I think there would be long term cost reductions, especially in social programs, law enforcement, justice and penal that would be greater than the long term cost to administer conscription.

Imagine how we could reduce inner city issues though conscription. Maybe even decrease social costs. All citizens, rich or poor, black or white, male or female or wh**ever, fat or skinny would serve.

Nope. Just pointing out that spending tax money is an easy thing to do for all parties. The "elected elite" never cease to amaze me. Doesn't really matter which party. But what the hell....we can always print some more!

There you go again agreeing! What the hell is going on! LOL

"This week we received expense records from the Department of Homeland Security revealing that Secret Service expenses for the Obama family vacation to Honolulu during December 2013-January 2014 cost taxpayers at least $316,698.03. These new expense records bring the total for the Hawaii Christmas vacation trip to $8,098,060.33." (http://www.judicialwatch.org)

In my observations of people, especially those in the 18 to 30 year old bracket, both as an employer and relative, I find that those that had some military or "public service" history were better off due to having better basic sk**ls. Things like showing up on time, personal g***ming and appearance, a generally more positive attitude, better work product (results), less "office politics", better team player, and higher respect for themselves and others.

Should we measure a president by his performance and results? If so the measurement should be equally applied to all presidents in all sectors. If this is the case, I have to agree with you about Carter and Obama certainly for the past 100 years. My disdain for Iran became acute during the Carter administration. My lack of respect for the Carter administration started when the draft dodgers were pardoned and it continually fell with the crazy fiscal policies enacted, and the topper was allowing our fellow citizens to languish as prisoners of the Iranian regime for over a year. There are many similarities between Carter and Obama.

I propose mandatory federal service for two years upon finishing high school or age 19, whichever occurs sooner, with a few exceptions. This would include the military, the Veterans Hospital system, law enforcement (in non enforcement positions like dispatch, clerical, etc.) or other "public service" organizations. Compensation would be wages, room and board, medical insurance and a program similar to the GI Bill for further education or training. In the two years of service the individual will serve away from their "home community" and will have the opportunity to learn about themselves and others, gain personal respect, discover their weaknesses and strengths, get away from negative peer influences, discover what career filed may be the best from them, etc.

But this is too practical of a suggestion as it requires the individual to learn personal responsibility which is only a conservative ideal and not a liberal ideal.

The "gun debate" is an exercise in futility. How will increased laws prevent access to weapons by individuals? If we only enforced the current laws we have on the books and if the agencies that are charged with enforcing these laws were better managed, maybe things would be different. If the current argument to make the ownership of "assault' weapons illegal, then we need to consider making automobiles that can exceed the maximum posted speed limits illegal as well. And perhaps we need to look at making any knife with a blade longer than 2 inches also illegal. How about making it illegal to exceed a body-mass-index of 30. Or maybe, well, the list goes on an on . . .

What about poor granny?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGnE83A1Z4U

Let's make Mexico the 51st state! All the Boomers can retire in cheap haciendas on the beaches, we get cheap labor, we get the vast oil reserves of Mexico, we can fight the drug war in Mexico not here, and we can build a nice land bridge (a rail intermodal corridor that t***sports containers) between the West Coast and the Gulf to compete with the Panama Canal and make billions!

One trait of effective leaders is to demonstrate the courage to make the correct decision even when it may not be in the leaders best political interests. The dithering and hand wringing by our leaders of the B******i fiasco clearly demonstrates how inept and morally corrupt Obama, Clinton and their staff really are.

I guess the "jobs for ISIS" program isn't working out so well...

Trump will leverage his taxes to get HRC to release her transcripts of her addresses to Wall Street. It's a negotiation tactic. And besides, who gives a s**t about Trump 's tax returns. The way the IRS currently works they are so far up his ass already and have been for years. I bet Trump has a full time team of IRS agents investigating him. All smart business people only pay what they are legally required as per the 17,000 or so pages of regulation.

If any one makes their v****g decision on this piece, they are not too bright! How can anyone derive the opinions of these two individuals to what they said? Is this the quality of the elected elite? This is a propaganda piece plain and simple and it panders to the unintelligent and ill informed.