My Government Shopping List

Smallest possible government

Military intervention in cases of manifest humanitarian need with a coalition — e.g. genocide where genocide is recognized as 100,000 mass murders or X% of the population, lesser of.

Unilateral military action only in self-defense or in the aid of an ally in self-defense

Pro environmental safeguards

Pro-small and medium business; allows big business to succeed or fail on their own — small and medium businesses create the most jobs and the most innovation — big businesses to stay efficient must not be supported

No federal subsidies or tax breaks for a company or conglomerate with aggregate revenue in excess of $200M

No riders allowed to be attached to legislation under vote

Separation of church and state

Decriminalize any offense where there is no victim, or where one only harms self

Federal spending for science, research into medicine, energy, transportation, and so on... with possible privatization through a system of prizes

When the need for stimulus provoking tax breaks — cut the taxes to the poor and middle class to achieve maximum churn of the dollars

No federal intervention in reproduction, marriage, sexual relations, censorship and other such personal matters that sometimes attract morality laws

Long-term goals of zero federal debt; energy independence, sustainable resource usage

Federal spending for productive social structures such as primary, secondary and higher education

Minimized spending for negative social structures such as jails

Strictly enforced laws for bribery and corruption of the lawmakers and bureaucracy complete with fines and jail time for the more serious offenses

White collar crimes enforced with the same ferocity as blue-collar crimes

Capital punishment only when guilt can be confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt e.g. DNA, zero tolerance for a state execution of an innocent man — jail time for the bureaucratic chain involved in an execution of an innocent man

Campaign finance violations strictly enforced with at least disqualification if not fines and jail time

No bailouts for any business

No federal strengthening for the credit companies — they must assume their own risk e.g. no tougher laws for filing bankruptcy

Severe punishment for sweatshop and other illegal labor practices — and no arm's-length contracting setups to keep the big businesses safe

Strict enforcement of the original FCC charter to put the interest of the public before the corporate interests

Strict laws for abuse of power in the executive branch

Progressive tax system to again churn the dollars most effectively in the economy

Strictly forbid the federal government from bailing out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, et al.

Strong Federal leadership when the case for mass behavior change is required — such as the change to an alternative fuel

Raise the salary of the highest levels of government to levels competitive with private enterprise to reduce the attraction to special interest money

Provide financial incentives throughout the entire bureaucratic chain to reduce budgets