First time in a while that I completely agree with an entire economic piece. Almost feels like he's been reading my posts on here and facebook.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=255649

Quote:President Obama fulfilled his constitutional duty and gave his report on the state of the union last night. Here's mine:

We're in deep trouble.

You know why. Our debt has passed $14 trillion, and yet our current spending plans will make that worse. The U.S. debt will reach Greek levels in just 10 years.

But do not despair. If we make reasonable cuts to what government spends, our economy can grow us out of our debt. Cutting doesn't just make economic sense, it is also the moral thing to do. Henry David Thoreau had it right when he "accepted(ed) the motto ... that government is best which governs least."

So what should we get rid of?

We start by closing the Department of Education, which saves $100 billion a year. Education ought to be in the free market. It's insane to take money from states only to launder it through Washington and then return it to states.

Next, we should close the Department of Housing and Urban Development: $41 billion. We had plenty of housing in America before a department was created. Let's get government out of that business.

Then we eliminate the Commerce Department: $9 billion. A government that can't count the votes accurately should not try to negotiate trade. Trade should be free. Free trade creates prosperity. And since trade should be free, we should eliminate all corporate welfare and all subsidies. That means: agriculture subsidies, green energy subsidies, ethanol subsidies and subsidies for public broadcasting. None of these is needed.

I propose selling Amtrak. Taxpayers will save money, and riders will get better service. Why is government in the transportation business? Let's have private companies compete to run the trains.

And we must finally stop one of the biggest assaults on freedom and our pocketbook, the war on drugs. The drug war is really a war on our own people. The ends do not justify the means.

Now the biggest cuts. Republicans propose to cut discretionary nonmilitary spending. Good. But why stop there? That's only 15 percent of our budget. We must cut more. That means cutting Medicare, Social Security and the military.

I know. Medicare and Social Security are popular, but they are unsustainable. We must privatize Social Security and slowly replace Medicare with vouchers.

And that brings me to Obamacare. The only way to cut costs and still have medical innovation is to free the market. So I propose that we repeal Obamacare immediately. Then we must do more: We must repeal all government interference in the medical and insurance industries, including licensing. All that impedes competition.

Now, military spending. Do you recall what candidate Obama said about the war in Iraq?

"I will bring this war to an end in 2009. So don't be confused."

But I am confused. We're two years past 2009, but we still have 48,000 troops in Iraq. We must shrink the military's mission to truly national defense. That means pulling our troops out of Germany, Japan, Italy and dozens of other countries. America cannot and should not try to police the entire world. We can't afford it, and it's not right.

Those cuts will put America on the road to solvency. But that's not enough. We also need economic growth.

Our growth has stalled because millions of pages of regulations make businesses too fearful to invest. Entrepreneurs don't know what the rules – or taxes – will be tomorrow. This discourages hiring.

All destructive laws must go. I again propose the Stossel Rule: For every new law passed, we must repeal two old ones.

We need to progress to an America that cherishes individual freedom. That means a government limited by the Constitution, one that protects our shores and our persons but otherwise stays out of our way. We should take seriously the words of another president, Thomas Jefferson, and embrace "a wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government."

That's my State of the Union address.

Animus, if this guy reflects your thinking, then you both need to think some more. I agree with some of his stuff. But some of it makes me very nervous too.

Point 1 - Closing the Dept. of Education: I disagree.
We could eliminate much of this branch of government. But total elimination is a bad idea. There needs to be some sort of educational standard baseline, and an organization to make certain that those standards are maintained. Turning it over to private education means that only the wealthy will be educated, and those without education will become nothing more than servants to the educated upper class...

Point 2 - Closing the Department of Housing and Urban Development: I agree.
Urban planning - good or bad - should be done by the community being developed. If somebody is to be blamed for something that is poorly planned out, let it be somebody local - and not somebody who's never been to the place...

Point 3 - Eliminating the Commerce Department: I disagree.
We need an organization to regulate commerce, both interstate and international. Unregulated commerce is called the black market, and the stuff sold there isn't always what you'd call kosher...

Point 4 - Selling Amtrak: I disagree.
Letting private companies compete to run the trains, means the end of trains, and trains are the cheapest way to move people and freight. American companies prefer trucks, buses, and cars, since they don't have to worry about the train company's schedule, and they can make more profit by padding additional expenditures with surcharges...

