What can we do to Fix the Economy?

The federal, state and city budget deficits are soaring.
Should we be worried? Yes about the local stuff; the federal who knows? The truth is it's all just a game.
Traditional Macroeconomics would tell us if the government ran an annual deficit of trillions of dollars, that the economy would be bleed dry and collapse under the weight of it's own paper trail. Yet the Bush administration who assumed the office with a balanced budget on the books, has done exactly that, over spent by $20,000 for every person, man woman and child in the United States.

And yet the economy hasn't collapsed, yet

Why not? The value of the dollar on the world market has declined 50% against most currencies in the past six years. Of course money exchange is just another game... What this means to most Americans is that the price of imported stuff has or will double and the home made stuff is rising at the current double digit inflation rate. So we will buy more American made products, it's a good thing for people who want to work. It's a bad thing for people holding large amounts of currency.

During the first six years of the Bush administration, Inflation has accumulated about 100%, fuel products 300%. So just what will happen when the 2008 figures come in as triple digit inflation? Bush don't care, he is going to exit stage left, and leave the problems for your children and grandchildren.

We need to fix the problem now and Bush's petty $300 tax rebate is not going to even touch the problems he has created over the past seven years.

The biggest thing done for our national economy in the past five years was a reality show that distributed millions of dollars in merchandise and cash to the people who needed it the most

The American economy is belief powered and runs strongly, silently on auto pilot; Because Americans believe that tomorrow morning that dollar bill in your wallet will still buy something. Not what it used to, but something just the same.

The fix? We can fix the housing crisis, health care, Social Security, all at once with a carefully controlled program.
the key comes directly from the past, directly from the beginning. In the beginning it was written that:

Now I am fairly evolved and wise enough to know we accept women as part of this equation. So do we want to say "all humans are created equal? That could be construed as an open immigration policy and we really don't want that anymore. So perhaps "that all citizens are created equal in the laws of man and nature." Which has been defined by many though out history as meaning "we are all born naked and broke"

So how about instead of spending money on wars, we spend it on improving the life styles of the impoverished, the crippled, the retired, and the struggling single parents. It's time to "pay it forward" and give opportunity for all those who really need it. We need to give our grandchildren the gift of a wealthy society instead of a bill for for immoral societies of the past.

I have never been a believer in the trickle down theory of economics, if you really want to help, you help at the bottom and that money will recirculate until it is sucked up by taxes, or profits. .
So the first people we need to help is those on fixed income, Social Security, welfare and disability. Bush's plan of tax rebates does nothing at all for any of these people. My mom called me recently and told me that they raised her SSI payments by 1.8% for a cost of living adjustment. In an economy with triple digit inflation this means less than nothing. The first thing we need to do is add a month, send these poorest of the poor a thirteenth payment until the economy becomes stable again. So what if they only spend it on food and past due bills, the rich certainly will end up with all of it in no time at all. Then they can trickle it back up.

Long term stability can be established with ISA (Individual Security Accounts)
Individual Security Account would be established with a credit union account beginning with $50,000 on each citizen's first birthday. When a person starts making money, 10% of every dollar they make will be added to this account.
The monies will accumulate at 5% interest. Meaning they double about every 15 years. So a person who never added or took from their fund would have $1,000,000 if they retired at 75, plus 10% of everything they ever earned and the interest on that money.

Individual Security Accounts would be protected from lawsuits, leans, bankruptcy and seizure, and never be taxed fined or penalized in any way.

ISA's could not be borrowed against, sold or used as collateral.

Monies will not be taken from these accounts, with the following exceptions.
No more than 10% percent can be removed in a calendar year and only for uncovered unpaid Medical Expenses.

Retirement at age 60 only 10% percent or less per year

After age 18, after contributing a minimum of $1000, Once in lifetime person can take up to 40% of their savings,
to pay a minimum 40% down on a home, provided 20 year or less mortgage at 10% or less. Basically this gives any working American citizen, a minimum of $20,000 for a down payment on a home.

