before you vote again

8/3/2019 Before You Vote Again

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Introduction: Before you vote again

It is November of 2011.

America is teetering on economic self destruction at the hands of a corrupt government that is

controlled by politicians who seem to only care about lining their pockets, maintaining politicalpower and look out for the moneyed interests that keep them in power. The economy istemporarily kept from implosion by running unsustainable federal deficits that keep enough peopleemployed to put off the collapse, but bringing that collapse ever more unavoidable by the sheerweight of the debt. There are no other countries big enough to bail out America.

Meanwhile America has the economic power if unleashed to create enough growth and wealth tooffset these deficits and bring back economic health. However the longer and faster ourgovernment speeds our economy toward the cliff of no return, the more unlikely is any hope for thecontinuation of the American way of life in our lifetimes.

I write this paper in hopes of waking up people who could make a difference, and to outline howdespite all that is wrong in America, how easily these problems could be corrected. In effect ourgovernment has done almost everything wrong in guiding our economy, yet all of these mistakescould be reversed. Instead of heading for a cliff, our country could turn around and head for itsgreatest times.

America has an incredible economic engine that has been bogged down with mismanagement andcorruption. Americas economic engine still has time to be revved up and overcome the problemsour government has created.

In this paper I will avoid issues that I would love to weigh in on, but that are truly too complex or

controversial to solve with any single quick fix. I am referring to issues that involve religious andother deeply held viewpoints (such as legalizing drugs, abortion, birth control etc.). I will stick toareas of change, what I will call fixes that clearly bring undeniable efficiencies to our economyand society regardless of someones political or religious affiliations. There could be bettersolutions than I will propose, but all of the solutions I propose clearly address the Big Picture that Ishall outline.

I could spend a lot more of my time and the readers time with complex numbers to make my points.Instead I wish to make this paper readable so that at a minimum a person who wishes to be anhonest informed voter will be able to see some Big Picture solutions that all Americans could agreeon and benefit from. All of the points I will make are really just common sense keep it simplestupid approaches.

Below I will propose seven specific areas of changing how we do things in America. Each of theareas of change would demonstrably add five to fifteen percent to our national GDP. It isnt reallyimportant if any one of the things will actually add five or fifteen percent. It would take a book oneach area of change to discuss the exact impacts and the unintended consequences that could occur.What is important is that each of these fixes will add dramatic improvements to our economy. Ifwe do most or all of these fixes, the cumulative impact of unleashing American productivity could


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unleash the greatest boom in Human History. Any one of these fixes would be enough to saveAmerica from economic collapse. Moving on all of them would guarantee American EconomicSecurity and political/economic hegemony over the world for at least 100 years.

America has gone through many booms that were unleashed by one or two technological changes.

The 1990s were a great time for our economy, as America benefited from the fall of communism,no wars and technological commercial breakthroughs in communication and informationprocessing. These events combined with fiscal responsibility put America in a strong positionentering the twenty first century.

Recent years have seen financial meltdowns along with taxation and regulation policies that havemade it very difficult for our corporations and workers alike to compete in a global economy.Reckless financial mismanagement by our government in the last several years has put America onthis present course where the interest on our debt alone will begin to grow beyond our ability to payit.

Before you vote again please read this paper and consider the fixes I will discuss. These fixes arenot ideological they are simple common sense ideas that should be agreeable to any American thatwants America to prosper. Once our country is financially strong and solvent we can deal withSocial Justice issues that have been used to divide our attention from these really big issues. Thisshouldnt be hard to understand if for the benefit of our childrens future we remove the blinders ofour political ideologies that have led us to the precarious position we are in today.

As I write this in November of 2011, we have had over 50 years of miraculous technologicaldevelopments in medicine, communications, information, manufacturing, farming, in facteverything. The 1950s are generally considered to be some sort of golden age in Americanhistory. Everyone could find a job and provide for a family. Yet in the year 2011, we truly live inan age that would have been thought pure science fiction in the 1950s. We have gone to the moon,we have had communication and information technology revolutions as well as medicalimprovements that should have increased the standard of living of every American several timesover. The fact that the perception is we were better off in the 1950s shows that something is clearlybroken in America, and we need to fix what is broken.

People commonly refer to the 1950s as a golden age a time when you could support a family onone income, mom could stay home and raise the kids, dad could easily find a job that paid the bills,provided health insurance and a pension. Of course the reality of this golden age was that theaverage home was small, had one black and white TV, a rug, a coffee table and a sofa. Also eachfamily had one car, the health care consisted of the family doctor with his little black bag, and dadspension was nice but he probably died in his sixties.

Today our poor people live longer than the rich people of the 1950s, and have cable TV,computers, cell phones, microwave ovens, X-boxes, VCRs, DVRs, dishwashers, washers anddryers and multiple cars. Yet we arent better off because our government has a deficit burden ofover fifteen trillion ($200,000 of debt for every family of four). This debt is increasing atfrightening speed and if interest rates go up before we fix our economy then our economy will


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collapse because we wont be able to pay our debts. Perhaps our only choice will be to just defaulton all of our debt.

