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slvemike4u -> RE: Bidden: We 'Misread the Economy' (7/6/2009 11:06:47 PM)
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ORIGINAL: TreasureKY
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
So what do you think it will take to get our country to start living within ITs means?
First and foremost, get people into federal office who truly believe it needs to. Until that happens... it ain't gonna happen.
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
Do you think we're doing -anything- right?
Very little.
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
Where would you trim and fiddle to get us squared away?
Well... I'm sorry, but it wouldn't be any one of the items you've listed. Off the top of my head, the measures I would take would include (but not be limited to):
- Eliminating 95% of all Federal departments, agencies, and bureaus. Top on the list to eliminate would be the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and large portions of the Department of the Treasury (particularly the IRS and the ATF), the Department of Labor, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Homeland Security. Any functions currently handled by these fund-guzzling, bureaucratic monstrosities would be handled at the State level should the overwhelming majority of the citizens of that State wish to continued with them.
- Overhauling the current compensation programs for Legislative office holders so that pay and benefits are reasonable and in keeping with a conservative idea of public service. Term limits would be imposed and "retirement" salaries eliminated.
- Participation in and funding of "global efforts" would be closely examined for relevance to the welfare the United States. Memberships and financing that did not support the preservation or moral standing of the United States, or prove to be of direct benefit to the majority of US citizens, would be eliminated.
There. These steps alone should balance the budget and reduce taxes. [:D]
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
For me, the first things I would do would be:
- Provide universal health insurance. A population with good medical care is healthier, more productive, and more creative. I would pay for it with a combination of increased individual taxes (probably by converting Medicare and its taxation system) and 'pleasure taxes' on cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana (yes, even medical marijuana), junk food, and prostitution, etc.
Aside from the fact that adding expenses (and additional bureaucracy) to the already overburdened Federal budget...
Who says that our population doesn't have access to good medical care? Only 46 million out of 304 million people don't have health insurance in the US.... that's under 18 percent of the population. How many of those 46 million need medical treatment and can't get it through other available means?
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
- Eliminate the "War on Drugs" and the "War on Prostitution". Clear recreational drug users and prostitutes out of the prisons, and out of our court system. Decriminalize, regulate, and tax 'pleasure substances' including tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, sugar, white flour, sex workers, and junk food etc., to assist in funding universal health care.
While I don't buy into the "War on ...." propaganda campaigns, and I'm rather ambivalent on whether current illegal substances (or practices) should be legalized, I'd like to point out that every other legal substance is already taxed.
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
- Make college and trade-school FREE. Restore home economics, music, art, literature, and trades education to our schools. If we want innovation and creativity, we have to nurture it in our kids. Instead of parking them in front of the Nintendo, make them stretch their minds.
Since when did they eliminate home economics, music, art, literature and trades from colleges and trade schools? If there's been a reduction in individuals studying those subjects, it's because they didn't want to or couldn't find a way to make a living doing those things.
Besides, I don't see how this would have any positive affect on our government living within its means. Sounds like another additional expense to me.
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
- Fund the above through -charging- for education in the lower grades thru high-school. Give parents the option of using State-regulated schools, private schools, or homeschools, and have a set curriculum cost and resource sharing (like labs, pools, etc), regardless of which option or combination of options the parents pay for. Teach parents to value their child's education as something they are PAYING for, and expand the curriculum so that students who are academically oriented are thoroughly challenged, and children who are trades-oriented have the opportunity to learn a skill that will give them a good direction to start their lives. I'd lay wager that our 'dropout rate' would diminish, and more of our kids would actually start contributing to progress in our communities, instead of hanging out at the arcade or the convenience store making trouble. Ditch the expensive "teach to the test" system now in place. Reduce waste in the bureaucratic end of education.
While I agree whole-heartedly to the reduction of waste in the bureaucratic end of education (see my elimination of the Department of Education above), do you realize that parents already pay for primary education through taxes?
And I'm sorry, but your obvious distress over the state of education for young people today, while admirable, again does nothing to further the cause of encouraging the country to live within its means. I would point out that for years many legislators have tried in vain to put forth the option for parents to choose what schools their children attend with the use of vouchers.
