I don't think my plan would go over so well with the rest of APS.
First, I don't believe in sudden, sweeping change. Too much collateral damage.
Second, I think that within the existing framework, public health care should be a readily available option, and if I wasn't assassinated by my APS colleagues in Congress, I'd work towards implementing that.
Third, yeah, like others have said, the War on Drugs is over. The DEA is gone. Other agencies heavily scaled back. In keeping with item one though, this is a slow process.
Fourth, absolutely implement an automatic sunset on all legislation. Times change; laws shouldn't stay the same just for the fun of eating up more money.
See, it's axiomatic that moderates are boring and unimaginative. No. Moderates can envision sweeping change, even when getting to the turning point requires embracing the opposite of the ultimate goal, at least procedurally.
I'll get as enthused as anyone else at the prospect of a different reality, but I don't really want my friends and neighbors thrown out of their jobs overnight. I don't really want to be competing with thousands of ex-fedgov employees for scarcer jobs all at once. For that matter, I kind of want my food stamps next month. All those federal regulatory authorities and entitlements would need to be augmented or replaced by state agencies and private organizations as they are cut or eliminated, but states are going to need some time to work that out. It should take a couple of gubernatorial terms to do so, let people figure it out and vote according.
Lightning kills. A slow fire sustains. I'll take a slow fire any day. You all can keep your sweeping reforms.
And yeah, on healthcare, ultimately, the idea would be that once states develop their own stronger governments and rely less heavily on federal funding and standards and agencies, states would begin to develop their own systems for addressing the difficulties in health care delivery that end up costing so much on so many levels. Once a program is on a state level, there are so many more options for ensuring that private charity bears some of the burden, for keeping costs low, for rationing care in ways that make sense, for locating and distributing local low-cost resources, etc.
I may be the quiet liberal of APS, but only for today, tomorrow, and next week. My ideal US in fifty years is probably pretty similar to many others' here. I just believe in cautious, careful, and bloodless change.
What can I say, I grew up a stone's throw from Canada. Life is exciting enough without bloody revolutions.