Point 5 - End the War on Drugs: I agree.
Ever since the War on Drugs was declared, we spend more money each year fighting drugs, and there are more drugs on the street every year, with a higher and higher potency. A majority of the cases tried in our courts today are drug related, and the number grows each year. We could empty half our prisons, eliminate a huge annual expenditure, and collect a sh!tload of taxes by legalizing and regulating the drug trade. This would get the drug dealers out of the schools, eliminate the major source of income for the criminal element, and stop a huge drain on the economy...

Point 6 - Privatizing Social Security: I disagree.
As long as the government is taking care of politicians health care with no deductible for life, as long as they get elected ONCE in their lifetime, the government should provide every citizen with the exact same health care. The health and care of their citizens is the government's main trust and mission throughout history. It's the reason civilization was created in the first place. Ending such care means the end of civilization IMO...

Point 7 - Military Spending: I agree - to a point.
The military industrial complex has too strong a hold on the reins of government. All of our forefathers thought this was a bad idea, and advised against it. I'd like to see us step away from such a militaristic posture, and removing troops from foreign bases (except embassies) would be a good way to do it. I do agree that we do not need to be the world's policeman...

Point 8 - Eliminate the IRS: Your guy totally missed this one, and it's a biggie.
The elimination of the IRS, removing income tax from your paycheck, and instituting a national sales tax would save the government billions. It would probably save the taxpayers as much in fees to accountants and specialists, who are needed to navigate the complex maze of IRS regulations. That way everybody pays their share as they go, and nobody needs to worry about whether they paid enough or too much...

I'm going to rebuttal the points that you disagreed with:

Point 1: We need to let the states decide the guidelines. The reason for that is it allows for competition, thus elevating education standards. I do know that not every kid is going to college to be a Microbiologist and we need to prepare kids for labor jobs like plumbers, electricians etc. Not saying that we need to ignore class's like History and Science either.

Point 3: I tend to agree more with you. I think we need to tariff foreign goods a little more to tell you the truth. We need to make foreign goods more expensive to make our goods appear to be cheaper so Americans buy American again.

Point 4: I honestly didn't know that Amtrak was owned by the Government until this piece. I think selling it to a private company could allow for competition which would keep the prices down. Also it keeps the burden of maintaining the trains and tracks more on Amtrak and not the taxpayer. I'm just playing devils advocate because I don't know much about this issue.

Point 6: I don't think that Social Security needs to be privatized either but we need to phase it out completely. The fact that the Government thinks it can save my money for me better than I can is an insult. I think everyone past the age of 50 should get their benefits because they did pay into it and is close enough to retirement age. Everyone under 50 just might be screwed to a point. But us under 30 folks needs to wake up to the fact that there won't be Social Security when we retire. We need to plan accordingly. I understand those that are in the 40-50 age bracket would literally get screwed but we need to look at future generations that will get screwed later down the road.

Point 8: I totally agree with you on the IRS. Its time to end the income tax way of life and have a Federal Sales Tax.

We have to take these necessary cuts to the budget, no matter how painful they appear, and unpopular they are. There could be the day that China says FU to American and stops lending US money. We need to get rid of all of these entitlements and use the money lent to build newer factories with better technology and put our people back to work instead of free handouts. Most of our GDP is consumer spending for crying out loud. We need to go back to a producing economy again. This service sector economy just is just killing us. And if China actually decides to stop lending us money, our economy will implode and the streets will look a lot like Greece last May/June because there won't be money for food stamps, unemployment, welfare, etc. We need to prepare now before its too late.

It's fine to let states determine guidelines, if the people setting those guidelines have half a brain and some common sense. But unfortunately that isn't always the case. Somebody needs to make sure that the people in charge of setting those guidelines aren't complete idiots, as shown in Alabama and Mississippi on multiple occasions...

I'll continue to support railroads. It's the best form of transporting goods or people, and it will be history without support. It's been systematically killed by the American auto industry, which is about to die its own death, and government regulations, which piled on extra rail costs demanded by the Teamsters to make trucking competitive...

I'll disagree with you on health care too. A government is a servant of the people, supposedly dedicated to their health, welfare, and security. One way to ensure the health, welfare, and security of its citizens is to make sure they have no worries about all things medical...

