Fixin' Things

Donald J. Trump is now our new president. When he entered the White House, he found the following To-Do list on the refrigerator:

Fix immigration
Repair our foreign relations
Renegotiate trade pacts

Fix the tax system

Defeat ISIL
More economic growth

Reduce over-regulation

Fix veterans' affairs

Rebuild our military

Fix Obamacare

Solve cyber security problems

Fix our schools

Bring government spending under control

Fix our infrastructure
Box in North Korea

Inprove race relations
Bring jobs back

Stop terrorist attacks

Fix our entitlement system

There were no check marks ...

Proposed Constitutional Amendments

This country has not amended its Constitution for 14 years ... the last being a rather trivial one ... the 27th amendment that kept Congressional self-voted pay raises from taking effect until their next term. Being that this is a "living, breathing document" I think that it does need some updating due to current events. Here are my suggestions for more significant amendments for when the Republicans might control the White House and both houses of Congress:

28th Amendment -- Forces our Federal government to balance its budget every year ... no special  overrides or exceptions ... unless Congress has passed a declaration of war.

29th Amendment -- Requires all entitlements' future cost to be discounted to current value at the current inflation rate ... and to be included in the current federal budget process.

30th Amendment -- Requires Congress and the entire government complex to live under all the laws that are passed for the population in general.

31st Amendment -- Permits the summary removal from office WITHOUT the impeachment process for any president who will not enforce any duly-enacted Congressional laws ... unless he/she has petitioned Congress first and received permission.

32nd Amendment  -- Establishes a nepotistic prohibition for any direct blood or marital relatives of any president from taking any other elected or appointed federal office ... such as Attorney General, Secretary of State or Senator.

33rd Amendment -- Prohibits any alternative legal system, such as Sharia law, from getting supremacy anywhere in the United States or its territories over our Constitutional legal system.

34th Amendment -- Replaces the current pension system for appointed or elected government employees with a system equivalent to what is available in the private sector -- 401Ks, IRAs, etc.

35th Amendment -- Limits the annual presidential personal travel and entertainment budget to five times his/her annual salary. Any overage must be paid for by the president out of private funds. This obviously does not include any state functions.

36th Amendment -- Prohibits any government funds from being used for presidential libraries until twenty years after departing office.

President's Report Card

Yes, here comes another list. Since Obummer is on his way out the door, it seems time to grade his performance as president. I realize that most liberals might disagree, but I am trying to be fair:

Economic Growth                    D

Employment Growth                C

Personal Income Growth          F

Tax Reform                                 F

Entitlement Reform                   F    

Regulation Reform                    F

National Security                      D

Rhetoric                                       A

Immigration Control                  F

Military Readiness                     D

Environmental Gains                  C

Terrorism Pushback                    D

International Relations                F

Race Relations                              F

Education Improvement              D

Infrastructure Rebuild.                 D

Trade Relations                            F

Debt Reduction                            F

Golf Game                                      B

March Madness Brackets             C

Wrecking Ball

Rush Limbaugh, when Barack Obama first took office, trumpeted that now famous challenge, "I hope he fails." Unfortunately, President Obama has succeeded beyond I think even his wildest HOPE. He has been a one-man wrecking ball to the many structures that once made the United States the leader of the free world ... and he and his Svengali, Valerie Jarrettt, unfortunately still have a year and a half left to cause even more havoc.

Without getting into the gritty details, this disaster of a chief executive has mortgaged our great-grandchildren's future, corrupted just about every executive department, continually lied to the American people, gutted our military, alienated our allies, cozied up to our enemies, set race relations back generations, pissed on our Constitution, stifled our economy, rewarded failure, punished success, created new entitlements that probably will persist forever, broken numerous laws with impunity, abetted illegal immigration, ransacked our health-care system, elevate pop-culture banality to preeminence, encouraged much of our lap-dog media to ignore these many evil transformations ... and I am sure there are more sins that we will learn about as historians sift through this two-term carnage..

But there is one positive ... as David Brooks once observed, Obama still has a sharp crease to his trousers. The question of the day is ... does Hillary also take equally good care of her pants suits?