Friday, May 06, 2005
If I were King....
I would like to offer my recommendations on how to fix what I perceive as the major flaws with our Federal Government.
1. Immediately institute the Fair Tax which includes abolishing the IRS.
2. Stop the ridiculous and hopeless War on Drugs. Legalize and regulate them instead.
3. Abolish the National Education Administration, leave school choices up to the states.
4. Phase out Social Security entirely. We are NOT a Socialist country!
5. Lock down our borders and stop the flood of illegal immigration. We have a perfectly viable legal immigration system, let's use it as it was intended.
These are the areas I would concentrate my efforts if I were king.
1. The Income Tax is a despicable tax which is used more for social enginerring, to get people to behave in ways the government thinks they should behave, than to collect revenue to fund government operations. The Income Tax also is progressive, which means it is collected unevenly, with the philosophy that the more you make, the more we take. It is a negative incentive to individuals to earn more because each additional dollar earned is taxed at a higher rate.
The Income Tax is so laden with special provisions that it is simply a nightmare for compliance and has created an entire industry of specialists to legally avoid compliance and a real burden on everyone to prove they are compliant. Income Taxes are always held up in Congress as a means to illicit certain behaviors, such as the preference for home ownership or charitable contributions. Congress has no reason or right to attempt to influence people's behaviors based on tax breaks. This needs to stop.
Sales Taxes are already collected fairly simply at the state level and the system works. Why not fund Federal operations the simple way, at the retail cash registers? We know it works, it is difficult to avoid compliance. We know millions of dollars of uncollectable taxes are lost due to the lack of reporting income properly, by illegal aliens and others being paid in cash, by outlaws who never report illegally earned income, they can't avoid the cash register, and by special provisions in the Tax Code that allow all manner of deductions. This all needs to stop.
2. Abolish the War on Drugs! It is usefless. It can never be won. Why are we fighting a war that cannot be won? We tried this in this country once before in the 1920s. It was called Prohibition. And it didn't work. In fact, it led to the creation of powerful, illegal groups, like the Mafia, to provide the contraband alcohol that people still craved. Why didn't we learn our lesson after this failed experiment?
There will always be people who want to use drugs. Hell, we encourage the use of drugs, but only certain drugs. Who is deciding what is a good drug and what is a bad drug? The government has no more superior knowledge on this subject than anyone else. It is approached as a moral issue and morals cannot be legislated. Let people decide for themselves if they want to use what we now call illegal drugs. We let people decide if they want to use legal drugs. I see no difference. People cannot be protected from themselves. If someone's life, liberty or property is harmed by someone using drugs, make them pay for the harm caused by their actions. Using a drug is not in and of itself a reason to put someone in jail.
Among the most powerful lobby groups for illegalizing marijuana were the rope and clothes lobbies. They were afraid that hemp products would ruin their sweet profits and lobbied hard to make sure that couldn't happen. The Federal Government should not be using its' power to protect certain business interests. They should all be allowed to fail or succeed on their own merits and public acceptance.
3. Jimmy Carter pushed to add the Cabinet level position for National Education. Up until then, it was the province of state and local governments to administer their educational system. If we intend to have a government-run educational system at all, it should be run by local and state governments not on a national scale. Nothing the Federal Government does is cheap or efficient. It also doesn't take into account the difference in cultures in different parts of the country. Stop sending funds up to Washington where the beaurocrats play around with the money and send some back as they decide. Put it all back to local control.
4. Phase out the pyramid scheme called Social Security. This plan would be illegal in all 50 states, yet supporters call it the most successful program in government history. Its' only success is that it gives politicians a real tool in manipulating public opinion. How can one claim success for a system that simply takes money from Peter to pay Paul without planning for future payments to Peter. Current recipients and people close to retirement must still receive their payments as promised but the system is so out of balance and inherently unfair, that it needs to eventually be abolished completely.