We also arent better off because so many people cant find a good job. This is because of theglobal Job economy, where millions of jobs that used to be done in our country are now open for

global competition.

We should all be living after 50 years of progress at multiples of the standard of living we had inthe 1950s. The reason this hasnt happened is because people dont look at the big picture, they arehung up and blinded by politicians on issues that simply arent the big picture.

Before you vote again, please read on and focus on the big picture, and on simple fixes that can putAmerica back on the path of greatness while providing an ever better standard of living for itscitizens. Vote for candidates that will work towards these improvements and against candidatesthat will block this type of progress. If you have a chance to talk to policy makers let them knowthat you demand our government fix these problems. Dont be afraid to share these ideas and

spread common sense. Let ideas and solutions overcome the darkness of our current politicaldogmas.


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have their place. They make a lot of sense where you need to reduce the flow of traffic into acongested area for example. So tolls on bridges and tunnels into Manhattan serve to limitcongestion and pollution of cars crowding into a very small area. However tolls on the OhioTurnpike only serve to keep thousands of people from doing anything productive. The OhioTurnpike is the only toll road in Ohio and accounts for far less than 1% of all roads in Ohio which

are paid for by the gasoline tax and other federal and local taxes. Yet the Ohio Turnpike has awhole false economy that provides absolutely no benefit. In fact it adds costs to driverstransportation and extra fuel and wear and tear expense to drivers as they wait in the lines to get onand off the turnpike. Meanwhile all the turnpike toll workers and construction workers that buildand maintain the turnpike infrastructure are basically employed in something that provides noadvantages but only disadvantages to drivers that have to stop, lineup and pay the tolls.

If toll roads were the efficient and best way to pay for roads, then shouldnt we make all roads tollroads? Of course just imagining how preposterous that would be and what an obstruction tocommerce that would be helps one understand what a joke the Ohio Turnpike is. Basically we putup with it because it is the only road of its kind in Ohio so the harm it causes is minimized by the

fact that there is only one of them. The Ohio Turnpike could have been paid for the same way allother roads in Ohio are paid for. Of course we wouldnt have this huge false economy thatprovides no benefit. But we need to understand how to look at things and realize when somethingadds to the greater good, or when something hurts the greater good at the benefit of a few profitingfrom it like the Ohio Turnpike. The Ohio Turnpike was just someones scam to create a falseeconomy. It does not add to our collective economic output (the pie) but instead it subtracts fromit. The only difference between that and building a casino is that at least a casino providesentertainment and is optional.

So before I start with my proposed fixes one has to understand what the real Big Picture we mustall focus on in this country. We must focus on things that make that pie bigger for everyone. Nowwhat the pie consists of should always be determined by free market principles. The governmentshould not decide what people want to spend their money on. But the government certainly needsto put things in place that help make that pie bigger. The Ohio Turnpike as an example makes thepie smaller because it engages people in doing things that provide no value.

Here are examples of things that make our pie smaller:

People who are capable of working but dont because they can scam the welfare system.

People who cant find jobs but want to work and contribute.

People who have no skills to add to the pie.

A tax and regulation system that forces work to be done out of this country when it could bedone in this country.

Energy that is imported at an expensive cost when it could be produced within our owneconomy.

Jobs that are exported that could be done with workers who are otherwise unemployed.

Bureaucracies that dont do anything at all.

The IRS (how is it that states and local governments can conduct tax collection withoutmany millions of IRS employees, and tax accountants?).

Healthcare paper pushers because of an inefficient government mandated system.

Corporate paper pushers because of excessive government regulation.


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Toll Roads that do not go through congested areas.

The fixes I will discuss would make our pie more than twice the size it is now. With many morepeople contributing to the much larger pie, most of the economic problems we face today in thiscountry will go away. If we did all of the fixes below we could add 50 million workers in America

doing things that make the pie bigger. If tens of millions of workers were paying taxes instead ofjust collecting benefits we make our debt a much smaller percentage of overall GDP. And thiswould avert the path towards economic collapse we are on (when interest rates rise and we cannotservice our debt).

The fixes that follow are all simple to understand and implement. Most people will instinctivelydisagree without thinking them through. This is because of the brainwashing of ideology andPolitical Correctness. Most people cannot think outside the box of their indoctrination. To quoteGeorge MacDonald, The two pillars of political correctness are: a) willful ignorance b) asteadfast refusal to face the truth.

If you read on please try to keep an open mind and free yourself from the confines of your currentideology and Political Correctness.


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Fix #1 HealthCare

Before I get to the specific solution I recommend, there are 3 criteria that any health care reformmust embrace (excluding Medicare and Medicaid at this time). These 3 criteria are simplyimperative to overcome inefficiencies and corruption.

