The United States does, in fact, need another national bailout. It doesn't need to fire up the printing presses at the Treasury Department, though. Instead, the form of the next and only needed national bailout must begin with these measures:
Guarantee that the federal budget will be, at a minimum, balanced after the first year and creating a surplus for every year thereafter should the next president's - it's safe to assume President Obama will not be the one do so - agendas be adopted by Congress. If Congress fails to adopt this strategy, then he/she will hold the budget hostage so that, at the worst, the budget will be held at the previous administration’s spending level and cannot be increased. The value of the dollar has been plummeting and will continue to plummet with every penny spent in the red. As the American economy is the engine that makes our way of life and freedoms a possibility, focus must be sharply directed at reducing the nearly twelve trillion dollar debt to a level below two or three trillion dollars. This will increase the value of the dollar tremendously while re-establishing and anchoring the world’s faith in the dollar’s stability. Spending cuts, not taxation increases, must be the machine by which this spending mania be stopped else the economy will ultimately be stifled rather than stimulated.
The corporate tax rate must be cut drastically. A rate of thirty-five percent is a punishment on our corporations and has driven businesses of all types to seek less demanding climates elsewhere. The key to relieving ourselves and the economy of the current recession has never lain with printing trillions of dollars, which only serve to further devalue the dollar. The key is to foment the continued and increased creation of wealth. As is natural to the business cycle, unemployment will always exist to some degree. There is no need, however, to ever see unemployment rates in the ranges in which they now exist. The return of exiled corporations and creation of new corporations due to a low corporate tax rate of around ten to fifteen percent will erase the excess of the unemployed and generate similar, if not greater, revenues in federal taxes. The United States of America cannot afford to continue to allow the hemorrhage of our corporations to other nations. The status quo is untenable for the future security and prosperity of Americans and their freedoms.
Fundamental freedoms must be protected by the federal government, not endangered by it. Property taxes of all sorts must be eliminated and replaced by a national sales tax and flat-rate income tax. The basic fundamentals of liberty lie in the notion that citizens may own property. Without protection over this single point, liberties in all other facets of life become subjective and open to the interpretations of others. Citizens must be able to own land, for instance, without having to pay rent in the form of taxes to any government. One’s pursuit of happiness is only curtailed when the objects of happiness they possess are penalized monetarily. Sales purchases are a fundamentally fairer means of taxation as all or nearly all citizens make purchases. In this way, owners of property are not penalized for their pursuit of happiness nor do they pay unbalanced dues compared to those who do not own property and citizens are then encourage to but into and take ownership of America, literally, rather than live as non-responsible transients. The flat-tax rate on income will also be a fairer means of taxation as those who have the most to contribute, due to their high personal incomes, to the economy will not be penalized for their prosperity though they will still pay significantly more in federal taxes than those nearer the bottom of the scale. Afterall, ten percent of one million is still significantly more than ten percent of fifty thousand. As it is now, the top one percent of earners in the United States pay more than ninety-five percent of the total federal income tax; yet, this top one percent does not receive ninety-five percent of the federal government’s services. This is an unjust imbalance that is easily remedied and balanced with a flat-tax on personal income of ten to fifteen percent.
In keeping with fiscal responsibility and fairness, the United States will no longer provide the United Nations with twenty-five percent of its total income. Instead, the United States will give to the United Nations an amount equal to the average of all other contributing nations and no more. Further, the United States’ foreign aid amounts will be closely re-examined as the vast majority of the nearly fourteen billion dollars sent overseas is given to regimes and governments who actively work against America’s best interests.
Creation of government enterprises will be ceased as the federal government has no authority to create and pursue business interests. All existing federal enterprises, such as Amtrak, will be required to, at a minimum, operate on a balanced budget or make an actual profit. Those federal government enterprises that cannot remain in the black will either be sold to private corporations or allowed to collapse completely. The American citizen is not to have their money taken to support failing, and thus unnecessary, programs. The market economy is such that if a need exists, an entrepreneur will fill it as long as that entrepreneur is not inhibited by a suppressive government.
