Keith Ottinger for President of the United States of America

Vote Keith Ottinger in the 2020 Republican Primary for a better vision for America.

(and because Donald Trump isn't doing nearly as good a job as he says/could be.)

Please donate to my campaign if you can afford to

A note on my platform and the presidency in general: The president's primary job is to implement and enforce existing laws and the Constitution and their role in the law making process is simply to reject any really bad ideas that congress passes (it's actually congress's job to write and pass new laws). A small number of the policies outlined in my platform can be implemented via executive order but most will require congressional action. Therefore, if you want any real change it is important to reform congress or at least its membership so that it will do its job. To this end I am proposing federal primary reform and also a basic performance review for congresspeople to give voters more information, but even if these reforms are passed they will not be enough. It is necessary for voters to pay more attention to and vote in far larger numbers in congressional primaries and also the media needs to do a better job at highlighting these races. Finally, most of the policies presented are open to some compromise and for some issues multiple acceptable solutions are presented.

Constitutional Amendments

The pursuit of happiness is a human right and therefore it shall be illegal to attack or harm another person except in self defense including: assault, sexual assault, torture, rape, kidnap, and murder; in every state and territory of the United States of America. States must make reasonable efforts to prevent these crimes and punish perpetrators. This amendment creates rights for victims and if states fail to uphold these rights victims may sue their state in federal court and the judge for the case may award monetary damages as appropriate and order the state to take action or if the state is unwilling or unable to act the judge may order the federal government to intervene except for minor assaults and sexual assaults not part of a pattern or resulting in serious injury for which monetary awards and/or local/state action shall be the only remedies.

All federal law enforcement officers have a responsibility to notify local law enforcement of crimes against people in their jurisdiction of which they are aware, with the exception of the previously mentioned minor crimes, and if local law enforcement declines or fails to act the federal government shall have the authority and responsibility to investigate and prosecute the crimes itself.

The federal government can sue local and/or state governments for costs incurred investigating and prosecuting the afore mentioned crimes in their jurisdictions that are a direct result of this amendment and for imprisoning anyone convicted if the local or state government refuses to imprison them or it is determined the person would receive preferential or otherwise unfair treatment in such a facility. The rate of reimbursement for law enforcement and prosecution shall be determined by a federal judge based on written statements from both parties of relevant costs incurred, evidence uncovered, a history of such federal intervention that would show if there was a pattern of under policing, and the amount of cooperation given and received. The rate of reimbursement for incarceration costs shall be based on the expected cost to be incurred with allowance for inflation and be billed annually.

Would include specific legal definitions of these crimes including various levels of severity (1st degree, 2nd degree, etc.) and minimum punishments which for minor offenses would only be a small fine or some equivalent punishment such as community service. Alternatively and probably more likely, would include basic definitions with rock bottom minimums and give congress the ability to pass legislation designating various degrees of severity with specific minimum sentences based on some guidelines.

The presidential electors of each state shall be allocated proportionally based on the statewide results in the general election in the state. The number of electors for each state shall be 10 for each member of the House of Representatives and Senate the state is alloted. The 23rd amendment is repealed and Washington DC shall receive the same number of electors as the least populous state (consistent with the 23rd amendment). States need not choose actual electors and can instead have the governor or other official send a report to congress showing the electoral votes granted to each candidate based on the previously described proportional allocation. This would be a big improvement for the presidential election by eliminating the excessive focus of candidates on the "battleground states" and forcing candidates to take a more holistic approach to winning by appealing to voters across the country. Some will say this doesn't go far enough and we should move to the popular vote. I actually support the House and Senate voting on that and if it passes seeing how many states ratify it, because I think it has no chance of being ratified and is really just a distraction from other reforms that could be ratified and would improve the process. Also, I have serious doubts about the constitutionality of the NPVIC and it may not ever get enough support to go into effect regardless.

Primaries for federal offices shall be jungle primaries including all candidates on every ballot. Caucuses can be partisan as long as any registered voter can attend the caucus for any party and a vote is only being held for one office. Political parties can use the overall results of these primaries and caucuses as they see fit. Partisan primaries and especially closed primaries are very undemocratic. Even open primaries force voters to pick one party and vote for only candidates from that party. This amendment would end them for federal offices which will help reduce the partisanship at the federal level by creating a pathway for more centrist candidates to be competitive by appealing to the entire voting public in primaries instead of just members of one political party or voters that choose to vote in the party's primary. Would prefer to have the top 2 vote getters run in the general election and will push for that if there is enough support to pass it (would support congress passing both versions and letting the states ratify one or both with the provision that the top 2 primary amendment would supersede the other amendment if it were ratified).

The president shall be a nonpartisan office. The presidential primary shall also be nonpartisan. Candidates for the presidency of the United States shall be bared from publicly declaring their candidacy or raising money for their campaign prior to one year and one month before the general election. All donations received before this date shall be returned but still count against any contribution limits and any public declaration prior to this date shall result in being barred from one or more primary debates with the number of debates for a particular violation being decided by the supreme court prior to the first debate. Eight four hour federally sponsored primary debates shall be held between the first day of January and the last day of March in the year of each presidential election. The first two of these debates shall include the top ten candidates, the third and fourth shall include the top eight candidates, and the last four shall include the top six. Between two and three weeks prior to the first debate there shall be a candidate forum in which the top twenty candidates are each given five to ten minutes to present their platform and qualifications to the American people. Congress shall devise and fund a series of polls of the citizens in every division of the United States granted electoral votes the results of which shall be weighted based on the electoral vote fraction of each division respectively to determine the ranking of the candidates. At least two such polls with an overall margin of error of less than one percent shall be independently conducted in the six days preceding the day before each of the primary debates and forums. If there is an incumbent candidate they shall be barred from participating in the first four debates and shall not be counted against the number of participants for those debates. All of the primary debates and forums shall be aired live or at a designated time on all TV and radio stations that regularly air news programs and have broadcast licenses from the FCC. The video and audio feed shall be provided to these stations and any other stations wishing to broadcast them free of charge.

