My thoughts on how to clean up the Federal Government
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Bob Basso as Thomas Paine
Put America Back In Business
Is our Government too big? "You Betcha’". And it’s growing by leaps and bounds every day. There are all kinds of new laws, regulations, and intrusions into our lives coming down the pike. I am starting to wonder lately who works for whom. And what’s with this “Obama’s 16th task force” he’s working on now? Does this mean more new government employees? Does this mean even more intrusion? How much is THIS going to cost us? Let’s see, America is going bankrupt, so the government just keeps spending money and taxing and regulating business?!
Does the government have any money? NO. So where do they get so much money to spread around and spend and spend and spend. Who’s paying for all this new expanded government with all their new expanded “programs” and “entitlements”? It seems our government does not have our best interest at heart….Let’s turn this clock back http://www.usdebtclock.org/
I believe it has come down to it and about time that We The People put a stop to all the irresponsible acts of the self centered, self indulging people in Washington.
As an American, this is what I would like to do about it:
Vote those treasonous back stabbers out of office and elect people who only want to “serve” according to our Constitution and only in the best interest of the United States of America! Elect true American patriots who believe in our Constitution, small government, the free market, America as a sovereign nation and the American people.
Abolish the IRS! Enact the Fair Tax Act (HR 25,S 296) This is exactly what America needs right now. Take a look for yourself at the Fair Tax Act. The Fair Tax Act would put America back on track, back in business.
“Retaining the present tax system makes economic progress needlessly slow, thus harming low-income people the most.”… “In contrast, the Fair Tax dramatically improves economic growth and wage rates for all, but especially for lower-income families and individuals.” (Fair Tax Act FAQ)
I believe Americans would be celebrating in the streets all over America if this was passed and enacted. We could bring all our companies that have moved their business out of the United States, right back home. There would be no more or a lot less outsourcing. Companies could thrive right here at home. Businesses would be freed up to start hiring again. Everyone could get back to work. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! We could get back to being a productive country.
Repeal all Federal entitlement programs! Give independence back to the people. Give the freedom to choose back to the people. Allow the people a chance to do what they do best. What Americans have always done; work hard, earn our own living, take care of our own responsibilities and help our neighbors who are unable to help themselves. If the Federal Government would butt out, and stop making things worse in the first place, the American people can actually do this a lot better on their own anyway.
Repeal the Health Care Bill! Then remove the restrictions and regulations that prevent people from buying health insurance across state lines. This would allow insurance companies to have to compete for our business and would be forced to lower their prices and improve their services. The American people would be in control in the way that we would buy from the companies we like and can afford and who are fair and not from the ones we don’t like. The ones we don’t like would soon go out of business. And they should be allowed to do so. This is called “Capitalism” the “Free Market”. It has worked for many, many years much better than any other system in the world.
Demand term limits! Public servants are meant to be just that, public servants. To serve the public, your country and then get out and let another American take their turn at service. Being a public servant was never meant to be a life long career, especially not one with a huge pension for the rest of their lives, which takes money and time away from the many more who would serve. Without term limits, elected public servants are able to “work the system” over time to their own ends, for their own benefit. As they feed their greed they become more and more powerful. There is no way these types of “public servants” are working in America’s best interest or doing the job they were elected to do. Most of these people are “Career Politicians” and have never really held a real job in their lives.
Cut back government spending! I could go on forever on this one, but, in general, no more unnecessary perks for the public servants. Let’s get back to bare bones in those offices, their travel, their wardrobe, etc. If they want to print out hundreds of hard copies of all the bills, memos, etc. instead of just reading it on computers let them pay for it themselves. We can’t afford it. We need to SLASH the number of government employees. Do you have any idea how much money we are paying in unnecessary government employee salaries? We need to cut all the unnecessary government departments and offices. And of course we need to stop the special interest spending, and the earmarks. Demand that government stop combining bills with unrelated perks and pet projects while deceiving the American people about it. If a bill is presented for a vote about , lets say, illegal immigration, there should not be one word in that bill about any other subject, like lets say, a new bank in a powerful congressman’s home town or government controlling the banking system or military spending. Each subject should have its own bill to be voted on. Period.