When companies and corporations fail, the government will not interfere will the business. Bankruptcy laws are a positive for the American economy and the federal government will allow them to work; no “bailouts,” period. Bad business practices will no longer be wrongly supported with tax-payers’ money; instead, bad business practices will be subject to market forces, government regulations, and recessions. At no time will the federal government seize a private company or dictate employee compensations of private companies. The government’s job in a free market is regulation, not participation.
In keeping with the above moves toward true financial responsibility and stability, actual efforts toward energy independence are essential to America’s longevity. Just as a large portion of the United States’ debt is held by foreign entities, the United States is dependent on foreign entities to literally provide the fuel of our continued way of life and, thus, our freedoms. The various political and economic parties have self-interested motivations for encouraging widespread adaptation of their chosen means of alternative energy. In this, the voting citizens need to set aside and tune out the buzzing in their ears of those political and economic parties and use their own logic and reason in resolving this concern. That logic and reason will lead those who can bring themselves to objectivity on the subject to the conclusion that nuclear power is the cleanest, safest source of energy that can produce the vast amounts of power required by Americans’ way of life. And, while the need for oil will not soon go away, we may reasonably conclude that the amount of oil imported from countries overseas can be replaced with nuclear power which will obviously save the tax-payers untold amount of dollars and secure our national interests by removing the threat of having those energy needs withheld.
As our nation does and will continue to require large amounts of oil, continued importation of oil from Canada and Mexico, the two sources from which the largest amount of the United States’ oil is obtained, is also essential for economic reasons. Exploitation of the United States’ own oil deposits is a common-sense measure to serve as an energy bridge while the many nuclear power stations undergo construction. Also, providing the means for American oil to be refined by Americans, and not having to be sold and repurchased from foreign refiners, will help to lower current energy costs and unencumber American oil producers.
The many other alternative energy sources should also be explored and exploited, but not on the taxpayers’ dime. The free market is the single best and most effective means for such innovations as wind farms, solar technologies, tidal turbines, and etc. to be designed, created, improved, and implemented. While these other alternative technologies show potential, none of them offer the reliability or quality of energy as that of nuclear power sources.
Public education must undergo a significant transformation. The federal government must no longer be in the business of educating American youth, such is anathema to a free society. Parents must be given the control over America’s school-aged children and youth. Instead of the federal government blindly sending money to the states for the funding of schools, the federal government will send that same money to the accredited school the children’s’ parents enroll them in – be it a private school, a charter school, a home school, or public school. In this way, competition and not stagnant bureaucracy will be the motive for excellence in the education of America’s youth.
All applicants for employment to federal jobs will be considered on merit alone. Not ethnicity, race, or sexuality will be used in the hiring process at any federal office or for any federal position. Gender discriminations will only apply to employment positions where a certain gender is restricted to a specific position. Americans deserve true color-blindness and the federal government will lead the way in practicing true equal opportunity hiring practices. The best candidate will be hired for federal jobs based on ability and merit, not to fill another’s partisan notion of fairness regarding racial, gender, or ethnic quotas.
No position in the President’s administration will have enforceable authority without Congressional approval, as per the United States Constitution.
Control of the federal government must be returned to the citizenry. To that end, implementation of term limits on federally elected positions is imperative. The nation’s founders never intended for those who serve as Presidents, Congressmen, and Senators to spend an entire career in their positions. Rather, the founders intended for the common citizen to run for election and spend a turn, or even a few turns, in service to his or her fellow citizens in legislative or executive positions. A “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” said Abraham Lincoln. Washington was a soldier and farmer by trade, Adams was a lawyer, Jefferson was a plantation owner, after all. These were men of the nation, not career politicians. In order to cleanse the federal government of corruption, cronyism, decay, inaction, over-reaction, largess, and a new social class consisting of the elite known as politicians, term limits must be imposed. The most reasonable limit is that of a maximum of twenty total years of service in federally elected positions. Any combination of federally elected positions may be combined, but no federally elected position may be granted after the total of twenty years has been reached. Sure, experience is necessary for politicians to wisely operate and guide the United States; but, the power-hungry who would rather steer this great nation toward disaster for one more iota of power are not.