Congress shall pass rules for a nonpartisan primary system for the presidential candidates with primaries to be held in the months of April, May, and June following the debates. A primary shall be held in each state, territory, or other division of the United States whether granted electoral votes or not. The results of each primary shall be weighted based on the number of electoral college votes the division has and the overall results in divisions with no electoral votes (if any) shall be used as a tie breaker. Within six months of receiving the results of a census congress shall split the states and other territorial divisions of the United States into six groups with roughly equal numbers of electoral votes via a joint resolution of the House of Representatives and Senate. Primaries shall be held in all states in a group on the same day with at least two weeks between the primaries in each group. The order of the groups shall be selected at random two days after the final debate in March (or the first weekday thereafter if the second day falls on a weekend) for the first primary after a census. For the second primary after a census the first two primary groups shall be randomly selected from the fifth and sixth groups from the previous primary, the third and fourth primary groups shall be selected from the third and fourth groups from the previous primary, and the last two groups shall be selected randomly from the first two groups in the previous primary. If there is a third primary between censuses the first two primary groups shall be selected randomly from the third and fourth groups from the previous primary and the order for the last four primaries shall be selected randomly from the remaining groups. Congress can allow more debates within the primary months as long as the number of invited candidates is at least three and not more than six. The top two weighted vote getters in the primary shall select an eligible vice presidential candidate to team with for the general election. The electoral college shall vote on these teams instead of separate ballots for the president and vice president. In the event of an unbroken tie resulting in more than two candidates receiving the top two numbers of weighted votes all candidates receiving the top two numbers of weighted votes shall be allowed to run in the general election.

The purpose of this amendment is to create a more representative presidential primary and also to compress the presidential campaign so that more focus is given to what the current government (congress and the president) is doing to help the American people. The current system is really a joke with most candidates running on one thing in the primary and then "pivoting" for the general election. The current system also excludes many voters in states that don't have open primaries or voters who would like to vote for candidates from more than one party. Furthermore the current system greatly rewards candidates that appeal to a particular political party instead of the population as a whole and results in lack luster primary debates because of the limited variety of positions of the participating candidates. Finally, this system would eliminate the "spoiler effect" by creating a head-to-head campaign for the general election, but would also allow third party candidates a real chance to get on the debate stage with the major party candidates and present their platform to the American people.

Could change the candidacy declaration date to one year before the election for people that are currently or were within the last two years a member of congress, president or vice-president of the US, or state governor; and one year and one month (or just 1-2 extra weeks) for everyone else to give lesser known candidates a chance to build up name recognition and present their platform while maximizing the amount of time elected officials spend doing their job (could also exclude particularly high wealth people that can easily get publicity from this period). Also, the dates mentioned would be the earliest possible and would allow for further condensing of the election campaign period if congress chose to do so.

Repeal birthright citizenship: Only children with at least one citizen or permanent resident parent at their time of birth get automatic citizenship. If a parent of a minor child living in the United States attains permanent residency or citizenship before the child's eighteenth birthday the child shall receive the same status. All children born in the US and while under the age of eighteen and located within the territory of the US qualify for the same benefits as children born to citizen parents, except that they can be deported with their parents or alone if their parents do not live in the US and circumstances warrant and if so ordered by an immigration or other court. Once a child has been deported they shall no longer have automatic access to these benefits even if they return legally before their eighteenth birthday. Benefits that necessarily go to a parent or an entire household on a child's behalf such as housing subsidies may be prorated based on the number of qualifying individuals in the household. Birthright citizenship for children born to foreign nationals legally in US on a temporary basis or illegally in the US hasn't made sense for over a half century. The policy greatly complicates the administration and enforcement of immigration laws which, unfortunately, is seen as a feature by some and thus the policy remains even though there is no logical reason for it. There is even an industry set up to aid foreign nationals in gaming this outdated policy.

The internet is a utility and shall be regulated as such.

Privacy is a right.

Broaden the US Government's tort liability and extend the statute of limitations to 10 years after the tort ended and life or 20 years after the tort ended for cases involving long term false imprisonment, serious permanent disability, or death. Also, require the government to proactively make reasonable settlement offers when government officials know someones rights have been violated.

The federal government shall guarantee every US citizen and legal permanent resident residing within the United States and between the ages of 18 and 70 a minimum 36 hr/week job at or above the federal minimum wage. If necessary the federal government shall provide jobs itself. Any jobs provided by the federal government under this program can only be paid for using money from contracts for the work being done, fees on legal or illegal immigrants, fees or fines assessed on employers hiring temporary immigrant workers or people not legally authorized to work within the United States, or tariffs imposed on goods imported into the country. Immediately on learning of a shortfall in funding for this jobs program the president shall notify congress who will have 60 days to pass legislation to make up for the shortfall. If no such legislation becomes law within 60 days then the president shall make up the shortfall from the afore mentioned sources as they see fit until such legislation becomes law. The government may pay people the minimum wage they would make in lieu of providing them a job if employment is not feasible due to disability or other constraint. These jobs are exempt from state and local minimum wage laws, but state and local governments can partner with the federal government to create programs that pay a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage as long as the cost to the federal government does not increase. People serving a sentence in local, state, or federal prison lose the right to exercise this guarantee. Could also restrict this to just citizens or could require that green card holders wait and/or work for a year or more before they are eligible or could just restrict their ability to get payments in lieu of working.

