An Open Letter to Trump

[Wake-up!]

by Jim Cox and James Harris
From; https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/05/no_author/open-letter-to-president-trump/

[Wake-up! Comment. A daydream, I know, but why not make this an open letter to any Presidential wannabe? The article has internal links to more information about each suggestion.]

Dear President Trump:
Below are seven suggestions which will accelerate your popularity while infuriating your critics and putting them on the defensive at the same time:

1) Pardon all non-violent federal drug offenders. The First Step Act was hailed even by your opposition as "the most significant criminal justice reform law at the federal level in years." Now you can build on that. Perhaps 70,000 or more prisoners are in this population. Set up an independent commission to identify these non-violent prisoners and pardon them at the rate of 700 per day with much ceremony and publicity. Their friends and families, along with other voters who find the huge prison population in this country disturbing, will have an increased enthusiasm and respect for you.
 
2) Fire Mike Pompeo and John Bolton. They do not support your much-stated foreign policy goal of avoiding foreign wars. Replace them with Republican intervention skeptics like Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan—or cross the aisle and choose principled Democratic non-interventionists like Tulsi Gabbard and Mike Gravel.

3) Propose not only another tax cut but serious spending cuts as well. A second round of tax cuts reducing the current top rate on corporations from 21% to 15% and the current individual top rate from 37% to 25% will further boost US output and attract more of the world to set up shop within our borders, thus boosting American economic greatness. Announce that your plan is to cut taxes again every two years. Senator Rand Paul proposed a $500 billion spending reduction in 2011. Ask Paul to head a commission to make a similar proposal.

4) Pay down the national debt. You could be the first president in nearly 100 years to leave office with the national debt smaller then when you entered. The debt could be paid down by selling federal assets, as President Clinton once proposed. Go bipartisan again and ask the former president to head a commission to pick federal assets to sell.

5) Announce to each country in the world that you will reduce US tariffs to zero if they will. You've stated you want zero tariffs, zero barriers, zero subsidies. Here's the way to achieve that goal and go down in history as the greatest trade creator who ever served in office. Since trade reduces conflict between countries—trade and peace go hand in hand—you'll also be one of the greatest peace makers ever.
 
6) Increase the child deduction. Polls show that Americans would like to have more children than they do. Increasing the child tax deduction to $5,200 (the inflation-adjusted level of 60 years ago) will empower many of them to do so.

7) End the federal war on marijuana. A whopping two-thirds of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, favor this. The time is ripe to steal a key issue away from your Democratic opponents, win millions of voters to your side, and go down in history as the president who ended this failed and hugely unpopular modern-day Prohibition.