Okay, here's the problems that I think are confronting us as a nation.

Government
1. Government Inefficiency, Corruption, Incompetence and Disrespect of the Citizens. Lay off 90% of all government employees (excluding military) and rebuild the government from scratch including all software systems.

2. National Debt $10 Trillion with the potential of another $30 Trillion coming down the line. (See 3.)

3. Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid and OASDI - For various reasons, but mostly because they are fiscally insolvent, and fiscally irresponsible. Abolish them, and use the money to pay off the national debt.

4. Iraq - We need to rap up in Iraq, but we need to make sure that the job is done.

5. Free Trade - We need to get out of WTO, NAFTA, GATT, and the entire Alphabet soup of Trade Agreements and mirror image the trade practices of any nation seeking to do business in the United States. If they grant subsidies to their corporations we should mirror image those subsidies, if they make it difficult for our corporations to enter their market by pretending our goods don't meet their standards than we should mirror image their standards (unless ours are actually higher.)

6. Taxation - Replace Income Tax with the FairTax or National Retail Sales Tax, and amend the constitution to get rid of the 16th amendment.

7. Lobbyists - Ban them from D.C. They should not be anywhere near the capitol while Congress is in session.

8. Electoral System - It's broken, Winner should not take all, because our system is supposed to be a one person one vote system, not a system where a whole crapload of votes don't get counted because they were for a different candidate than the one that won a individual state.

9. Currency - This may take a while, and requires us first getting out of debt, but once we do that, switch back to the gold standard.

10. Federal Reserve - Abolish it, the government should be responsible for our fiscal policy, not a privately owned GSE. (Government Sponsored Entity)

11. Education - Cut the money from the schools and tie it to the students instead and let parents choose where their children attend school. If their selection is cheaper than the equivalent public school then let them have the difference.

12. Environment - A. Global Warming - The problem as I see it is that we have rushed to fast into screaming our heads off instead of actually studying the problem. Global Warming is something that really can't be established with out a lot more study, but from what I've read and seen it's a bunch of hot air. So no action is necessary, except perhaps further examination.

B. CFLs - Contain Mercury, and thus shouldn't be used. If the government is going to interfere in the markets this way LEDs are a much better and more viable solution that do not contain Mercury. Failing that, then we should continue to use incandescent bulbs, because they are ultimately less hazardous to the environment than the mercury containing CFLs (no matter how little mercury they contain) (it doesn't take that much mercury to contaminate a lot of land)

13, Alternative Energy - Hydrogen Fusion, and Hydrogen Vehicles, Solar and Wind are too inefficient and unreliable. Nuclear produces radioactive waste, and Gas and Oil leave us vulnerable to the whims of foreign tyrants like Chavez in Venezuela and Iran, Coal (plain coal, not clean coal) is polluting, but Clean Coal might be a reasonable alternative if it does not result in too much waste being generated to produce it. For vehicles, PHEVS (Hybrids) and Electric Vehicles) are not able to delivery sufficient range, and Electric Vehicles only move the pollution from one point to another (tail pipes to power plants)

14. War on Drugs - Focus on violent drug users, non-violent drug users should be allowed to do whatever drugs they want as long as they aren't interfering with the rights of other citizens. Corporations should however still be allowed to determine their own drug policy.

15. Tobacco - Remove any ban to smoking on government property, prevent any states from banning the usage of cigarettes, pipes or cigars inside private businesses, and let private businesses determine if they want to allow smoking or not. (The market will deliver the optimal mix of smoking and non-smoking bars and restaurants)

16. Medical Care - Abolish Medicaid and Medicare or conduct continuous audits on both systems to prevent fraud.

Allow individuals to choose how they want to pay for their medical care.

17. Abortion - Right to choose with in the first trimester, no abortion after the 1st trimester.

18. Crime - Wider use of the Death Penalty, dead criminals aren't going to become repeat criminals. Remove imprisonment, and replace it with public punishment, flogging, public hanging, and other physical punishments.

19. Immigration - Illegal Immigrants need to be sent back to their countries, and we need to secure our borders. Our borders need to be secure to prevent another 9-11 and minimize the potential for another 9-11.