Change the threshold for impeachment to two thirds of the House of Representatives and also require a majority vote in the House to start an impeachment inquiry. This isn't about the Trump impeachment specifically. The majority threshold for impeachment just seems out of place given that it takes two thirds of the House of Representatives to override a veto on a single bill or to expel one of their own members and the low threshold has now been abused by both parties within the span of about 2 decades to go after a president for charges very unlikely to result in conviction and removal from office by the Senate. Both of the recent Presidential impeachments would have been more appropriate as censures, which currently requires the same number of votes in the House as impeachment. Also, requiring a majority vote to start an impeachment inquiry makes sense because it gives the House additional power in the courts to compel the executive branch to produce documents and testimony which shouldn't be available at the whims of a small number of members of the House of Representatives. Basically, impeachment should require a large consensus with a deliberative process instead of being a relatively easy way for a small majority of the House to undermine a President, judge, or other official they don't like.

If the Senate does not vote on the confirmation of an officer or ambassador appointed by the President within 120 days the appointee shall be able to assume the office to which the President appointed them. If the appointee does not assume the office within 30 days the appointment shall be considered withdrawn. If the appointee assumes the office within this period they shall hold it in a provisional capacity and the Senate shall have the power to remove them for 30 days after such assumption with a majority vote. Congress shall have the power to implement additional reasonable oversight responsibilities and authority restrictions on such provisional officials. If they are not removed within 30 days the appointee shall be considered duly confirmed to the office. If the Senate does not vote on the confirmation of a judge appointed by the President within 180 days the appointee shall be able to assume the judgeship to which the president appointed them. If the appointee assumes the judgeship within 30 days they shall be considered duly confirmed by the Senate and serve in an unrestricted capacity otherwise their appointment shall be considered withdrawn.

The President shall no longer have the power to appoint officers during a recess of the Senate except if such recess is caused by armed conflict or other catastrophe that is preventing the Senate from meeting and the recess has been at least a month long and appears likely to continue for a significant period of time or if the Senate affirmatively votes to allow appointments to some or all positions during a particular recess. The idea behind this is that if a position is important enough to require Senate confirmation then it is too important to leave vacant or filled in an "acting" capacity for an extended period of time. This would allow the President to put in place officials they can work well with to run the government and also to fill vacant judgeships in a timely manner without depriving the Senate of their advise and consent role in the process. The Senate could meet these new time limits by pairing down the list of officials requiring confirmation and/or by giving expedited consideration to lower level officials and judges. Could allow for a somewhat longer time frame if the President nominates a large number of people in a short amount of time such as is likely to occur at the beginning of a new President's term.

Prisoners in federal, state, and local prisons shall be paid at least the minimum wage for any work they do while incarcerated in excess of 40 hours per week. The applicable minimum wage shall be the highest rate applicable throughout the imprisoning jurisdiction. Prisons shall make reasonable efforts to provide inmates with the opportunity to work 20 hours per week after reaching this 40 hour threshold. Inmates shall be allowed to substitute up to 10 hours (20 hours if they have less than 2 years left in their sentence) of educational or vocational training for work in meeting this 40 hour threshold provided the inmate shows they will benefit from such training and is making satisfactory progress toward completing the training. This right can be suspended for up to 1 year for violent or illegal behavior by an inmate while in prison and suspensions can be extended for additional violations during a suspension. Federal, state, and local governments shall have the authority to tax this pay differently than the wages of non-incarcerated persons and with different filing requirements, but such taxes cannot be excessive compared to taxes levied on similar income non-incarcerated persons. Inmates that meet the 40 hour threshold shall be considered to have paid for their room and board and may not be charged additional fees or levies against any additional pay they receive and if a prison charges such fees on inmates that do not meet this threshold inmates shall accrue a minimum of 1 hour of unpaid time a week that can be used to meet this threshold and avoid fees. Inmates unable to work because of infirmity or being in protective custody shall be exempt from such fees. Each jurisdiction shall pay for work below the 40 hour threshold at no less than the greater of 10% of their minimum wage and the standard rate paid to inmates by the jurisdiction at the beginning of 2020 accounting for inflation until 2040 and no less than 20% of their minimum wage thereafter. Also, governments can restrict access to working more than 40 hours to inmates with less than 10 years left to serve or that owe child support or other court ordered payments. Inmates under the age of 18 shall be able to substitute educational and/or vocational training for the entire 40 hour threshold, may not be charged fees or other levies for their time in prison, and may be restricted from working based on child labor laws in the imprisoning jurisdiction. All work done by prison inmates may be exempted from overtime laws.

The purpose of this amendment is obviously to help prison inmates turn their lives around by providing an opportunity and incentive to learn skills and earn a little money to aid them once they are released so that they will hopefully stay out of prison and stop being a burden on society which ultimately benefits everyone. Would consider a wage lower than the minimum wage for work above the 40 hour threshold but not less than half the minimum wage. Alternatively, could do a lower wage for inmates with more than 5 years left on their sentence and the full minimum wage for inmates with less than 5 years. Could just require 10-15% of the minimum wage for the first 40 hours after 2040 and also could allow jurisdictions to pay the average of their minimum wage and the federal minimum wage if their minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum wage to reflect the fact that prisoners aren't dealing with the actual cost of living while in prison but money they owe and future costs are still likely linked to the cost of living in the jurisdiction they were prosecuted in. Basically, the overall goal of this amendment is to help people getting out of prison be contributing members of society without being so generous as to make going to prison a better alternative for being successful than staying out of prison, which I think is better achieved by making more opportunities to help lift up people not in prison instead of trying to keep people in prison down. Everything in this amendment is intended as a minimum standard and jurisdictions are free to exceed them if they wish.

