By Peter Burrows 6/06/20 elburropete@gmail.com - silvercityburro.com
Some years ago, on Meet the Press, famed New York Times columnist Tom Friedman said that he had often fantasized about America being China for a day so that we could "authorize the right solutions" for "everything from the economy to environment."
Since China is a dictatorship, what Friedman really fantasizes about is Tom Friedman being a Mao Zedong for a day. Like most liberals, Friedman possesses invincible moral and intellectual certitude. That's why his solutions would be the" right" solutions.
Well, the Friedmanites of the world are not the only ones who possess invincible certitude. I have a list of things I'd do if I were 'Mao for a day,' hereafter MFAD. My first list of MFADs addresses four issues that I perceive as posing existential threats to America. Two are external, two are internal.
1) No Mosques, no Muslims. Islam is an authoritarian theocracy totally incompatible with our Constitution. If you think otherwise, you are mistaken. I have written about this in the past and will do so again in the near future.
2) The death penalty for anybody involved in the manufacture or distribution of the synthetic drugs fentanyl and methamphetamine, and any analogue of those drugs, which are pouring into our country from China via Mexico. Death by OD will be administered after a tribunal reviews the evidence. No death row for these offenders. They are busy killing us, and we should return the favor.
3) Any proposed Federal regulation must be reviewed by a Congressional oversight committee before it goes into effect, and if no such oversight occurs within 60 days, the proposed regulation is null and void and must be resubmitted – indefinitely.
Our Federal bureaucracy, by one estimate, issues 4,000 regulations per year, few of which are reviewed by the actual people we elect to pass laws. The Congressional Review Act of 1996 was supposed to restore this Constitutional responsibility but has failed because it allows unreviewed regulations to automatically become law within 60 days. My MFAD reverses that: No Congressional review within 60 days, start over.
4) Anybody receiving a government payment cannot vote in that government's elections. This would eliminate the biggest weakness of any democracy, which is politicians using the public purse to buy votes. Essentially, any voter getting money from a government has a conflict of interest and shouldn't be allowed to vote.
I know some of you are thinking, "Old Burro is off his meds again," but let me explain. If you work for the Federal government, or if you are receiving Federal retirement checks, you can't vote in Federal elections for Federal office holders. Ditto for state and local governments. I might even extend the restriction to include campaign donations. I'll have to Mao mull that for a bit.
This would mean that in New Mexico, all the school teachers, university employees, state bureaucrats, state retirees, etc., could not vote for who is going to be their boss. In the last election, they all voted for the Democrat, who promptly gave them a pay raise. Some of that pay raise will go into union coffers to elect more Democrats, even though the taxpayers are not all Democrats. Sweet deal, isn't it?
The prohibition includes Social Security and welfare recipients. No welfare recipient could vote for anybody who would be able to increase his or her welfare benefits, and no one whose SS benefits are over, for example, 30 percent of total income could vote in a Federal election.
Imagine how that would change the political landscape! The big negative is administering the eligibility lists, something best done by the IRS. This would mean that to vote, a person has to file a tax return. This could enable cross-checking with voter registration lists, another measure to reduce voter fraud.
I admit, number four needs a little Mao mulling, but I think it could fly. After those four, I have a long list of MFADs that are relatively trivial. None would require the use of force, although some people might say term limits "force" people out of elected positions, which is why I would grandfather all current office holders. Anybody running for office in the future would know the rules. Don't like the rules? Don't run for office. After term limits, in no particular order:
Tort reform requiring the loser pay court costs - A national voter ID card like Mexico has - A national 'Constitutional carry' law for handguns - Leave the UN and form a League of Democracies - Eliminate ethanol blending into gasoline - Legalize marijuana and have the FDA regulate THC levels - Raise Social Security retirement ages to reflect current mortality rates - Eliminate the corporate income tax - Eliminate the estate tax - Eliminate the Dept. Of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - Fold the EPA into the Department of the Interior and the Department of Education into HHS - Eliminate the Federal minimum wage law - eliminate subsidies for wind and solar – eliminate the EEOC division of DOJ – eliminate the Energy Information Division in the Department of Energy – eliminate the efficacy test required for FDA approval of new drugs - Eliminate Federal fuel efficiency standards, e.g. CAFE - Eliminate Federal flood insurance – figure out some way to penalize states that don't allow parents to get school vouchers - etc., etc., etc., ad-damn-near-infinitum.