Because Republicans vote uniformly and Democrats suffer from independent thought and a missing spine, Republicans have disproportionate leverage in Washington. When they want something, they play a game of political Chicken and would rather die in the collision than turn the wheel. This is the power of absolute commitment – and it has no place in governance.

So let’s ignore the sound fiscal policy of Clinton’s tax rates for now… in fact, let’s ignore all potential increased revenue, since the Republicans have no taste for it. Federal spending is a pie with five pieces: SSI, Medicare&Medicaid, “Defense” (aka War), Discretionary, and Other.
1. “Other” includes crowd-pleasers like education and roads, environmental spending, and interest on our national debt. Any cuts here would be minimal. Most of these things are mandatory for the continuing well-being of our nation.
2. Social Security taxes are already bringing in more revenue than SSI is spending. The most reasonable change is to make the SSI collection age equal to our national life expectancy, as it was when it social security was first created.
3. Medicare/Medicaid is the halfway point of socialized health care. Medical costs in this country are absolutely astounding. For low income households, just an ambulance ride is roughly equal to a month’s rent. A single life-saving surgery can exceed an entire year’s gross income. Cancer treatments can mean bankruptcy even in middle-class households. In the meantime, pharmaceutical and medical supplies companies are delivering record profits. To me, the only logical approach is to attempt to lower all medical costs in this country, through which government spending on public medicine would be reduced. Universal health care, although expensive in the short term, would ultimately reduce the country’s medical costs, but it won’t change the fact that government provisions for the elderly are insanely expensive and a drain on the future. And yet denying medical care to the elderly just doesn’t seem right. Since the obvious solutions are not appealing, we need an innovative one.
4. “Defense”, our country’s war budget, is out of control. USA spends more than any other country on war (we’re #1!). In fact, if you add up the war budgets of #2 (China) all the way through #18 (UAE), America still exceeds it. We spend 4.7% of our GDP, typical of more aggressive nations… places like Canada and the Netherlands spend a modest 1.5%. No doubt, we have the coolest murder toys. And I agree with the timeless saying “if you want peace, prepare for war” – but if you want peace, don’t prepare for world conquest. We could slash the defense budget in half and still be ahead of every other nation (militarily) for a long, long time. Terrorism is NOT a war. It’s a worldwide criminal pandemic. Its participants are not “non-government soldiers” or “enemy combatants”, they are international criminals, and should be treated as such. I was never in favor of our country’s two current wars of aggression. It’s as ridiculous as Canada invading the Untied States because we were “harboring” Al Capone. I am in favor of immediate withdrawal of the majority of troops… we were never planning to leave entirely, and will likely leave a military base in both Iraq and Afghanistan for as long as the United States exists. But we should get as close as we were ever going to get to having zero troops in these two countries, and stick to Reagan-era illegal overthrows (threats of assassination, monetary funding for violent rebel elements, that sort of thing). (Dreamily) oh Reagan/North, you high-treasonous jerks… Obama indicated a return to this policy, by publicly sponsoring the violent, fanatical elements in Egypt in their jihadist struggle against Mubarak. “Protesters” don’t blow up/burn down jails, hospitals, libraries, private residences, and Egypt’s National Council for Women. Praying in the street in military formation is not a form of protest, it’s a practice of jihad. In essence, starve our military budget, but not our military people.
5. Discretionary spending – also contains programs for the social safety net, like subsidized housing. Any congressman who is serious about fiscal responsibility should agree to reduce their salary by half (from 170k/year to 85k/year). It’s generally not their only source of income, so it would be more of a symbolic gesture. Discretionary spending is multifaceted, but reasonable cuts across the board would be ideal.

Still not enough. Screw the Clinton tax rates, let’s move to FairTax(.org) and tax only spending. That way, Bill Gates won’t be taxed below the poverty level just because Microsoft had a bad year. Unreported incomes (largely immigrant) would begin to pay taxes. Tourists would be solid contributers to our taxes. Wealth hoarders would lose their ability to have a lower tax rate than nurses and teachers. Tax revenue and public consumption would be one and the same.

Still not enough. How about we legalize, regulate, and tax all illegal drugs. That would pull a $300+ billion/year industry out of criminal hands – and cut the multi-billion dollar programs known as the “war on drugs”. We as a country could stop financing the Mexican mafia to support our weed habit. The prohibition provided vast income for organized crime almost 100 years ago, and modern prohibition is no different. Denying legal trade of goods and services that are in demand is precisely equal to funding organized criminals. The War on Drugs is actively supporting its supposed enemy, resulting in conflicts that never should have existed in the first place.

Still not enough?

They, the usurpers, are playing us all in every way…every day…! / : |

Carl Nemo **==

I hate GM crops.

Carl Nemo **==

Why is it the people that are elected to both represent and manage this natiion on our behalf are so obsessed with maintaining global influence?

They’ve worked feverisly on the homefront since the mid-90′s to destroy America’s manufacturing infrastructure turning us into a nation that’s virtually dependent on offshore producers for the vast majority of our consumer goods. So too they let the deep pockets sector of our society off the hook concerning them paying their fair share of taxes or avoiding them completely via the off-shoring of their ‘storefronts’ via a simple mailbox housed in the Cayman islands, “1900″ of them at last count.

These power obsessed, overly-educated bureaucrats seemingly cannot connect the dots between jobs and the income taxes derived thereof as allowing them to continue their failing quest to achieve ‘Empire Americanus’ with a peace dividend such as the Romans enjoyed during their two hundred year period known as “Pax Romana”.

Seemingly Roman emperors were savvy enough to rein in their conquest mad generals in order enjoy a relative peaceful era within their national history; I.E., a true “peace dividend” as a function of many years of intense empire building. They decided to give it a rest for the benefit of the empire and its citizens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Romana

Instead our leadership, particularly the Republicans driven by an obviously failed PNAC driven manifesto have broken the very nation they had hoped to achieve such a peace throughout the world. We’re both a broke and broken debtor nation suffering a destroyed job and tax base.

To get back on our feet would take a domestic plan to rebuild our national infrastructure and expunge the word “globalisam” from public discourse; I.E., a word and concept worthy of capital punishment.

This nation is dying the death of a thousand cuts at the hands of faceless, overpaid bureaucrats who enjoy enforcing the letter of their obviously flawed and in many cases corrupt laws to the nth degree regardless of the terminal damage being wrought upon this nation.

A host organism, the U.S. is being destroyed by bureaucratic parasites, all overpaid and seemingly without a clue as to why they are soon to lose their source of ‘nourishment’ ; I.E., , a paycheck too, like the unwashed masses they’ve managed to destroy in less than two decades.

Carl Nemo **==