All states in the United States shall offer all persons within their jurisdiction a high quality primary and secondary education. Congress shall pass reasonable standards for reading, writing, and math that schools must meet. The federal government shall maintain public records on the performance of every public school in the country with respect to these standards. Individual failing schools or school districts with a pattern of failing to meet these standards for two years in any four year period may be sued in federal court. Petitions from thirty percent of affected students or their legal guardians/parents shall be necessary for standing. When successfully petitioned courts shall have the power to reform failing schools or school systems through the bankruptcy process.

No bill passed by congress shall exceed 100 pages except if it is divided into parts less than 100 pages each. Bills divided into parts shall contain no legal changes except within one of the parts and to the extent possible each part shall contain only closely related provisions. Both the House of Representatives and Senate shall, without exception, hold separate votes on each part of a multi-part bill either by recorded voice vote or paper ballot. Once each part of a bill has been voted on and as long as at least one part receives a majority of votes the bill shall be considered passed and shall contain all of the parts that received a majority of votes. The President shall have the authority to veto individual parts of multi-part bills and the Congress shall have the authority to individually override such vetoes using the same processes as are specified in this Constitution for standalone bills.

No court within the United States shall approve a consent decree in which any level of government or government agency is a defendant unless the duration of the consent decree is one year or less. Consent decrees can be extended annually as long as all three parties approve the extension.

No court within the United States shall approve a consent decree in which any level of government or government agency is a defendant unless all requirements of the consent decree are specifically within the legal discretionary authority of the official or agency consenting.

First acts once sworn in:

Nominate and get confirmed an Attorney General that will appoint a special counsel to investigate the Federal Bureau of "Investigation" and the Department of "Justice" as a whole for fraud and criminal violations. The investigation will look into actions related to the opioid epidemic (and related issues) which has killed over 100,000 Americans; especially the vast conspiracy drugging and manipulating people basically 24/7 for extended periods of time which is likely a major cause of the opioid epidemic and a serious civil rights issue on its own regardless.

Included in the victims of this conspiracy are children who are being deprived of the ability to learn basic skills needed for successful participation in society and this is even happening in public schools and universities making the conspiracy essentially a state sponsored scheme to inflict cruel and unusual punishment (also I believe that, as a matter of course, a ban on the government inflicting cruel and unusual punishment must also be a ban on the government treating the innocent/not-guilty in a cruel and unusual manner so it need not be punishment to be illegal) and also deprive people of other rights. The conspiracy regularly manipulates people into doing things to, in their eyes, justify yet more drugging. Also, many people visiting or working for the federal government in areas under federal jurisdiction are being drugged which is a direct violation of 18 U.S. Code Section 113.

Have the non corrupt elements of the FBI/DOJ investigate local police, sheriffs offices, and others working for local and state governments and also the federal government for violating peoples constitutional rights with respect to this conspiracy. In addition to obvious constitutional and federal law violations will pursue prosecutions for cruel and unusual treatment, including willfully refusing to stop members of the conspiracy from drugging/torturing people (will also investigate the FBI/DOJ for the cruel and unusual practice of not stopping cruel and unusual treatment).

General Policies/Positions

Will spend roughly 80% of time on non-partisan good government reforms to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of government and reduce its cost where possible.

Require grocery stores to provide the government a 5% discount at the register on SNAP benefits spending. Cut benefits by 4% to give beneficiaries ~25% of the savings to the government. Stores will not be allowed to limit available products for SNAP beneficiaries beyond what is already required by law.

Mandate all devices containing lithium ion battery packs with a capacity greater than 2000mAh and all battery management systems for external lithium ion battery packs with more than one cell have a charge voltage of 3.9V and if a voltage above 4.1V is included as an option a 4.05V or 4.1V option must also be included. This will reduce e-waste and save consumers money by extending the useful life of rechargeable batteries. May have a somewhat higher capacity threshold for batteries in devices that can be easily replaced by the user and are available from the manufacturer at a reasonable cost.

Modify social security to reduce the long term gap in benefits for people that start payments before reaching full retirement age and live past 90.

Modify Section 230 to only grant protection for censorship of material the platform in good faith believes to be illegal for their target users/audience.

Economy/Jobs

Parks for Makers: Create a grant program to fund the creation of innovation centers in US cities. These innovation centers would basically be huge maker spaces with a wide array of wood working, metal working, electronics, crafting, and some prototyping capabilities; plus, in larger cities, they could have expanded capabilities such as small batch manufacturing capabilities like injection molding, same day PCB printing, and large scale CNC routers, mills, lathes, and laser cutters; all available at no or very low admission/subscription fees (access to expanded capabilities would be managed with some combination of moderate market based fees to avoid market issues/overuse and a queuing system that gives priority access to people with less frequent usage). The exact capabilities at each innovation center would ultimately be up to the city and/or state it is located in with the federal government simply paying for a portion of the cost based on the population of the city (smaller cities would get a lower percentage for larger/more expensive equipment and for building square footage above a population dependent value) and proximity to other larger cities with the capabilities they decide to make available. These would be partially funded through the sale of materials, components, tools/tooling, and consumables commonly used with the equipment available at the individual facility (ideally this would cover day to day operations). The Federal government could offer insurance with, for example, a 10% copay if the center is determined not to be at fault and a 30% copay if they are, which could be reducible down to 20% if they agree to take additional measures to try to prevent future accidents.

