Real Reform

“Amendment 10 The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

To reduce the national debt, the federal government must begin plans to pull back from spending federal dollars on activities that are reserved to the States, or the people. Legislation should be passed in 2011 to begin this process. The goal of the process is to take federal spending down to match federal revenue. An acceptable level of spending for the next 4 yours would be $2.9 trillion.

To give voters the right to elect their own representatives, campaign contributions should be restricted to voters in the candidates’ city, county, district or state. Banning contributions is not a violation of special interest political free speech; they would be allowed to pay for their own ads. Representatives should add voter polls to their websites, so voters can select the legislative agenda via email, polling results and voting to adopt legislation put on the ballot. The practice of appointing Judges should be ended and all Judges should be elected. Their record should be on their websites.

Earmarks should be banned forever. These are roads and bridges in the states that should be paid for by the city, county or state. Building and maintaining roads and bridges are the responsibility of local government and should not be a responsibility of the federal government.

Education is the next responsibility to return to the States and the school districts. Federal involvement in the 1970s heralded the beginning of the decline in public school outcomes. Planned reductions in federal spending should begin now. The states can pass laws protecting schools from the ACLU. Schools will do well to restore math, reading and science outcomes to begin to narrow the global gap in our standardized test scores. The Department of Education should be abolished. Congress should not regulate public schools. No Federal tax money should be spent in funding public or private education at any level. States should begin to reduce spending for Education at the same time and press for innovative reforms that reduce headcount including internet K – college and home-based school.

Health & Human Services and Labor are the next departments to begin spending reductions. They should be abolished by 2014. States should begin to reduce spending in these areas at the same time. All federal lands should be transferred to the states along with the interstate highway systems. Spending by the Transportation and Interior Departments could be eliminated. States would determine how much of this land should be sold to private ownership. The Endangered Species Act should be repealed. Private nature preserves should take care of the wild-life. The Environmental groups can contribute to these preserves rather than contributing to political campaigns. The additional expenses shifted to the States should be off-set by reductions in State spending for Education and Healthcare; these expenses will fall to the counties. The federal government would continue to own their own buildings and military bases, ports and proving grounds.

Taxpayer money for foreign aid, grants, loans and military assistance to foreign countries should begin spending cuts immediately and should be abolished as soon as possible.

Union membership for all government employees should be banned, including federal, state and local employees. Federal, state and local government pensions should be converted to defined contribution

Formal Military operations with large forces engaged in nation building should cease in 2012 and never to return. Every nation-building effort has reversed itself back to the tribal or dictator structures where no economy or private property existed. In the meantime, Special Operations, drone and air strikes should quadruple supported on the ground by in-country troops and police. These forces should be launched from and returned to shipboard or nearby secure bases after each operation.

The Mexican border should be secured. All anti-discrimination laws should be repealed. The most damaging EPA regulations should be scaled back to allow local and private access to water, oil, gas, timber and minerals. All bailouts and stimulus packages for all corporations should be banned for all time. Fanny and Freddie should be phased out and closed. Student loans should be returned to the private sector. “Free speech”, “separation of church and state”, “Born” and “Life” should be redefined in the courts to reflect their original intent. “Torture” should be redefined as causing permanent physical damage.

Employment-based health insurance should be ended; allow individuals to purchase health insurance from anywhere with coverage selected by the consumer. End the practice of accepting patients’ hospital admissions regardless of their ability to pay. States will need to determine if they will continue price supports for agriculture and other spending that will need to be reduced by the federal government. Counties will determine how they will deal with healthcare for the poor. Medicare payments to providers should be emailed to members as they are paid, to self-police fraud. Tort reform is necessary and should be passed by 2012 to allow the states to pass and enforce caps for malpractice and loser pays for frivolous lawsuits. Health insurance should be based on insuring against catastrophic major medical costs with premiums community rated. Chronic disease management should be funded through Medical Savings Accounts, not through the insurance bureaucracy. Patients should be free to seek pharmaceuticals and medical care anywhere. Home healthcare should be favored. If Medicare costs don’t fall with these reforms, it should be phased out.

Social Security should be replaced by sending the 15.3% of earnings to individual IRA accounts for all citizens who have not yet earned any income. Social Security should be maintained for those who have already paid in to the system and funded by a 5% national sales tax. All surplus funds from the national sales tax should be used to reduce the national debt. If the debt is paid, the surplus sales taxes may be deposited in the Treasury. Surpluses in the Treasury over $ 1 trillion may be used to reduce income taxes across the board. Some income tax should be paid by 80% of the population to avoid recreating a government-dependent class.

Federal taxpayer dollars should not be lent or donated to other countries. Restore the Bush income tax cuts. It will take $1 trillion a year in principle and interest to pay down the national debt. We should reduce corporate income taxes and remove special interest tax breaks from the tax code.

Manufacturing and agriculture will necessarily invest in mechanization and automation. That together with lower taxes on business and no health insurance expenses should restore our global competitiveness. To restore control of our government to the people, campaign contributions will necessarily need to be restricted to registered voters in the candidates’ city district or state. We will be the only developed country without burdensome taxes. Maybe the other countries will follow our lead.

Lessons in International Relations

Expansionism As the world’s leading colonial power, we have managed to attract an ever-growing number of Mexicans without having to seize any Mexican territory.

Third World
When dealing with the Third World, we must take a lesson from our missionaries. A missionary journeyed to a Third World country to meet the native people and show them that he had a good heart. Once they were convinced his heart was good, they ate it.