More Solutions for Today's Problems

I've written about solutions for energy and immigration in earlier blogs, as well as the need to legalize marijuana and what that would do in many areas, from lowering incarceration rates to creating a new tax base. Today I want to just list a few of the major problems facing this country and what I think should be done about them. We must realize that many of these things and their consequences are intertwined.

1. Job creation: First of all, it is lunacy to think that government can efficiently create jobs. For a decent paying job it takes, say, $40,000 of the taxpayers' money. How much comes back? In the form of tax revenue, I would say that $10,000 is a generous estimate, especially if the person owns a home and itemizes. There are other trickle down amounts, such as the fact that the local businesses will do better because this taxpayer also presumably shops. But the point is that this is an inefficient way to create jobs. Instead of spending all the taxpayers' money in this way, it should be in the form of tax cuts and business incentives. First of all, tax cuts usually are a direct stimulus, since "found" money usually gets spent. By business incentives, I mean a lowering of the capital gains tax, a reduction in the suffocating control of the government, and a lowering of health care costs. If businesses aren't afraid to invest, then jobs will be created. It's been proven over and over. And these are jobs that aren't paid for directly by the taxpayer.

2. Health care: Start by scrapping Obamacare and its $1 TRILLION+ price tag. Then, work on what the problems actually are. Bring down doctors costs for one. I would create a national school for doctors which was free for those who might qualify, with the caveat that, after graduation, they would work for a minimum of six years for essentially low pay, much as the folks who graduate from the service academies give up six years of their lives. We would use these inexpensive doctors to staff huge clinics which would treat the poor. Let's face it. Just saying to everyone, "You have to buy health insurance" doesn't cut it. There are always going to be people who can't afford to pay for the insurance. These are the people who are falling through the safety net. They are the ones who need our help. They come in all colors, genders, and ages. Once we set these clinics up, we can start sending the people choking our emergency rooms there, treat those who need it, and eventually get to the point of offering preventive care.
There are other ways to bring down costs, some of which are being killed by high-powered lobbyists. Tort reform is one way, for instance. The lawyers don't like this one, but we've got to limit liability for doctors. This would lower medical malpractice insurance costs drastically, which would then enable doctors to lower what they charge.
We also need to get all the medical records computerized so we can check for people who are scamming the system. I know this isn't just individuals. Several times I've found the facilities my wife and I have used trying to bill us more than once. It's always explained away as an honest mistake, but what about the people who aren't watching? President Obama sold Obamacare by promising to pay for a lot of it with "500 billion dollars worth of waste and fraud." This is one of the few things I agree with him about--that there is a huge amount of waste and fraud. The difference is that I think we actually ought to do something about it. Nothing is being done right now.
There are many other things associated with this that we need to do, such as lowering crime rates and getting people off dependencies as much as we can. Due to lack of space, I'll tackle this later. Just as an example, though, imagine how much we'd save if we could get even a small percentage of the people on Skid Row off of drugs or alcohol. There are "Skid Rows" all throughout this country. See this short slide show and think about the effect of cleaning up these places and getting these people sober, or at least some of them: http://hub.witness.org/en/node/5335

3. The size of government: This one is simple, and it affects everything else. Government is too big, period. The Obama budget blueprint through 2020 shows us running deficits in excess of ONE TRILLION DOLLARS each year! This is crazy. We need to immediately cut the government budget by 20% across the board, and immediately impose a hiring freeze. We can then reduce a lot more over the years by attrition. The point is we HAVE to reduce the size of government. A lot of people are under the impression that the deficit has something to do with our economy or with our business relations with other countries such as China. Our deficit has nothing to do with any of that. It is how much comes in versus how much is spent. The bottom line is that government spends too much money. Let's face it--we all know that government wastes money and my proposed 20% reduction will be on everything from Congressional and staff salaries, to weapon systems R & D to, yes, Medicare and Medicaid. Part of this reduction will come with my health care recommendations listed above.
We also need to get rid of certain government agencies outright. The Department of Education, for example, has been a disaster. Despite spending more and more money centralizing control of the nation's education, ever since the inception of this department (created by Jimmy Carter), America's educational results have been slowly sliding. When things don't work, you change them! Let's change this! The same goes for other agencies--why, for instance, do we even need a Commerce Department?
(Department of Education building)

4. BUY AMERICAN. We were once the greatest creditor nation on Earth. We are now the greatest debtor nation. Yet we are trying to hold onto a lifestyle we enjoyed when we were flush. It doesn't work that way, and the bill has to come due sooner or later. I vote for sooner. However, we can also turn the whole problem around by doing one simple thing. Buy American made products. No, don't have the government mandate that you do. Let's just start a movement to buy it only if it's made here. However, you have to think about this. For instance, the Honda I drive is built in Ohio with 90% American made parts, including the engine and drive train. This is, in my opinion, an American made product. I don't care if it doesn't say "Ford" or "GM" or "Chrysler" on it. If we bought American made products, more people would work, prices for American made goods would come down, and we would start running a trade surplus for a change. Also, new industries would be re-created, such as the American television manufacturing industry.