1. Health care must not be provided by employers . This is one of the great examples ofunintended consequences. Employer-sponsored health insurance where health care wasbasically free resulted in fantastic advances in health care. However free health care meantthat more and more was demanded and the costs went up and up. Then people started livingmuch longer as a result and that really added to the costs. So those unintended benefitswere great for 40 years, but now the results are crippling our economy and it is twenty yearspast time to move health care back to a market driven service. Employer-sponsored healthinsurance was made exempt from taxable income in 1954. The only reason employersprovided it in the first place was because during World War 2 wages were frozen by thegovernment but benefits werent, so companies started giving out benefits to attract

workers. This is the single biggest thing that can be done to make American workers moreglobally cost competitive.

2. Market forces must drive innovation and not bureaucracies. HealthCare is now a huge partof our economy, approaching 20%. Much of that is just wasted because there is limitedchoice and competition as people are forced to take the health insurance provided by theircompanies because of the tax advantages which are not applicable if you were to go out andfind your own health insurance. Further, it is estimated that 25% of the cost of healthcare istied to the regulation paperwork and claims industry that works at cross purposes in tryingto deny as many payments as possible, since patients have no choice in their options.Introduction of choice, competition and market efficiencies would save billions every year.

3. We must accept that while on one hand we want to subsidize and make health care availableto all Americans, that on the other hand we cannot afford to MANDATE that everyone hasthe same level of health care. The poor simply cannot be expected to have all the mostexpensive current treatments as that level of health care will alone bankrupt our countrysimply because our great health care system is allowing people to live much longer than inthe past. As life expectancies continue to grow, we cannot afford to spend a fortune oneveryone to keep them alive. We must accept that there is a limit to what we can afford,and that we cannot mandate that everyone gets unlimited health care.

The above 3 things must be incorporated into our health care system. The easiest way to do thiswould be the implementation of a system that does the following.

Remove the Federal tax breaks for employers to provide healthcare, have no mandates onproviding health care, and have all Americans buy their Healthcare on the open Market.These changes will open up competition and choice in the health care industry and bringabout efficiencies and innovation.

All citizens have their own FSA account that the government will take 2% of GDP anddivide equally into all citizen FSA accounts. The FSA (Flexible Spending Account) wouldwork the same as it does now, as a means to save tax free for health care expenses but


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would carryover balances unused indefinitely. Each citizen would have their own FSAdebit card that they could use for healthcare expenses or premiums. The government woulddeposit monthly into citizens FSAs from the collected taxes, and workers could add moreout of their paychecks just as workers can today.

The first bullet point will bring about efficiencies and innovation, but as a country we certainlyunderstand that health care needs to be subsidized to a certain element and especially be availablefor children. Of course Medicaid still exists for children of the poor. At current GDP levels thiswould put about $1,000 a year into each citizen FSA account. So a family of 4 would have 4FSAs they could use to purchase a family insurance account insuring whatever they wanted or usethe FSA funds to cover out of pocket expenses. Workers would be able to add up to a reasonableyearly amount to their own FSAs Tax Free and balances could be carried forward.

This national FSA plan allows competition and choice, equal access, and prevents corporations orgovernments from dictating what people purchase but instead gives people the freedom to choose.

The biggest benefit from this would be to lower the cost of hiring workers without the cost andoverhead of providing health care to their employees. This is Fix#1 to help bring millions of jobsback to America by making American workers more cost competitive with workers now doing jobsoverseas that could be done in America. The millions of jobs created in turn would increase the taxbase to pay for health care and other public expenses.

Instead of a tax on workers, a portion of the corporate taxes would provide the money needed forhealthcare contributions redistributed by government. So no Government bureaucracies telling youhow to spend it mind you, just divvying up the money that will be the foundation of everyoneshealth care funding.

This would also allow innovation and cost savings in the health care marketplace as insurancecompanies would compete nationally to attract these FSA dollars and corporations (andgovernment) wouldnt be able to dictate health care options. Folks of course would be allowed toadd to their FSAs and to spend out of pocket as well as using the funds in their FSA. But thiswould also allow the non-working to have funds to pay for a basic no frills level of health care.


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Fix #2 - Energy

Energy used to be cheap. Thats why we started importing oil in the first place because it wascheaper than the oil we were creating domestically. We became addicted to cheap energy. Likeany addiction to break it you must first realize you are addicted. Imported energy is not cheap now.

Now we are importing something that is expensive that we could be producing in our country.Instead of exporting trillions of dollars of wealth we could be creating trillions of wealth.

In addition to the lost capital our economy suffers from by importing oil is the immeasurable costof being dependent on oil that largely comes from the Middle East. Some people are confusedthinking much of our imported oil comes from Canada and Mexico. Oil is fungible, which inpractice means every barrel we import is another barrel that must come out of the Middle East. Onone hand we have to spend billions protecting the Persian Gulf and other oil lanes. On the otherhand we send billions to the Middle East for oil that goes to the pockets of people who hate us,support terrorism and work towards the destruction of Israel. It is far past time to end this cycle.