Increase federal minimum wage to $9.00/hr in first 90 days and study further increases, indexing the minimum wage to inflation, and/or possibly converting it into a geographically dependent value based on the local cost of living. Note that the federal minimum wage is only the minimum and needs to take into account the lowest cost of living areas in the country and cities and states are free to set a higher minimum wage for their jurisdictions. Democrats that want to increase it much more than this are just trying to perpetuate the myth that they (and the government) are responsible for people making more money when in reality if they would just let us have and enforce an immigration policy for the benefit of citizens and permanent residents wages would be much higher and the minimum wage would be irrelevant except as a tool to prevent people from being taken advantage of. Plus bigger increases will potentially eliminate millions of jobs (likely 1.3 million and up to 3.7 million for $15/hr in 2025 according to the Congressional Budget Office) which will disproportionately hurt the most needy and while those employed will be making more they will be at risk of being taken advantage of or fired for small infractions since there will be many people willing to take their job. A high federal minimum wage will also disproportionately hurt rural/low cost of living areas, which is likely where most of the predicted job losses will occur. Basically I want to increase workers bargaining power by reducing low skill immigration (legal and illegal) so that workers can get higher pay and better benefits without the need for potentially making a million plus people unemployed.

Several pieces of my platform aim to reduce the cost of living which raises the real value of everyone's pay or at least everyone that takes advantage of the changes. Decreasing the cost of living also helps America stay competitive over the long term and will reduce the benefits of outsourcing manufacturing and other jobs.

Implement a 10% sales tax on non-consumable items that have a short or no warranty and/or are not user repairable (preferably with a modular "plug-n-play" design and cheap replacement parts and easy disassembly for internal cleaning if applicable). This would have a 1-2 year implementation period to allow time for manufacturers and designers to update products and sell old stock. This policy is important because many products with the lowest prices and very short warranty periods don't represent a good value and thus hurt the United States' competitiveness and needlessly waste resources. This will also create more decent paying jobs repairing stuff that won't be able to be outsourced. Would exempt hand-made and custom items and have a low price cut-off around $20. Not an ideal policy but the market is failing because many of these products could be made to last much longer and/or be more easily repaired with only a small increase in price. Will increase the standard deduction and/or refundable tax credits to offset the cost of this new tax for lower income Americans.

Overall, I think the "good jobs" politicians of both parties routinely talk about is a fallacy and that most jobs could be good paying jobs if we had the right policies. Basic economic theory suggests that workers' wages are determined by two factors. The first factor is how much value they produce for their employers which determines the absolute maximum wage a job can pay though the effective maximum may be lower if the job can be automated at a lower cost. The second factor is how many people are able and willing to do their job at any given wage which determines how much a job actually pays. For the past several decades US politicians have routinely pushed policies that expand the pool of workers through both excessive legal and illegal low skill immigration, bad trade deals, and other short term thinking so that even as the value of their employees' work increased (i.e. corporate profits) companies were able to avoid raising pay because of a glut of labor.

Constitutional amendment to guarantee American citizens a full time job at or above the federal minimum wage (see constitutional amendments section).

Require all employers to provide employees a minimum of 10 paid or unpaid vacation or sick days each calendar year without punishment. The surgeon general (or maybe some other official like the HHS secretary or a combination of officials) will have the authority to extend this to up to 20 days in the event of an actual declared national health emergency. Note: the difference between 10 paid days and 10 unpaid days is only 4 percent of a workers annual pay, but because in some cases workers may need to take off a large number of days in a short period of time would also require employers to allow employees to spread an unpaid leave period of more than 2 days (for a 2 week pay period) over multiple paychecks by taking 2 days pay off of each paycheck until all of the time has been accounted for (would allow employers to require workers to return to work before receiving the pay advance and/or implement a minimum employment duration for this benefit). For workers that receive only a part of their typical pay for sick days and/or employers with pay periods other than 2 weeks the pay advance benefit would kick in once the total loss of compensation in a pay period exceeds 20 percent of a workers typical pay.

Push for immigration policy for the benefit of American workers (to increase wages) especially for low skill occupations.

Immigration

Will secure the border and also push to prevent new visa overstays.

Build a barrier on the Southern border where appropriate to help secure the border.

Push for immigration policy for the benefit of American workers. Reduce the amount of permanent legal immigration automatically allowed each year to 500-600k and make allowing more immigrants in based on employment and wage growth metrics. Would set this up so that permanent immigration would decrease slightly to 800-900k under conditions similar to current conditions (circa Summer 2019), but would also allow for more legal immigration than we currently have in the event of an actual labor shortage. Will also evaluate the number of temporary work visas allowed each year especially for non-agriculture year round jobs.

Improve the accuracy of E-Verify and mandate its use nationwide.

No amnesty for illegal immigrants unless new illegal immigration (both border crossers and visa overstays) is essentially halted. This must be maintained for a period of years before I would sign an amnesty bill. We have seen what happens when the amnesty comes first, is guaranteed, or conditioned on easy to meet or meaningless metrics: we will be right back where we are now in a few decades. Basically, there is zero reason for congress to pass a "comprehensive" immigration overhaul except as a conduit for implementing policies that would never stand up to public scrutiny on their own such as amnesty for illegal immigrants without having first stopped new illegal immigrants from entering the country or overstaying visas in large numbers.

Any amnesty would be an indefinite duration DACA like semi-permanent legal status with a work permit but no path to permanent residence or citizenship except by applying to immigrate just like everyone else that legally comes here from another country.

Modify asylum law to create a straight forward process that allows people to apply from their home country and disallow people that illegally entered the country from either Canada or Mexico (both of which are relatively safe) from applying.

