OK Van Lingle. Let me repeat:

Kerry will not have the power to levy taxes, that is the legislative branch. So our tax system (it's fairness/unfairness) is not something that the executive branch controls, Congress does. The president has the right to make suggestions to Congress (as with their annual budget), as do the heads of government agencies and departments. But Congress controls this, not the president.

This thread is confirming my suspicions about the Anybody But Bush camp, which are:

1. That many in that camp don't have a clue as to how the US government actually works, and what a president has power to do.

2. That they don't understand that it was the US Congress which gave Bush the go ahead to invade Iraq. The executive branch doesn't have the constitutional authority to declare war.

3. That it was the US Congress that passed the US Patriot Act. The executive branch doesn't have the power to legislate, only to veto.

So that means, the Anybody But Bush camp, by focusing exclusively on the executive branch and the horse race for president, is focusing their anger with blinders on, when putting Bush and Cheney's face on these facts.

The fact of the matter is, there would be no war in Iraq, no US Patriot Act, no alienation and diplomatic isolation, no gutting of the New Deal social service agencies within the federal government (that tax thing I'm guessing you are alluding to Van Lingle) and bloating of the US military industrial complex, if the US Congress, including Senator John Kerry, wasn't complicit in the Republican right agenda.

Just to help you get this all straight, here is a list of the legislative branch's duties:

Legislative Branch

Checks on the Executive
Impeachment power (House)
Trial of impeachments (Senate)
Selection of the President (House) and Vice President (Senate) in the case of no majority of electoral votes
May override Presidential vetoes
Senate approves departmental appointments
Senate approves treaties and ambassadors
Approval of replacement Vice President
Power to declare war
Power to enact taxes and allocate funds
President must, from time-to-time, deliver a State of the Union address
Checks on the Judiciary
Senate approves federal judges
Impeachment power (House)
Trial of impeachments (Senate)
Power to initiate constitutional amendments
Power to set courts inferior to the Supreme Court
Power to set jurisdiction of courts
Power to alter the size of the Supreme Court
Checks on the Legislature - because it is bicameral, the Legislative branch has a degree of self-checking.
Bills must be passed by both houses of Congress
House must originate revenue bills
Neither house may adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other house
All journals are to be published

So again I ask, what exactly do you think Kerry will have the power to change, considering that the specifics all of you are giving are actually powers rooted in the legislative, rather than executive branch?

I completely agree that the current hegemonic Republican extremist political agenda is destroying the fabric of this nation. But what, exactly, do you think Kerry can realistically do about it with a Republican controlled Congress?

To me, the answer is nothing. So I believe the emphasis and focus this election year is in the WRONG place. We should be focusing on grassroots movements to unseat Republicans at the local, state, and national level. That is the only means we have available to us at this point, because the executive branch, whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats, has been corrupted by big money interests, and there is simply no way of fighting that as citizens.