It is not even worth getting into environmental issues regarding oil. Those issues are dwarfed bythese simple Big Picture facts:

If America can generate its own energy, we can add trillions of dollars to our economyinstead of sending trillions out of our economy.

If America can generate its own energy, not only will we stop sending money for oil topeople who hate us, but strategically we can deal with Middle East threats without worryingabout cutting our own throats by driving up oil prices. Also we wont have to spend billionsto protect the flow of oil from the Middle East. In fact if China and Europe want those oillanes protected, they should pay us billions to do that for them.

A long term energy plan can allow America to transform its economy to use very little oiland generate virtually all of its energy with renewable and nuclear energy.

America needs 2 energy plans:

A 5 year short term plan to provide energy independence though all means, still largelydependent on non renewable but at least non renewable American produced energy.

A 30 year long term energy plan that will result in cheap energy without dependence onfinite resources. At the end of this plan America will have in place cheap clean domesticenergy to power the future economy of our children.

The 5 year plan is needed because of the urgency to create American wealth to offset our debtproblems. Currently we produce about 5.5 million barrels per day (mbpd) and import about 11.5mbpd. We must increase our production by 5-6 mbpd and reduce our consumption by another 6

mbpd to the point where we dont import oil any longer. We cannot wait for a 30 year plan.

Actually the five year plan allows for 6 years to generate all out nations energy needs. I call it afive year plan because within five years we will not need to import energy. The sixth year will besubsidized by drawing down 85% of the strategic oil reserve once we know that we are within ayear from achieving energy independence. So in essence the six year plan which will achieveenergy independence in 5 years means we have 6 years to double our domestic oil production whileat the same time cutting our consumption by one third.


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The five year plan will consist of:

Adding 5-6 mbpd of domestic oil production by drilling for oil in every state that has oil, inthe Gulf of Mexico, in Alaska, everywhere we need to go to reach the new productiongoals. Current oil prices will make this profitable for American drilling companies, but to

make this happen will require relaxation on regulation and environmental concerns until thegoals are reached. Environmentalists will have to accept this in exchange for thesimultaneous 30 year plan that will eventually phase out most oil drilling. Our country hassurvived 100 years of oil exploration - it can survive another 30 years. Even if it means fasttracking pipeline approvals so that they can be completed in six years instead of what nowoften takes up to ten years. This part of the plan does not cost the government any moneybut will bring in billions of needed tax revenue from all the jobs and oil created.

Need to reduce use of fuel oil in home heating by providing a generous tax credit over thenext five years to help convert fuel oil home heating to another source (i.e. electric orpropane) followed by a significant tax on fuel oil to incentivize these homeowners toconvert.

20% of Commercial vehicles need to convert to CNG (natural gas) or electric within sixyears. This is already on track as low natural gas costs have led many long haul truck fleetsto begin converting to CNG. Fleets had been waiting hoping for Congress to providecredits but CNG is so affordable that many fleets are moving on their own. The fact thisisnt moving faster shows the impact that uncertainty plays in making business decisions. Asmall tax credit to move towards the goal of replacing 20% of Diesel fuel with CNG shouldbe put in place mainly so that fleets that are waiting for these credits dont wait any longer.

Non commercial vehicles need to be mandated to have a minimum AER (all electric range)of 12 miles (or alternatively CNG or Fuel Cell). This can be phased in.

10% of all non-commercial vehicles sold in 2014 with minimum 12 mile AER20% of all non-commercial vehicles sold in 2015 with minimum 12 mile AER

60% of all non-commercial vehicles sold in 2016 with minimum 12 mile AER80% of all non-commercial vehicles sold in 2017 with minimum 12 mile AER90% of all non-commercial vehicles sold in 2018 with minimum 12 mile AER

If we can now mandate air bags for the safety of the driver, we can mandate 12 mile AER for thesake of our economy and our environment. The 12 mile AER is achieved with a small battery suchas is used by the 2012 Plug-In Prius. Of course vehicles can exceed this range, but having aminimum range on all vehicles will standardize the model of vehicles with a plug. This isimportant because not everyone lives in a house where overnight charging is simple. Apartmentsand work places in particular need to provide places to charge vehicles and this can be donewithout government intervention just by the customer demand so that people can plug their cars in.One of the positive impacts of electric cars, is that primarily they will be charged overnight using

excess power capacity that currently is unused. This will lead to lower electric power costs foreveryone.

The thirty year plan has as its basis the above five year plan plus the following to create Americanenergy independence with its foundation powered by renewable and nuclear energy. Remaininguses of oil after the thirty year plan could also be replaced by other fuels (bio-fuels, hydrogen etc.) but that would not have to be determined for many years.