20. UN - Withdraw from the UN, and stop attempting to dictate what other countries should do.

21. North Korea - Work out a peace treaty, and then move towards nuclear disarmament. Continue stationing trioops in South Korea to ensure that North Korea does not attempt to invade South Korea.

22. Iran - Work out a diplomatic solution that disarms them, and end the embargo of Iran. Pull them into the global community, and cease the otrascization of Iran.

23. Cuba - Watch and wait, Cuba nationalized the assets of some of our corporations, and thus until they are actually willing to give up communism they can rot.

24. Venezuela - Work with the other nations of South America to contain the violent extremism of that nation.

25. Afghanistan - Get Pakistan to patrol their border with Afghanistan so we can finish the war in Afghanistan and bring our soldiers home.

26. US Penal Code - Reduce the complexity of our criminal and civil law and simplify it so that there is no longer nearly as much confusion as to what is the law and what isn't. Remove any laws that have anything to the effect of stating that all citizens are not equal, and ensure that all laws are defined in such a way that it is not possible for them to be enacted in different ways depending on the race, affluence (wealth) or gender of the person being charged. This would also move back towards ensuring that laws can not be arbitrarily used to strip citizens of their constitutional rights (as would the abolishment of the 16th amendment and the IRS).

27. 2nd Amendment - Eliminate federal laws banning the possession of fire arms, as the 2nd amendment guarantees the rights of private individuals to possess weapons, and it is evident that the founding fathers meant it that way, because they had just fought a war for their freedom where if it had not been the widespread private ownership of weapons there would have been no chance of success.

... I think that's everything that I have any sort of opinion or idea about. I'm not sure if there are any other major issues that need to be addressed.

Any one have any other ideas on what we should be doing?

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

Yet you're going to vote for McCain, who subsequently voted to increase the deficit to 9 trillion dollars. So much for Republican fiscal responsibility...Keep it up. Your vote will contribute to the escalating deficit.

Dave

It's better than Obama. Obama wants me to involuntarily get Health Insurance, when it is more convenient (not to mention a hell of a lot less expensive) for me to pay out of pocket. If he doesn't want that he wants to make every one else's health problems my own. It's bad enough I'm stuck paying more in taxes than some one making minimum wage makes in a year, and I don't even make that much compared to Obama. ($46,500, $14K of which gets stolen by the government in taxes, vs $5 Million or so)

Obama wants to confiscate the wealth of those making more than $250,000 a year (never mind that the only federal employee that'll effect is the president, and any senators/representatives that have outside income, but not the senators and representatives who make $200,000 a year.) Not only is he a communist, but he's a damn fool.

He wants us to pull out of Iraq, a war that he voted for, instead of sticking around to ensure that the new government is stable and capable of defending itself from domestic and foreign threats (short sighted and stupid, what good will it do us if we have to fight Iran because it elected to invade Iraq, or Iraq because it ended up with another totalitarian regime?)

His religious beliefs (extreme environmentalism) have been unproven to have any relation to the truth, but he wants to shove them down our collective throats.

He thinks that by taxing Exxon more that its going to have a negative impact on gasoline prices, when Exxon is either A. going to raise prices, B. cut its dividends or C. lay of employees. No matter what route they choose the bottom line is that private individuals are going to be stuck paying their taxes. (Never mind the hypocrisy behind the government trying to tax the oil companies more for "Wind fall" profits when states like Illinois are also reaping wind falls on gas taxes (their's is a percent based tax on gas, so as prices rise their revenues go up.) or that the federal and state government rake in more in gasoline excise taxes, capital gains taxes on investment and speculation on oil companies, income taxes on the employees of the oil companies, the royalties charged for drilling, and the corporate income taxes they already levy upon oil companies. If they are so eager to see lower prices for gasoline why don't they lower taxes and allow more drilling? Supply and Demand, as supply increases oil prices will go down.

And personally, I think McCain is almost as bad, and that's the key word there, almost, but I'm looking at the Libertarian candidates and am thinking that they might get my vote, or I might be willing to write in Ron Paul, anything other than the MainStream Media Candidates.