But there is one other thing that may be of key importance in our recovery. I think a reorganization of the banking industry might be in order. We bailed out a sh!tload of financial institutions recently, and the first thing every one of them did with their bailout money was reward the executives who put them in receivership. That decision alone tells me that our financial community has its priorities out of order, and is in need of major readjustment...

I'm definitely more in agreement with bit on this although there's certain things I'd do a bit differently. Plus part of the problem is a revenue one which I can explain all of when I get more time later today.

The main problem in American politics is that its mob rule, and mobs are notoriously stupid. I've put up my mob intellect calculation before. But for those of you who are still unaware of mobs, you can calculate the intelligence of any mob. You take the IQ of the least intelligent person in the mob, and divide that number by the number of people in the mob. That calculation will give you the IQ of the mob, and it ain't a big number...

If you get enough morons in the mix, no matter how noble the idea, it will be badly tarnished when all is said and done...

The problem is we don't have the jobs to create the tax revenue to pay for these social programs. We're too dependent on China to bail us out on a daily basis.

I agree with you Bit on those too big to fail banks. This last bank failure is also going to be the direct cause of the next bank failure. With Interest rates as low as they are and you add Quantitative Easing X2 to the mix we're due for a big time inflation. And on top of that Benji Bernakee is talking about EVEN more Quantitative Easing. We're already seeing Commodities like Oil, Silver, Gold, Wheat and Produce start to raise in price. Once we start to see gas prices really start to raise its going to cause our goods to jump in price as well. What's going to happen is that's going to force the people to use their Credit Cards more and more often. I'm actually surprised the Credit Card bubble didn't bust the last time. These next 3-4 years is really going to test how viable much credit is really on the table, esp if everyone's Credit Cards defaults. The other line of credit that is due to pop is the College Loan Bubble. The banks aren't in the clear no matter what they say their bottom lines are.

I know we'll never get rid of the Federal Reserve, I at least want an Audit of the Fed. Billions of dollars during the Banking Bailout went to offshore Banks. Americans deserve transparency and they're not getting it from the Fed.

What everyone is missing is our debt is 14T in the hole. We need to fix this now instead of putting it off to the next President or even further down the road. Bush should've fixed this, hell Clinton should've fixed this. Our fundamental problems started in the late 60's. These decisions will be tough and won't be popular with the general population. There is a serious chance of our National Debt defaulting. Treasury Bonds are very shaky right now. Muni Bonds are in even more trouble. States are at serious risk of bankruptcy. We should've never started most of these social programs to begin with. Most of them helped to keep poor people poor. That's a fact because I grew up in poverty and seen this with my own eyes.

IMO, we'd probably have been better off in the long term if we had let those banks fail, and let the banks that knew their business pick up the pieces afterward. The worst would probably be over by now if we had...

(01-28-2011 01:07 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  IMO, we'd probably have been better off in the long term if we had let those banks fail, and let the banks that knew their business pick up the pieces afterward. The worst would probably be over by now if we had...

I totally agree. We would've had a serious depression but the total economic outlook post-depression would be much better than it is now. We just created more bubbles that are likely going to burst and cause more problems. And the Government will bail em out again which will cause some other credit problem.

In hindsight I'm probably more in agreement with let the banks fail however pumping up the FDIC was a wise idea. I shouldn't have to lose my life's savings because damn near the entire banking industry was/is insane. As for the commodity pricing that's a massive bubble and I'm glad you brought it up. Gold is at a ridiculously overvalued spot. Great time to sell old jewelry, my mom just sold $1300 worth of stuff she hasn't worn in years or lost one of the earrings in a pair and stuff. And frankly the people buying are suckers, this whole $1000 an ounce won't last. The inflation thing may or may not happen, I'm not totally sold on it. I think the economy is still just far too weak for that to happen in a big way like the mid 70s to early 80s. Plus as we've all said its a huge bubble. However it does underscore the need to broaden the ways we produce energy. And I know some fellow Dems would lynch me for suggesting it but I definitely want nuclear on the table. I was reading recently how someone's developed an isotope that would work to fuse spent fuel rods in a very safe and very reliable way that would produce scores of energy. And the byproduct of it is an inert isotope of the plutonium that's not radioactive and can't be easily converted into bomb making material.

