September Surprise

I have refrained from using my perspective from the 28th century to report events to this period, but this was so monumental that I felt compelled to share the information. Don't worry too much, because Trump was just a minor blip in history who was mostly forgotten within a decade.

It was early September, and the country was getting used to the idea that Trump probably would be president for another term. We were even getting used to having a president who knew as much about the U.S. government as the typical kindergartener. Congress had determined to give up its powers to create the legislation that the president was responsible for carrying out. Trump hadn’t seemed all that unhealthy; although he was a hundred pounds over-weight. No one was really ready for his death from heart failure.

We should all take his untimely death as a warning. The cause was ventricular fibrillation that is thought to have resulted from an undiagnosed cardiomyopathy. It was the sort of thing that could go for decades without being noticed, and his annual examinations indicated that he was quite healthy for someone who got little exercise, but the myopathy could have developed even in a healthy person.

In addition to the funeral, the country and the political parties have to make some immediate changes. The Republicans need to put someone else at the top of their ticket, and the Democrat party has to decide whether their ticket is the right one for the post-Trump era.

Pence has made it clear that he would like to lead the party, and the national committee will have to make that decision, but there is question as to who would be at the top of the ticket, and the second-place person at the convention, Bill Weld, has claimed that he should be the presidential nominee, and a lot of history and custom agree with him. An even bigger problem is for all states to update their ballots. There are only two months to go, and there are many things that must be altered. The Republican Party has to decide immediately whether Mike Pence will move up to the top spot, or if it will be Bill Weld. If Pence moves, then a new VP nominee will have to be named.

If the death and changing the ballot weren't enough, some people have been claiming that Trump was actually poisoned. Like any good conspiracy theory there are questions as to whether Brernie Sanders and the Democrat Party poisoned Trump, or if it was done by government operatives from Eastern Europe

And there are others who assert this this was divine retribution for his many transgressions. And still others who point fingers at Republicans angry at Trump's abandonment of the values of Republicans.

The ballots in some states were already closed, and ones that can be changed will have to be changed by the end of September. Some people won't learn who to vote for until election day.

https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/20431

Improving Life in America

Some people were commenting on the size of the military budget of the United States of America. I simply agreed that it is rather large, but I thought a little more about it and realized that the more than six hundred billion was enough to pay attention to, and it is even enough to do something with. As we all know, the U.S.A. is more than twenty trillion in debt. The military budget isn’t enough to eliminate the debt, but it might get us on the way, but not directly. We should take half of the military budget (or maybe a little more) and give each citizen a million dollars.

A million dollars isn’t as much now as it was when John Beresford Tipton gave that much to a random person every week on the TV show, but a million could still help many people. People could pay off student debt, instead of writing that off, and they would still have enough to go out and but something. Others could payoff or buy a house, and that would be extremely handy for the homeless.

The would be a kicker in it. It would be taxable, but it would e at the new flat rate of 15% on all income. And they'd have the money, so they could and would pay the income tax, especially since it had been withheld. But with the new habit of paying income taxes, people would start to pay down the debt, and that would strengthen the U.S. economy, which would have the effect of making everyone wealthier. And it would make the government wealthier, because fifteen percent off the top would be a much larger amount that the negative income that the government is charging now. Fifteen percent is so little that even perennial scofflaws like Trump would be willing to pay some taxes, for a change.

It wouldn't take many years of collecting fifteen percent and applying it to the debt would make a major difference, and if we kept the custom of putting half of what the defense department was looking for to debt reduction the debt would decrease.

That would also make the dollar stronger and lower the Treasury Department's cost of borrowing. That wouldn't decrease the carrying cost, but it would lower the rate when the Treasury had to refund an issue.

That little fifteen percent (maybe we should make it twenty) tax would pay for everything that the feds have been doing, adjusting for the decrease in military spending, and it would make it easier for people and businesses to make money, so the economy would boom, especially after we get rid of Trump's tariffs.

The only downside would be unemployment among accountants and IRS workers, but some of them could switch to the improved tax scheme, so maybe there wouldn't be much unemployment, or maybe the accountants could do something useful instead. But with all the previously penniless people rolling in dough, they might become financial advisors.

With all the additional wealth, Americans could live the lives they only dreamed of, and life in America could truly be better.