Hire more immigration judges to eliminate case backlog.

Constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship for people in the US illegally or on a temporary visa (see constitutional amendments section).

Fine employers up to $250k for saying "jobs Americans don't want to do" or any equivalent statement, because it's illegal discrimination based on national origin/immigration status and also untrue. Americans are willing to do any job if the pay and benefits are commensurate with the difficulty and conditions of the work. If there are jobs that for the greater good we as a country would like to have low paid immigrants to do then we should create a well regulated temporary visa program with a pay withholding system so that they do not get a significant portion of their pay until they have left the country and will therefore be very likely to leave when their visa expires. (Note: the interesting thing about that statement is that it is usually used as a justification for illegal immigration "because Americans don't want to work in agriculture" but if there is a shortage of agriculture workers clearly illegal immigrants prefer not to work in agriculture as well.) Not really going to try to implement the fine but want to draw attention to this issue and will definitely prosecute employers for illegal employment discrimination of all sorts.

Trade

Pursue fair trade.

Reciprocal trade act (proposed by President Trump).

Look into ways to make it easier and cheaper to import small shipments by sea in a shared container (LCL). Will likely include eliminating the need for a customs bond on low volume and value shipments and/or creating a tiered pricing structure for such bonds. This would be a big boost to small businesses engaged in international trade.

Perform a national security review to make sure the US has the ability to manufacture all important products for military and economic operations or could quickly develop such ability in the event of a large scale conflict. Important because cargo ships haven't gotten much harder to sink but modern technology makes them very easy to locate and target such that ocean freight to and from the US would be very unreliable if possible at all during a large conflict.

Create, or get an international development agency to create, a wholesale e-commerce website where producers in developing nations can list items they produce for sale to developed countries and also other developing countries. As part of this would offer help with translation and possibly other services such as logistics, internet access, photography, etc. Initially would charge no or low fees to attract businesses, but would aim to make the platform self sufficient over time. Would help level the playing field when it comes to selling stuff to small and medium size importers where China currently gets most of the business because their products are the easiest to find. This will likely not produce much benefit for a decade or so, but if implemented and managed with a long term focus could eventually be a major trading platform and help many in the US and developing world.

Financial Regulation

Require all investment funds and asset managers to pass through voting right on all stocks or other financial instruments with such rights to their investors on a proportional ownership basis. Voting rights for partial shares shall be assigned based on a lottery or other reasonable method. Funds may not require or incentivize the transfer of voting rights in exchange for participation in a fund.

Infrastructure

Double the federal gas tax to $0.36 per gallon (hasn't been increased since 1993) and use the proceeds to fund infrastructure projects on an ongoing basis instead of doing a one-off, debt funded, band-aid infrastructure bill.

Increase the aviation gas tax to $0.40 per gallon (currently $0.194/gallon). This would also go toward infrastructure with a preference for airport related projects.

Implement a miles driven tax for pure electric and plug-in hybrid motor vehicles so these vehicles will pay highway taxes on the fraction of operation they are not powered by a taxed fuel.

Miles would be self reported with checks against data such as vehicle inspection records where available.
Would initially set the rate below what the gas tax equivalent would be to help these technologies continue to mature.
The tax rate will be vehicle model specific based on weight and, for plug-in hybrids, the expected fraction of miles driven using electricity from an external source.
Rates will likely vary from $8-15 per 1000 miles for pure electric vehicles and would be substantially less for plug-in hybrids.

Will increase the standard deduction and/or refundable tax credits to offset the cost of these new taxes for lower income Americans.

Environmental Policy/Climate Change

Fair trade as a solution or at least necessary step in combating global warming. Paris deal makes no sense because it promotes offshoring by giving developing countries a pass even when the emissions are created producing products to be shipped to developed countries. Because of this current deals will not solve the problem and will actually make it worse at least as far as manufacturing is concerned.

Increase the federal motor vehicle exemption for electric bicycles to roughly 40 mph, 2000 W, and 200 lbs (exact values to be determined, might create 2 classes with > 30 mph and/or > 1000 W requiring 3+ wheels). Also, add safety standards for this new category including: high quality disc brakes, lights, helmet use, etc.

Create a new class of low speed vehicles (LSVs) with improved safety features compared to existing requirements but still below the safety standards of standard cars and trucks. Preferably would create a single regulatory system for the entire country to allow for mass production but would pursue incentives for adoption of the new standards if there isn't enough support for that. These vehicles would be allowed to travel up 40 mph (or possibly 45 mph or may create 2 classes with one having an upper limit of 35 mph and the other 45 mph) and on all roads with speed limits at or below 45 mph and, subject to state approval, on roads with speed limits up to 55 mph if there is no feasible alternative route (not including interstates except under extraordinary circumstances). Initially would only allow these vehicles to be driven by people over 18 (or maybe even older ie 21) to determine if the safety standards and regulations are appropriate. The hope is that these can be significantly lighter, cheaper, and more efficient than standard cars and appeal to government and business fleet operators that don't need all their vehicles to have highway access and also to budget conscious consumers that don't frequently make long trips.

Increase fuel efficiency standards for highway vehicles so that they keep pace with advances in vehicle technology.

My platform in it's entirety will probably do as much to combat climate change as anyone else running for president including Democrats if you take into account the likelihood of implementation and I'm not even focusing on it that much. Note that candidates proposing to meet a goal in some year when they will not be in office is meaningless and you should only consider the policies they are actually pushing for and will be able to implement. However, if you're not convinced of that, my plan to eliminate fossil fuels by 2031, 2032, 2033, and 2034 (for each successive year of my presidency, respectively) is fusion energy which as everyone knows is only 10 years away and will be so cheap we won't even need to meter it.

