Nov 23 2010
No One In DC “Gets It” Yet
As I wrote before, there needs to be binding conditions attached to any bill raising the debt ceiling:
- Cancel all the unspent funds left in the Stimulus Bill
- Permanently extending all the current tax rates (no need to call them Bush’s tax cuts, they are OUR current tax rates).
- Freezing Obamacare for 4 years until we figure out what it really is doing to us – now that we can read the law the Dems passed.
- Put all discretionary funding back to 2006 levels.
- Establish a panel to go through each element of government and determine what we can live without, what can be privatized and what can be moved to the states.
The last item is the most important. We need to look at government as a pool of wasted resources that need to go back to the people and the states. We need to look at the federal bureaucracy and determine what we can live without. Just like all of us trying to get through these rough economic times individually, the ‘ruling class’ needs to be forced to cut back to the bare minimum – since they have no ability to control themselves on their own. We need less taxes and government process across the board to infuse money and reignite our nation’s inspiration and innovation. And to do that we need much less government.
For example, we don’t need the National Endowment for The Arts. We spend tens of billions on every school child throughout their public education experience exposing them to music, dance, theater, art, writing, photography, computer graphics, etc. Every child is given the opportunity to discover and nurture their inner muse. This investment establishes the basis for our national arts to grow and evolve. We don’t need to waste tax payer money on bottles of piss with crosses in them.
The states can definitely teach our children without the Department of Education – which has wasted untold billions since its inception in the 1970’s and has only falling test scores to show for their efforts.
Instead of raising taxes, we need to cut back. We need to combine efforts. In the science and technology front you have NASA, you have the Department of Energy Laboratories, you have the FFRDCs (Mitre, Aerospace, JPL, APL etc), you have NOAA (which I just learned is in the Department of Commerce of all places), you have USGS in the Department of Interior, there is DARPA and the DoD labs, and on and on and on ….
These resources are critical to America staying on the leading edge of science and technology, but they overlap and duplicate efforts and waste money. A common infrastructure for accounting, contracts, security, communications and vendor pools could streamline these organizations and bring innovation back into the moribund hallways.
We need the FAA to remain diligent on safety and energy efficiency, pulling the aviation industry together in common cause. We don’t need it promoting aviation – that is the job of private industry.
And we better not still have a national helium reserve left over from the war of the dirigibles (World War I).
And, we can could remove a good chunk of our debt by auctioning off the USPS.
This Congress needs to look at the Federal Government as a huge source of stimulus which needs to be removed from the backs of the people (e.g., taxes) and moved to the states and the private sector or the individual to deal with. Not until then will I feel the Political Industrial Complex ‘gets it’.
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That is a magnificent blueprint! Especially the consolidation of the myriad of overlapping agencies.
But I think the biggest problem with doing this is that far too many in Washington do “get it”, but have decided to fight any move to do this with their dying breaths. Why? Because every move to streamline means *Less* jobs for them, *Less* power, *Less* money. The Professional Bureaucracy benefits greatly from this setup, even though the rest of the country suffers.
A Congress that what’s to fix this cannot set out simply to reform the system; they have to realize that they must make war on the system with the resolve that they will lay waste to it if necessary. Only when the Bureaucracy thinks it has no choice will it accept reform.
As an example of one of the cheerleaders against any effort to do this – Paul Krugman in the NYT yesterday was absolutely apoplectic about the possibility that any Congress would attach qualifications to the bill to raise the Debt Ceiling. He even called any attempt to do so “the death of the republic.” Krugman and the NYT, of course, are trying to make the case daily that they only thing wrong with our economy is that we haven’t borrowed enough money. (seriously)
Keep the helium. We need it both for fusion research and for LTA platforms. You would be surprised what you can do if you are willing to think outside the heavier-than-air box.
Especially for both antisubmarine warfare and airborne early warning.
The Constitution is suppose to be Congresses Guide. The Constitution is silent on all “entitlements” The Empire, etc.
Nice list, but it wouldn’t do much without touching un constitutional programs and agencies.
And those 700+ bases in 130+ Countries are very expensive. And they are certainly against the Founders Vision. Every Country deserves complete Sovereignty, and this must include their own right to self defense.
My Favorite Founder was Thomas Jefferson. He said this in his Inaugural Address:
“Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations-
-entangling alliances with none,
I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration.” –Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural Address, 1801.
G.Washington said similar things as well. We have lost the Republic they set up, and we are now an Empire. All Empires end, primarily due to the costs. We are not far behind.
Foreign Aid will eventual end as well. Were broke, we just won’t admit it yet.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Enjoy your Tuesday!
After the last Bubble Bust in 2008, I looked around at which economists were correct in forecasting the mess we are in now. I found a group that not only were correct in their predictions of this economic downturn, but were correct on at least the last 3 downturns. This group includes Charles Goyette, Gerald Celente, Peter Schiff, Robert Murphy, and a few others. They all had one thing in common: Austrian Economics.
So, naturally, I purchased several books on Austrian Economics, to learn what these folks knew, but I didn’t. One of the necessary features of Austrian Economics is a true, honest Gold Standard. So, I read a lot of books on Gold Standards, the Fed, etc.
We have had many different Gold Standards over the years, including a Gold and Silver Standard together, and the last on was called Brent Woods, which Nixon stopped in 1971.
Since that time everything has been Fiat Money. Money that has no backing. So we print money out of thin air, and this causes inflation. We’ve been doing this for decades. Politicians like inflation because it masks their spending, and they inflate away much of the debt.
The Constitution calls for Congress to Coin all money in Gold and Silver. It is silent on the Federal Reserve. The Fed was created by Bankers in 1913, to, allegedly, end the boom and bust cycle. But of course, it’s done no such thing. The value of the dollar since 1913 has dropped around 96%. It’s been inflated away.
If we followed a true Gold Standard, the Government could not have more money in circulation, than they had Gold in reserves. This keeps inflation in check, because inflation is caused by the devaluation of the dollar due to the printing press.
It also would help keep congress in check. If we had a true Gold Standard, you too could go to the Gold Window, and trade you money for gold from the Government.
You may remember we once had Silver Certificates. They were dollar bills that you could trade in for Silver from the Government.
We really need to end the Fiat Money Printing, and return all issuance of currency to the Congress, as the Constitution directs.
We so strayed from the Constitution in all areas of governance that most folks don’t really know just what congress and the executive branch can do. Hopefully, in a few election cycles, we can get enough people who shared the Founders Vision of Individual Liberty, States Rights, and a very limited Federal Governments roll in our lives.
Take care folks, I’m outta here for today.