Fixing America is probably an impossible thing to do, even if it’s actually very simple. Six simple steps would fix probably 90% of what’s ailing America.
1. ID Required to Vote. Voting is a Constitutional Right, yes, I know. But so is owning a Gun but you need ID to buy one of those, don’t you?
2. If you are on the Public Dole, you forgo your Vote. You can’t vote for your public assistance benefits, and politicians can not buy your votes with public assistance.
3. Congress should have not just Term Limits, but also No Retirement Benefits. Salary should be set at the mean average for the district they represent to remind them of who they are representing. This will also kill the Empire Building and Elitism of America’s Royal Class. Without these issues in America, Government Regulation will not be based on who pays off who like it is now. Every industry, Banking and Finance, Auto, Energy, is all about paying off or “Contributing” to certain politicians. This isn’t right, and it’s certainly a whole mess of corruption that needs to be cleaned out.
4. Balanced Budget is a Requirement unless it’s a specific time of war. This means Congress stays in session until it’s done and they keep it in balance.
5. Each State owns and manages every square inch of their States. The Federal Government owns no land save for Washington DC. This also goes so far as Mineral and Water Rights to those States and of course, Energy Development in those States.
6. BATFE, EPA, Department of Education, IRS, Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture, and the TSA need to be abolished.
Wow! Just wow! Closer to 98% George.
I’ve often thought “if you don’t pay taxes, you don’t vote.” But barring that, yours would work too. Basically, not being able to vote for more taxes if you aren’t going to end up paying them.
See how that works? Bam. Much fixed with just points 1 and 2.
By that logic, anyone receiving a check from the government should not have the right to vote; soldiers, police officers, public school teachers, politicians…Bc I have seen people from the first 3 groups vote for candidates that would benefit them financially even when it meant increasing the burden on the taxpayer.
Public assistance is different, and not what I was talking about.
I like your points and think they would help.
I would add to point 3 to not allow ex-congressmen from “consulting” to companies that do business with the government. 5 year rest period should do it. We have to help people like Newt Grinch from themselves…
On point 4, not sure this would help… I mean, when last were we not at war?
Funny. The leftists feel that they have to protect people (like Newt) from themselves, too.
Excellent. Addresses double dipping somewhat too. I like it.
Not just Congress.
All political appointees.
I like Instapundit’s proposal. 100% surtax on all income over that from the last year of Federal employment, for the next 5 years following switching to the private sector.
What is to stop government from keeping the country in perpetual state of war if it means it can take advantage of that loop hole to finance their friends? KBR, Halliburton, Blackwater all did very well financially during the time President Cheney was in power.
The last time America was lawfully at war?
WWII.
The higher tax rate goes to the state (I pay about 22% to fed) and the lower amount goes to the fed (what is UT state tax like 4% ish). Tax money should not be collected by the FED only to be redistributed to the states with strings attached.
Small standing army with a large Coast Guard and Border Patrol.
No free trade, Import taxes to keep Made IN AMERICA competitive.
Those are my suggestions Gov’ner.
If the states could manage their own property, the money generated would go a long way to fill the coffers with less money going to the Feds. This is a large push for greater States Rights and the States would have more power and wouldn’t be dependent on the Fed.
Last time we tried to push for more power at the state level and less at the fed, my state got stomped into oblivion. I believe it was around eighteen sixty something.
Ding! We have three winners.
It’s called Federalism boys.
Read “Power Divided is Power Checked” by Jason Lewis.
The argument for States Rights.
Well done sirs!
The fed should only have enough money to perform the constitutionally provided powers. That would fix a good portion of our problems.
Exaclty correct.
Items One and Two will require modifying the 15th Amendment, as well as repealing or modifying portions of the equal rights act.
I don’t think it would. According to the 15th amendment, people can’t be denied the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. The 19th eliminates voter eligibility on the basis of sex. The 24th says the right to vote can’t be contingent on paying a tax. The 26th says it can’t be denied on account of age for anyone over 18.
I don’t see anything that would prevent you from limiting voter eligibility on the basis of receiving public financial assistance or aid though.
I’m with JesseL on this.
Great questions by Kristopher and they need to be asked.
Well done.
Yer going to have a tough row to hoe in court to prove that someone on welfare = felon or insane person.
Just sayin.
Those are the only two exceptions courts have allowed to the 15th, to date.
And you can bet that having a majority of the folks on welfare being black will be used as a voter’s rights act argument.
This ain’t as simple as you would like.
Agreed Kristopher, point well taken. Nobody said it would be easy. It never is. I believe I addressed those in another post on this thread.
24th Amendment would stop the 2nd part of the plan.
Nobody is asking anybody to pay a poll tax which means you give money in order to vote.