Health Care/Insurance

The US currently pays much more per capita for health care than any other major nation which greatly restricts access to health care and puts US companies at a significant disadvantage when trying to hire workers/perform work in the US. This makes health care not only a major domestic issue but also important to competing in the global economy.

Solutions to this issue are greatly dependent on what congress is willing to pass. Two possible policies I think are acceptable and would improve the health care situation in the US are:
1. Medicare pricing for all (not necessarily current rates but cheaper than the current average) including negotiated prescription prices but keep current mixed public private system (health care price controls but still have private insurance companies) (half the socialism with 90+% of the benefit)
  - Will increase efficiency by eliminating all of the negotiations between health care consumers/insurance companies and providers of health care and medicines. Will also allow for a system to be built so patients can easily determine the actual cost of a procedure at various facilities.
  - Will eliminate special insurance plan networks by requiring insurance companies to have the same policy for payments to all providers. Thus there would be no more out of network charges.
  - The Medicare price would be the maximum anyone could charge. Health care providers would be allowed to offer lower prices as long as they are publicly posted and offered to everyone. The lower prices would have to be in the form of an across the board discount on the Medicare rates to maintain the simplicity of a unified pricing structure.
  - Will actually increase competition in the health care market by eliminating the incentive for creating large provider networks (more bargaining power in negotiations with insurers) and creating the most transparent pricing system possible.
2. Medicare pricing for all including negotiated prescription prices with government provided high deductible or coinsurance plans for US citizens and permanent residents
  - Two options:
  - Private insurance would still exist and be the primary claim processor for most people with the government simply paying for covered expenses above the government plan deductible.
  - Could allow people with incomes below approximately $50k to be able to go without private insurance and simply submit health care expense information to a government contracted claim processor for reimbursement or direct payment above the deductible (basically this would be a bare bones public option with individuals serving as their own insurance company). Could also allow higher income people to do this if they pay an administrative fee.
  - People 55 and over and all current Medicare beneficiaries would be given the option of keeping traditional Medicare or switching to the new system. People younger than 55 would be on the new system even after reaching age 65 (it will be objectively better for the bottom half of earners).
  - This would be paid for with savings on current Medicare (if any) and an increase in the Medicare tax rate. There would be a separate tax/fee for high net worth low income people to make sure they pay for a fair percentage of the coverage they receive. Even though the Medicare tax itself is regressive overall this is still a progressive policy because of the strong income dependence of the deductible/coinsurance.

The first of these plans would greatly expand access to health care by lowering it's cost while the second would result in universal health insurance coverage as well as greatly improved affordability. Thus, both plans would result in better overall health outcomes for the American people while also lowering the cost of health care in the US.

Basically my plan is to transform the health care industry into a utility like sector with lower profits and pass along the savings to people/companies that pay for health care thereby improving access to health care and the competitiveness of US companies in the global economy.

Both plans would be accompanied by reforms such as tort reform and regulation changes that would actually reduce the cost of operating a medical facility and thus make lower prices more sustainable and better reflect the increased public service of the new low profit model.

The most significant criticism of this approach is that it will reduce innovation in health care by reducing the profit incentive. This could be remedied or at least alleviated by providing tax incentives and/or a special bonus payment of some sort above what the standard rate would be for the first 10 years after an innovative product, medication, or procedure is introduced. Also, would increase funding for medical research at universities and other institutions in the US.

Government Accountability

Push for legislation to require the CBO to put out statistics on the job performance of congress members (both the House and Senate) every January and July. As part of this the CBO would rank the significance of each bill and amendment submitted by a member from 1 to 10 based on the significance of the changes proposed in the bill with anything over a 6 being considered major, 4 through 6 being considered moderate, and everything else being minor. The statistics would include the following for minor, moderate, and major legislation and amendments separately: fraction of votes present for, bills/amendments submitted, bills/amendments submitted that were brought up for a vote, bills/amendments submitted that passed the members chamber, and bills/amendments submitted that became law. For bills and amendments with more than one author the score would be divided by the number of authors. Instead of the major/moderate/minor classification could just weight the bills and amendments by the numeric score which would be more accurate but necessitate more accurate scoring.

Require employees of the federal government including elected officials to annually reaffirm their oath of office and make it a crime to purposefully and willfully violate a federally mandated oath of office.

Elections

Monetary penalties for states or counties with excessive wait times to vote in federal elections. It will no longer be a money saving strategy to underfund elections.

Make the harvesting of mail in ballots illegal for elections that include one or more federal offices. Require local or state governments to provide return envelopes and pay for postage for all mail in ballots using a postage mark and payment system similar to business reply mail. Require the post office to deliver with full tracking all ballots mailed within a state for the price of a first class stamp and ballots mailed from outside a state for twice the cost of a first class stamp. Would also allow states to send out mail in ballots using this service. Mandate that all mail in ballots be returned using this service so that custody and delivery can be assured.

Taxes

No cuts or increases planned at this point (except for the changes outlined elsewhere in this platform). Will consider reforms, cuts, or increases on an as needed basis.

End the carried interest loophole.

Large cuts very unlikely given the governments financial position.

New States/Territory Reform

Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands - push for state hood for Puerto Rico and allow the US Virgin Islands to join the state outright or as a self governing territory similar to the status given to Native American territory within existing US states.

DC - Return residential areas in DC to the state of Maryland (possibly under exclusive federal control). This would let the people of DC vote for President and Senators through the state of Maryland and have representation in the House and possibly their own congressional district. OR Could pass a constitutional amendment giving DC a congressional district and allowing them to vote for President and Senators as if they were citizens of the state that controlled the land on which they live before it became part of DC. Also would count them as part of the states population for determining how many electoral votes the state gets. This would not be a separate apportionment but an add on based on some reasonable measure of population per representative in the house.

