Our county chair got this email

[rurallib]

The guy who sent it said to pass it on:

Greg "Holly" Hollister, Colonel, USAF, Retired

If I Were President

During the budget battle of 1995, I acquired a copy of the CBO grading of
the Federal Budget. I learned that MEDICARE and MEDICAID actually increased
above the inflation rate and that Clinton, Gore, Daschle and Gephardt lied
to the American people about so called “cuts” and “gutting” of these
programs. In the meantime, entitlements have continued to grow at a rate
that will essentially leave no discretionary spending for Defense by the
year 2020. In parallel, Social Security will become insolvent as the baby
boomer generation retires and the increased reliance on foreign oil and its
rising prices will continue to remain a national security issue while it
constrains growth, and possibly generates a recession on the Global Economy
All of this occurs while we are fighting a Global War on Terror. While this
looks pretty gloomy at first blush, if we take these issues on directly, and
with a sense of urgency, we will overcome and create an even stronger, more
vibrant America that continues to lead the world in peace, security and
prosperity. How will we do this?

First, we need to continue to take the fight to the terrorists but we need
to do it in a balanced, strategic manner. There are three critical
components to international policy with which we have to work: political,
military and economic (I earned dual degrees at the USAF Academy – one in
management and the other in economics - and served 20 years on active duty
in the USAF). This model was studied extensively in each mid level and
senior service school I completed – Marine Corps Command and Staff College,
Air Command and Staff College, Armed Forces Staff College, Air War College
and Army War College. Our strategy has been overreliant on use of Force
without sufficient leverage of Political and Economic leverage. This needs
to change.


We need to get NATO, France, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait
directly engaged in stabilizing Iraq. We need to leverage Political and
Economic strength to make this a reality. We should leverage requirements
such as the Air Force Tanker Fleet Replacement Program (KCX) to convince
NATO to participate with troop and envoy placement in Iraq. Essentially, we
give up some market share to the European based EADS Aircraft manufacturer
in exchange for a significant number of NATO troops and envoys. A deal
could be struck to guarantee that half of the tanker fleet will be acquired
from EADS North America, with a guarantee that the Aircraft will be
constructed in the United States and that NATO would provide 45,000 ground
troops and 50 additional envoys to work in provinces within Iraq. France is
part of the EADS consortium and would benefit from that business deal as
well and would send a contingent of 10,000 troops in exchange for this
business proposition.

Turkey should be heavily consulted in an attempt to better understand how to
best deal with sectarian differences in the region. For example, Attaturk
conceived and implemented an approach that repatriated Christians to Greece
from Turkey and Muslims from Greece to Turkey to minimize ethnic violence
and help unify both countries. A similar approach should be studied,
modified and implemented in the region.

While Russia has been cooperative with control and destruction of weapons
grade nuclear material, we can do more to assist them financially for a
Russian troop presence in Iraq. Expansion of efforts the Nuclear Threat
Initiative has begun under the leadership of former Senator Sam Nunn and
Senator Richard Lugar in the form of financial compensation should be
increased. In addition, sharing of missile defense technology with Russia
should be used as an incentive for Russia to bring troops into Iraq.

Finally, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait should be expected and requested to provide
troops as well from a geographic juxtaposition perspective as well as an
understanding of the culture. These initiatives would provide a good start
in balancing our approach across all three incentive areas – political,
military and economic - all the while improving the rotation rate for our
troops and getting skin in the game from these countries and organizations
for a successful transition to Iraqi provided security in the country.

With regard to entitlements, we need to do a rapid evolutionary change to
the current structure. When I was a student at the Army War College in
1993, I did my own analysis and discovered that if MEDICARE and MEDICAID
were incorporated into the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program, that
savings up to $956billion could be realized in as little as 4 years. As
part of my analysis prior to implementing change, I would sit down with the
Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Health Care Finance
Administration, and develop a realistic, phased approach to achieve such a
goal.

Concurrently, I would use the model of Health Savings Accounts implemented
at Whole Foods as a means to provide affordable Health Care to citizens in a
competitive market place. Health Savings Accounts are owned by the
individual, or family, and are carried into the next year if not spent in
the current medical year. These accounts, coupled with catastrophic
insurance for things like cancer, diabetes treatment, and heart attacks,
ensure that individual savings are not wiped out while providing a market
based approach to health care overall. This approach provides an economic
incentive for citizens to save, providing additional cash in the economy for
investment and, in the end, overall growth. This restructuring would allow
for reallocation of treasury funds for recapitalization of our defense
capabilities as well as our roads and bridges.

Social Security will become insolvent in the not so distant future. We need
to make some tough choices here from indexing, to means testing to partial
privatization. This must be done to ensure programs like Social Security
Disability are there as a safety net for all Americans who need that net.
This also means that if someone is making $200,000, or more, in retirement
income, they should not and would not receive Social Security benefits. In
the long run, partial privatization allows for the growth of real wealth on
the part of future generations and gradually weans people off the current
system. Again, this allows for revenue to be reallocated to funding
Defense, investment in our roads and bridges, and buying down the national
debt.

