By William Koenig – www.watch.org America's problems: The reason for every major problem facing America is in the Bible. Sin: The root cause of every major problem facing America is our sin. America's solutions: The solution to every major problem facing America is in the Bible. Constitutional republic: The United States is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. Democracies are based on man's will —specifically, the will of the majority (completely aside from moral considerations). By contrast, our constitutional republic is based on Judeo-Christian principles and constitutional checks and balances between the three branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial). America's enemy: Radical Islam cannot be defeated, but it can be managed and contained. Twenty-eight of the top 30 conflicts and wars in the world involve Muslims. U.S. troops should not be in the middle of ancient sectarian conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis. The U.S. should stop nation building. Iran: Prepare to stop Iran's nuclear weapon development, because they will negotiate until their program is completed. A nuclear-armed Iran is a threat to the world. Israel: Don't force Israel into indefensible borders. The Quartet Road Map would place Iranian-funded Hamas, which controls the Palestinians' government, in East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (The West Bank). Russia wants Israel to give the Golan Heights to Iran proxy Syria. Iran-funded Hezbollah, which is on Israel's northern border, would be closer to Israel. The American people are paying greatly for Congress’ actions. Charlie Reese, a former columnist of The Orlando Sentinel wrote: “One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices — 545 human beings out of the 300 million — are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. “It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.” For examples, look at our U.S. Middle East policy, the lack of a national energy policy, ethanol mandates, the immigration issue, the bloated federal government, excess regulation on business, excess environmental regulations, national security overlaps, the 9,000,000-word U.S. tax code, run away Wall Street futures trading, sub-prime mortgage fiasco, no interest rate limits to what lenders can charge, the funding concerns for Social Security and Medicare, destructive and costly partisanship, and earmarks … to name just a few. Corrections or adjustments to their previous legislation almost always lead to even worse situation for the American people. It is time for major change. Federal government size: Eighty percent of what is currently handled at the federal level should, constitutionally, be at the state level, and the federal government should begin the transfer immediately. Downsize the federal government by 10 percent a year. Balance the budget as soon as possible. Federal Tax Code: Eliminate most of the 9-million-word tax code. Reduce the federal tax rates for individuals to a single tax rate in the 16 to 18 percent range. No taxes for those making $30,000 a year or less. No estate taxes. This plan is possible with a smaller federal government. Greed: Insurance companies, energy companies, health care companies, pharmaceutical companies, hedge funds, banks and Wall Street firms have extracted $3.5 to $4 trillion from Americans due to their use of Washington's highest price lobbyists who influence Congressional legislation. This must be stopped. Wall Street futures traders: Traders/speculators have cost Americans hundreds of billions of dollars more for their oil and food due to their control and manipulation over futures trading — while putting that money in their pockets. One of the solutions would be to raise substantially the amount of margin money required for futures speculators and limit the amount of contracts they can purchase. National energy: Drill onshore and offshore, build new refineries, and fully develop the massive oil, natural gas, and coal resources the United States has been blessed with while being environmentally reasonable and responsible. Global warming: Sponsor a national debate to finally disprove the global warming myth that is endangering America and costing American people a tremendous amount of amount of money in food, fuel and regulatory costs. A major cooling cycle is about to begin. Health care: Fix costs for medical procedures and tests with regional cost-of-living factors considered, cap rewards for malpractice lawsuits, promote and reward healthy patients, and encourage insurees to stop the overuse of health care benefits for an already overtaxed health care system. Immigration. Businesses, banks and many cities around the country opened their doors to illegal immigrants, so they came to the United States. Congress passed an immigration bill in 1988, but never enforced it. At that time, there were 3.5 million illegal immigrants in America. Today, that number is much higher. America is technically short of workers, and 5 percent unemployment is considered full employment. Sadly, many white and black American young adults can’t pass the drug tests the insurers require of the businesses they insure. Consequently, there aren't enough qualified workers to fill vacant jobs and many Americans don’t want the jobs the immigrants fill, so to keep from a major disruption of the U.S. economy it is a good idea to preserve the non-American workers we have — and if they have a good work record, move them towards citizenship. There will never be a win-win immigration solution due to years of non-compliance and lack of enforcement; both sides will have to give while being compassionate and humane in solving this very divisive issue facing America. Life: Life begins at conception and must be protected. Marriage: Marriage is between one man and one woman. Social Security: The federal government needs to stop taking $200 billion a year from Social Security income to pay down the federal deficit. Medicare: Insure that Medicare continues making the necessary changes to become more efficient, help small doctor’s offices become better managed businesses, and standardize procedure costs to keep costs down and doctors honest.