Oh and as for the Fed a strong independent central bank such as the Fed is currently constituted is essential. The big parts of the problem with the Euro is how the ECB is setup and the member states having totally uncoordinated/decentralized fiscal policies. However, I'm all for requiring greater transparency and performing an initial comprehensive all-access audit.

(01-29-2011 05:24 PM)brista21 Wrote:  In hindsight I'm probably more in agreement with let the banks fail however pumping up the FDIC was a wise idea. I shouldn't have to lose my life's savings because damn near the entire banking industry was/is insane. As for the commodity pricing that's a massive bubble and I'm glad you brought it up. Gold is at a ridiculously overvalued spot. Great time to sell old jewelry, my mom just sold $1300 worth of stuff she hasn't worn in years or lost one of the earrings in a pair and stuff. And frankly the people buying are suckers, this whole $1000 an ounce won't last. The inflation thing may or may not happen, I'm not totally sold on it. I think the economy is still just far too weak for that to happen in a big way like the mid 70s to early 80s. Plus as we've all said its a huge bubble. However it does underscore the need to broaden the ways we produce energy. And I know some fellow Dems would lynch me for suggesting it but I definitely want nuclear on the table. I was reading recently how someone's developed an isotope that would work to fuse spent fuel rods in a very safe and very reliable way that would produce scores of energy. And the byproduct of it is an inert isotope of the plutonium that's not radioactive and can't be easily converted into bomb making material.

I totally agree with the need to broaden the ways that we produce energy. This thing in Egypt is going to be a real test for the US. If a a dictator takes over that country that hates the west, we're going to be in real trouble. Egypt controls that all important canal. The oil trade will be very difficult if that happens. In the mean time we must drill in our country until there is a viable replacement. We are seeing very good candidates emerge like hydrogen, hybrids etc.

The left-wing economist been calling gold and silver a bubble for sometime now. I'm not so quick to call precious metals a bubble just yet because as evident by treasury bonds, to other currencies, and oil, the dollar is getting weaker and weaker literally by the day. Sometimes I even think that this Stock Market rally really isn't a rally. Its just another sign of the dollar getting weaker. If things was really getting better, then the FED Reserve should be thinking about raising Interest Rates to 10% or even higher to fight inflation risks. But instead we're hearing about more Quantitative Easing. I'm sure gold and silver will eventually fall back to 1990 or 2000's levels sometime in the future. I'm just not sure when. But we won't see that until the dollar really starts to get stronger vs other commodities like grains, oil, produce etc.

(01-29-2011 11:14 PM)brista21 Wrote:  Oh and as for the Fed a strong independent central bank such as the Fed is currently constituted is essential. The big parts of the problem with the Euro is how the ECB is setup and the member states having totally uncoordinated/decentralized fiscal policies. However, I'm all for requiring greater transparency and performing an initial comprehensive all-access audit.

Transparency is the key when it comes to the FED and the fact there there has never been an audit of the FED is very disturbing. Personally, if Congress is able to completely audit the FED and release their findings to the people, I highly doubt the FED lasts as a strong central bank much longer.

I know tons of people from the right want a gold backed currency if we get away from the FED, but that's almost as bad as having the FED. For the most part, the Banks control the value of gold-as well as supply and demand etc. The richest nations from the Roman Republic(before they became an empire) to England(pre1600's) to the Colonies themself's used a debt free fiat and their economies grew. Stripping the Colonies of their debt free system and forcing the Colonist to pay taxes in Gold is one of the main cause of the Revolutionary War. Whoever supplies the money has the control. The biggest problem of Congress controlling the money supply would be, printing too much money and causing hyperinflation and the money becoming worthless ala 1780's. The Fed Reserve's main purpose was to prevent Recessions and Depressions and they kinda failed. My homework for you all is to watch the "Secrets of Oz" on youtube. Its a very good 2hr documentary on the history of fiat and gold backed money systems.

The size of a government does not automatically equate to a better/worse government. Large government can and does often provide services that the free market simply can't or won't provides. For example, environmental protection, labor laws, healthcare for the elderly, etc are all costly to businesses and would not be viewed favorably in the free market (as evidenced by numerous examples before laws were put in place). However, those services have numerous benefits for the public.