We are arguing that you can’t TAKE money to vote. In other words, your vote can’t be bought by voting yourself a handout in perpetuity.
Big distinction.
Still an excellent question again though and glad you asked it. Others will too.
I can see some ACLU type in the 9th circus using the last three words in section 1 of the 24th amendment “or other tax” as an argument to say paying no taxes/ receving welfare,then not being able to vote is a “tax”. Given the lunacy on the 9th circus,one can guess the outcome. BTW I don’t think renters should be able to vote on property tax issues. Just a bit of Devils advocate on this subject.
Unless the property owner is a a lousy businessman, the rent should be enough to cover the property tax. If I pay someone to live on his property, I expect that he take care of the taxes and other costs associated with ownership of that property. To deny me my right to vote because you are bad at business math is downright ludicrous.A smart businessman would set the rental rate so that it covers the property tax and gives enough extra income to invest back into the property or to purchase more property. I rent because its convenient for me, not because I cannot afford a mortgage.
That didn’t actually address anything that was said. Of course the landlord is responsible for paying the property taxes. The issue is if he’s locked into a lease with the renter at a specific price, and then the renter votes to raise his property taxes. All of a sudden, he’s no longer able to pay them on what he’s taking in.
Sure, he can charge a hefty premium to cover that eventuality, but then folks will be complaining about how high rent is, and ranting about greedy landlords.
Personally, I think it should just be done with a separation of powers setup, if states wanted to make some internal changes: state reps can be elected by all people, with districts based upon population, and state senators could be elected by property owners, with districts based upon property taxes paid.
You got my vote, George.
One modification to #3: Congress-critters should get paid $12 per hour, and they only get paid when they are actually in their office or on the floor, actually working. If they’re out campaigning or on vacation, they get nothing. Same goes for POTUS. And they pay for their own vacations. No more multi-million dollar weeks-long jaunts to Hawaii on the taxpayer’s dime.
You mean teach politicians to budget for vacations like the rest of us????
Heresy!!!
Dude, I think you just went to the top of the list to be detained indefinately without being charged with a crime…
What, like I wasn’t there before? Though strangely, I did have a dream where that happened to me last night… hope that’s not an omen…
Sadly, I had a similar dream last week.
The thing about my dreams is they are lucid. I enjoy and know how to control them. Somehow gained control of my dreams in College. Nice to turn a nightmare around on to the subject of the nightmare. I can wake up at will. Sometimes I can pick up where I left off after waking up.
The dream of what you speak, I was unable to gain the upper hand as I always do.
Let’s hope it is the stress of my subconcious overriding control rather than an omen.
Oh, I’m on the “To Do List”. I know that.
You forgot to evict the UN from our country. Stick them in Europe where they belong…or on the bottom of the ocean.
That’s absolutely on the To Do List.
Then take that knotted barrel six-gun court yard sculpture and melt it down to make into screws to hold the handgrips on a commemorative Colt or S&W six shooter for the day the U.N. was demolished.
One quibble, voting is not a “Constitutional Right.” Merry Christmas, Ogre, to you, your family and the rest of the Horde.
Good catch. “Civil” right.
I agree with all of those but I would like to add these to the list…
1) As long as drugs are illegal, anyone receiving public assistance in the form of Welfare, Disability, Food Stamps, Unemployment, Healthcare or Federal Grant should be required to submit to and pass a drug test. Failure to do so forfeits benefits.
2) Implement a 3 step approach to fixing immigration.
Step 1. Amend the 14th amendment to remove the ability to get US Citizenship by simply being born here.
Step 2. No one in the US illegally is entitled to any government provided service including Welfare, Disability, Food Stamps, Unemployment, Healthcare, Federal Grant or PUBLIC EDUCATION.
Step 3. Make it a Felony to hire “undocumented workers” and employ the seizure rights to confiscate any equipment used in the commission of that felony. Business won’t lose too much capital equipment before they decide it is too expensive.
People come to the US for 1 reason… To build a better life for themselves and their families.
I am COMPLETELY for that! Just do it legally.
If you remove the incentives driving people to come, Citizenship, the education and well being of their children, and the ability to earn a living. People will stop coming.
1) As long as there is a “war on drugs”, anyone receiving public assistance in the form of Welfare, Disability, Food Stamps, Unemployment, Healthcare or Federal Grant should be required to submit to and pass a drug test. Failure to do so forfeits benefits.
That law is being challenged in FLA as we speak. We’ll see how it pans out. Frankly, welfare handouts is not the job of the government. This is not what “providing for the general welfare” meant.
Dump all thesed programs and let volunteers with deep pockets give the handouts. The money wasted on campaign donations alone for politicians of this ilk could by all the food and housing needed for these dregs of society.