Americans must plan for and secure their own retirement income. There is nothing special about being old. It doesn't mean you need to be treated with kid gloves. Remember the story about the ant and the grasshopper? The ant works hard all summer to prepare for the long winter while the grasshopper merrily lives for today with no thought about the winter months. When winter comes, the grasshopper goes begging to the ant to help him out as he is in an unfortunate state and cannot find food. We need more ants in this country and fewer grasshoppers.
5. I have completely reversed my thoughts about this issue over the past several years. Particularly after 9/11. There is no reason we should continue to allow massive illegal immigration into our country. It is estimated there are over 11 million illegals in this country at present. We need to stem this tide and we need to return all illegals to where they came.
I heard one person exclaim that we can track a cow from its' birth to the stall it is currently occupying. Remember the Mad Cow scares? If we can do this, we can surely find a good percentage of the 11 million illegal people currently here. This person suggested we give every illegal alien a cow to make it easier to find them.
But what do we do instead? We give them driver licenses. We educate their children for free, We allow them to work, often off the tax rolls, and then send their income back to their families in their home country. We give them free health care. And we often give them other forms of welfare, too. When we catch them coming across the southern border, we either ignore them or we send them home at our expense. When they apply for a job, we give it to them, then pay them under the table so they avoid income taxes and payroll taxes.
This is America and it is the greatest country in the history of the world. It will not always be the greatest country if we take it lightly and refuse to see the damaging effects our Federal Government allows to go on unchecked. I have offered my suggestions for fixing some of it. I am not overly optimistic about any of these suggestions actually occuring, at least in my lifetime, except for the Fair Tax.
I think a vast majority of Americans would agree with the Fair Tax plan if they knew all the details about it.(http://www.fairtax.org) This fuels my optimism. I have watched several people become convinced that this is the best plan available after having initial reservations about it. The main obstacle I see in its' implementaion is that people are so pessimistic when it comes to government reform, that they think a change this vast and far-reaching has a snowball's chance in hell of surviving. Just because something is hard to do, doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. Getting the Income Tax passed in the first place was a hard task, but look how it worked out.
That's my nickel for the day.
OH
1. Immediately institute the Fair Tax which includes abolishing the IRS.
2. Stop the ridiculous and hopeless War on Drugs. Legalize and regulate them instead.
3. Abolish the National Education Administration, leave school choices up to the states.
4. Phase out Social Security entirely. We are NOT a Socialist country!
5. Lock down our borders and stop the flood of illegal immigration. We have a perfectly viable legal immigration system, let's use it as it was intended.
These are the areas I would concentrate my efforts if I were king.
1. The Income Tax is a despicable tax which is used more for social enginerring, to get people to behave in ways the government thinks they should behave, than to collect revenue to fund government operations. The Income Tax also is progressive, which means it is collected unevenly, with the philosophy that the more you make, the more we take. It is a negative incentive to individuals to earn more because each additional dollar earned is taxed at a higher rate.
The Income Tax is so laden with special provisions that it is simply a nightmare for compliance and has created an entire industry of specialists to legally avoid compliance and a real burden on everyone to prove they are compliant. Income Taxes are always held up in Congress as a means to illicit certain behaviors, such as the preference for home ownership or charitable contributions. Congress has no reason or right to attempt to influence people's behaviors based on tax breaks. This needs to stop.
Sales Taxes are already collected fairly simply at the state level and the system works. Why not fund Federal operations the simple way, at the retail cash registers? We know it works, it is difficult to avoid compliance. We know millions of dollars of uncollectable taxes are lost due to the lack of reporting income properly, by illegal aliens and others being paid in cash, by outlaws who never report illegally earned income, they can't avoid the cash register, and by special provisions in the Tax Code that allow all manner of deductions. This all needs to stop.
2. Abolish the War on Drugs! It is usefless. It can never be won. Why are we fighting a war that cannot be won? We tried this in this country once before in the 1920s. It was called Prohibition. And it didn't work. In fact, it led to the creation of powerful, illegal groups, like the Mafia, to provide the contraband alcohol that people still craved. Why didn't we learn our lesson after this failed experiment?