I would instead argue that the problem does not lie in government per say, but in the citizenry. Only 35% of US citizens can name one Supreme Court Justice. Only 37% of people know who their state governor is and when asked about State Representatives the figure falls to about 20%. More people (57%) can correctly name Harry Potter as J.K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard than can name both of their U.S. senators (27%).

Unfortunately, the greatest strength of a democracy is also its biggest weakness. An uninformed or disinterested citizenry that doesn’t really understand or want to understand the issues has no right to complain when the government it elects doesn't run efficiently. Rather than researching the issues, exploring the alternatives (and that includes media and news coverage), and synthesizing all of the opinions and facts, most people are content to be left alone and stay in their comfort zone. When people only watch Fox News or MSNBC (and refuse to listen to any other news because "it is biased") or who refuse to accept simple facts because they don't believe in them (e.g. birthers, people who claim Obama is a socialist, people who claimed Bush was a Nazi, etc), you end up with a voting populations that simply can't make an informed decision.

UofL, I agree with a lot with what your saying here. Education is the key. And you're last paragraph was on the money. Too many people pay attention to Faux News and CNN and make an opinion that way. Also a lot of people in my generation-18 to 30 y/o's- are so frustrated with the Politicians that they simply don't even care anymore.

Here's my background real quick. I grew up in a very poor neighborhood with shootings, stabbings, and pretty big drug deals(over 10 kilos at a clip). On top of that the Mill produces so much pollution that our city has been known to have ozone action days in the middle of winter. So I understand the importance of the DEP and OSHA. I also seen the negative effects of Welfare and how it keeps poor people poor. I do understand that some people do need help from time to time. But when people make more money being on Welfare than they would in the regular job market, we have a big problem. That's where education also needs to come into play. Colleges and local business need to offer incentives for kids from the hood to earn scholarships. A lot of these kids don't even have a chance to get into college. So why should they care about their education?

Here is something I did agree with Obama on. We do need to invest in newer cleaner technologies and projects like High Speed Rail. We need to invest in stuff like Tech and Industry instead of entitlement programs. We gotta get people into high paying jobs so we have the tax revenue to pay off this deficit.

Animus, I can relate for the need for OSHA and other such organizations. Within 20 miles of where I grew up were over 30 chemical plants, of which about 10 still survive, and several sites have been on the Superfund cleanup list for years. A few of the worst, like Fike Chemical, have been cleaned up somewhat, but most are still waiting. One site has been declared unusable for the foreseeable future (like the next 1000 years or so)...

In the 1960s, West Virginia's Kanawha Valley had the 7th highest cancer rate in the world, and there was always an odd smell to the air. Methyl-iso-cyanate, the chemical that leaked and killed the entire population of Bhopal, is still being manufactured right next door to WV State, and that isn't the most dangerous chemical produced at that facility. That's just ONE of those chemical plant sites...

The coal industry's history is just as bad. Nearly every major mining disaster in West Virginia over the last 2 decades have all been the result of coal companies not being in compliance with federal mining standards, and without government controls, the company stores would still be keeping coal company employees in indentured service...

Just like with the banks, regulars haven't been doing their jobs. They just get bought out by these corporations. And then want to hammer the corporations for not keeping up with the standards. Federal Inspectors and Regulators have been a joke for sometime. That Rig blowing up in the Gulf last May is a prime example of this. We do need safety and environmental regulations but whats the point when OSHA and the DEP doesn't do their jobs.

I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that company executives running companies that blatantly violate federal law should be shot on sight. That way they will no longer contaminate the American business community, and will serve as a warning to others...

bit, half of them are little different from mafia bosses. Several bank and oil execs should have been/should be prosecuted under RICO statutes among other things. Bernie Madoff in my opinion shoulda been put in supermax. I'm not saying you necessarily put them to death, although Madoff ruined so many lives directly and indirectly it works for me, but we should stop putting white collar criminals who commit huge offenses like ones we've seen in recent years in minimum security, time to make them do actual hard time.

When the decisions of some of these executives cause numerous safety violations, and put the general public at risk, I don't think shooting them is out of the question. That would put some meat into Business Ethics classes. They could show movies of prominent corporate executives being executed for blatant unethical business practices. Perhaps then we might get some ethical businessmen. There are almost none in positions of power today...