I'm not going to defend our current reality, but lobbying, as an idea, is fine. Groups that are experts in a topic get face time with the legislators who are going to write laws on said topic. I mean, we want experts informing law makers about how they should craft laws on technical issues. Our problem is how this system has been perverted.
Groups and people need to lobby. That's how representative government is supposed to work. It's the culture, laws, and legal enforcement around lobbying that needs to change: campaign donations, gifts, private meetings / discussions, obscured affiliations, politicians becoming professional lobbyists, etc.
Realistically, members of congress and political leaders should not be allowed to have ANY additional source of income or financial gifts.
If congress needs more money, they should just raise their wages. No more book deals. Like sure, you can write a book, but you shouldn’t be able to get money from it except to cover cost.
Radical ideas I know lmao. Even most of Europe or other more functioning democracies won’t go to that extent. Politicians are still allowed to invest in most of these places, have multiple houses, etc. Even if just general corruption is much less than the US.
I’m not even sure about political donations for campaigns. They inherently dissuade anti capitalist or leftist candidates, because companies have the largest ability to donate to candidates/most financial resources, and companies by their very nature are capitalist and won’t support something against their profit motive. Even if you banned political donations across the board except from private individuals, that would then become a few rich folks that swing everything. Crowdfunding is seeming to balance it out in the internet age, but not enough, and it’s still barely democratic. Like Jamal bowman losing recently with the largest AIPAC investment for a political candidate in history.
I agree that paying national level reps more is worth it to block their ability to further enrich themselves by using their office, including through their family. Let them invest in US savings bonds and the same retirement programs available to all gov't employees. If they feel like that's not enough money for them, then they shouldn't be an elected official.
Political campaign contributions become significantly less important if the campaign seasons are strictly narrowed down to a few weeks. The profit motive in media covering political news during campaign season also needs some limitations, plus much more strict on PACs. Unless someone is representing a campaign, they shouldn't be paid for making political speech because it's not really theirs. Let the old billionaires speak into a live mic instead of spending millions on mouthpieces.
Not anymore. Before the Internet, yes, but every single transgression is public knowledge now. Representatives know exactly what their constituents want.
That's true for party-driven issues that are used as wedges, but not for a grandma who is having trouble with a local gov't agency. There very much are local issues, still, and representatives can help apply pressure. Of course, national level politicians have become increasingly poorer for this as the population-per-rep has increased and election success is more about powerful connections.
The majority of legislation is written, or at least advanced, by lobbyists. Who the hell is going to take the time to write 1,000 pages of legislation that will probably never get passed? Special interest groups, and lobbyists help them get their message across. All of this is perfectly fine.
And before someone says it, no, lobbying is not bribery (or gratuity, apparently). I know some lobbyists. You would be bored out of your mind if they told you what they do for a living.
Hard, enforceable campaign donation reform which overturns Citizens United (corporations... people? Really????), and puts reasoned term limits for elected senator and congress members.
You can't elect a president for more than two terms, but those who actually have tangible influence on policy can be there for life???
Lobbying is necessary, it’s the donations that make it corrupt. When Jon Stewart testified on behalf of 9/11 first responders, he was lobbying.
Keep lobbying, fix campaign finance.
This is completely expected from low-information redditors and it points to the real threat to our democracy. Mark Twain famously said, *"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."*
Lobbying just means attempting to influence the decisions of government. In other words, advocating for your beliefs or position on a subject. Greenpeace lobbies. Abortion activists lobby. Green energy companies lobby.
The idea of banning the ability of people, organizations, and companies to advocate for causes they support is anti-democratic. Dictators rule by fiat. Democracies rule by representing people and garnering their support.
EDIT: Keep trying to argue that people shouldn't be allowed to attempt to influence their elected officials. It's fucking hilarious. #shitredditsays
When was the last time a politician was successfully lobbied by the common man instead of the aristocracy or corporate interests though?
Please let me know, asking for a friend.
Literally all the time dude. College orgs ran by students get groups to lobby their senator every year, and many times that affects their senator’s decision on a given topic.
It’s actually really common. But of course your politicians won’t listen to you because you don’t participate. You actually need to put some effort in and join orgs and groups. You need to work together. You need to show them that their constituents feel a certain way besides Reddit.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving…
Also every consumer protection law ever enacted. One side of political spectrum just keeps undoing all those protections.
One thing you're likely not considering is that many times laws will have unintended consequences.
Lets come up with a random example - Lets say you want to mandate that you can't sell a drug for more than $5 a bottle. I'm not saying you believe them wholesale, but maybe you should want the company to come back and say "hey, this costs us $6 per bottle to make. At $5 we'll discontinue production by the end of the year if you pass this."
Well, sometimes you're just forgetting someone. Maybe you want to mandate that Banks must do X. Did you mean to leave credit unions out? What about savings and loans? Bank Holding companies?Trust companies? Investment banks? Investment advisors? What about insurance companies?
Also, it assumes that the problem is that blank-slate politicians are being influenced by corporations and interest groups. That was a problem decade ago.
Now the problem is that corporations and interest groups are getting politicians elected that support them. The politicians don't need to be influenced, they are believers. Citizen United is the issue not lobbyists.
It's the money that needs to be removed. A lobbyist is supposed to be a paid full time activist. All they're supposed to do, is talk to politicians and try to convince them. Or advise them if they're receptive.
The system we have now is basically bribery and threats. The lobbyists ask the politician to do a thing in exchange for money for their campaign. And if they don't agree, they threaten to give money to someone else to primary that politician.
Yeah I get what you are saying, but lobbying has turned into a transactional process - money for votes. Hell, lobbyists are writing legislation for chrissakes. I’d ban that shit too
I will personally cook for them. Depending on how paranoid they are I might try to poison them, I can also cook it in front of them.
Edit: this is one of those comma sentences where the meaning completely changes.
Can we also include dental? Teeth should be like regular insurance and not treated as some sort of luxury bones you have to pay for separate insurance to treat.
Order the fed to give me the nations gold. Order the Army Corps of Engineers to build a Ducktails size vault. Order the detainment of Michael Phelps for terrorism. Make him swim in the money vault.
It’s scary how many people here seem to have no idea what powers the president has. Most of the answers here are things only congress can do. We need much better civics education in this country if y’all are going to be voting.