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Thirty year plan to build out the national power generation requirements where 40% of thecapacity is renewable and 50% of the capacity is Nuclear. Most people dont realize that14% of our electricity is already created by renewable, primarily Hydro and Wind Power.We can expand the current average of 5-10 GW of yearly Wind power construction to about15 GW yearly over the next 30 years. Allowing the Wind Farms to be built in coastal areas

where the wind is plentiful and the distance to the end users is minimal further increases thevalue of wind resources. Wind already is cost efficient, and the main reason it isnt beingbuilt out faster now is because we have enough capacity since our economy hasnt beengrowing. However over the next 30 years we must plan to replace existing power plantsthat use coal and natural gas with Wind and Nuclear. The distinguishing characteristic ofrenewable and Nuclear is that they are expensive up front but in the long run they pay forthemselves because they dont burn fuel. Further Natural gas is very cheap now but weshould phase it out in the generation of electricity and save the supply and keep the costslow because it will likely be used in Commercial transportation for the next 100 years. Alsonewer designs for Nuclear power plants are much safer and much more economical than theolder ones. And the older ones havent had that bad of a track record. They have been safe

and they generate 10% of our electricity today. But we do need to replace them with thenewer safer more efficient designs that already exist. And we need to start building theseplants by incentivizing the power industry to build them. This can be done by mandatingthe power industry to provide electricity by the following table and place heavy fines on it ifthe goals are not met:

16% renewable 10% Nuclear by 201520% renewable 10% Nuclear by 202025% renewable 15% Nuclear by 202530% renewable 20% Nuclear by 203535% renewable 30% Nuclear by 204040% renewable 50% Nuclear by 2045

Building the infrastructure to move the electricity from where it is generated to where it isneeded.

Energy independence means many things. And if we can have Energy independence where theenergy is not created by burning Fossil Fuels, we can create a wonderful future for our country withoutcomes such as:

No pollution from energy creation or transportation.

No impact to Climate change.

Economic Security as Energy is cheap and reliable, and all the wealth created by the Energyindustry stays in our country.

We no longer have to fight wars or even maintain 11 Aircraft carrier fleets to protect the

flow of oil from the Middle East. We can certainly protect others oil if they want to pay usthe cost for doing that.

We no longer have to dance with the devil to insure our national security. Currently wehave to balance living with threats to our security from terrorist nations like Iran, withrocking the boat with nations that provide our Energy. If we werent dependent on MiddleEast oil we could do surgical strikes on terrorists or consider any other move in our nationsbest interest without worrying about what might happen to our energy supplies.


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Fix #3 - Tax Policy and Regulation

Tax policy and regulation should be crafted to encourage companies to invest, build factories andhire workers in America. Certainly taxes need to be collected. Regulations need to exist and beenforced to deter criminal activities and to promote fairness and the general well being of all

Americans. However taxes and regulations must be designed to incentivize American companiesto build their plants and hire their workers in this country as long as they can find the workers hereto fill those plants.

The two pillars of crafting a tax policy are a) having low corporate taxes that will encouragecompanies to have their businesses and manufacturing in America b) the taxes we do assess shouldnot discourage first looking to fill job openings with American workers.The key changes to tax policy should be:

Get rid of the IRS. Note the Big Picture chapter. We dont need millions of workers toenforce tax laws or to assist taxpayers in their filing. We need millions of workers

producing goods and services, making the pie larger, and paying taxes. Somehow Statesand localities manage to assess and collect simple and fair taxes without the immenseoverhead of the IRS.

Herman Cain has it right in that the Federal Government can collect its monies with simplefair taxes in three areas (corporate, income, sales tax).

The first area of federal taxation is the corporate tax. However it would be best if thecorporate tax was a flat tax on a Corporations Revenues. This would vastly simplifyenforcement and collection, and would also vastly reduce the cost of doing business inAmerica. The tax would probably need to be about 5% of revenue. That would more thancover the cost of health care (Fix #1) and the contributions needed to replace employershare of payroll taxes. So what we accomplish here is making America an attractive

country to run a business and hire employees. The second area of federal taxation would be a simple 3 tiered flat income tax.

10% of first $50,00015% of the amount between $50,000 and $150,00020% above $150,000

The third area of federal taxation would be a 5% consumption tax. Food and housingexempt.

The existing employee payroll tax would also be eliminated (thats 7.65% saved for workersalong with the employer share which will be covered by the other taxes).

A national 5% inheritance tax is also reasonable on estates over $100,000. Anything moreis just stealing. It is not right to ruin a family business and tax what has already been taxed.

A small enough rate to not have an impact on family estate planning but a fair way togenerate some revenue.

