I. On the federal government in general and select budgetary/debt issues:
A. The Presidential Oath of Office is stated thusly in the Constitution: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” * If you are in the position to say it, you better mean it, and be prepared to be held accountable to it. The Constitution is not an inconvenient impediment to governance.
*Art. II, sec. 1
B. I will simplify and reduce the size of the federal government starting, ironically, by temporarily making it slightly larger: I will convene a panel to audit the laws of the United States—the United States Code (USC)—looking for duplication, outmoded/outdated codes, and codes with cross-purposes, and then eliminate them and the bureaucratic structures they created (Title 26, IRS, will take a beating). That alone could substantially reduce the USC and Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), saving “a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money” **—and finally make a significant dent in the national debt (don’t get me started!). And as a bonus, this will free-up some prime real estate in D.C. and outlying extension office locations to the private sector.
**Quoting Everitt Dirksen
C. We are quickly becoming a third-world educational disgrace as shown by any number of quantified standards. The Dept. of Education cannot justify its existence and will be eliminated with extreme prejudice. The elimination of civics and other traditional social curricula to allow indoctrination in touchy-feely, squishy and swishy, socio-political agendas such as gender/cross-gender/trans-gender studies and sex to grade-schoolers is yet another “progressive” debasement and mark of our continued national decay. The Depts. of Health & Human Services and Energy are likely to earn the same fate. These are prime examples of the growing scourge of the “administrative state” that results from poorly conceived ideas created by deliberately poorly written statutes that allow for the creation of vast bureaucracies that decide how these statutes are to be implemented beyond the jurisdiction of the federal courts while doing end-runs around existing law. These bureaucracies are simply too big to succeed, are complete and udder failures (yes udder, not utter…figure it out), and need to be euthanized.
D. I will end all commodity and farm subsidies. We will become the market economy we profess to be. That should have a substantial impact on Congressional bribery, and reduce the size and scope of the Depts. of Agriculture and Commerce with side-benefits to the Treasury.
E: I shall sign no bill into law from Congress that exempts Congress or the other two branches of the Federal government.
F. “The Federal government” is not a jobs program.
II. On illegal aliens and immigration/mass migration:
A. What is it about the word “illegal” you don’t understand?
B. Existing laws shall be enforced. That’s a federal jobs program that is “shovel ready” because all the requisite components are on the books, staffed, and funded (albeit insufficiently across the board).
C. I shall no longer direct my outrage about “immigration” toward government officials of either party. That has been, and remains, a waste of time and good vitriol. Both parties are bought and paid for as demonstrated by how both give lip-service to the problem so as to give the appearance of deep concern, all the while ensuring that the migratory flow continues unabated at the behest of those who did the buying and paying to ensure it does, primarily through the noxious government practice of selective (un)enforcement, and then have the gall to lecture us on how this is a country based on the rule of law. Clearly, much is based on the principles of supply and demand in which human trafficking is just a form of cash flow (and voting demographic gerrymandering).
D. Crunching the numbers shows there is a solution:
#1 Politics is all about money and the power to control it.
#2 All politics is local.
Do the math: #1 + #2 = identify, at the local level of their business operations, those who did the buying and paying—directly or indirectly through associations and other NGO “lobbying”—to bring these “undocumented workers” here as well as those who employ them for their economic gain. That includes local government entities and programs at every level that give these illegals the means to suck us dry legally by gaming the system. They shall not be allowed to wash their hands of or shield themselves from, the consequences they have unleashed: the crime; the social upheavals; the fiscal disaster; and the introduction/reintroduction of disease. Identify and punish them by public exposure (including their clients), and boycotting or otherwise causing them great financial pain.
E. English will be declared the official language of this country and demonstrating a certain level of fluency shall be a requirement for gaining citizenship.
III. On foreign policy, foreign aid, and use of the military:
A. I shall audit our entire portfolio of foreign aid and reduce it; first, by cutting off all funds to those who take our money with one hand as they give us the finger with the other. That is just rude and not how bribery/slush&hush™/influence peddling/political pressure transactions are conducted.
B. The phrase “sophisticated world views” or anything that remotely smacks of it shall be “red flagged” wherever and whenever it is used. A by-product of that thinking is the postulate that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” We have a long history of policies and military action that have expended too much blood and treasure based on the lie that this is axiomatic truth. The record shows the real truth is that the enemy of our enemy becomes just another enemy because of the way we misread, pick, empower with our guns and money, mistreat and dispose of our “friends,” which eventually comes back to bite us or our shrinking pool of allies with our own hardware or through other entities to which our money was funneled. The word ‘proxy’ should apply only to corporate voting and financial transfer procedures or legal issues, not be juxtaposed with the word ‘war.’
C. Our military will be a military, not a police force, and the rules of engagement will always reflect that distinction. We will pick our battles wisely and engage only after clearly defining the parameters of victory, and not stop until that goal is achieved. Dying in vain because of half-measures, political incompetence/lack of political will to finish the job is a national disgrace and a self-inflicted national war crime that ends here.
D. War is war and we know it when we see it, no matter what euphemisms are employed to spin it. Warfare is never cut-and-dried and it is always ugly. Rules of engagement will also reflect that truth. Our troops will not be targets of opportunity with one hand tied behind their back. Operations are not executed, analyzed, or Monday-morning-quarterbacked on the nightly news, in op-ed pages, in talk shows, and especially not in snarky late-show monologues with foreign hosts.
F. If we commit to armed conflict, the nation goes into a war-footing, not life-as-usual.
G. As Commander-in-Chief, when lines/boundaries are crossed, retribution will be sure, swift, and deeply consequential; the mechanisms having been put in place before making the ultimatum. I will say what I mean, mean what I say, and never fail to back it up. The consequences of testing our resolve must be certain and predictable because respect is earned and there has been damned little of it lately due to dishonorable actions and inactions at the highest levels of government.
H. “The media” is not military and shall not be “embedded.”
I. I did ten years in service and was not then, nor am I now, fond of women in the military, but the unrestricted allowance of women in combat billets is nothing short of a national disgrace. This is a clear indication of the depth of our social decay and beyond embarrassment that this policy is touted as being “socially progressive.” But more importantly, it is a policy with deleterious consequences regarding military readiness: How much more political, personnel, and mission castration can the services suffer before they are completely neutered? My first executive order will be to reverse this idiocy.