Get the government out of private business! America is a Republic. It is not the federal government’s job to run or dictate how to run America’s private businesses. Which business stays in business is the people’s choice. What to purchase and how much to purchase is the people’s choice; not the Federal Government. To quote Congressman Ron Paul from an article “Free markets create jobs” on his web site. “Freedom and a restrained government are what made us an economic power house...The best approach to our economic woes that will help the most people is simple: get back to the Constitution and demonstrate respect for free markets, private property, and the rule of law.” I have to agree with these statements.
Drill baby drill! Stop depending on other countries for our energy sources. We have plenty of our own right here in our own country. And why is it okay to give money to South America to drill deep ocean wells but not drill our own deep ocean wells? It is the same oceans. It’s the same kind of well in a different place in the same ocean. Why...It’s called “spread the wealth” and has nothing to do with the environment or ecology. Americans aren’t stupid, as much as our government would like to think so. How stupid is it to pay a foreign government $750B a year to import oil when we have more than enough right here at home? All we have to do is drill! I am, by no means, against cleaner energy sources, but at the moment it seems we don’t really have anything ready to go in that area that is expansive enough to replace fossil fuels. The cost of this new “green energy” is still way too expensive to be plausible. And in my opinion, some of these new green energy devices are just as intrusive and some still require electricity from another source…fossil fuels.
Abolish the U.S Department of Education! There is way too much control here. Give the education system back to the states, the people, the communities, the parents. We don’t need the Federal Government turning us all, especially our children, into their little robots.
I don’t mean to simplify the serious problems America is dealing with right now. But basically, common sense tells us all that, while it wouldn’t be easy or painless, the solution really is simple. Put government back in its place and let the American people get back to work.
America! The land of the free and the home of the brave! God bless America!
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Thanks breakfastpop. I have faith we can get it done.
Kate the Fair
Quite a fair minded account of what needs to be done; now let's get busy this November and elect some fair minded AMERICANS to handle the job!
You have hit on two of the major problems why we are in hard times and not recovering.
1. We have over spent and in are debt.
2. One of our natural resources such as oil is dropping below the range that we need it to be at. Right before the economy down turn the prices of our oil was skyrocketing because we did not have enough of it. This really hurt because the prices went up one of our most needed resources which started the bubble to break on a lot of our problems that were boiling to the head. And our POUS and other are not taken the steps to correct it..
Keep on hubbing!
I agreed with everything, except the current tax system hurting low income the most, ............low income do not pay taxes in this country! We hear this all the time but they may pay in during the year but they get it all back at the end of the year! The rich pay all the taxes and need relief!
If the republicans had put this list in their declaration, they'd have 90% voting for them.
Partisan Patriot, thank you for your comment. I completely agree. Let's get it done.
eovery, thank you for your comment. It's true, our POUS and the rest are not even trying to take any steps to correct the problems. That's why we need to make some serious changes in Washington.
American Romance, thank you for commenting on this hub. I agree, the rich pay all the taxes and need relief. And that is exactly what the fair tax act would do. Give them relief and continuity. The part in the fair tax faq about harming the poor people the most, I believe, was to say that when the economy is very slow, like it is now, the rich people, the companies are not able to maintain as many employees or do any more hiring, so not as many poor people have jobs, or are able to work full time, they are usually the first layed off. For example right now rich people and businesses don't even know for sure what their tax burden will be next year. So when this happens the poor people are the least able to afford to whether the storm. They don't usually have savings or any back up to fall back on. The fair tax act would not only give rich people tax breaks, but would allow them to employ more poor people, more people all around. Many more people would be able to work and would have more money to bring home.
sheila b. thank you for this comment. I believe you are right. They really do need to make a stand and put these things in their declaration. They need to stop being afraid to commit! I agree, they would take back the votes.
