Some Ideas to Consider

Some ideas for consideration follow:

• We know that Congress is corrupt and in the pocket of lobbyists. They show no courage to make necessary unpopular decisions because they won’t be re-elected. The founding fathers envisioned representatives who did their civic duty for a short time and then went back to their real profession. Almost 200 out of 535 members of Congress are lawyers and lifetime politicians. This explains much about our predicament. Term limits would inject our leaders with a dose of courage. Maybe they would do what was best for the country if they knew that they would only be in Washington for six years.

• Outlawing lobbyists and PACs would remove the buying and selling of votes in Congress. We must remove the corruption from Washington DC.

• The PAYGO rules that were allowed to expire in 2002 must be reinstituted. These rules would not allow new spending initiatives without an equal cut in other spending. These rules allow Congressmen to pretend to have a backbone and say no to constituent demands.

• The banks that are insolvent will need to be nationalized, investors wiped out, and good assets sold off to good banks. Nouriel Roubini lays out a logical scenario. The sooner we purge the system of its bad debt, the sooner we can get this economy on a positive track.

• Dr. John Hussman has a solution for the foreclosure disaster that would not stick the U.S. taxpayer with the bill. Banks could write down the mortgage balance but receive a PAR (property appreciation right) back from the homeowner. The idea is discussed in more detail here.

• The U.S. carmakers need to be restructured within a pre-packaged bankruptcy. They want another $39 billion of your tax dollars. No more taxpayer funds can be wasted on these bloated pigs.

• A truly non-partisan commission appointed by the President with the power to put forth a comprehensive plan to restructure Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security for an up or down vote by Congress is the only way to create a viable future. Congress must be forced to confront this issue.

• John McCain’s moderate approach of allowing a path to citizenship seems like the best immigration plan. Most came here to try and live a better life. If they have committed crimes or don’t follow the prescribed path to citizenship, then they need to be expelled from our country. We need to encourage foreign professionals to immigrate to America with incentives, if necessary.

• If 50% of the $1.4 trillion annual military related budget was redirected to debt reduction, energy independence, and infrastructure rebuilding, we would actually get a positive return on our tax contribution. Our military is supposed to defend our country, not invade sovereign nations. (If we cut military spending by 50% we would still have by far and away the largest military budget in the world.)

• A “Manhattan Project” to develop new energy sources which would eliminate the $400 billion per year that we send overseas for foreign oil. The number of high paying jobs that could be created by building nuclear power plants, wind farms, and converting vehicles to natural gas would be in the hundreds of thousands.

• A tax system that eliminated all the preferences and loopholes for corporations and individuals while lowering rates would be fairer. Maybe even our Treasury Secretary could do his taxes correctly. Congress and lobbyists use the tax system to push their agendas. A flat tax or replacing the income tax with a national sales tax are other possible options.

• The Federal Reserve needs to be abolished. A currency backed by gold or a basket of precious metals would restrict what Congress could spend. This would save us from ourselves. The dollar has lost 93% of its purchasing power since Nixon closed the gold window in 1971 and the National Debt has gone from $389 billion to $10.8 trillion, a 2,800% increase in 38 years. Politicians will spend your money if they are given the chance. Let’s not give them the chance.

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”

-Thomas Jefferson