In addition to or instead of the above proposed term limits, a repeal of the seventeenth amendment is fundamental to returning the balance of control of this republic to the collection of states and, thus, the citizenry. The passage of the seventeenth amendment was nothing less than a power-grab by power-hungry, federal politicians. America must recognize it as such and repeal it in conjunction with or, at least, instead of term limits on all federally elected positions.
As providing for the national defense is one duty imposed on the federal government by the United States constitution, a restructuring of the United States military is warranted. In the midst of the current, nation-wide epidemic of casting pity on our military personnel, significant change is required. Because the citizenry at large has shamed themselves by emoting pity for servicemen and women and because those servicemen and women have shamed themselves in accepting that pity, enlistment in the military has become a last-resort for the working class and to become a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine is to become one of the pitiful. In order to affect a paradigm shift, then, salaries for all military personnel will be significantly increased to a level higher than equivalent jobs in the civilian world. The intent is to attract the best of the civilian world to the military, rather than those who have no better alternative. With better servicemen and women, the military will be more able, more efficient, and more versatile in conducting the various missions at home and around the world necessary to provide for the common defense.
Further changes to the military would include the creation of a parallel enlisted rank structure to allow soldiers to continue to progress in rank and pay without necessarily assuming leadership roles and responsibilities. As it is now, to use the Army for example, after the rank of E-4, commonly known as Specialist or Corporal, soldiers can only obtain the rank of E-5 otherwise know as Sergeant. Soldiers must become non-commissioned officers if they wish to progress beyond the rank of E-4, but not all soldiers are of leadership quality. With an enlisted rank structure parallel to and equal in pay with the upper-level soldiers who are valuable in their fields may continue to advance in rank and pay without the responsibility of a non-commissioned officer. Not only will this additional rank structure allow the military to retain desirable servicemen and women who would otherwise leave the military after their first enlistments, but would also encourage more initial enlistments from those who might decide to make the military a career when they otherwise would or could not. Not every serviceman or woman is fit for leadership, after all, and Americans deserve to have the best qualified soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen guarding their lives.
The foreign policy of the United States has taken a turn in a troubling direction of late. America’s greatness should never be a point of apology. Does the United States have flaws? Certainly, but the attributes and goodness of the United States far out-weight those flaws. It is not a sin or a crime to take pride in the greatness of the United States – displays of that pride certainly fall under the question of cockiness and etiquette, however, the greatness itself is nothing for which any American should seek forgiveness. In its relatively short history, the United States has shown itself to be a continued force for goodness and decency. Time and again, America has led fight after fight and campaign after campaign on the side of right. No other nation may make such a claim and this is a fact for which every American can and should hold his or her head high.
In dealing with overseas disputes, common sense must prevail in guiding America’s involvement. America’s foreign policy need not be seen as pro-Israel, for instance; but, when a terrorist state fires rockets at Israeli children while hiding behind their own children, those terrorists have no claim to maltreatment when the Israelis defend themselves. This is not a pro-Israel notion; it is common sense and this type of common sense should dominate the United States' dealings around the world.
Iraq and Afghanistan are endeavors in which the United States and the West cannot afford to put forth half-measures. As for Iraq, a semblance of success looms. Keeping corruption out of the new Iraqi government will be the single, largest challenge to that nation’s and the United States' efforts there. Afghanistan must now be the focus of military efforts – providing the commanders the resources to succeed is crucial to a positive outcome.
Iran, however, must be held accountable. Taking into account all of the hostility and brazen actions taken by that possibly illegitimate regime, the United States cannot afford to sit by and issue meaningless and toothless rebukes. Iran is developing nuclear material, testing long-range rockets, and their leader has loudly proclaimed that he will bring about the next world war. Ignoring these obvious signs and hiding behind the fear of the likely outcome are not the actions required of the United States, being the lone superpower and arbiter of world peace. With every un-enforced resolution and proffered opportunity for amicable dialog, the United States grows weaker in all of the world’s eyes. With Iran, the United States either needs to have zero dealings or fully pursue her best interests; half-measures will only lead to chaos, war, and death on a massive scale.
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