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

No argument there TBT, I felt that it needed to be said regarding McCain. The man is a RINO and by voting to increase the federal budget to 9 trillion tells me that he is no fiscal conservative.

National Platform of the Libertarian Party

Adopted in Convention, May 2008, Denver, Colorado
Preamble

As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.
We believe that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, that force and fraud must be banished from human relationships, and that only through freedom can peace and prosperity be realized.
Consequently, we defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, without interference from government or any authoritarian power.
In the following pages we have set forth our basic principles and enumerated various policy stands derived from those principles.
These specific policies are not our goal, however. Our goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that we take these stands.
Statement of Principles

We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.
We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.
Governments throughout history have regularly operated on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the United States, all political parties other than our own grant to government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the fruits of their labor without their consent.
We, on the contrary, deny the right of any government to do these things, and hold that where governments exist, they must not violate the rights of any individual: namely, (1) the right to life -- accordingly we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others; (2) the right to liberty of speech and action -- accordingly we oppose all attempts by government to abridge the freedom of speech and press, as well as government censorship in any form; and (3) the right to property -- accordingly we oppose all government interference with private property, such as confiscation, nationalization, and eminent domain, and support the prohibition of robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation.
Since governments, when instituted, must not violate individual rights, we oppose all interference by government in the areas of voluntary and contractual relations among individuals. People should not be forced to sacrifice their lives and property for the benefit of others. They should be left free by government to deal with one another as free traders; and the resultant economic system, the only one compatible with the protection of individual rights, is the free market.
1.0 Personal Liberty
Individuals should be free to make choices for themselves and to accept responsibility for the consequences of the choices they make. No individual, group, or government may initiate force against any other individual, group, or government. Our support of an individual's right to make choices in life does not mean that we necessarily approve or disapprove of those choices.
1.1 Expression and Communication
We support full freedom of expression and oppose government censorship, regulation or control of communications media and technology. We favor the freedom to engage in or abstain from any religious activities that do not violate the rights of others. We oppose government actions which either aid or attack any religion.
1.2 Personal Privacy
We support the protections provided by the Fourth Amendment to be secure in our persons, homes, and property. Only actions that infringe on the rights of others can properly be termed crimes. We favor the repeal of all laws creating "crimes" without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes.
1.3 Personal Relationships
Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the rights of individuals by government, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration or military service laws. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships. Government does not have the authority to define, license or restrict personal relationships.
1.4 Abortion
Recognizing that abortion is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good-faith views on all sides, we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration.
1.5 Crime and Justice
Government exists to protect the rights of every individual including life, liberty and property. Criminal laws should be limited to violation of the rights of others through force or fraud, or deliberate actions that place others involuntarily at significant risk of harm. Individuals retain the right to voluntarily assume risk of harm to themselves. We support restitution of the victim to the fullest degree possible at the expense of the criminal or the negligent wrongdoer. We oppose reduction of constitutional safeguards of the rights of the criminally accused. The rights of due process, a speedy trial, legal counsel, trial by jury, and the legal presumption of innocence until proven guilty, must not be denied. We assert the common-law right of juries to judge not only the facts but also the justice of the law.
1.6 Self-Defense
The only legitimate use of force is in defense of individual rights — life, liberty, and justly acquired property — against aggression. This right inheres in the individual, who may agree to be aided by any other individual or group. We affirm the right to keep and bear arms, and oppose the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. We oppose all laws at any level of government requiring registration of, or restricting, the ownership, manufacture, or transfer or sale of firearms or ammunition.
2.0 Economic Liberty
A free and competitive market allocates resources in the most efficient manner. Each person has the right to offer goods and services to others on the free market. The only proper role of government in the economic realm is to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework in which voluntary trade is protected. All efforts by government to redistribute wealth, or to control or manage trade, are improper in a free society.