“I have an Article 2 where I have the right to do whatever I want as president”.
— Donald Trump
https://theweek.com/speedreads/854487/trump-have-article-2-where-have-right-whatever-want-president
Ordering the military to do things is an official act and no one can question the motives behind your official acts. Soooo with that one you can do a lot of other things that would normally require congress in a sane world.
Looks like congress isn't obeying again, time to order the military to round up all the people who voted no on the universal health care bill that someone proposed. Oh look it passed the second time.
This is the dumbest timeline
> We need much better civics education in this country if y’all are going to be voting.
Conversely, we need everyone to be voting if we want better civics education in this country. Nice little catch-22.
Obviously as President I really have very limited power when it comes to enacting legislation, but assuming that I had carte blanc and could do whatever I wanted.
Introduce term limits to Congress and Senate. Additionally I would create an age requirement or at least an aptitude and cognitive testing at a certain age for politicians and Supreme Court justices.
Eliminate all private election funding for any federal elected position. Additionally, all office holders would be paid the wage consummate and equal to the average wage of their constituency in their home state or district.
I would introduce a vast and far reaching climate/energy bill, which would introduce funding and subsidies for nuclear power, and I would also mandate that the nuclear regulatory commission update their standards and licensing processes. Additionally, I would create a stay of execution on any existing fossil fuel baseload power plants until an equal or greater amount of power can be produced by a combination of wind, solar and nuclear.
I would turn over hot button issues, such as welfare, marijuana, abortion, gun legislation back to each individual state for those citizens to decide for themselves how they want to live in their own state.
I would call for completely overhauling the IRS and the tax code. I would eliminate the ATF, and the DEA those functions should be handled by the FBI.
I would mandate that the INS and border patrol enforce existing laws, and I would create legislation or reinforce the existing laws, forcing employers to verify and validate legitimately whether a person has a right to be in the United States legally before they can be employed.
Whoever my secretary of commerce is, it would have to be someone who understands more about the economy than I do, but I know that I would like to do something about stock, market manipulation, corporate, greed, monopolies, and our trade imbalance, and how it affects our deficit.
I’m sure there’s 1 million other things if I think about it longer, but honestly the last thing I can think of would be necessary to preserve and protect Social Security.
Requires a simple majority in the House to impeach, but a 2/3rds majority in the Senate to convict. So unless there's a supermajority of one party in the Senate, or the impeached President's actions are so deplorable that Senators are willing to cross the aisle en masse to vote for conviction, you're unlikely to ever see a successful impeachment.
tl;dr the mechanism exists but it relies on politicians, so it's useless
After the sc's ruling yesterday? I would have Trump indefinitely detained for national security reasons. Along with 6 of the SC justices. I would then pack the court and expand it to 15 justices.
I'm not American but I would put an age limit for people who can be president plus a full mental health check every 6 months.
I've seen how badly older people can decline in less than 6 months and it's not good.
It can go from good morning son to who are you in a shockingly amount of time.
How would those mental health checks go? What happens? Who does the check? That seems ripe for abuse and partisanship.
I mean, obviously it's a good idea, but implementing it could get dicey.
REINSTATE FUCKING ROE V WADE FOR ALL STATES.
and make universal healthcare cause in January I spent 16 hours in the ER before being placed in a room and it's shitty I gotta pay for THAT.
My coworker recently took a thirty minute ambulance ride (we’re in a small town). Bill for the ride (NOT INCLUDING HOSPITAL TREATMENT) was $84,000. He is hoping insurance pays, but he’s planning all the healthcare he’s been putting off because out-of-pocket max will be met, you know?
Sorry for butting in the conversation. I'm English, are you saying if you get seriously ill, one time and have no choice and phone for an ambulance to come get you then you could be in debt for the rest of your life JUST for the cost of the happy ride to the hospital ?
Then you have to pay for EVERYTHING once you get in the hospital ?
How much for a bed, blood pressure test, bob forbid an operation for anything ? It must be in the millions.
It must cost serious money even with medical insurance, what happens to the people who have no insurance ?
Any reply from anyone is welcome.
It sounds crazy to me.
Yup. My first year in the US as a person from the UK, I learnt about this when someone casually mentioned driving themselves to hospital after a very serious bike accident that left them with a broken arm and concussion.
Because duh... *obviously* poor grad students don't call ambulances! Those are for rich people.
Sounds like you understand just fine. It's as you said. It's absurd and predatory and people absolutely go bankrupt from medical debt. It's actually one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States.
Please send help.
Do you have an OnlyFans account ? Joking.
Basically people are dieing because they can't afford medical assistance to get what they need to live ?
Forgive me if you think I'm wrong but popular American TV take the piss out of us for having a National Health System. A small amount taken from a weakly wage. Nobody, and I mean Nobody should be in debt for being ill.
The NHS is light-years better than the American system. I can't explain why our tv gives the NHS a hard time. My best guess is our politicians have half the country convinced if we do it then it won't work. See the top of this discussion for example.
So the cost of an ambulance is extremely expensive. His insurance *should* pay for most of that, but our company’s insurance is especially predatory so he will have to fight to get it covered. My child had a surgery that was a little less than $5000 but they were in and out the same day. It was still a shock to pay, and the insurance paid it down a bit, but we were still on the hook for $2500. For that I made seven or eight phone calls and had to argue their policies to get it paid. I have a different coworker who had a child born prematurely and his wife had a difficult pregnancy and spent a couple of weeks in the hospital. The insurance denied most of their claims because the hospital brought in different doctors and the insurance said that most of them were not on the covered list, then the baby wasn’t covered at first, etc. he came out of that with almost $300,000 in medical debt *after* insurance. So yes, something small can become life-destroying. We are all an accident or illness away from financial ruin.
That's INSANE !
I've seen Americans protesting about many things but this should be the number 1 thing you should be protesting about.
I need / have to have 12 different types of medications a month. I've paid for a yearly subscription for any and all medication for £100.
That's it for a full year for everything..
My son was 2 months early at birth and the cost was hundreds of thousands. We had to apply for welfare which is considered humiliating in the US by most. I’m grateful we got it, but if we hadn’t we would have had to go bankrupt
What the hell? The most I ever paid for the wee woo wagon was about 400 dollars. Did they go to the fucking moon? Outrageous. I got transported from my podunk ass town in Texas to Galveston (90 minute ride) cause my dialysis fistula ruptured.
