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September 03, 2004

Bush's Agenda

I've just been reading through Bush's Agenda For America document. Several points from the point of view of a conservative middle income white collar worker.

  1. Tax reform: I am all for making the Tax cuts permanent. For this middle income white collar worker, the tax cuts came in quite handy. What I'm really interested in in what Bush plans to do to make "the tax code fairer, simpler and pro-growth." I so wanted Bush to say "flat-tax" during his speech on Thursday night. I certainly hope things go in that direction.
  2. Opportunity zones: This sounds good but more details are needed. I'll have to dig some more. The biggest issue with this is how quickly can it be put together and made effective. If it's such a good idea, why not get started on it now instead of 2005?
  3. Broadband expansion and internet access taxes: It's good to see this. Making the ban on internet access taxes permanent will be a good thing. I personally don't like the idea of cities providing free wireless all over the place because it is anti-competitive and could put small service providers out of business so Bush's plan of making it more affordable sounds good.
  4. Drilling in Alaska: What are we waiting for? The Democrats want us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil also right? When it's not going to happen overnight and researchers are doing all they can to come up with clean fuel technologies, in the meantime opening up the Alaska reserves could go a long way towards lowering fuel prices and reducing our dependence on the middle east.
  5. Development of new energy technologies: This is my biggest issue with Bush. Rather than spending resources on sending people to Mars/Moon, we should be spending that money on developing alternative energy resources. Sending people to the moon should not be a national priority. Reducing our dependency on foreign oil (especially Middle Eastern oil) should be the priority. Mars can wait, it will be there for a while. Much more time and energy could be and should be spent on this.
  6. Outsourcing of jobs: Personally I think that outsourcing is an inevitability that cannot be fought against. As American Workers our best defense is continued innovation. We need to be continually developing things that we do better than anyone else in the world. Right now, there is very little that we do better than anyone else in the world. We are suffering from a lack of imagination. That said, however, I believe Bush should say more about this.
  7. Line item veto: Enough talk about it. Just do it. If you need a volunteer to write the amendment, just let me know.
  8. Healthcare: I don't know much about the healthcare issues. I'm going to have to research this stuff a bit more.
  9. Supporting the troops: Yes to everything. No arguments, no questions, just do it.
  10. Home ownership: Being that I'm one of Bush's new homeowners having purchased my first home in 2001 (during the height of the recession I might add), I would say that Bush's policies in this arena are working great.
  11. Voluntary Personal Retirement Accounts: I volunteer! I volunteer! I'd much rather control my own retirement money than allow the likes of Kennedy or Kerry to.
  12. Tax free lifetime savings accounts: sound very cool. Sign me up
  13. Association health plans: Another one of those stop talking about it and just do it things. I think this is as good of an idea this election cycle as I did last election cycle.
  14. Patriot Act: While I definitely do not agree with all of the conspiracy theorists, I personally think this needs a major overhaul. I agree in spirit with what it's trying to do but think there are far too many holes. Patriot Act 1.0 is flawed and dangerous. We can strive to make a Patriot Act 2.0 much more effective.
  15. Military restructuring: I am very much in favor of shifting troops around so that they are better and more efficiently distributed.
  16. Environment issues: I'm sorry to say that I'm not as versed on environmental issues as I probably should be. I'll have to make a note of researching this more
  17. Partial birth abortion: It's simply idiotic that left wing judges keep turning over partial birth abortion ban legislation. I see (and would support) a constitutional ammendment coming. It's the only way to circumvent these judges who are broadly overstepping their bounds.
  18. Defending marriage: This is a somewhat complicated issue for me. I am against gay marriage but I believe that domestic partnerships should be given the same legal status as marriages. Being that I am a Christian, I'm sure that belief would confuse some folks. The reason is simple: while I feel our laws should reflect the values of the majority of people in this country, I do not feel that those laws should allow institutional discrimination against the values of the minority. Some Christians would argue that allowing domestic partnerships to share equal legal status as marriages amounts to establishing a permissive attitude towards homosexual behavior. I feel, however, that it's not the governments job to be permissive or unpermissive of such behavior as it does not threaten any of the fundamental rights upon which the government was founded. Such decisions are the right of the individual to make and are only God's to judge. Some of you may note what you may think is a contradiction between my statement here and my earlier statement about abortion. I assure you there is no contradiction. I am against abortion and always have been since even before I became a Christian because I feel that it violates the childs fundamental right to life, which I believe trumps the mothers right to choose. My Christian beliefs only strengthen that position for me. It may be a minor distinction, but I believe that Legal Domestic Partnerships should not be called Marriages.

Posted by James at September 3, 2004 03:34 PM

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