2.1 Property and Contract

Property rights are entitled to the same protection as all other human rights. The owners of property have the full right to control, use, dispose of, or in any manner enjoy, their property without interference, until and unless the exercise of their control infringes the valid rights of others. We oppose all controls on wages, prices, rents, profits, production, and interest rates. We advocate the repeal of all laws banning or restricting the advertising of prices, products, or services. We oppose all violations of the right to private property, liberty of contract, and freedom of trade. The right to trade includes the right not to trade — for any reasons whatsoever. Where property, including land, has been taken from its rightful owners by the government or private action in violation of individual rights, we favor restitution to the rightful owners.
2.2 Environment
We support a clean and healthy environment and sensible use of our natural resources. Private landowners and conservation groups have a vested interest in maintaining natural resources. Pollution and misuse of resources cause damage to our ecosystem. Governments, unlike private businesses, are unaccountable for such damage done to our environment and have a terrible track record when it comes to environmental protection. Protecting the environment requires a clear definition and enforcement of individual rights in resources like land, water, air, and wildlife. Free markets and property rights stimulate the technological innovations and behavioral changes required to protect our environment and ecosystems. We realize that our planet's climate is constantly changing, but environmental advocates and social pressure are the most effective means of changing public behavior.
2.3 Energy and Resources
While energy is needed to fuel a modern society, government should not be subsidizing any particular form of energy. We oppose all government control of energy pricing, allocation, and production.
2.4 Government Finance and Spending
All persons are entitled to keep the fruits of their labor. We call for the repeal of the income tax, the abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service and all federal programs and services not required under the U.S. Constitution. We oppose any legal requirements forcing employers to serve as tax collectors. Government should not incur debt, which burdens future generations without their consent. We support the passage of a "Balanced Budget Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution, provided that the budget is balanced exclusively by cutting expenditures, and not by raising taxes.
2.5 Money and Financial Markets
We favor free-market banking, with unrestricted competition among banks and depository institutions of all types. Individuals engaged in voluntary exchange should be free to use as money any mutually agreeable commodity or item. We support a halt to inflationary monetary policies, the repeal of legal tender laws and compulsory governmental units of account.

2.6 Monopolies and Corporations
We defend the right of individuals to form corporations, cooperatives and other types of companies based on voluntary association. We seek to divest government of all functions that can be provided by non-governmental organizations or private individuals. We oppose government subsidies to business, labor, or any other special interest. Industries should be governed by free markets.
2.7 Labor Markets
We support repeal of all laws which impede the ability of any person to find employment. We oppose government-fostered forced retirement. We support the right of free persons to associate or not associate in labor unions, and an employer should have the right to recognize or refuse to recognize a union. We oppose government interference in bargaining, such as compulsory arbitration or imposing an obligation to bargain.
2.8 Education
Education, like any other service, is best provided by the free market, achieving greater quality and efficiency with more diversity of choice. Schools should be managed locally to achieve greater accountability and parental involvement. Recognizing that the education of children is inextricably linked to moral values, we would return authority to parents to determine the education of their children, without interference from government. In particular, parents should have control of and responsibility for all funds expended for their children's education.

2.9 Health Care
We favor restoring and reviving a free market health care system. We recognize the freedom of individuals to determine the level of health insurance they want, the level of health care they want, the care providers they want, the medicines and treatments they will use and all other aspects of their medical care, including end-of-life decisions.

2.10 Retirement and Income Security
Retirement planning is the responsibility of the individual, not the government. We favor replacing the current government-sponsored Social Security system with a private voluntary system. The proper source of help for the poor is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.
3.0 Securing Liberty
The protection of individual rights is the only proper purpose of government. Government is constitutionally limited so as to prevent the infringement of individual rights by the government itself. The principle of non-initiation of force should guide the relationships between governments.
3.1 National Defense
We support the maintenance of a sufficient military to defend the United States against aggression. The United States should both abandon its attempts to act as policeman for the world and avoid entangling alliances. We oppose any form of compulsory national service.