1. Term Limits for all Branches of Government (including the supreme court)
2. Ban Congress and Presidents from trading stocks.
3. Regulate the Banks (including stopping Bespoke Tranche Opportunity (Synthetic CDO) trading)
4. Reinstate the full SALT tax deduction
5. Codify Roe V Wade
6. Campaign finance reform (all money for campaigns come from the fed, in equal share, scaling up as the potential choices dwindle).
Serious answers? Drone strike David Duke, blockade Israel with AC-130's and naval destroyers until Netanyahu surrenders himself to the Hague, direct the IRS to ignore any household making less than $85K per head, freeze company assets except payroll and seize all C-suite executives' assets (*every goddamn industry*) until they deflate prices, tell the alphabet-soup agencies to disappear every person connected to Project 2025 to whatever deniable blacksite is worse than Gitmo and then destroy records of having done so, prohibit legislators and judges from owning stocks outside of a blind portfolio, ban Elon Musk from physically being in the US, dispatch JSO teams to detain the Supreme Court in their homes under threat of shooting to kill if they do not resign effective immediately. Circumvent the confirmation process and appoint a new batch of judges, instruct them to revoke this official immunity ruling, then *fucking resign immediately.*
Fun answers: find restaurants that treat their employees like shit, have a huge presidential dinner that fills the whole dining area, then dine and dash (while having the Secret Service covertly tip the staff a cool couple grand each). Do all the stuff us poors get in trouble for doing without a license, but call them "presidential counsel sessions." Commit golf course arson during an Official Campaign Meeting. Pick a loathsome legislator (Fetterman, Greene, Hawley, Pelosi, et cetera) to bully into resignation over a series of *official!* press conferences.
Trump already has said out loud that he plans to imprison his political rivals. Since SCOTUS just gave POTUS blank check to do whatever: throw 45 in prison. He's a convicted felon, who might still have state secrets at his finger tips and damaging knowledge.
Officially an enemy of the State.
Official act.
Fully immune.
Have an independent committee set up to investigate every member of congress (forgive me if that's the wrong name I'm not American) to see where their money is coming from and check for any insider trading. Looking at you Nancy Pelosi.
Why stop at congress? Judiciary too.
Create and enforce ethics rules, with enforcement that applies automatically if there are violations founds by independent oversight, that would apply to all leadership branches of government.
SCOTUS tells us that officials have a lot of authority over themselves and impeachment is the only solution? There we go, violations of ethics rules triggers auto-impeachment & removal.
Kill all the people I hate and mark it under the category "Official Actions While in Office , because all/ any crime is perfectly OK after yesterday's ruling by SCOTUS saying being President is now saying you are KOTUS: KING of the United (HAH!) States
If elected I would push the button. I cant give you Meteor 2024 but I can do the next best thing. No more work! No more rent! No more sky high prices! No more anything!
Assuming I'm an armoral monster, Reaper drones over every highway exit with commonly recorded slowdowns. If you try to merge in at the last possible second, r9x knife missile for you. That should solve a lot of highway traffic immediately.
Otherwise, mandate highway driving and merging as part of every driving test, and mandate a test for anyone wishing to use air travel where they have to prove their competency with deplaining.
Remove fatca and all that international tax bullshit. I am a single issue voter on this. If a candidate says he or she will remove this, my vote is theirs.
Abolish, Sales Tax, Property tax and all other complicated tax systems,
incorporate a single universal tax that is a percentage (to be determined) of ones yearly income, everybody pays the same percentage of their yearly income, so everyone pays their fair share of their wealth and it scales up for the mega rich and scales down on low income,
Work on fighting the government made scam that is insurance and the pharmaceutical industry, so Healthcare is affordable, and high quality,
work on better regulations for food processing and hope to start a train of healthy farm to table food, so the country is healthier, and it promotes farming, small business ownership, and simple labor/trade jobs,
stop outsourcing production and labor to foreign countries with less ethics than America, opens up very many job opportunities for American citizens and immigrants (who will have immigrated legally, because my policy would make it easy to immigrate, if you can show a basic understanding of the Americans governmental process)
Abolish the ATF, FBI and CIA and create from the ground up an all inclusive investigative bureau, that does not have power over state or county police in federal investigations,
Abolish the NFA and all restrictive Firearms legislation, Crackdown on illegally obtained firearms, Crackdown on Drug smuggling,
more effective Federal Ad campaigns, against the use of illicit drugs and illegal firearms
affirm all citizens rights, no matter race, religion, sexual orientation or gender
also, federally ban the death penalty, but max sentences to murderers, and rapists/pedophiles
prison system is to be reformed,
Ban Monetary Lobbying, (corporations or people paying money to ones political career for legislation that the corporation/person wants)
Age Limits for congress (65/70) on the higher end
I mean honestly it doesn't give the President carte blanche to do whatever they want but seems to me that if Biden has such a big problem with it why didn't he in his speech the other night call on Congress to write legislation to limit the official acts of the President?
Because the constitution is interpreted by the courts. Congress can say what official acts are, but if the president ignores it, the question for immunity is still whether it is constitutionally an official act or not.
I just think people are totally overreacting to the entire thing on both sides. Politicians love to complain about problems they have no intention of ever trying to fix.
Yeah, definitely overreacting. the ruling is essentially a nonanswer in that official acts is an open question. But people were ready to be upset over it regardless.
Invite both Abbas, Muhammed Ben Saleman, UAE and Qatari emirates and Benjamin Netanyahu. Lock them inside Camp David until they can agree on a binding solution.
Term limits of 8 years for Congress and SCOTUS. Salary is set at the average annual income of constituents in your district. (Yes, I know these would never pass through the legislature, but you can dream.)
> Salary is set at the average annual income of constituents in your district.
It's a fun thought experiment, but I think there's a couple of holes here:
* Congresspersons are pretty much required to maintain two homes, unless you don't want them to ever visit their home district after they're elected.
* This would basically mandate that two people performing the same job could be paid very differently.
* Forbid Senate and House members from trading stocks.
* Disqualify felons from running for any type of office.
* Set age limits for elected government positions.
* Set age and term limits on the Supreme Court. Rotate the court every 6-8 years so we have 5-4 Dem and then 5-3 Rep representation. That gives each side equivalency to some degree. If somebody has a better suggestion, then I'm all for it, but this 6-3 lifetime nonsense needs to go.
* Eliminate corporate donations to politicians. I'm sorry, companies are not people. They are made up of people who already have an opinion.
* Cap personal political donations to a reasonable amount. And you must report them to the IRS for tracking. They should not be taxed, but you should be held accountable if you exceed the limit.
* Reverse Trump tax credit to the rich.
* Collect PPP loans given to companies during the pandemic that reported a profit exceeding the amount loaned.
I would restore visitor White House tours for foreign tourists, or at least Canadians. We burnt it down so we get to see what you've done with the place.
Universal Healthcare
Billionaire tax
Free college up to PhD
Free childcare up to school age
Expand the Supreme Court
Term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court
Guaranteed paid time off for all jobs
Guaranteed paid parental leave for birth parents and adoptive parents
Some of you all have no idea what the limitations are on Presidential power, it's not the Iron Throne. All those wonderful and egalitarian things: require an act of congress. So two houses need to send you bills to sign, that's it. Otherwise not much you can do will survive the test of time.
Tighten illegal immigration, try to set something up to help the process for legal immigration, remove income tax and have a flat tax, and lower rx drug pricing
SO. MANY. THINGS.
Get rid of the penny.
Protecting consumer rights
Deflating monopolys such a Luxottica and PepsiCo
Creating term/age limits for members of govt.
Stowing away safeguarded funds for education and the arts
Implementing a better public transportation system - because we are too reliant on the car/individual responses
Depends how much im allowed to do, but anyways:
-make sure there are more than 2 parties and it stays that way
-make lobbying illegal
-tax the rich
-go through all constitutions to try and clarify all ambiguities
-probably a lot more but this is what i can come up with at the moment
Require much more extensive driver test, license fees, tolls, punishments for driving on interstate highways. Cease all interstate highway expansions. Put money into transit.
Secure the border. Deport all illegals. Unseal Obama’s information. Declassify every conspiracy theory document. Arrest every democrat and republican who didn’t put America first.
I don't think people are understanding the question. Let us rephrase.
Now that it is legal for the President to do anything they want via an official act, what would you do as President?
Make organised political.parties illegal. Every member should be independent and work for the people that elected them or their own issues, not that of a party.
Truck drivers will still have a 14 hour day, but can now drive up to 12 hours instead of 11.
Parking will no longer be restricted for trucks in states that restrict their ramps for sleeping as long as the truck is completely free of the roadway and not an obstruction.
Trucks will have the same speed limit as the cars on the interstate. Some states make us run 5mph less than the cars. I think California is even worse than that. It seems unnecessary.
Every truck must be equipped with a CB. It wouldn't be a law to use it, you don't even have to turn it on, but it must be equipped and functional in case of emergencies.
Have the collection of tax revenue go straight into my Venmo account for "safe keeping". I will tell the Secretary of the Treasury first, so it will be official.
Two girls at the same time.
I feel like with Presidential immunity, you could arrange something like that.
Chicks dig dudes with Presidential immunity.
We're not going to white-collar resort prison. No, no, no. We're going to federal POUND ME IN THE ASS prison!
Not all chicks
The type of chicks that would double up on a guy like me do.
Good point
You just have to start every conversation with, “I am the President of the United States of America, acting officially”.
“When you’re President, they let you do it! And if they don’t, just call it an official act!”
If you listen closely, you can hear Nixon rolling in his grave fast enough to drill straight through to the Earth’s core.
Hahahahahahaha, I was thinking the same thing? What the hell do I know about official vs. unofficial acts?
Pretty sure JFK did it often enough *without* immunity.
And Clinton
He did not have sex with that woman...
Does Presidential immunity cover gnonorhea? (asking for a friend)
F’n A man, F’n A
Just rewatched this movie for the first time in like 10 years, I forgot how good it was
I would do nothing
You don't need to be President to do nothing man. Take a look at my cousin. He ain't President and don't do shit.
Watch your cornhole
Funny I was just thinking I would do nothing
Make lobbying illegal Edit: I don’t plan on being president anytime soon.
How to get killed 101
Not if I kill them as my first official act!
At the very least, gerrymandering.
How to get killed 102
How would you define "lobbying"?
billionaires throwing money at politicians to push a certain agenda. like SuperPACs during elections.
I'm not going to defend our current reality, but lobbying, as an idea, is fine. Groups that are experts in a topic get face time with the legislators who are going to write laws on said topic. I mean, we want experts informing law makers about how they should craft laws on technical issues. Our problem is how this system has been perverted.
Groups and people need to lobby. That's how representative government is supposed to work. It's the culture, laws, and legal enforcement around lobbying that needs to change: campaign donations, gifts, private meetings / discussions, obscured affiliations, politicians becoming professional lobbyists, etc.
Realistically, members of congress and political leaders should not be allowed to have ANY additional source of income or financial gifts. If congress needs more money, they should just raise their wages. No more book deals. Like sure, you can write a book, but you shouldn’t be able to get money from it except to cover cost. Radical ideas I know lmao. Even most of Europe or other more functioning democracies won’t go to that extent. Politicians are still allowed to invest in most of these places, have multiple houses, etc. Even if just general corruption is much less than the US. I’m not even sure about political donations for campaigns. They inherently dissuade anti capitalist or leftist candidates, because companies have the largest ability to donate to candidates/most financial resources, and companies by their very nature are capitalist and won’t support something against their profit motive. Even if you banned political donations across the board except from private individuals, that would then become a few rich folks that swing everything. Crowdfunding is seeming to balance it out in the internet age, but not enough, and it’s still barely democratic. Like Jamal bowman losing recently with the largest AIPAC investment for a political candidate in history.
I agree that paying national level reps more is worth it to block their ability to further enrich themselves by using their office, including through their family. Let them invest in US savings bonds and the same retirement programs available to all gov't employees. If they feel like that's not enough money for them, then they shouldn't be an elected official. Political campaign contributions become significantly less important if the campaign seasons are strictly narrowed down to a few weeks. The profit motive in media covering political news during campaign season also needs some limitations, plus much more strict on PACs. Unless someone is representing a campaign, they shouldn't be paid for making political speech because it's not really theirs. Let the old billionaires speak into a live mic instead of spending millions on mouthpieces.
I think you just put a cap on personal political giving, and corporations are blocked because they can’t vote.
Not anymore. Before the Internet, yes, but every single transgression is public knowledge now. Representatives know exactly what their constituents want.
That's true for party-driven issues that are used as wedges, but not for a grandma who is having trouble with a local gov't agency. There very much are local issues, still, and representatives can help apply pressure. Of course, national level politicians have become increasingly poorer for this as the population-per-rep has increased and election success is more about powerful connections.
The majority of legislation is written, or at least advanced, by lobbyists. Who the hell is going to take the time to write 1,000 pages of legislation that will probably never get passed? Special interest groups, and lobbyists help them get their message across. All of this is perfectly fine. And before someone says it, no, lobbying is not bribery (or gratuity, apparently). I know some lobbyists. You would be bored out of your mind if they told you what they do for a living.
Do you know what lobbying even is, or are you confusing it with political contributions?
Hard, enforceable campaign donation reform which overturns Citizens United (corporations... people? Really????), and puts reasoned term limits for elected senator and congress members. You can't elect a president for more than two terms, but those who actually have tangible influence on policy can be there for life???
Lobbying is necessary, it’s the donations that make it corrupt. When Jon Stewart testified on behalf of 9/11 first responders, he was lobbying. Keep lobbying, fix campaign finance.
This is completely expected from low-information redditors and it points to the real threat to our democracy. Mark Twain famously said, *"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."* Lobbying just means attempting to influence the decisions of government. In other words, advocating for your beliefs or position on a subject. Greenpeace lobbies. Abortion activists lobby. Green energy companies lobby. The idea of banning the ability of people, organizations, and companies to advocate for causes they support is anti-democratic. Dictators rule by fiat. Democracies rule by representing people and garnering their support. EDIT: Keep trying to argue that people shouldn't be allowed to attempt to influence their elected officials. It's fucking hilarious. #shitredditsays
When was the last time a politician was successfully lobbied by the common man instead of the aristocracy or corporate interests though? Please let me know, asking for a friend.
Literally all the time dude. College orgs ran by students get groups to lobby their senator every year, and many times that affects their senator’s decision on a given topic. It’s actually really common. But of course your politicians won’t listen to you because you don’t participate. You actually need to put some effort in and join orgs and groups. You need to work together. You need to show them that their constituents feel a certain way besides Reddit.
One of my coworkers was a registered lobbyist who used to lobby for funding for rare disease research and helped get the 21s Century Cures act passed
Mothers Against Drunk Driving… Also every consumer protection law ever enacted. One side of political spectrum just keeps undoing all those protections.
One thing you're likely not considering is that many times laws will have unintended consequences. Lets come up with a random example - Lets say you want to mandate that you can't sell a drug for more than $5 a bottle. I'm not saying you believe them wholesale, but maybe you should want the company to come back and say "hey, this costs us $6 per bottle to make. At $5 we'll discontinue production by the end of the year if you pass this." Well, sometimes you're just forgetting someone. Maybe you want to mandate that Banks must do X. Did you mean to leave credit unions out? What about savings and loans? Bank Holding companies?Trust companies? Investment banks? Investment advisors? What about insurance companies?
I know what you’re saying, but I’m sure OP meant something like overturning Citizens United.
Also, it assumes that the problem is that blank-slate politicians are being influenced by corporations and interest groups. That was a problem decade ago. Now the problem is that corporations and interest groups are getting politicians elected that support them. The politicians don't need to be influenced, they are believers. Citizen United is the issue not lobbyists.
It's the money that needs to be removed. A lobbyist is supposed to be a paid full time activist. All they're supposed to do, is talk to politicians and try to convince them. Or advise them if they're receptive. The system we have now is basically bribery and threats. The lobbyists ask the politician to do a thing in exchange for money for their campaign. And if they don't agree, they threaten to give money to someone else to primary that politician.
Yeah I get what you are saying, but lobbying has turned into a transactional process - money for votes. Hell, lobbyists are writing legislation for chrissakes. I’d ban that shit too
"tiktokslut4" has opinions about "low-information redditors". Film at 11.
I'm inviting world leaders to the white house to personally cook them american cuisine... okay cheeseburgers.
Make sure to put the cheese on before it’s fully cooked
No trade secrets
this would probably do more to advance world peace than anything any of them have done in years
4th of July, should be a tradition to invite leaders of other countries for a BBQ at the White House.
Personally cook or personally pick up from McDonald’s?
I will personally cook for them. Depending on how paranoid they are I might try to poison them, I can also cook it in front of them. Edit: this is one of those comma sentences where the meaning completely changes.
I would cook BBQ at every state dinner.
My first official act would be to resign.
Okay, Holden
Only if TVs Camina Drummer or the books Michio Pa , or Reality's Cara Gee is ready to go. But Belters not Canadians are eligible for President
Holden McGroyne
Make that your second act. First, change your name. POTUS is a funny name.
[удалено]
Can we also include dental? Teeth should be like regular insurance and not treated as some sort of luxury bones you have to pay for separate insurance to treat.
Order the fed to give me the nations gold. Order the Army Corps of Engineers to build a Ducktails size vault. Order the detainment of Michael Phelps for terrorism. Make him swim in the money vault.
[Like this?](https://youtu.be/8j294tEgz-E?si=aQ8ZWEQ8LXxRtGoA)
I knew what that was the moment i saw the link, one of best bits of family guy
Governership of texas now requires a monthly footrace.
Greg Abbott is a little piss baby.
Executive order 1. All public schools will have free chocolate milk every day for all students.
What will be order 66? :D
Execute the dissenters? That’s legal now.
Force the resignation of a few SCOTUS justices
Who is being forced to pay for that out of their wallet?
Reinstate the FCC's Fairness Doctrine, and push to have it codified as law as soon as possible.
Declare that money and speech are not the same thing, and someone who has more money is not necessarily entitled to more speech.
Acts of service for tuition assistance. The greater the act, the more assistance you would receive.
It’s scary how many people here seem to have no idea what powers the president has. Most of the answers here are things only congress can do. We need much better civics education in this country if y’all are going to be voting.
It's scary how few people pay attention to critical Supreme Court rulings
I am now king!
Ding ding ding. Winner
“I have an Article 2 where I have the right to do whatever I want as president”. — Donald Trump https://theweek.com/speedreads/854487/trump-have-article-2-where-have-right-whatever-want-president
Ordering the military to do things is an official act and no one can question the motives behind your official acts. Soooo with that one you can do a lot of other things that would normally require congress in a sane world. Looks like congress isn't obeying again, time to order the military to round up all the people who voted no on the universal health care bill that someone proposed. Oh look it passed the second time. This is the dumbest timeline
> We need much better civics education in this country if y’all are going to be voting. Conversely, we need everyone to be voting if we want better civics education in this country. Nice little catch-22.
Reddit is proof that giving someone access to information doesn't make them learn. Too many people enjoy ignorance and rage.
Execute Order 66.
[Roosevelt 2 beat you to it.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9066)
I’d want to see everything we have on file about aliens and UFOs.
i was looking for this comment. ngl
Obviously as President I really have very limited power when it comes to enacting legislation, but assuming that I had carte blanc and could do whatever I wanted. Introduce term limits to Congress and Senate. Additionally I would create an age requirement or at least an aptitude and cognitive testing at a certain age for politicians and Supreme Court justices. Eliminate all private election funding for any federal elected position. Additionally, all office holders would be paid the wage consummate and equal to the average wage of their constituency in their home state or district. I would introduce a vast and far reaching climate/energy bill, which would introduce funding and subsidies for nuclear power, and I would also mandate that the nuclear regulatory commission update their standards and licensing processes. Additionally, I would create a stay of execution on any existing fossil fuel baseload power plants until an equal or greater amount of power can be produced by a combination of wind, solar and nuclear. I would turn over hot button issues, such as welfare, marijuana, abortion, gun legislation back to each individual state for those citizens to decide for themselves how they want to live in their own state. I would call for completely overhauling the IRS and the tax code. I would eliminate the ATF, and the DEA those functions should be handled by the FBI. I would mandate that the INS and border patrol enforce existing laws, and I would create legislation or reinforce the existing laws, forcing employers to verify and validate legitimately whether a person has a right to be in the United States legally before they can be employed. Whoever my secretary of commerce is, it would have to be someone who understands more about the economy than I do, but I know that I would like to do something about stock, market manipulation, corporate, greed, monopolies, and our trade imbalance, and how it affects our deficit. I’m sure there’s 1 million other things if I think about it longer, but honestly the last thing I can think of would be necessary to preserve and protect Social Security.
ITT: People who think Presidents are kings.
Kinda are after the recent Supreme Court ruling.
They can still be impeached and removed from office though right?
Requires a simple majority in the House to impeach, but a 2/3rds majority in the Senate to convict. So unless there's a supermajority of one party in the Senate, or the impeached President's actions are so deplorable that Senators are willing to cross the aisle en masse to vote for conviction, you're unlikely to ever see a successful impeachment. tl;dr the mechanism exists but it relies on politicians, so it's useless
You need a lot of members of the President's party to agree to it. So technically, yes. In reality? No.
After the sc's ruling yesterday? I would have Trump indefinitely detained for national security reasons. Along with 6 of the SC justices. I would then pack the court and expand it to 15 justices.
I'm not American but I would put an age limit for people who can be president plus a full mental health check every 6 months. I've seen how badly older people can decline in less than 6 months and it's not good. It can go from good morning son to who are you in a shockingly amount of time.
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.
How would those mental health checks go? What happens? Who does the check? That seems ripe for abuse and partisanship. I mean, obviously it's a good idea, but implementing it could get dicey.
REINSTATE FUCKING ROE V WADE FOR ALL STATES. and make universal healthcare cause in January I spent 16 hours in the ER before being placed in a room and it's shitty I gotta pay for THAT.
My coworker recently took a thirty minute ambulance ride (we’re in a small town). Bill for the ride (NOT INCLUDING HOSPITAL TREATMENT) was $84,000. He is hoping insurance pays, but he’s planning all the healthcare he’s been putting off because out-of-pocket max will be met, you know?
Sorry for butting in the conversation. I'm English, are you saying if you get seriously ill, one time and have no choice and phone for an ambulance to come get you then you could be in debt for the rest of your life JUST for the cost of the happy ride to the hospital ? Then you have to pay for EVERYTHING once you get in the hospital ? How much for a bed, blood pressure test, bob forbid an operation for anything ? It must be in the millions. It must cost serious money even with medical insurance, what happens to the people who have no insurance ? Any reply from anyone is welcome. It sounds crazy to me.
Yup. My first year in the US as a person from the UK, I learnt about this when someone casually mentioned driving themselves to hospital after a very serious bike accident that left them with a broken arm and concussion. Because duh... *obviously* poor grad students don't call ambulances! Those are for rich people.
Sounds like you understand just fine. It's as you said. It's absurd and predatory and people absolutely go bankrupt from medical debt. It's actually one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States. Please send help.
Do you have an OnlyFans account ? Joking. Basically people are dieing because they can't afford medical assistance to get what they need to live ? Forgive me if you think I'm wrong but popular American TV take the piss out of us for having a National Health System. A small amount taken from a weakly wage. Nobody, and I mean Nobody should be in debt for being ill.
The NHS is light-years better than the American system. I can't explain why our tv gives the NHS a hard time. My best guess is our politicians have half the country convinced if we do it then it won't work. See the top of this discussion for example.
So the cost of an ambulance is extremely expensive. His insurance *should* pay for most of that, but our company’s insurance is especially predatory so he will have to fight to get it covered. My child had a surgery that was a little less than $5000 but they were in and out the same day. It was still a shock to pay, and the insurance paid it down a bit, but we were still on the hook for $2500. For that I made seven or eight phone calls and had to argue their policies to get it paid. I have a different coworker who had a child born prematurely and his wife had a difficult pregnancy and spent a couple of weeks in the hospital. The insurance denied most of their claims because the hospital brought in different doctors and the insurance said that most of them were not on the covered list, then the baby wasn’t covered at first, etc. he came out of that with almost $300,000 in medical debt *after* insurance. So yes, something small can become life-destroying. We are all an accident or illness away from financial ruin.
