The U.S. comptroller general has issued a report that says “the U.S. government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon,” according to the Financial Times.
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2007.
How to solve the U.S.’s problems:
(1) Tax-and-do-not-spend. Tax gasoline and have all funds go directly to pay down the national debt, just like Ross Perot would have done. He may have been short and annoying, but he was onto something. Properly tax the wealthy like we did before, and keep the estate tax. Tax corporations their fare share, and enforce against defrauders. Have total transparency on all taxing and all spending. Eliminate abusive earmarking for pet pork projects and “bridges to nowhere.” Have full campaign finance reform and curb the power and influence of lobbyists. Use strict trade measures that put tariffs on cheap foreign goods that flood our markets, and that fully enforce against products made in countries that violate human-rights standards with sweatshop labor, but still allow for healthy free-market competition among businesses. Streamline all welfare so that funds only go to the truly needy, and make the defense industry accountable for its trillions in wasted dollars (the Pentagon has “misplaced” over a trillion dollars in the past decade) so that such abuse does not recur. Do pump money into needed infrastructure and other investments that grease the wheels of the economy, including education.
(2) Fund healthcare adequately, including and especially preventative healthcare. Place some taxes on highly processed, fat-saturated foods the same way we already do on cigarettes. If people want to live on Hostess Twinkies and McDonald’s make them think twice about it, or at least drop a couple dimes into the healthcare bucket as they go. Use a sliding scale insurance plan so that the truly needy can get adequate healthcare while the middle and upper classes have to pay into insurance their fair share. Reform the health code to minimize abuses of the system.
(3) Strongly enforce existing immigration laws. Make all employers accountable for the legal, citizenship status of their employees, from the hospitality industry (maids, busboys, etc.) to landscapers to construction to strawberry pickers. If the agriculture economy cannot be sustained by minimum-wage employees then create a guest-worker program only in the industries that need it. The borders cannot be sealed up so the best way to reduce illegal crossing is by reducing the attractiveness and demand for illegal workers. By the same token, help Mexico invest in its economy so that Mexican citizens are less likely to run north. Strongly encourage them to have corruption reform and selectively give them resources to enforce against narcotics drug trafficking. I would consider legalizing pot while even more harshly enforcing against drugs with proven deleterious effects like crystal meth, cocaine and heroin.
(3) Pool all available diplomatic and international collective resources to stabilize Iraq. If an unbiased expert analysis determines Iraq cannot be stabilized, divide the country into sections and give them to nearby nations, with the exception of Iran, who get nothing. Form Kurdistan, give western Iraq to Jordan, southern Iraq to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and turn easter Iraq into the 51st American State complete with casinos. Or better yet turn the entire region into a game show ala “the Running Man” where people are hunted and killed for entertainment. Or even better yet ship out all the Arizona ass-hats who think ATV ridin’ is fun and let them go hog wild doing their off-riding adventures in the sands of Iraq. Possibly pave the entirety of Iraq with asphalt and strip malls until it closely resembles 90% of Phoenix.
(4) Go to Israel and force them to return the borders to what they were at the end of the 1967 war. Raze all illegal Israeli settlements, or just give them to Palestinian families and let them enjoy the luxury for a change. Call the Israeli settlers for the racist, land-stealing pricks that they are and make them move into apartment complexes in the legal boundaries of Israel. Turn all of Jerusalem into an internationally controlled non-national zone that nobody has a claim to. Let the Palestinians have their own country provided they accept the puppet of our choice, and make that puppet be Lady Elaine Fairchilde from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Put a Museum-Go-Round in Gaza and let Henrietta Pussycat deal with the meow meow intifada meow. Put Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzalez in charge of something they can handle, like the Olive Tree Planting Agency or the Rubble Removal Czar.
That’s just a start.
Fund healthcare adequately, including and especially preventative healthcare. Place some taxes on highly processed, fat-saturated foods the same way we already do on cigarettes. If people want to live on Hostess Twinkies and McDonald’s make them think twice about it, or at least drop a couple dimes into the healthcare bucket as they go.
I believe fast food taxes to be much fairer than tobacco taxes, as fast food is eaten by a wider range of people and does not create a guaranteed legislative win that out-numbers an unpopular minority.
People like to tax tobacco users because it’s an easy target to squeeze money from for pet projects. The 80 cent per pack raise created by Prop 203 to support children’s healthcare offers no benefits to smokers, even ones trying to quit.
The revival of SCHIP aims to do the same thing. I would much rather see these taxes on fast food as I’ll know that it was not a targeted tax raise attack on a minority.