New Year Wishes

J.F. Kelly, Jr. is a retired Navy Captain and bank executive who writes on current events and military subjects. He is a resident of Coronado, California. He has some New Year suggestions for the the Bush administration. He says instead of New Year’s resolutions, he offers some suggested national priorities for President Bush and the Congress in 2005. He had 10 suggestions of which I have listed five. They are:

A.) Muster the political courage and will to deal with illegal immigration. In a post 9/11 world, we can no longer afford to ignore the fact that we do not have effective control of our borders and have little idea of the identity and location of those millions who are here illegally. This is clearly not what a majority of Americans want and it is time for them to demand that their government put a stop to it. (HeavyHanded strongly endorses this suggestion.)

B.) Begin reform of our convoluted tax code. It should not require eleven hours for the average short form filer to complete a tax return. The hopelessly complicated tax code fills volumes and is largely incomprehensible to the average American who must hire experts in order to comply with the law. This is a stupid waste of manpower and energy that could be put to more productive use. We need to simplify the process through a flat tax or some sort of value added tax that will produce the same amount of revenue as the current system at a fraction of the cost and aggravation.

C.) Practice honesty and candor in foreign relations. America should stand up for what’s right, (ed. says -this might mean that we would have to use, may I dare say, heavyhanded tactics) not necessarily what’s “balanced” or “even-handed” in an attempt to please everyone. Diplomacy is a means to an end, not an end in itself, as some career diplomats in Foggy Bottom seem to think.

D.) Demand real reform in the United Nations as a condition for continued U.S. support. The problem involves more than just the well-documented corruption. It’s also the fact that the UN doesn’t work as it is currently structured. It is worse than ineffective. As a peacekeeping force and protector of victims of civil strife in such places as Bosnia and Ruanda, the UN has been counterproductive, permitting massacres to take place while blue helmeted “peacekeepers” just watched. The ad-vantages of committee membership are extended to corrupt, dictatorial regimes that use the UN as a forum to denounce us. Security Council membership includes France but not India, a much larger country. What sense does that make in today’s world?

E.) Maintain the political courage to carry through with social security and Medi-care reforms. We are living longer and need to delay retirement benefits to help save these vital programs. The challenge will be to keep older, healthy people in the workforce paying into the system longer.

To see the complete list of his 10 suggestions, go here.