I personally can only afford to give 5% charity to my catholic church. I use to give 10% but since the Catholic Church was behind the push to get Obamacare passed, and my dental increased 100% and my medical increased by 56%, I had to make cutbacks in my charitable giving to the offending party.
Yes, I could have used it as an excuse to abandon my faith, but like Francis of Assisi, I chose to change it from within.
Now with the massive decreas in Catholic giving not to mention those that left the my Church precisely for supporting Obamacare, Catholic Bishops Association is actively fighting to repeal Obamacare now.
Too late maybe. Christmas Mass was no bigger than Sunday mass. All the overflow chairs were empty as were some of the pews. I was not surprised and I knew the cause.
Now the parish is $60 grand in debt instead of running a surplus or balanced budget.
Long story short, the less the private sector is taxed, the more money they have to spend on the charities THEY choose instead of having go to partial birth abortions and the like.
Let the private sector take care of the downtrodden. They do it better than the public sector and far cheaper because the workers all volunteer their time AND money vs a paid public employee with benefits and retirement age 55.
All Federal immigration laws are unconstitutional. The Feds are only authorized to determine who may be a citizen, not who may immigrate.
So, prior to eliminating public assistance, start by tying public assistance to citizenship. Problem addressed, without violating the Constitution.
I’d probably come up with a slightly different list, but that’s certainly close enough to do the job.
OGRE FOR PRESIDENT.
That’s the only way I can say I TOTALLY agree!
Thanks, Ogre, for the common sense.
1. ID Required to Vote. Voting is a Constitutional Right, yes, I know. But so is owning a Gun but you need ID to buy one of those, don’t you?
Wrong argument. Let’s keep the focus off guns. Voder ID is needed to prove you are legally able to vote by law by meeting citizenship, resident and tax code criteria. Like when they throw parents in jail for not filing for open enrollment when you put your kid in a school where you pay no taxes in that district. Same rules apply for voting.
2. If you are on the Public Dole, you forgo your Vote. You can’t vote for your public assistance benefits, and politicians can not buy your votes with public assistance.
Define Public Dole. Does that include Fed and State employees whose retirement and healthcare are paid for on my dime without any contribution on their part? Mass Transit Subsidies? Farming Subsidies? Double Dipping? I’m with you, but the above should be included as well. You can get rid of 100% of all branches of government voting for their paychecks by adding that. This will be the argument by the EBT crowd if you come after them. If you punish those who recieve subsidies, it MUST include ALL subsidies or you stand zero chance of this passing because it will be demogogued to death by the DFL/MSM. Pot, kettle, black.
Point 3 is excellent George, and I would eliminate the term limits. By tying wages to the mean, the length of your term is self regulating! Ha, ha! Can you say lining up a shot? Two kills, one bullet.
4. Balanced Budget is a Requirement unless it’s a specific time of war. This means Congress stays in session until it’s done and they keep it in balance.
Nope, not enough George. Balanced budget does nothing to eliminate the debt. We had a balanced budget with the contract with America yet the national debt kept rising. Add a rule that deficit spending can only be a certain percentage of GDP except in times of “Declared War”. I’m open to what that percentage should be. Right now we are at 100% @ over $15T of debt. A balanced budget does nothing to solve that problem. Also, in order of prioreties, if we are doing that, this should be #1 because it is the single biggest threat to our national security.
#5 is a BINGO, Yahtze, 7 & 11’s, Black Jack.
#6 You forgot DHS, but I’ll chalk that up as oversight since you included TSA and I’m with you on those choices 100%
I would add that we audit the Federal Reserve, expose the corruption, then shut her down and go back to a Gold Standard.
I would also add that Social Security be eliminated or give those who want to opt out the chance to do so. It’s going belly up anyway. No stopping that now. If we end it now, everybody gets their money back and you invest it as you see fit, something that gives you an actual return on your investment.
This would be a good start. I like your thinking. Now ask yourself, which candidate supports all the above ideas?
Only one.
Re #2, I’ve long thought that there should be a very simple restriction, based upon conflict of interest, to keep people who receive money from a particular level of government from voting with regard to that level of government. I’m a bit conflicted about that, though, when it comes to the military.
Note: I’m a city employee, and half of my “retirement” (401k) comes right out of my paycheck, along with a partial health insurance premium.
Basically, I think that city employees should not vote in city elections, county employees should not vote in county elections, and federal employees should not vote in House, Senate or Presidential elections.
Same thing with private businesses that contract with government. Might even extend that to campaign contributions.
I usually facepalm at your political commentary (at least since 2008), but this is pretty good.
Nice.
How about adding:
‘No person obliged to represent any particular body or group other than their own constituents may seek any public office.’ – I base this on the damage Nick Clegg has done to the UK (he’s deputy prime minister) because he sold his loyalty to the EUSSR years ago in exchange for a pension from them.
and:
‘No person holding elected office may seek another elected office without first resigning their current position.’ – So run for (vice) president OR stay a senator, not both without quitting as senator first.
