstate highways.
Revoke Alaska’s statehood, combine the Dakotas into one state, combine Wyoming and Idaho with Montana, Delaware with Maryland, Rhode Island with Connecticut..
Invite any state that wishes to do so to secede, so long as all federal property in the state is paid at market rate minute ten percent to the US Treasury (and all military equipment is removed or sold to the state militias). Invite California to split into two or three parts (states).
Also see taxes above.