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Investing in infrastructure...no, thats the private sectors' job

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

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Investing in infrastructure...no, thats the private sectors' job

Roads? Bridges?

[specifically maintaining/repairing]

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Property taxes should not be based on the value of the structures, but rather the "Value" the city has added to the property via access to roads (based on traffic count), police, fire department response potential.

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

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Property taxes should not be based on the value of the structures, but rather the "Value" the city has added to the property via access to roads (based on traffic count), police, fire department response potential.

This is an interesting idea. What about school taxes?

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ORIGINAL: NeedToUseYou

Bump medicare age up another 5 years. yes, over time Remove or greatly restrict the prescription drug benefit. no, its a critical part of medicare and is one of the few programs properly designed in coming in substantially below projected costs

Bump Social Security up another 5 years. yes, over time

Remove all economic subsidies from Federal,State, and local governments authority. Amend the constitution if necessary. That would include a ban on special tax packages/grants/special "loans" etc... almost yes. I can envision some subsidies that may make sense, so allow them but only with a super-super majority

Cut military spending by 1/2 to 3/4's, at present most military spending is entirely unnecessary. totally disagree

Put a requirement on food stamps that they can only purchase generic boxed food, raw food, and a predefined list of meat products. The manufacturers can put a little icon on approved food. isnt this the case in most places already

Thoroughly review people drawing SSI for permanent disability, raise the standard. SS disability is already extremely difficult to get. If Medicare was administered as tightly fraud would be drastically reduced. Yes, some people manage to game the system, but damn few.

Dismantle the Department of Education, return that function to the state. Make the playing field equal between private schools and public schools, with the goal of public school elimination. (People would get a voucher, and could select a school). yes

Legalize Pot, Prostitution, Gambling. It's pure waste policing these activities like we do now. These should be allowed, however, I've no problem with regulating them, such as aids tests, or age requirements, etc... change legalize to decriminalize and yes on the Ps. Gambling is already legal in most areas, except for the asinine UIGEA

Welfare recipients no longer receive cash they receive a card, and that card can only be used to pay for certain items of necessity.already done in some places (though not always well...example cash payments instead of food)

Remove these nanny state laws, seat belt laws, mandatory insurance laws. not even close. they are not "nanny state laws", they protect people from the irresonsible

No BAILOUTS EVER, if a financial mess happens again, the only option is seizure, or 100% failure with the preference towards the latter. bankruptcy laws are quite sufficient. Bailouts and seizure just overrides them unnecessarily

In the case of seizure, the government is obligated to do a full and thorough investigation, bringing responsible parties to justice, and to sell the assets,when possible.


Reform Patent and Copyright law, to bring it in line with modern reality, and that reality is copyright and patents should last for a shorter period of time, the idea being the creation and consumption cycle is much shorter than in the past. Remove all patrolling by the government for violations thereof, it is the owners responsibility to bring charges against the accused violator, and to sue. Ban all software "patents" this is an absurdity of the highest order. disagree on length. the profitability cycle is not shorter than in the past. Government does next to nothing on control already. Why is software any different than any other IP?

Property taxes should not be based on the value of the structures, but rather the "Value" the city has added to the property via access to roads (based on traffic count), police, fire department response potential.uhhh, those things are already reflected in the value of the property.

Make it explicitly illegal for any government to force any citizen to buy any product or service. On its way from SCOTUS

Restructure the IRS, all taxes collected by whatever means can not require a filing from citizens, nor automatic withholding, nor personally identifiable disclosure from an employer. And how exactly do you plan to enforce it, unless it is strictly a final sale VAT?

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ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy

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ORIGINAL: NeedToUseYou

Bump medicare age up another 5 years. yes, over time Remove or greatly restrict the prescription drug benefit. no, its a critical part of medicare and is one of the few programs properly designed in coming in substantially below projected costs

Disagree, costs to much.... www.usdebtclock.org some cut needs to happen.

Bump Social Security up another 5 years. yes, over time

Remove all economic subsidies from Federal,State, and local governments authority. Amend the constitution if necessary. That would include a ban on special tax packages/grants/special "loans" etc... almost yes. I can envision some subsidies that may make sense, so allow them but only with a super-super majority

Either the economy functions privately or it doesn't, you can not allow a situation by which favored parties are given a competitive advantage over another, and it allows hurts someone else. So, I disagree, however, any additional limitations would be welcome.