What office are you going to run for or local Tea Party org are you involved in? :) Great points and goals we need our country to head in!
Thank you Ms Dee for your comment. I am not running for any office myself. I am a member of the North Carolina Tea Party. I am just a very concerned American doing everything I can to help get the word out and to voice my opinion as an American citizen. But thanks for asking.
I love your hub. Can't wait to check out more of your stuff.
So glad you are helping the NC Tea Party get the common sense conservative opinion out!
rachellrobinson, thank you so much for the accolades and taking the time to read my hubs.
Ms Dee, thank you. I am trying to do my best. I know we need all the help we can get.
Kate, regarding the fair tax, if I understand correctly, people would only pay tax when they buy something? Wouldn't that discourage spending? If we discourage spending at a time when our country is struggling, the entire economy could really collapse. I'm just not sure how the 'fair tax' as it is called, would help the economy, I think it would do the opposite. I do however agree that we need a simpler and better tax system.
One of your other points was to repeal all federal entitlement programs. Are you really ok with kicking every single senior citzen off Medicare and Social Security?
Cut back government spending - the only person in congress right now addressing our largest expenditure is Barney Frank (Democrat- MA). He has proposed cutting military spending which currently account for almost half of our entire government revenues. As a country, the USA spends more than every single country combined on Defense...give that a second to sink in...every single country combined. We can't have a serious conversation about cutting spending without addressing the pentagon budget (defense budget). Until more Republicans take the lead that Barney Frank has, spending will continue to be out of control. You could cut every single government agency and it still would not equal the amount we spend on defense.
LRCBlogger, Thank you for reading my hub and your excellent comment. As for the fair tax, yes you would only pay tax when you purchase a New item. But people would be more able to purchase and spend if they are bringing home every penny they earn every week. Just go to http://www.fairtax.org and see for yourself that even the wealthier people would have more certainty in hiring more people. This means more jobs and more income to spend. This means everyone pays taxes and more money for the government to pay the bills. And cutting spending does not include seniors already on medicare or social security. I should have made that more clear. I'm talking about unnecessary spending. Defense spending is necessary, Barney Frank's pet projects are not. Even if cutting every single government agency isn't as much as the defense budget at least there would be that much less spending so we could better afford defense spending which is the governments real job anyway.
Kate, I guess it would be tough to decide what is or what is not unnecessary entitlement spending. Take the TEA party candidates as an example. Rand Paul, Joe Miller, Sharon Angle, etc...if the TEA party gets enough power in congress, they plan to elminate Medicare and Social Security. Many of them publicly state this all the time.
In regards to defense, we simply can not have a balanced budget without cutting our massive defense spending. What people have to realize is that cutting defense spending does not mean cutting security. Take for example our troops stationed abroad. We have 40k troops in Germany, thousands in Japan, etc. There are a lot of cold war era policies still in place that simply make no sense. We have thousands of nuclear weapons but still continue to build more at a massive cost to the taxpayer.
Barney Frank's proposal to cut spending is not "pet projects" it is the only serious attempt I have seen by one of our lawmakers to actually address our out of control spending.
Lastly, I enjoyed your hub, there are some interesting points. I did read more about the fair tax. While it seems good for businesses initially, it still seems to me that people will be far less likely to spend. I've done a little research and advocates against the fair tax claim that in order to produce the same govt revenues we receive today, the tax would have to be in the 33-35% range. If that is true, I think many people would hold their money and not make frivolous purchases. Our economy essentially survives because people spend way more than they should, if you discourage that spending, our economy will collapse.
Kate the Fair
ON NOV 2ND let's start '' term limits '' for some of the bums now serving their own interest.They were elected by the people to serve the people first before the interest of the PARTY.
Exactly! Jon, very well said. And especially "to serve the people first before the interest of the PARTY". Thank you very much for reading and commenting on this hub. I'm happy to know you are out there speaking up.