Energy independence is key to all this. France decided in 1973 to become
energy independent and is well on its way with 80 percent of its energy
being produced by nuclear power plants. The United States needs to take a
heterogeneous mix approach to become energy independent. This includes
revitalizing the use of nuclear energy as well as harvesting current oil,
oil shale, and coal deposits and marrying them up with clean burning
technology. We also need to harness renewable energy such as wind and
solar. Employment of superconductive nanotechnology material will reduce
loss in transmission media and make power lines more efficient, reducing
loss there, as well as improving the power generation capability of solar
cells.

To effectively fight the Global War on Terror, we need to return to more of
a helping hand presence rather than one of domination around the globe –
particularly in Southwest Asia. Increasing the presence of other countries
as mentioned earlier and repatriating Iraq will do this. While eliminating
our presence in toto in the near term in not realistic, there is much that
can be done to reduce our footprint, ergo the perception that we are an
occupation force. Concurrent with the drawdown in Southwest Asia from an
overt perspective, we need to increase our covert and clandestine
capabilities in Southwest Asia and around the globe so that we make informed
decisions on hard evidence rather than someone’s arbitrary shaping of the
data. In order to do this we need an overall increase in Defense and
National Agencies from 4.3% of GDP up to approximately 5.1% to begin with
and then scale up or down as we move forward. As part of this process, in
addition to restructuring outlays, we need to keep tax cuts in place and
reduce the rate of growth in government.

In order to implement such an approach I would need a strong team in place
with the understanding of the problems and a will to see things through to a
successful conclusion. To that end I would staff certain key positions with
the following people:

Special Advisors to the President
Former Senator Bob Dole, Senator Dan Inouye, Senator John Warner

Vice President – former Congressman JC Watts
National Security Advisor – former Senator Sam Nunn
Chief of Staff – former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of State
Colin Powell
Secretary of State – Senator Richard Lugar
Secretary of Defense – Senator John McCain
Assistant Secretary of Defense – Senator Jim Webb
Secretary of the Navy – Congressman Gene Taylor
Secretary of the Army - former Chief of Staff of the Army General Eric
Shinseki
Secretary of the Air Force – former Chief of Staff of the Air Force General
Ron Fogleman
Secretary of Commerce – former Governor Mitt Romney
Secretary of Health and Human Services – former Governor Dick Lamm
Ambassador to the UN – former Senator and Medal of Honor Recipient Bob
Kerrey
Ambassador to Iraq - Governor Bill Richardson
Veterans Administration – former Senator Max Cleland
Director of INS – Congressman Tom Tancredo
Secretary of the Treasury – Congressman Ron Paul
Attorney General – former Senator Fred Thompson
Secretary of Energy – Congresswoman Heather Wilson
Secretary of Domestic Policy – former Senator Rick Santorum
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development – former Governor Mike Huckabee
Department of Homeland Security – Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Secretary of Agriculture – Congressman Randy Kuhl
Secretary of the Interior – General Norman Schwarzkopf
Department of Transportation – Colonel Ed Houle
Federal Aviation Administration – Colonel Al Overbey
Secretary of Labor – First Lady of California Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger
Buerau of Indian Affairs – Former Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
US Trade Representative – Congressman Duncan Hunter
Special Envoy to NATO – General Wesley Clark
Office of Management and Budget - Bob Henry, COO of Harris Corporation
EPA – Ralph Nader
Department of Education – Dr Everett R. Hollister
Office of Drug Control Policy – Alan Keyes
National Reconnaissance Office – W. David Thompson, former CEO and Owner of
Spectrum Astro

While this in no way is a complete strategy or staff, it is a start in the
right direction and is a team comprised of seasoned personnel in each area -
people who care about doing the right thing, the right way, in a manner that
is in the best interests of the United States of America.

Gregory S. Hollister, Colonel, USAF, Retired


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Googling reveals this guy to be a Fred head and true RW nut. Thought y'all might enjoy

[cyberswede]

1. You forgot the most important part

The intro message asks for feedback. What do you say Iowa DUers? Do you have some love you can send to Col. Hollister?

-------------------
Dear xxx

I have put together a strategy and staff in the attached "If I Were
President" document. To that end I was wondering if you might share it with
folks in the county to get their comments and input. I will be sending this
out to all the county chairs in Iowa in an attempt to get these ideas out
there and part of the debate for this election. I may even come to Iowa and
drive around and talk with people to refine this approach.\

Please do pass this on and request folks respond to me at
[email protected]. Of course I would very much like to hear what your
thoughts are as well.

All the Best
Greg "Holly" Hollister, Colonel, USAF, Retired