Pacific Islands - Create a process whereby islands in the Pacific Ocean that are US Territories can join the state of Hawaii as self governing territories so they can have a say in the US government.

Foreign Policy

No unnecessary wars or police actions.

Education/College Cost

Push to reduce college cost instead of making it free and additionally will push for a refundable tax credit for 19-22 year olds of ~$2500/year that they could use for starting a business, paying for college, saving for a rainy day or house down-payment, etc.

Plan to address college cost:

Push states to eliminate some or all of the duplication between high school and college by allowing students to take college courses in high school classrooms for dual credit by bringing in teachers from an accredited community or other college.
Create incentives for high schools to offer meaningful career training for students or make it easy for them to attend courses at a nearby community college or technical school for dual credit.
Once the two previous points are achieved and if they are successful would push to allow and make it straight forward for eighth graders to take high school courses for high school credit so students will be able to receive even more college credit or career training while in high school.
The goal of these changes would be to cut 1-2 and possibly more semesters off the time it takes to earn a college degree after graduating from high school. Which would save states, the federal government, and students substantial amounts of money. Some of these savings could be put back into the system for more need based aid or other help for disadvantaged students.

Will not support a broad write off of student loan debt but will consider lower rates and targeted debt relief.

Create a system to promote cheap learn on your own internet courses with testing leading to actual degrees.

Low interest rates for medical school and/or low rates for people that go into specialties or work in locations where there is a shortage of their specialty as part of a package to reduce the cost of health care.

Law Enforcement

Require the DOJ/FBI to do their jobs if they want to get paid.

Split the FBI into two separate agencies. The main part which will maintain the FBI name will handle the national law enforcement responsibilities of the federal government with respect to crimes within the United States. The other part will generally handle the current FBI's responsibilities with respect to international terrorism, crimes abroad that break US law, and counter intelligence operations; or could move some of these responsibilities to other agencies in whole or in part. This will create a firewall between standard criminal investigations subject to constitutional limits and the enhanced capabilities and lower evidentiary threshold granted to agencies investigating non-citizens abroad.

No person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States shall be given immunity from or preferential treatment in a federal prosecution or sentencing decision unless they provide significant material evidence to aid in the prosecution of another crime. Any preferential treatment shall only be valid for one or more specific previous crimes with a combined sentence equal to or less than the sentence sought by prosecutors in the prosecution they aided. Would allow judges to examine whether prosecutors purposefully inflated their sentencing recommendation based on the case they presented and lower the effective sentencing recommendation for the purposes of determining whether such a deal is fully or partially valid. Could make this a constitutional amendment and have it apply to state and local law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges as well.

Military

Look into creating a hybrid military/government employment service to allow military spending to be more equipment based with soldiers in the new service being paid primarily by other agencies. This would be a substantially more rigorous version of national guard or reserve service with full time employment by the federal government. For example, enrollees could spend 2 months a year on active duty and 10 months working for and being paid by another government agency (also could do 4/8 or 6/6). The active duty periods could be offset so the agency would always have the same number of enrollees on its payroll. Training during the off-duty period could be minimal or regular depending on a variety of factors including the type of work being performed and its relevance to military service and how well the employee maintains their physical fitness. People participating in this program would make the same or more than they would just joining the military. This would be primarily targeted at active duty, enlisted army personnel stationed within the United States. Note: The DOD spends about the same on personnel as the entire budgets of the next 2 highest funded departments of the US government combined (~ $150 billion ) so even a 10% savings would be substantial.

Housing/Big City Development

To lower housing costs in America's biggest cities the cities should develop plans for the long term development of their jurisdiction and then buy up entire blocks at once using eminent domain based on those plans. The cities could then go through the process of changing the zoning on the property to match their long term plan and auction off the property so the value of the changed zoning would accrue to taxpayers instead of politically connected developers. The winner of the auction would be required to sign a lease with annual rent equal to some percentage of their winning bid and with the option to buy at the property for their winning bid if certain conditions such as building an appropriate structure are met in a specified number of years. This would allow cities to take a much tougher stance on developers looking for zoning concessions and also with property owners that abuse their tenants to try to get them to move out. Also, cities could simply keep some of the land and buildings they buy through this process for parks, schools, or other facilities. Of course, people that get evicted because of this policy will not be happy but the city could help them find comparable space and/or could compensate them with some of the money they make from the auction and this policy will give cities much more control over the amount of and type of development especially housing which is in short supply in most large cities and thus this policy has great potential to help the populations of cities overall. This isn't really a federal issue so the president has very limited authority to do this, but I wanted to put the policy out there in case some of the cities in question were looking for a solution to their housing affordability problem.

Potential Policies that need more Research

Build high speed rail on Interstate right of ways (likely the median most of the way) and/or existing rail right of ways.

Have the Post Office create various sizes of small to medium, long life, reusable plastic shipping containers with embedded prox card type tech so they wouldn't require labels (this would allow them to be very small relative to current packages and thus be cheaper to ship). These would ship at reduced/very competitive rates for first class and priority similar to the savings offered by their current flat rate priority offerings. There would likely be a fully refundable deposit paid by the shipper and if they were shipped when picked up at the post office the deposit could be discounted. The receiver of these containers would need to place them back in their mailbox and the deposit would be fully refunded once the Post Office received them back. If successful this would greatly reduce plastic and styrofoam shipping waste as well as cardboard usage.

Paid for by the Committee to elect Keith Ottinger