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
- Restructure our military. Pull our troops off foreign soil and take a good, hard look at who is profiting and who is benefiting for EACH and EVERY military campaign, tool, or process we have out there... Decide what the HECK our national security goals ARE... then decide how to use the tools we already -have- to meet those national security goals. Stop worrying about who a soldier loves, and make the most of the men and women who choose to lay their lives on the line to protect our country. Evaluate their LEADERS, and make sure that those leaders understand both what our goals are, and are equipped mentally, physically, and provisionally to MEET those goals.
The big question here would be just WHO would be the one deciding what our national security goals are? And WHO would decide WHO that person will be? Seems like we already have that covered. Is it that you just don't agree with them?
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
- Ditch the Farm Bill. Start over, and screw paying people not to grow food or to grow food unsustainably. Encourage local markets, heirloom varietal food production, and food diversity. Eliminate the FDA -- they're too understaffed to do a good job anyway. Encourage local governments to develop food safety programs that are managed within the immediate economy and geared to the way local food is produced. Teach home economics in our schools again, so that these kids know what to DO with real food (I bet a bunch of our kids don't even know what food group 'corn on the cob' belongs in!!!). Encourage Farmer's Markets, local food production, small, local food production companies, and artisan eats.
I agree that the Department of Agriculture could use a thorough house cleaning, but I'm a little fuzzy on how kids knowing the food groups is going to balance the Federal budget... [&:]
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
- Restore our national rail service, and get the doggone thing back (if you'll pardon the pun) on track for both passenger and commercial use. Pay for it with a tax on multi-axle vehicles, based on the weight of goods being shipped on our national highway system. Our roads are too expensive to fix in many places anyway. More than half the bridges in the US need major repairs. We need to get commercial vehicles off the roads, and provide viable alternatives to driving and flying so that families can get out and travel again.
Perhaps you aren't aware of just how viable and active our railroads are these days. Aside from that, I'm afraid your plans here would totally fuck up our supply and transportation systems. Granted, I hate semi-tractor trailers hogging the roads as much as the next guy... but how the heck would you propose getting product from the rail stations to stores? And don't think for one minute that the additional taxes for shipping wouldn't be passed off to the consumer.
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
- Change to a 35 hour work-week, with guaranteed 6-week-minimum vacations, and unlimited sick days with doctor confirmation of illness. Yes, I know it sounds like a dichotomy, but American's work too much. They've lost their zest for life and their creativity, and depressed people don't support their economy. They buy themselves into the poorhouse with things they can't afford, but that does not generate the flow of MONEY... it generates the flow of strangling, life-sucking debt... and so we sink, ever deeper, into the mire with no hope to get out, no time for joy, too many hours spent in absolute drudgery, and a complete loss of creative, innovative, brilliant minds... and in the meantime, our best -leave-.
Okay... so it appears you've got this utopian idea in your head. We should all live our lives as if we were in some Normal Rockwell painting. But just how does all this address your original question of how to get the country to live within its means? If you were referring to simply the citizens of the US learning to live within their individual means, I'd say most manage to well enough as it is. However, with the items you've proposed, we'll all have a much higher tax burden. No amount of canned goods and homespun clothing is going to be accepted as payment by the IRS.
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ORIGINAL: CallaFirestormBW
Yes, our current government reps may have misinterpreted what they were seeing, though how they could have is beyond me, when even an economic midget like myself could see this coming 15 years ago... but, giving the benefit of the doubt... I still think that our government, no matter how well intentioned, isn't going to be able to fix this on their own. They've had bad habits for FAR too long, and the leeches are too well entrenched over every inch of the corpus gubernationus. If we want this fixed, we're going to have to haul ourselves up by the bootstraps and tell them what the hell to do (and not do), and figure out what we need to do to spank them when they screw it up, instead of sitting in our living rooms and bitching. (and yes, I've already done my share of writing, calling, and writing, and calling, and parking on the steps of my supposed representatives' offices).
On this, we agree. [;)]
Well shit Treasure...why not just disolve the Union while your at it....ROFLMAO.
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