How to Fix the U.S. Economy in One Day

It's really a simple thing, but we unfortunately do not have the leadership thanks to a government crippled by partisan deadlock.

Here's how I could fix our economy if I was given absolute control of the government for one day:

1. Fix Health Care Costs:

• Federal mandate that lawyers who lose malpractice lawsuits must pay the amount they were suing for. This will dramatically reduce frivolous lawsuits. Insurance coverage that doctors pay to cover this risk accounts for 25% of our medical bills. Because lawsuits would become less frequent and for less money, we could expect this percentage to (at least) be cut in half.
• Create a greater supply of qualified doctors by reducing earnings taxes on medical schools that accept more students into medical school via lower standards on entrance exams. Aspiring medical students need a satisfactorily high score on the MCAT or other entrance exam. Many times, a person who would make a fantastic doctor is turned away because they struggle in physics and chemistry, which really have little to do with acknowledging you have strep and prescribing amoxicillin. They still would be held to the medical school's existing standards for licensure, so there is little risk of this policy encouraging additional incompetent physicians. In fact, it may create a trend of doctors with better people skills, which arguably is equal with the science component of the job (surgeons excluded). The resulting greater supply of doctors will create a competitive environment which will drive prices down and ensure quality of service. Competition is a great thing for the consumer.
  
• A federal mandate will prohibit providers from charging people with insurance more money for the same treatment. With the lower costs everyone should be able to afford insurance anyway.

2. Fix Energy/Fuel Costs:

• Oil and gasoline are obsolete as a fuel source. The internal combustion engine is archaic and inefficient. Tesla Motors sells a fully electric car that has a 220 mile range on a single charge, goes 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds, and only takes 4 hours to do a full recharge. This currently would cost $0.02 per mile to operate. Offer tax breaks to manufacturers that produce affordable electric cars, and increase taxes on those who do not. Sales will drive the rest.
• Obliterate all barriers to using nuclear power in the United States. It's less expensive, safe and produces no pollution; except for the waste which is buried in New Mexico (and honestly, who cares about that?). The stuff you see coming out the stacks is water steam from cooling - not smoke. France is almost entirely nuclear, and hasn't had any trouble. If they can do it, we sure can. There are nuclear power plants all over the world and only Chernobyl has ever had a real meltdown. Black lung from coal is a real threat, but people don't seem to care about real threats, do they?
• Because the above two points would eliminate most of the greenhouse gas emissions, the federal and state funds used to regulate air pollution would be invested in researching battery technology. If we could improve battery capacities and degradation we'd have better electric cars and could use solar power and wind turbines more, and they are even more efficient than nuclear power.

By using these strategies, I estimate health care costs and insurance premiums to be reduced by at least 50%, vehicle operating costs would be reduced by at least 70%, and home energy costs would be reduced by at least 15%. The compounding effect of all these savings would give people enough extra cash that they'll be considering the cost of fuel for their personal helicopter.

Too bad none of this is going to happen within the next 20 years.