Lower overall tax rates would more than be offset by the full employment and larger tax basecombined with lesser need for unemployment and other social welfare. Also the federalgovernment would be able to put 99% of revenues collected into the general fund instead of about75% of what is now collected after all the expenditures spent maintaining the IRS. The nationalsales tax would be collected by the states along with their own sales taxes at no additional cost to


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collect. The Corporate taxes actually would be higher for many companies (based on revenueinstead of profits) but would more than be offset by not bearing the cost of accounting, legal fees,lobbying etc. (this is estimated at $300 billion now). And of course corporations wouldnt have tobear the cost of health care or the employer share of the payroll tax.


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Fix # 4 Off Shoring

We are in a global economy. This is really the most significant change that the writers of ourconstitution could never have foreseen. They could not have foreseen how someone sitting in Indiacould do the job of someone sitting in Chicago. Because of this even proponents of very limited

government must see that there are things our government has to do in tweaking our policies tomake sure American workers are utilized in the most efficient way.

This does not mean government should tax the rich and create worthless jobs to keep people busy.This means government needs to be smart enough to have policies that support American business,protect workers, and negotiate fair international trade deals.

If we want American workers to have the best standard of living in the world, then by thatdefinition American workers cannot possibly be as affordable as workers in a country with a verylow standard of living. What our national policies must simply do is insure that our workers arebeing used in the most efficient way.

We first do this with tax policy and energy policy as described above, to make American workersmore competitive. The fixes described in this paper actually would create a demand for Americanworkers greater than the supply. Part of the demand can be met over time (see Fix # 7 TheFamily and individual Responsibility) but certainly the reforms suggested in this paper will forcecompanies to go overseas to find workers.

Because of the global nature of the work force, our Federal government must continually revisetheir policies to make sure that American workers are being efficiently used. We certainly wantour workers to fill higher paying jobs before they fill lower paying jobs. So industries that employengineers and skilled workmen should be curried favor by the States when they negotiate their taxincentives to attract business. While that is a function of State government to attract the industriesthat will provide the best opportunities for their citizens, where the Federal government must comeinto play is in two areas

to monitor Off Shoring and the impact on American jobs and take action where needed

to monitor international trade agreements and currency to make sure trade is fair andAmerican interests are protected and enforced by using the weight of American influence

In the modern world of instant communication, we have a global job market. Government canshape tax incentives (see Fix #3) so that companies which must do what is best for their bottom linedont undermine society in the process. Of course if a company can save money by replacing aworker with a less expensive machine, thats a good thing. But it is not in best interest of society to

replace an American worker with a foreign worker if that American worker is now unemployed.Off shoring is only beneficial to our economy when a worker cannot be found in our country thatcan do a specific job.

Currently our country has over ten million jobs being done overseas remotely because of globalcommunication technology. This doesnt even take into account factories built overseas that couldhave been built in America. Meanwhile we pay unemployment benefits to people in this country


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that can't find work (of course if the fixes described in this paper were enacted we would have theopposite problem of not enough workers to fill the jobs).

The parable we all know "Give a man a fish he eats for one day, teach him to fish he eats for alifetime" is not even applicable because of welfare and unemployment benefits. These programs

give "fish" to people but it isn't a gift, it is done by borrowing money and creating a burden onsociety. Government needs to make sure that business is healthy and providing jobs. That is howgovernment takes care of the people - not by printing or borrowing money. Government mustcreate an environment for business to be able to out-compete their global competition and theONLY way this can be done is by reducing regulation and taxation that keeps our business fromcompeting on a global scale. Right now government is picking and choosing winners and losers bytaxing to death companies and industries that basically don't vote democrat and subsidizing thosethat do (unions, government workers, educators etc). Also we need to bring back high paying jobslost overseas that pay taxes instead of having these ex-workers living on the government dole. Thiscan be done by the tax and healthcare policy changes described above.

The fixes described in this paper would solve our unemployment problems, but in an ever changingevolving global economy with continued technological progress government must keep a constantpolicy focus to ensure the efficient use of the American worker. There may be a time when taxesand credits are needed to reward or punish companies that hire or offshore American workers. Thattime is not here yet since the structural changes discussed in this paper are enough to create moredemand for American labor than the current workforce could provide.


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Fix # 5 Public Unions and Political corruption

Public Unions should never be allowed.

In 2011, Issue 2 in Ohio was voted down because of a smear campaign funded by public unions

that convinced voters that the issue was ANTI-WORKER. That statement that public unions like touse amazes me because public unions are ANTI-WORKER and ANTI-TAXPAYER.

Issue 2 was about government trying to get some control in setting compensation and benefits overunion workers. You know, like the kind of control all private sector companies have over nonunion workers who just happen to be the taxpayers that pay the salaries of both politicians andpublic sector union workers. Issue 2 tried to open the door to getting union workers to pay towardstheir health care and pension and allow some measure of job performance to be used inperformance pay as well as to allow performance rather than seniority to be the basis for workforcereductions. All these things are the norm in the private sector, but in the public union world areconsidered an attack on the worker.