3.2 Internal Security and Individual Rights
The defense of the country requires that we have adequate intelligence to detect and to counter threats to domestic security. This requirement must not take priority over maintaining the civil liberties of our citizens. The Bill of Rights provides no exceptions for a time of war. Intelligence agencies that legitimately seek to preserve the security of the nation must be subject to oversight and transparency. We oppose the government's use of secret classifications to keep from the public information that it should have, especially that which shows that the government has violated the law.
3.3 International Affairs
American foreign policy should seek an America at peace with the world and its defense against attack from abroad. We would end the current U.S. government policy of foreign intervention, including military and economic aid. We recognize the right of all people to resist tyranny and defend themselves and their rights. We condemn the use of force, and especially the use of terrorism, against the innocent, regardless of whether such acts are committed by governments or by political or revolutionary groups.
3.4 Free Trade and Migration
We support the removal of governmental impediments to free trade. Political freedom and escape from tyranny demand that individuals not be unreasonably constrained by government in the crossing of political boundaries. Economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders. However, we support control over the entry into our country of foreign nationals who pose a threat to security, health or property.

3.5 Rights and Discrimination
We condemn bigotry as irrational and repugnant. Government should not deny or abridge any individual's rights based on sex, wealth, race, color, creed, age, national origin, personal habits, political preference or sexual orientation. Parents, or other guardians, have the right to raise their children according to their own standards and beliefs.
3.6 Representative Government
We support electoral systems that are more representative of the electorate at the federal, state and local levels. As private voluntary groups, political parties should be allowed to establish their own rules for nomination procedures, primaries and conventions. We call for an end to any tax-financed subsidies to candidates or parties and the repeal of all laws which restrict voluntary financing of election campaigns. We oppose laws that effectively exclude alternative candidates and parties, deny ballot access, gerrymander districts, or deny the voters their right to consider all legitimate alternatives.

3.7 Self-Determination
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of individual liberty, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to agree to such new governance as to them shall seem most likely to protect their liberty.
4.0 Omissions
Our silence about any other particular government law, regulation, ordinance, directive, edict, control, regulatory agency, activity, or machination should not be construed to imply approval.

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

1.2 Personal Privacy
We support the protections provided by the Fourth Amendment to be secure in our persons, homes, and property. Only actions that infringe on the rights of others can properly be termed crimes. We favor the repeal of all laws creating "crimes" without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes.

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

Why a gold standard? Why not oil, silver (which we had at a time), rhenium, tungsten or any other commodity? Tell me exactly what you suggest we do when we experience deflation under a gold standard. I suppose we could melt down all of Cindy McCain's jewelry to combat it.

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It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. Einstein

deflation, prices going down, how is that a bad thing, if you mean a deflationary recession on the other hand, well its better than a inflationary recession, you know?

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

You ever heard of a deflationary spiral? You know, like the Great Depression. Would you call that a deflationary recession or a recession caused by deflation? The vast majority of modern macroeconomists side with the latter. So why gold and not rhenium?

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It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. Einstein

John, I could care less what mineral we actually use to back the dollar, because either way any commodity/mineral/resource you care to name is subject to the same problems that would effect gold. Demand pushing the value of that commodity up pushing the price of everything down.

Deflationary Spiral, Yes, demand goes down, prices go down, wages go down, demand goes down, prices go down, wages go down, etc.

The problem with what you are sayings is that you are saying that this could not happen with any commodity. If the dollar was pegged to oil right now you'd see a deflationary spiral as prices fall due to oil (and thus the dollar) going up in value.

Though a currency backed on Platinum, Gold, Silver and Copper would be the best bet.

As far as the Great Depression, that was not a deflationary spiral alone. That was a deflationary recession in the United States, and a hyper-inflationary spiral in Europe, caused primarily by too much debt being created, thus there was a economy wide bubble (not just a market wide bubble like the current housing crisis)

Though as far as problems go the problem wasn't the deflation, if prices go down who cares if you are making less, it takes less to live on. Of course if your wage is falling faster than prices it can be a problem (just like if prices are rising faster than your wages.) So the inflationary or deflationary status of any economic depression or recession is irrelevant.

The problem is with it being a recession (short economic contraction) or a depression (long economic contraction) because under both jobs are lossed, and the amount of wealth being accumulated decreases. The point you are trying to make is irrelevant.

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis