Ass. Press reports on...
(AP) GOP reform plans to be implemented in second Bush term.
September 25, 2004
In an unprecedented effort to present a forward-looking plan in the midst of a campaign, President Bush took to the stump today to unveil his agenda for his second term. The unveiling extends the platform presented at the Republican National Convention, and demonstrates that the Bush camp is confident in his re-election prospects. Indeed, one senior Bush campaign official stated "The re-election is inevitable, it's time for the country to come together under our dear leader." By revealing his second-term agenda now, the campaign feels, the landslide victory foreseen by many Bush supporters - including Walden W. O'Dell - can be claimed as a mandate to accomplish that agenda.
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The plan has three major components (beyond those already specified in the GOP platform).
Tax reform: Bush will pledge to simplify the tax code. He calls for a flat tax of 10%, eliminating loopholes such as income levels below the poverty line, and establishing a cap of $10,000 total federal tax (including taxes on capital gains, investment income, inheritance) that any family will be required to pay. Shortfalls in government revenue will be made up by recurring issuance of bonds. To counteract concerns that foreign governments "such as France" or corporations could purchase large quantities of U.S. Government debt in an effort to "buy influence or receive obscene profits," bonds will be issued only to U.S. citizens. The minimum purchase required will be one million dollars, and the bonds will pay annual interest at prime plus 25%.
Social Security reform: The new plan is designed to "grow the value of your own investment if your futurity." The new plan will reward a lifetime of work by utilizing a series of escalating reward levels and age limits that correspond to average annual income, in thousands, in the final 10 years of Social Security Contributions, with a cap at what they term the "Golden 100-100-100." This means that workers who average $100,000 a year annual income get 100% of their final salary, and payments continue until age 100. Those making lower contributions receive a correspondingly smaller percentage of their final annual salary, with payments terminating at a correspondingly earlier age. Governor Arnold Schwazenegger noted that the plan gives greater incentive to economic girly-men.
Electoral college reform: Bush will pledge to "scrap the anachroma- uh, archaeo- uh, really old system of allocatizing electoral votes on the basis of a really complicated formula involving populations and other numbers than flip-flop from election to election." Instead, the new plan will allocate 2 votes to each state, as is currently done, but replace the population formula with one based on acreage. Bush noted that "unlike people, land doesn't move. It holds its ground, resolutely, and in perpetuousness, which means it stays perpetual. It's dirt." Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) hailed the plan as "a bold plan for a better tomorrow."
Homeland Security: The president outlined several steps designed to "beefcake up our national self defense, against those who would attack our citizens, values, or corporations." He called for immediate and full funding of the Total Information Awareness Program; and newly designated as terrorist groups 911 domestic organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, the Humane Society, the Democratic National Committee, and - as a demonstration of bipartisan fairness - the Log Cabin Republicans.
Foreign policy reform: President Bush stated that "9/11 changed everything. For the last 3 years I've been telling you I'm a war president. Since I am winning this election in a landslide, it's clear that the American people approve of that direction, and I promise you more of what you're voting for."