My point is that the issue should be why have we ever even allowed public unions to exist in thefirst place? The very concept of public unions is inherently corrupt and against the best interest ofall tax payers and voters who often happen to be workers.

By allowing public employees to unionize, we now allow federal and state public unions to putbillions into the pockets of union leaders and into the campaigns of mostly democratic politicianscreating this un-holy corrupt alliance between politicians and unions.

How is it ever OK to have a union negotiating with politicians who are elected with funds that weregiven to them by the very unions that they must negotiate with? Not even taking into account thiscorruption that public unions have created, poisoning many of our politicians, is the simple fact thatpublic employees should never be allowed to strike. Striking is the basis of union negotiationbefore the now current method of just buying off the politicians you are negotiating with.

President Franklin Roosevelt called the idea of public sector unions "unthinkable andintolerable." Not long after, AFL-CIO President George Meany declared that it was"impossible to bargain collectively with the government." They were both speaking to themorality of public servants making demands on taxpayers' earnings under the threat ofwithholding public services -- or as FDR put it, "looking toward the paralysis ofgovernment by those who have sworn to support it."

Unions in the private sector are a completely different animal, and there are two sides to that issue.Public unions are simply an abomination. Imagine if private sector unions could do what publicsector unions do. Say that the private sector union wants to negotiate with company xyz for a newcontract, so they give millions of dollars to ensure their candidate of choice becomes CEO ofcompany xyz. This CEO is now beholden to the union for obtaining his cushy CEO position andhe will certainly make sure the union is happy with their upcoming contract negotiations. But ofcourse in the private sector unions cant pay to have their CEOs of choice. In the public sector thisis business as usual.


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In addition to promoting governments that are less corrupt and bringing back fiscal responsibility,is it that hard to accept the idea that policeman, fireman, teachers and other sundry public clerks arehired, fired, promoted and paid based on their work record and value that they provide?

To give our elected politicians the ability to represent their constituencies and not the dirty money

that currently gets them elected, we must have a system where politicians get elected in a way thatremoves that election having any support of any special interest. We also must provide the abilityof those politicians to work in the best interest of all their constituents, not just a few. Electedpoliticians need the ability to hire the most qualified workers, reward or lay off workers asappropriate and make decisions in the best interest of their constituents, just like any privatebusiness must be able to do.

We must never again have a government like the current Obama administration which strikes downand impedes factories being built in America because they are non-union (such as the Boeing plantthat was blocked from being built in South Carolina), or stop pipelines being built because ofsupport from a Green political base.

The following common sense solutions will result in an unprecedented era of good efficientgovernment.

Initially by legislation but later by Federal Constitutional Amendment make it illegal for there to beany Federal or State Public Unions. Policeman, Firemen, Teachers and clerks should all be hiredand fired on their merits and by market supply and demand like any other Private Sector employee.

Initially by legislation but later by Federal Constitutional Amendment make it illegal for anypolitician seeking a Federal office to collect any funds for the purpose of that campaign or to useany monies even their own for any paid campaign advertisement. Currently Barack Obama hasalready collected over a billion dollars in campaign donations that he will use to advertise for his2012 campaign. This is one way that politicians become bought and paid for by special interests.Contributions can be made to a political party but those funds should not be used to assist inFederal elections campaigning. Politicians running for federal office should not win or lose theircampaigns based on television commercials paid for by special interests. Politicians can debate forfree on cable news networks and via their internet websites.

In this day and age government has a huge impact on the creation of jobs. Not only do Americancompanies find it cheaper to manufacture overseas, but also they now are finding that many officeand technical functions can also be done less expensively overseas. So we must rely onGovernment to remove as much as possible the burdens placed on hiring that taxes and regulationhave created. Employers simply cannot compete in a global economy with the current high cost ofhiring American workers. This twenty first century reality means our economy cannot succeedwith a government that is controlled by special interests and other corruption. We must have agovernment that supports our companies so that they can be successful.Most importantly we must incentivize American companies to hire our own skilled workers andprofessionals, because the millions of jobs lost in this area to India and other countries havedestroyed the middle class tax base that our government needs to provide basic services.


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Fix # 6 Defense Spending and Immigration-Border Control

We must have the strongest most versatile defense of any country in the world. But we must dothis in a way that is more efficient.

We must base our military at home but have the means to project strength anywhere in the world.Historically we did that with forward bases, but that has resulted in huge amounts of Americanwealth being transferred to where those bases exist (i.e South Korea, Japan, Germany, Phillipinesetc.).

While there is strategic advantages to those bases, the wealth lost in maintaining those basesoverseas has been immense, and having those bases doesnt necessarily mean you have the powerexactly where you need it.

Intelligence services need to be forward based so we have intelligence every where in the world.But our Military strength needs to be stored on American soil and in the American Navy (which

does not need American bases in Germany, South Korea or Japan to be able to project their strengthworldwide).