There will always be people who want to use drugs. Hell, we encourage the use of drugs, but only certain drugs. Who is deciding what is a good drug and what is a bad drug? The government has no more superior knowledge on this subject than anyone else. It is approached as a moral issue and morals cannot be legislated. Let people decide for themselves if they want to use what we now call illegal drugs. We let people decide if they want to use legal drugs. I see no difference. People cannot be protected from themselves. If someone's life, liberty or property is harmed by someone using drugs, make them pay for the harm caused by their actions. Using a drug is not in and of itself a reason to put someone in jail.
Among the most powerful lobby groups for illegalizing marijuana were the rope and clothes lobbies. They were afraid that hemp products would ruin their sweet profits and lobbied hard to make sure that couldn't happen. The Federal Government should not be using its' power to protect certain business interests. They should all be allowed to fail or succeed on their own merits and public acceptance.
3. Jimmy Carter pushed to add the Cabinet level position for National Education. Up until then, it was the province of state and local governments to administer their educational system. If we intend to have a government-run educational system at all, it should be run by local and state governments not on a national scale. Nothing the Federal Government does is cheap or efficient. It also doesn't take into account the difference in cultures in different parts of the country. Stop sending funds up to Washington where the beaurocrats play around with the money and send some back as they decide. Put it all back to local control.
4. Phase out the pyramid scheme called Social Security. This plan would be illegal in all 50 states, yet supporters call it the most successful program in government history. Its' only success is that it gives politicians a real tool in manipulating public opinion. How can one claim success for a system that simply takes money from Peter to pay Paul without planning for future payments to Peter. Current recipients and people close to retirement must still receive their payments as promised but the system is so out of balance and inherently unfair, that it needs to eventually be abolished completely.
Americans must plan for and secure their own retirement income. There is nothing special about being old. It doesn't mean you need to be treated with kid gloves. Remember the story about the ant and the grasshopper? The ant works hard all summer to prepare for the long winter while the grasshopper merrily lives for today with no thought about the winter months. When winter comes, the grasshopper goes begging to the ant to help him out as he is in an unfortunate state and cannot find food. We need more ants in this country and fewer grasshoppers.
5. I have completely reversed my thoughts about this issue over the past several years. Particularly after 9/11. There is no reason we should continue to allow massive illegal immigration into our country. It is estimated there are over 11 million illegals in this country at present. We need to stem this tide and we need to return all illegals to where they came.
I heard one person exclaim that we can track a cow from its' birth to the stall it is currently occupying. Remember the Mad Cow scares? If we can do this, we can surely find a good percentage of the 11 million illegal people currently here. This person suggested we give every illegal alien a cow to make it easier to find them.
But what do we do instead? We give them driver licenses. We educate their children for free, We allow them to work, often off the tax rolls, and then send their income back to their families in their home country. We give them free health care. And we often give them other forms of welfare, too. When we catch them coming across the southern border, we either ignore them or we send them home at our expense. When they apply for a job, we give it to them, then pay them under the table so they avoid income taxes and payroll taxes.
This is America and it is the greatest country in the history of the world. It will not always be the greatest country if we take it lightly and refuse to see the damaging effects our Federal Government allows to go on unchecked. I have offered my suggestions for fixing some of it. I am not overly optimistic about any of these suggestions actually occuring, at least in my lifetime, except for the Fair Tax.
I think a vast majority of Americans would agree with the Fair Tax plan if they knew all the details about it.(http://www.fairtax.org) This fuels my optimism. I have watched several people become convinced that this is the best plan available after having initial reservations about it. The main obstacle I see in its' implementaion is that people are so pessimistic when it comes to government reform, that they think a change this vast and far-reaching has a snowball's chance in hell of surviving. Just because something is hard to do, doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. Getting the Income Tax passed in the first place was a hard task, but look how it worked out.
That's my nickel for the day.
OH
# posted by OH @ 6:35 AM 
