My local paper, The Sun News (a good friend of mine calls the liberal rag The Scum News), printed a rundown of the main GOP candidates for the 2012 South Carolina Republican primary, which takes place in less than a week. Based on the whole, I know who I’m going to vote for, but I thought I’d go through all of their descriptors and stances on particular issues and create an amalgam of my ideal candidate based on all of them.
Now, as a full disclaimer, all of the issues mentioned and specifics quoted are from the paper. I didn’t pick the issues. I wouldn’t necessarily make the stand represented here. This blog is only based on what they said. A “,” comma is used to seperate ideas with the same candidate. A “;” is a seperation between candidates.
Here goes…
Abortion- Federal government should have no authority either to legalize or ban abortion
Debt- Balanced budget, avert a default on US debt payments; eviscerate Federal government, slashing nearly half of its spending, shut five Cabinet-level agencies; cut pay of Congress; oppose the financial industry bailout
Economy- Cut regulations, lower taxes, spur jobs through energy development, repeal Obama’s healthcare law; return to the gold standard, eliminate the Federal Reserve
Education- Do away with the No Child Left Behind Act, more school choice; abolish the Education Department, end the Federal role in education
Energy- Drill offshore reserves of oil and natural gas, end restrictions on Western oil shale development; eliminate the gasoline tax, provide tax credits for alternative fuel technology
Environment- Convert EPA into something altogether different; human caused global warming is a hoax
Healthcare- Repeal Obama’s healthcare laws, generous tax credit to help buy insurance
Gay Marriage- Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage
Immigration- Path to citizenship for illegal immigrant’s children who perform military service, make English the official language; Do whatever it takes to secure the border, end right to citizenship of US-born children of illegal immigrants, no social services for illegal immigrants, aggressive deportation of illegal immigrants; more border agents; opposes education benefits to illegal immigrants
Social Security- give younger workers the option of diverting Social Security taxes to private retirement accounts
Taxes- Eliminate the Federal income tax and the Internal Revenue Service and defund close to half the government; zero corporate tax
Terrorism- Continued use of Guantanamo bay for suspected terrorists; no Constitutional rights for foreign terrorism suspects; airport screeners should employ profiling
War- reducing US involvement in conflicts
So, that’s it. That’s the best I could make from what was said by the candidates. Some of it I would offer differently. Of course, by the time I run for President in 2028, there’ll be a few new issues that I’ll have to deal with, although I’m sure some of the old mainstays will still be around.