If countries where America has troop stationed want to pay for them to be there, then ourgovernment should consider that. Otherwise our troops should be based on American soil. We canproject our power wherever it is needed with technology and our Navy.

Immigration-Border control is one of those difficult issues that I promised in the introduction toavoid. What I would say regarding this topic is that we should enforce our existing laws and let ourpoliticians decide how to handle legal immigration in our nations and economies best interest. Thatwould be done by the less corrupt politicians resulting from Fix #5.

But I will say in this discussion that if we station troops in America instead of overseas, we willhave the manpower to do a better job of protecting our borders if needed. Certainly if we havehundreds of thousands of troops stationed at home instead of overseas it would be easy to allotmaybe 5% of these to contribute toward the purpose of closing down our southern border andending illegal immigration.

Let immigration be legal, and in line with what the will of the people want. Personally Id like tosee workers let in as we need workers and sent back when we dont need the workers. We shoulddo things in the best interest of Americans. But I promised not to delve into things that could becontroversial, and leave it at just simple common sense. So Lets enforce our immigration laws andput an end to illegal immigration.


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Fix # 7 The Family and individual Responsibility

In the intro I said I would avoid complex issues and stick to things that anyone could agree onregardless of their political or religious views. However there are two responsibilities that thefamily can do in this country that are of greater value than all the issues discussed above. And

these two responsibilities dont impinge on anyones core beliefs (unless your core belief is that allpeople should have the right to do nothing but live as well off as the richest in the society).

These two responsibilities werent neglected in the good old days, the commonly perceived peak ofAmerica during the 1950s. Thats because society didnt allow these two responsibilities to be aproblem, all Americans believed in these two responsibilities and societal pressure was all it took tokeep these problems from becoming endemic as they are today. Today we look at people that failthese two simple responsibilities as victims, instead of the perpetuators of many of todaysproblems. If we would ostracize people and scold them when they fail to meet these two societalresponsibilities instead of treating them like victims, then this problem would pretty much go away.

Unfortunately today, when anyone suggests that a poor person should finish school, get vocationaltraining and avoid having children out of wedlock they are accused of being judgemental or oflooking down on the poor. This has enabled a whole class of our society to play the victim cardand the social justice card and be an unnecessary burden on those who do uphold these societalresponsibilities. This is what we should expect from all of our citizens:

1. Do not get pregnant or get someone else pregnant until you and they are at least in yourtwenties. And try not to have children until you have a good job.

2. Either go to college and get a degree, or get an honest vocation/trade. An honest vocationmeans become a Barber, a beautician, a mechanic, or a machinist. Choose at least somevocation that makes you employable. If you arent going to college then go to a vocationalschool and get at least one skill.

These two responsibilities are not things that we could or should legislate. These tworesponsibilities are things we should as a society expect from everyone. And most certainly weshould never elect a politician who does not clearly preach these two values.

We must not allow politicians like Barack Obama ever to hold office who place individuals thatviolate these two basic moral values into special victim classes who are owed special benefitsextracted from the sweat of those hardworking citizens that uphold these basic values.

I am certainly not talking about disabled individuals. I am also not saying we shouldnt help singlemoms who because of perhaps a momentary slip up of morals and values now have a child to carefor. I am talking about people who are too lazy to finish school and too morally bankrupt to avoidstarting families that they cannot take care of. That we would put these people into a victim classwith special rewards has enabled our country to become weak both in spirit as well aseconomically. People who do not uphold these responsibilities are not victims they are guilty ofdoing something wrong. There should be a social stigma against wrong doers. Of course weshould encourage any wrong doer to mend their ways. But children growing up should know whenthey see people who do not uphold these responsibilities, that these people are wrong doers and not


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victims. In this way children will grow up with the proper value system like in the golden age ofthe 1950s.


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Summary

There are many other things that we could and should address in America. Some are easier thanothers. But the fixes discussed above are all things within our power to do. We dont need divineintervention or agreement with foreign countries to do them.

Certainly these fixes can and should be done. Will they or anything like them be done? I dontknow. As Plato said long ago: Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished bybeing governed by those who are dumber. In this country we certainly are being punished.

Below are other things that certainly must be addressed in our country, but require more complexanalysis than perhaps the average voter should be expected to carry out.

Standing up to unfair trade practices.

Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Welfare and other entitlements.

Illegal immigration

Illegal drugs

Climate Change Social Justice

The issue hanging in the balance is not our standard of living itself but the debt that threatens thestability of our nation. The only way to reduce the danger posed by that debt is to quickly put inplace mechanisms to grow our economy at a substantial rate. At the same time we must haveresponsible politicians that will manage the nations finances so as to avoid the collapse of oursociety.Otherwise the debt will continue to grow out of control. To repeat what is really the elephant inthe room point There is no one big enough to bail us out. We have no choice but to solve our

debt problem.

I thank you if you have taken the time to consider all I have written here and I hope you can usesome of these ideas to make a difference!

before you vote again

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