LRC, I can understand where you are coming from. I believe both sides of the isle want to take care of our senior citizens. How to do it is the issue. I don't think anyone wants to take anything away from them. Again, I believe in the fair tax system. You must have read the part about the fair tax being able to generate more than enough money to cover the Social Security and Medicare budgets. As the tax system stands now people and businesses are being taxed to the point of collapse. With out the IRS and the present tax system, billions of dollars are immediately in the hands of businesses and people to spend the way that works best. The burden will have been lifted. Banks can loan again, companies can expand and hire. Jobs, jobs, jobs. If government was doing the job is was meant to do "protect and defend" and stayed out of the people's social issues, which belong in the hands of the states and the people anyway, we would not need to "produce the same govt revenues we receive today". The federal budget would be much, much smaller.
As for our defense budget. There are, of course, many areas that could be cut, but with what's going on in the world right now, we might want to be real careful about exactly where those cuts are. I believe defense would be about the last place I would make any cuts. After all, defense is our governments main job. We need our presence known around the world. If we are not strong then we will be weak. To catch us weak is all our enemies are waiting for. In my hub, I was speaking to the more immediate wasteful spending as I stated above.
America's nuclear weapons, from what I understand, we have stopped making them. And what we do have are actually getting rather old and in need of maintenance. Our President, evidently, has plans to do away with all of them anyway. Which, of course is what our enemies are hoping for.
Thank you, again, LRC it is always a pleasure to hear from you.
Kate the Fair
JUST ANOTHER TIBIT FOR HUBBERS
ABOUT A YEAR AGO President Obama admitted to a New York times writer that their were no ''shovel ready jobs ''.He made the statement as '' off the record'' shameful as it was. The true character of President Barak Obama is what the public needs to be concerned of. The lie continues on and on even when he knowingly is telling a lie.
It is true , President Obama lied then and continues.
President Obama is a fraud elected by the people under false pretenses. On Nov 2nd vote against the fraud.
Jon, thank you for this information. I, also, believe it is true that President Obama was elected under false pretenses. He tried to cover up the fact that he is a far left wing progressive and that he is woefully unqualified for the job. Thank you for reading and commenting on this hub.
''My thoughts on how to clean up the Federal Government'
ON NOV.2ND, GO TO THE POLES AND VOTE THE BUMS OUT!
Here! Here! Jon, the people rule on Nov.2nd. Thank you.
Kate I completely agree on eliminating the Dept. of Education.And as far as the tax issue goes I would like to point out the Russia now has a flat tax for citizens of all income levels and corporations too. People would be able to kjeep more of THEIR money and no one could look for loopholes. And also that would eliminate the need for so much bureaucracy at the IRS who are Americas KGB !
Right on, Tony. Thank you for pointing that out. You would think we could have done something about our tax system by now, but I guess it is going to take getting some people in office that truly want what's best for our country and not just for themselves.
Kate the Fair
‘’Cut back government spending’’
Who can recall when Congress was grilling the automobile industry executives for the use of company private jets when the companies were going broke. President Barak Obama and Congress made the executives give up their jets to save money. The Answer to the automobile industry was for the taxpayers to bail out the auto industry for $ billions and save union pension funds.
When will Congress step in and stop President Obama from traveling weekly on taxpayer owned jets. Obama is the Chief Executive of the largest employer taxpayer owned, non for profit, entity in the United States. The Obama run government entity has multi year deficits of $ trillions in the past 23 months. On the campaign trail President Barak Obama says ‘’ I know your hurt’’ referring to the people. The cost for the President to leave Washington each and every time runs in the $millions. Does he really understand how much the nation needs jobs.
Why would anyone give Obama and this Congress more time to wreck the nation? The Bush tax cuts will end on Dec.31st.On Jan. 1 ALL the peoples taxes will go up.
On Nov2nd vote the bums out. The people need to take back the government ASAP.
Well said Jon. Thank you. What ever else President Obama is or is not, he is most definitely a hypocrite. He says one thing and does the other. Obama and his congress are a disgrace to this country. We the people MUST throw the bums out on Nov 2nd!