Cut military spending by 1/2 to 3/4's, at present most military spending is entirely unnecessary. totally disagree

You can't fix this country without addressing the huge military expense, there is no point doing anything else, if no give comes from the military budget. www.usdebtclock.org

Put a requirement on food stamps that they can only purchase generic boxed food, raw food, and a predefined list of meat products. The manufacturers can put a little icon on approved food. isnt this the case in most places already

Not here, I see people buying soda and candy all the time at the convenience store.

Thoroughly review people drawing SSI for permanent disability, raise the standard. SS disability is already extremely difficult to get. If Medicare was administered as tightly fraud would be drastically reduced. Yes, some people manage to game the system, but damn few.

I still want another check.

Dismantle the Department of Education, return that function to the state. Make the playing field equal between private schools and public schools, with the goal of public school elimination. (People would get a voucher, and could select a school). yes

Legalize Pot, Prostitution, Gambling. It's pure waste policing these activities like we do now. These should be allowed, however, I've no problem with regulating them, such as aids tests, or age requirements, etc... change legalize to decriminalize and yes on the Ps. Gambling is already legal in most areas, except for the asinine UIGEA

Pot is no worse than alcohol, the standard should be the same. So, whatever we agree should happen with alcohol should be the standard in distributing pot.

Welfare recipients no longer receive cash they receive a card, and that card can only be used to pay for certain items of necessity.already done in some places (though not always well...example cash payments instead of food)

As far as I know, they still receive cash, though now it sometimes comes on a debit card, but that card can be used for all kinds of non-sense.

Remove these nanny state laws, seat belt laws, mandatory insurance laws. not even close. they are not "nanny state laws", they protect people from the irresonsible

The government has no obligation to protect you from yourself, in the case of seat belt laws. And this country got on fine for decades without mandatory insurance laws. The insurance laws only target the poor anyway, and a large fraction ignore the law regardless. So, all you are doing, is creating work at the courthouse.

No BAILOUTS EVER, if a financial mess happens again, the only option is seizure, or 100% failure with the preference towards the latter. bankruptcy laws are quite sufficient. Bailouts and seizure just overrides them unnecessarily

In the case of seizure, the government is obligated to do a full and thorough investigation, bringing responsible parties to justice, and to sell the assets,when possible.

Well, in the case of a ripple effect, I think there may be some merit for seizure.


Reform Patent and Copyright law, to bring it in line with modern reality, and that reality is copyright and patents should last for a shorter period of time, the idea being the creation and consumption cycle is much shorter than in the past. Remove all patrolling by the government for violations thereof, it is the owners responsibility to bring charges against the accused violator, and to sue. Ban all software "patents" this is an absurdity of the highest order. disagree on length. the profitability cycle is not shorter than in the past. Government does next to nothing on control already. Why is software any different than any other IP?

Can you patent an equation? or should you be able to patent an equation? The only non-fluff portion of software is some mathematical formula, or set of formula, that produce a result. So, can math be patented? It's not a thing, like a toilet, computer code, just has to be written, then the cost of manufacture are literally pennies, unlike a toilet. Sure, I could see a case made for copyright on a whole software, but even copyright allows for "fair use" of segments for educational purposes and or other works. So, software is not patentable. Copyright perhaps.


Property taxes should not be based on the value of the structures, but rather the "Value" the city has added to the property via access to roads (based on traffic count), police, fire department response potential.uhhh, those things are already reflected in the value of the property.

Yes, they are, but if I go improve my structure, and the city does nothing, I get taxed more for that, for no additional service, or cost to the city.

Make it explicitly illegal for any government to force any citizen to buy any product or service. On its way from SCOTUS

Restructure the IRS, all taxes collected by whatever means can not require a filing from citizens, nor automatic withholding, nor personally identifiable disclosure from an employer. And how exactly do you plan to enforce it, unless it is strictly a final sale VAT?

Whichever form it takes taxation should not require a disclosure of private information. My current view is exactly a nationwide sales tax. There is no restriction on the government requiring corps or business entities a right to privacy, that is only a right for "Actual" people.

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Certainly everyone agrees we face financial challenges, even as people disagree about the specifics and the causes.

What I see is a lot of hand-wringing. Let's get out of that. What are your solutions?

Please--I don't mean vague "do something about those sonnabitches" rants, nor do I mean things that just aren't feasible, whether physically or politically at this point. I mean from where we actually are, practical steps toward solutions. Things we can actually do, that will actually address the challenges.

What's your plan?

[Btw--if you feel it's hopeless, please don't post at all. Start a "why it's hopeless" thread. Thank you.]

Let's get started.

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Again, the forum is full of complaining about problems. The issue here is solutions, please.