Any elected office? Oh, now that would make the current republican primary interesting…
Move tax day to the day before election night. Remove all abilities for income tax witholding. This way, everyone would get their complete tax bill (no refunds as there is no withholding) on the night before they vote.
Most people think of tax day as a great thing because they get a check, when in reality, all they have been doing is giving an interest free loan to the government all year.
We tried to pass that for property tax bills, in my town. Didn’t quite make it, but the ballots /are/ required to list below each spending item, exactly how many dollars it will impact property taxes.
“De-fang” the federal government by repealing the 17th & 16th amendments. Return power to the states the way the Founders intended. If the states appointed their US Senators, like they did until 1913, the senators truly represent the interests of the state/people. By repealing the 17th (US Senate/popular election) you give the states their lost power and representation. By repealing the 16th you remove the reason and source of 98% of the reasons for buying politicians/policies. In short; Federalism.
We need less democracy and more representative republicanism (not the GOP). We can fund the federal gov’t with the National Sales Tax AND reduce its functions to what the Constitution enumerates.
The current tax code is not designed to raise revenues, rather, it is a behavior modification/reward tool (crony capitalism). US Senators are nothing more than 6 year representatives now….why do we have a bi-cameral Congress…?
Sales taxes are among the most intrusive taxes of any sort. There’s little that would be worse. And, aside from that, it directly punishes folks for spending money, which is going to impede the economy more than almost anything else could.
To fulfill its Constitutional obligations, the Federal government doesn’t need that that kind of funding, anyway. Nor any personal income tax. A corporate income tax would be more than enough, and operating as a corporation is a government-created privilege, not a right.
@Flint:
And you don’t think all of the embedded taxes and regulations imposed upon corporations aren’t IMMEDIATELY passed on to the consumer….? How is that any less intrusive? We already pay sales taxes, so how would the elimination of the onerous and truly intrusive income tax be less intrusive now…? Yes, all consumers would pay a sales tax but they would also have the freedom/liberty to NOT purchase, thus boosting their personal savings/wealth until they were ready to buy said item (and please, just leave out the food/medicine canard as they would be the only items exempted…ideally).
Instead of looking at the glass as half empty, I prefer to focus on how the consumer would be rewarded for the prudent management of his finances thru savings, investment, and wealth creation.
I’m sure that we are of one mind on the issue of how to empower the individual and de-emphasize the need for a large central government. I truly believe that the elimination of the progressive income tax with a national sales tax would unleash economic growth like never before seen. Foreign investment would flood the US economy with a ton of money, jobs, and opportunity. After all, that’s what the American experiment in Liberty was/is all about….individual opportunity, not the European style welfare state BHO is guiding us towards.
Also, how are corporations, made up of individuals investing their private assists/property any less deserving of their “rights” than you or I are? Corporations are the embodiment of people putting their private capital to work; are they not? By limiting an individual shareholder’s “rights” you restrict/retard the ability of the corporation to grow, and, ultimately, put said corporation’s employees at risk of losing their jobs; how does that help? I would put this line of logic under the category of “unintended consequences”.
Food for thought:-)
I don’t pay sales tax (other than on very specific items, like gas taxes and such). It’s not a universal thing. A number of states have no sales tax. Others have only very specific taxes (eg, food in restaurants).
And I certainly don’t collect taxes. I’ll be damned if I ever will. If something like that passes, I’ll shut the doors on my business the day before it goes into effect.
Buying/selling is the most basic of all economic transactions. Instituting a tax at that level is, therefore, the most intrusive sort of tax.
Operating as a corporation is not anything close to basic economics. That’s fairly far advanced along the spectrum. Corporations get all sorts of special privileges (limitations on liability, various forms of special bankruptcy protection, etc.) which are paid for with tax money. It’s much more equitable to have those who get such benefits be the ones who pay for them.
And it doesn’t prevent investment. If a few of us want to get together and start a company (a company is different from a corporation, legally), we can. If we want special privileges like limited liability (rather than being personally liable for our company), we can do so, and pay for the privilege.
Eliminating the personal income tax at the same time would mean that if Ma and Pa Jones want to run their general store, they can do so, and not have to pay danegeld to the government. If a dozen of their friends and family members want to invest, they can all be co-owners of the company at varying percentages. But if they want to turn that company into a corporation and have the government catch them if they fall, they have to pay for that benefit.
The end result is that small, local businesses who deal with local suppliers are in a better tax position than mega-corporations like WalMart who outsource everything they can to China and such.
VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!at every single level from DOg Catcher” to POTUS.