I also believe Obama does understand the nation needs jobs to bring the economy back, but he just doesn't care because jobs and a good economy are not part of his agenda. I truly believe he and this congress want to purposely destroy America in order to "transform" it into the "progressive socialist" state they so believe in. And they need all the taxes and loans from China they can get to pay for it. In my personal opinion, this a dangerous and treasonous government we have at this time. And as you stated, I pray that the American people can take back the government ASAP.
Kate the Fair
President Barak Obama,wife and support will be going to India next month. The hotel where they are staying has 576 rooms. The US Government rented the whole hotel for President Obama and company.
When he says '' I know your hurt '', somehow he forgets that the hurt doesn't include the government.
You can't clean anything up until you clean up the banking system. The fact of the matter is the Federal Reserve is privately owned. By whom? While the Federal Reserve PR machine wants you to believe "Nobody owns the Fed" it's a total lie. The Federal Reserve is owned by whomever hold the shares in the Member Banks. Now who would that be? Good question. Due to corporate privacy laws this information is not and will not ever be disclosed. As long as we have retards like Barney Frank running the Show the Fed will continue to be supreme ruler. FACT: Because we do not have access to who owns the Federal Reserve... it is very possible, well actually very likely that many of these shareholders are NOT citizens of the United States of America! Think about that. Our financial system is in the Hands of "International Citizens" not US Citizens. These "Private Bankers" can and do manipulate our Economy for their own benefit. It doesn't matter to them if Americans don't have jobs as long as the American Corporations they hold shares in are profitable. So in their eyes it's just fine if those jobs are in Indonesia, China, Korea, or where ever. And Politicians in both parties are puppets to the Bankers. They will do as told.
How does a former President (Clinton is a perfect example accumulate $100 million without a job AFTER he leaves office?
Obama is bought and sold and doing exactly as told. The war on Terrorism is the front to steal mineral resources. The US Government is completely corrupt. So doing all that you suggest - and I'm for it completely still won't matter or happen until the Bankers are removed from the picture and the money supply is returned to the hands of the people.
Thank you, Mike, for your very insightful comment. I hear you. You are absolutely right about the Federal Reserve. I should have mentioned this in my section about keeping the federal government out of private business. I could write an entire article on the Federal Reserve and Barney Frank. Maybe I will. The Federal Reserve could very well be a threat to our national security. The money should be in the hands of the people. I wish more people were aware of this. Thanks for spreading the word.
Kate the Fair
On Jan 25 ,2011 President Barak ’’ I ’’ Obama will speak to the nation on the ‘’State of the Union’’ . The Democrats still control the Senate, the Republicans now control the House and a Democrat, Barak Obama is the President. For the past 4 years , the Democrats under Pelosi and Reid have controlled the government and Congress. The Republicans ‘’ Party of No ‘’ and obstructionist have been literally shut out of governing for the past 4 years.
Why is it that the Democrat majority seem to always blame the Republicans for the Economy and the countries short comings?
Thank you, Jon, for your very insightful comment. And a very good question. Why is the Democrat majority always blaming the Republicans for the economy and the countries short comings? In the interest of their own political gains, they certainly can't take responsibility for their own actions. They believe by "passing the buck" they can fool the people, thereby, enabling them to advance their progressive agenda. Which, by the way, has nothing to do with America's best interest.
Excellent Hub! Having a bit of "political burnout" as I just literally spent all day researching and writing my own, so I don't currently have any inciteful comments to throw into the fray, other than to say thanks for the great read!
Thank you, Shynsly, for taking the time to read my hub. The fact that you spent all day researching and writing your own hub, tells me you are a good citizen doing your part to help inform us of and improve the problems plaguing our country today. This is very insightful in itself. I read your newest hub, noted below, and was very impressed with your research and the excellent read. Thank you for that. And thank you so much for your kind accolades.
breakfastpop Level 8 Commenter 19 months ago
Wow, fantastic and the answer to the mess we are in!