That's INSANE ! I've seen Americans protesting about many things but this should be the number 1 thing you should be protesting about. I need / have to have 12 different types of medications a month. I've paid for a yearly subscription for any and all medication for £100. That's it for a full year for everything..
I’m a pharmacist here and yes, that’s a great deal.
My son was 2 months early at birth and the cost was hundreds of thousands. We had to apply for welfare which is considered humiliating in the US by most. I’m grateful we got it, but if we hadn’t we would have had to go bankrupt
What the hell? The most I ever paid for the wee woo wagon was about 400 dollars. Did they go to the fucking moon? Outrageous. I got transported from my podunk ass town in Texas to Galveston (90 minute ride) cause my dialysis fistula ruptured.
$400 was your copay. The full cost was likely more
Damn
The President can't do any of those things...
1. Term Limits for all Branches of Government (including the supreme court) 2. Ban Congress and Presidents from trading stocks. 3. Regulate the Banks (including stopping Bespoke Tranche Opportunity (Synthetic CDO) trading) 4. Reinstate the full SALT tax deduction 5. Codify Roe V Wade 6. Campaign finance reform (all money for campaigns come from the fed, in equal share, scaling up as the potential choices dwindle).
I will write your name in my ballot!
President can't do any of those.
Serious answers? Drone strike David Duke, blockade Israel with AC-130's and naval destroyers until Netanyahu surrenders himself to the Hague, direct the IRS to ignore any household making less than $85K per head, freeze company assets except payroll and seize all C-suite executives' assets (*every goddamn industry*) until they deflate prices, tell the alphabet-soup agencies to disappear every person connected to Project 2025 to whatever deniable blacksite is worse than Gitmo and then destroy records of having done so, prohibit legislators and judges from owning stocks outside of a blind portfolio, ban Elon Musk from physically being in the US, dispatch JSO teams to detain the Supreme Court in their homes under threat of shooting to kill if they do not resign effective immediately. Circumvent the confirmation process and appoint a new batch of judges, instruct them to revoke this official immunity ruling, then *fucking resign immediately.* Fun answers: find restaurants that treat their employees like shit, have a huge presidential dinner that fills the whole dining area, then dine and dash (while having the Secret Service covertly tip the staff a cool couple grand each). Do all the stuff us poors get in trouble for doing without a license, but call them "presidential counsel sessions." Commit golf course arson during an Official Campaign Meeting. Pick a loathsome legislator (Fetterman, Greene, Hawley, Pelosi, et cetera) to bully into resignation over a series of *official!* press conferences.
I like the way you think and I appreciate the detailed planning. I’d be happy if only 50% of your ideas are initiated.
Trump already has said out loud that he plans to imprison his political rivals. Since SCOTUS just gave POTUS blank check to do whatever: throw 45 in prison. He's a convicted felon, who might still have state secrets at his finger tips and damaging knowledge. Officially an enemy of the State. Official act. Fully immune.
Also, I would deport Ted Cruz back to Canada.
Have an independent committee set up to investigate every member of congress (forgive me if that's the wrong name I'm not American) to see where their money is coming from and check for any insider trading. Looking at you Nancy Pelosi.
Why stop at congress? Judiciary too. Create and enforce ethics rules, with enforcement that applies automatically if there are violations founds by independent oversight, that would apply to all leadership branches of government. SCOTUS tells us that officials have a lot of authority over themselves and impeachment is the only solution? There we go, violations of ethics rules triggers auto-impeachment & removal.
Senator and representative
Member of Congress covers the Senate and the house
Kill all the people I hate and mark it under the category "Official Actions While in Office , because all/ any crime is perfectly OK after yesterday's ruling by SCOTUS saying being President is now saying you are KOTUS: KING of the United (HAH!) States
Two chicks at the same time, man.
End Qualified Immunity
If elected I would push the button. I cant give you Meteor 2024 but I can do the next best thing. No more work! No more rent! No more sky high prices! No more anything!
Execute Order 66
Prima noctum
Crack down on left lane campers
Make July 5th and the Monday after the Super Bowl holidays
Release the aliens in area 51
Execute Order 66
Assuming I'm an armoral monster, Reaper drones over every highway exit with commonly recorded slowdowns. If you try to merge in at the last possible second, r9x knife missile for you. That should solve a lot of highway traffic immediately. Otherwise, mandate highway driving and merging as part of every driving test, and mandate a test for anyone wishing to use air travel where they have to prove their competency with deplaining.
Add an executive order that prevents anyone else from becoming president The order expires when I leave office
Remove fatca and all that international tax bullshit. I am a single issue voter on this. If a candidate says he or she will remove this, my vote is theirs.
Disallow congress members and their families from trading in the stock market
Make it mandatory that when a state legalizes Marijuana all past marijuana charges are reviewed and expunged
Abolish, Sales Tax, Property tax and all other complicated tax systems, incorporate a single universal tax that is a percentage (to be determined) of ones yearly income, everybody pays the same percentage of their yearly income, so everyone pays their fair share of their wealth and it scales up for the mega rich and scales down on low income, Work on fighting the government made scam that is insurance and the pharmaceutical industry, so Healthcare is affordable, and high quality, work on better regulations for food processing and hope to start a train of healthy farm to table food, so the country is healthier, and it promotes farming, small business ownership, and simple labor/trade jobs, stop outsourcing production and labor to foreign countries with less ethics than America, opens up very many job opportunities for American citizens and immigrants (who will have immigrated legally, because my policy would make it easy to immigrate, if you can show a basic understanding of the Americans governmental process) Abolish the ATF, FBI and CIA and create from the ground up an all inclusive investigative bureau, that does not have power over state or county police in federal investigations, Abolish the NFA and all restrictive Firearms legislation, Crackdown on illegally obtained firearms, Crackdown on Drug smuggling, more effective Federal Ad campaigns, against the use of illicit drugs and illegal firearms affirm all citizens rights, no matter race, religion, sexual orientation or gender also, federally ban the death penalty, but max sentences to murderers, and rapists/pedophiles prison system is to be reformed, Ban Monetary Lobbying, (corporations or people paying money to ones political career for legislation that the corporation/person wants) Age Limits for congress (65/70) on the higher end
I mean honestly it doesn't give the President carte blanche to do whatever they want but seems to me that if Biden has such a big problem with it why didn't he in his speech the other night call on Congress to write legislation to limit the official acts of the President?
