An open letter to all presidential candidates

To all presidential candidates: I understand that you cannot be an effective president unless you can first get elected, but some things (such as leadership) are even more important than politics.

Here are 10 areas in which you can show effective and necessary leadership. Obviously some are more significant and timely than others, but each one is important.

Jobs: Government cannot create jobs that will help our economy, only businesses can. But businesses do not do well in a climate of economic uncertainty because they cannot rely upon what the rules for tomorrow will be. That means that they won't take risks, which further means they won't hire. Nevertheless, government can increase the buying public's sense of optimism by entering into contracts for the immediate maintenance, repair and enhancement of our infrastructure. (The building of the new federal courthouse in Los Angeles is one good example.) But otherwise, government can only help by reducing its bureaucratic requirements and regulations (while still continuing with appropriate prosecutions and regulatory oversight for those who flaunt the laws), and leaving the economy alone. In that climate, businesses once again will thrive.

Illegal immigration: This critical problem is one of the easiest to remedy. The only reason it has not been remedied is because many powerful forces in Washington simply don't want to. Why? Because some of them want the cheap labor that undocumented workers bring, and others want more people in our country who eventually will vote for their candidates. The legislation passed in states like Arizona and Alabama, and California's "Dream Act," are all symptoms of despair because the federal government refuses to stop the bleeding. How can the problems be fixed? By creating a counterfeit-proof identification card, and then re-adopting a "guest-worker" program in which people come legally into our country to work for the amount of time we decide they should stay. And then all employers who hire or retain workers without that card or a passport should be prosecuted. That will effectively close the borders, because people come here to work. Then we will be able to address the equally important human issues of who should be allowed to stay here and seek a path toward citizenship or other legal status.

Repeal the federal death penalty laws: Regardless of one's political philosophy, the death penalty is not working. And since we are a compassionate society, it will never work. All the death penalty does is to further punish the family members of the victims, and spend vast sums of money.

Bring competition back into our education system: Put the interests of children ahead of vested interests by setting up a "voucher" or "scholarship" system in which parents can choose where and how their children will be educated. It is clear that parents, rather than the government, are better able to decide how and where their children can be educated. If the parents are unhappy with the quality of the education provided by that school, they will take their children elsewhere.

Put competition back into the health care system: Divide people into three categories: people who can afford to take care of themselves, people who cannot, and those in between. Get the government completely out of the health care system for people who can take care of themselves. Today, anyone can find good quality health care for reasonable and competitive prices in two areas: Lasik eye surgery and cosmetic surgery. Why? Because the government is not involved. In fact, government has proved that it simply has no business in deciding what insurance policies will provide, or what they will cost. For those who cannot afford to take care of themselves, set up a system of clinics and hospitals on private contract with the government, which will be similar to the approach of Kaiser Permanente. Socialistic medicine? Yes, just like that great socialistic institution - the U.S. Navy. This system could be joined with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and military clinics, and it would provide competent care. It would also have the benefit of using government money for doctors, hospitals and medicines, instead of bureaucracy, administration and fraud. And for those in between, allow them to go to the government facilities, but require them to pay for the services on a sliding scale based upon their income.

Marijuana prohibition: Respect the rights and abilities of the people in each state to best decide how to address the issue of marijuana, and restrict the role of the federal government to helping each state enforce its chosen laws. That is what happened when Prohibition was repealed in 1933, and it has worked quite well. Not only is this approach virtually dictated by the Ninth and 10th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, it is clear that the federal government's "one size fits all" approach is not working.

Simplify the income tax system: After receiving recommendations from a blue-ribbon committee of non-political experts, pass workable variations of the FAIR tax, flat tax or national sales tax, and repeal our present income tax system. What we have today is laden with fraud, bureaucracy and political favoritism. And since the present costs of record-keeping and compliance by taxpayers are enormous, each taxpayer would receive a huge benefit even though the amount of their taxes paid would remain the same. In addition, many entities that are now inappropriately escaping from paying their fair share of taxes would be forced to do so. The government would also save enormous administration, investigation and prosecution expenses. So who opposes these changes? Some tax accountants and attorneys. But the largest opposing force comes from members of Congress, who would stand to lose much political leverage by giving tax breaks to some of their powerful constituents.

Synchronize our traffic signals: Even in today's technological age and with the high cost of gasoline, huge numbers of drivers are unnecessarily forced to stop for and wait at many red traffic lights. The federal government should set up a program both to synchronize those traffic lights with each other, and to keep traffic lights from changing for drivers who have already made their right turn on a red light. Think of the savings of time, money, gasoline imports and air quality that this program could effect.

Adopt the metric system: Bob Dylan once wrote that people are either busy being born or busy dying, and in many ways that is also true for countries. Not only would adopting the metric system make our goods more competitive in the international marketplace, we would also forcefully show both ourselves and the rest of the world that we are able to change, which means that we are still busy being born. Only Liberia (in West Africa), Myanmar Republic (formerly Burma) and the U.S. are not on the metric wystem. Canada effectively made the change in the 1970s, and we should do ourselves a favor and adopt this much more workable system as well.

Shorten the presidential election season: The federal government and its "leaders" are effectively polarized and paralyzed for the 18 months before the November presidential elections. That election season should be shortened. We should encourage the states to separate themselves into four geographical quadrants, and have the presidential primary elections in each quadrant at the same time. Those elections should begin in early April, and then be set only three weeks apart until early June. Then for the fairness of all, the order of quadrants for the elections should be rotated for the next presidential elections. In addition to reducing the time of polarization, this process would also reduce the costs and physical ordeals to the presidential candidates themselves.

None of these proposals would be particularly difficult to achieve. All we need is a display of some leadership from you. And who knows, this leadership might actually help you win the election.