Because the constitution is interpreted by the courts. Congress can say what official acts are, but if the president ignores it, the question for immunity is still whether it is constitutionally an official act or not.
I just think people are totally overreacting to the entire thing on both sides. Politicians love to complain about problems they have no intention of ever trying to fix.
Yeah, definitely overreacting. the ruling is essentially a nonanswer in that official acts is an open question. But people were ready to be upset over it regardless.
Declare Donald J Trump to be an enemy of the state and send him to Gitmo
Invite both Abbas, Muhammed Ben Saleman, UAE and Qatari emirates and Benjamin Netanyahu. Lock them inside Camp David until they can agree on a binding solution.
I would add justices to the Supreme Court, the current 'gentleman's agreement' limitation is neither the law nor working well for the nation.
Term limits for SCOTUS.
That one unfortunately requires a constitutional amendment :(
Term limits of 8 years for Congress and SCOTUS. Salary is set at the average annual income of constituents in your district. (Yes, I know these would never pass through the legislature, but you can dream.)
> Salary is set at the average annual income of constituents in your district. It's a fun thought experiment, but I think there's a couple of holes here: * Congresspersons are pretty much required to maintain two homes, unless you don't want them to ever visit their home district after they're elected. * This would basically mandate that two people performing the same job could be paid very differently.
* Forbid Senate and House members from trading stocks. * Disqualify felons from running for any type of office. * Set age limits for elected government positions. * Set age and term limits on the Supreme Court. Rotate the court every 6-8 years so we have 5-4 Dem and then 5-3 Rep representation. That gives each side equivalency to some degree. If somebody has a better suggestion, then I'm all for it, but this 6-3 lifetime nonsense needs to go. * Eliminate corporate donations to politicians. I'm sorry, companies are not people. They are made up of people who already have an opinion. * Cap personal political donations to a reasonable amount. And you must report them to the IRS for tracking. They should not be taxed, but you should be held accountable if you exceed the limit. * Reverse Trump tax credit to the rich. * Collect PPP loans given to companies during the pandemic that reported a profit exceeding the amount loaned.
The president doesn’t have the power to do any of that.
I would restore visitor White House tours for foreign tourists, or at least Canadians. We burnt it down so we get to see what you've done with the place.
Universal Healthcare Billionaire tax Free college up to PhD Free childcare up to school age Expand the Supreme Court Term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court Guaranteed paid time off for all jobs Guaranteed paid parental leave for birth parents and adoptive parents
Declare 6 of the SCOTUS justices clear and present dangers and have them renditioned. Remaining 3 can then undo the last 40 years of fuckery.
Some of you all have no idea what the limitations are on Presidential power, it's not the Iron Throne. All those wonderful and egalitarian things: require an act of congress. So two houses need to send you bills to sign, that's it. Otherwise not much you can do will survive the test of time.
Tighten illegal immigration, try to set something up to help the process for legal immigration, remove income tax and have a flat tax, and lower rx drug pricing
Abolish the gov
SO. MANY. THINGS. Get rid of the penny. Protecting consumer rights Deflating monopolys such a Luxottica and PepsiCo Creating term/age limits for members of govt. Stowing away safeguarded funds for education and the arts Implementing a better public transportation system - because we are too reliant on the car/individual responses
Install age and term limits for every political position in the country.
Fix broken healthcare system.
I would make Jurassic Park happen - just to make everything more ridiculous
Depends how much im allowed to do, but anyways: -make sure there are more than 2 parties and it stays that way -make lobbying illegal -tax the rich -go through all constitutions to try and clarify all ambiguities -probably a lot more but this is what i can come up with at the moment
Resign
Require much more extensive driver test, license fees, tolls, punishments for driving on interstate highways. Cease all interstate highway expansions. Put money into transit.
I would press the button to grow the economy, decrease inflation and increase salaries.
Bullet proof my Chevy doors!
Ray dessert first, skip the veggies cause these steamed carrots are gross
Fire everybody then sit there until the impeachment goes through. Someone's gotta hit the reset button.
Wake up at 10, take an afternoon nap, sundown at 4pm. Live the Biden dream.
Secure the border. Deport all illegals. Unseal Obama’s information. Declassify every conspiracy theory document. Arrest every democrat and republican who didn’t put America first.
I don't think people are understanding the question. Let us rephrase. Now that it is legal for the President to do anything they want via an official act, what would you do as President?
so many new National Parks
Mandatory toothbrushing, free ponies for everyone. And I'd take your guns... and replace them with BIGGER guns.
Force Jon Stewart to be my VP and then fake my own death. Sacrifice, people.
Swim naked in the Potomac.
End the DEA and Drug scheduling. Disband the ATF.
Make organised political.parties illegal. Every member should be independent and work for the people that elected them or their own issues, not that of a party.
eliminate the middle class and triple world hunger, but only as a prank
Declare November 1 a national holiday. Probably name it Have Fun on Halloween Day.
Make soliciting illegal
im gonna be The Money President. i will give everyone one billion dollars each.
Truck drivers will still have a 14 hour day, but can now drive up to 12 hours instead of 11. Parking will no longer be restricted for trucks in states that restrict their ramps for sleeping as long as the truck is completely free of the roadway and not an obstruction. Trucks will have the same speed limit as the cars on the interstate. Some states make us run 5mph less than the cars. I think California is even worse than that. It seems unnecessary. Every truck must be equipped with a CB. It wouldn't be a law to use it, you don't even have to turn it on, but it must be equipped and functional in case of emergencies.
"As overlord, all will kneel trembling before me."
I would paint the white house , I bet it could look really nice if done with the right colors.
Have the collection of tax revenue go straight into my Venmo account for "safe keeping". I will tell the Secretary of the Treasury first, so it will be official.
A round of drinks for everyone.
Invade Algeria. Full-on D-Day level stuff. I don't know why. I just never hear about them which makes me think they sus.
I'd officially park deez nuts in your mouth
Lots and lots of murder
I will be restructuring the republic into an empire. We’re conquering Mexico, and we’re not stopping our conquest until we hit Panama.
National smoke a bowl day and relax
Orbital Space Laser my enemies of course