When a person dies before they use their fund up, $50,000 will revert to the government and what is left can be divided among the kin. This creates balance on the books, no foul no harm.
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Now, here is where, the skeptics begin screaming, you can't do that it violates the laws of capitalism and stinks of communism. As far as Communism is concerned, if Russia had done something along this line the USSR would never have collapsed. As far as the laws of Capitalism, I reiterate, there is no such thing, there are rules and rules can be changed. If we accept that economics are just a game created by man then we can change the rules. Did you ever wonder why Monopoly Game starts out with money? Because if it didn't, the game would never last beyond a few turns, the first turn would bankrupt most of the players, nobody could buy anything until they hit a good card at chance. This is basically what the American economy has turned into, with most of us going to college, most of us are starting adult life $100,000 in Debt. But the skeptics continue, this is just not done, it mocks basic Capitalistic accounting procedures. (and government secret off books spending doesn't?) Anyone who has studied accounting has heard the term goodwill. In most business deals it is listed as as an asset, so just what is it? Nothing, it's re-reimbursement for future profits that may have been made if the company was not sold and the new owners write it off as an expense over time. I think the American people, who could once again become hard working people deserve the same goodwill consideration, most of us will make over a million dollars in our lifetime and pay hundreds of thousands in taxes to the government. Why should anybody have a problem with the government giving us a small share of our future earning up front?

Now the skeptics are crying you are talking about an initial investment of more than ten trillion dollars. Well I say to the skeptics that is only about double of what George Bush jr wasted on wars during his administration. Money building our economy, which would be released into the economy, slowly over fifty years or so to people when they need it the most, there by providing a stabilizing factor like none ever conceived before forever and it actually costs nothing at all not a penny from anywhere, because all we are doing is accepting; that as a nation we have another asset, that asset is the people of the United States of America.

Think about it, in order to grandfather in people who already have purchased their homes (out of fairness), we would allow them to take $20,000 each to use to pay towards their existing mortgages or to use for needed home repairs, or to up grade the energy efficiency of their homes. Add to that $20,000 for each person who is currently ready to purchase a home and $5000 for every person who has large amounts of unpaid doctor bills and we are realistically looking at about two trillion dollars being released into the economy, mostly into the housing industry and the remainder being the Health care industry. Instead of using it to bombing some other country back to the middle ages. Think about it...

* When I first proposed this plan in 1999, the start up number of $50,000 was only $10,000 but in order to offset, the last 7 years of economically abuse by the current administration these numbers had to be adjusted upwards.

Implementation:
Obviously, we can't just send everyone a check for $50,000 and expect them to do the right thing. We could establish a new government agency or use the Social Security Administration to administer it and releasing close to ten trillion dollars into the economy, which could be argued to be inflationary. So I propose an eight year plan for initial implementation.

Citizens would have to apply using their SSI number as reference and indicating their choice of Credit Union.
We would limit acceptance to 24,000 applications per year.
First come first serve except preferences given to;

First year ONLY
Displaced Katrina victims, People facing Mortgage default, Cancer patients, Aids Patients, Disabled Vets
2nd year preference given to Vets released from service 2000-2008, *Those born prior to 1950 collecting SSI.
3rd year preference given to Vets released 1980-1999
4th year preference given to Vets released 1960-1979
5th year preference given to Citizens born 1950-1990
6th year preference given to Citizens born 1990-1999
7th year preference given to Citizens born after 1999
8th year Lawyers, Doctors, Politicians, Millionaires, and Anyone else left but not excluded
After 8th year all citizens would get an account when issued a SSI number.

Excluded from program Lawyers, Doctors, Politicians, Millionaires, until 8th year.
Also Excluded: Non-citizens, citizens currently in jail, citizens collecting government or private pensions in excess of $50,000 per year.
* when originally written, ISA plan was intended to replace Social Security and excluded those on that plan. However due to triple digit inflation expected in 2008 and the average SSI increase being 2% or less per year, these people on a fixed income have become one of the neediest groups in the country.

Summary; with in ten years, Every American would have a minimum of $25,000 in the bank, own their home if they wished and most of them would be paying only 5% tax on their earnings.

What about Social security?
Since this is a Social security replacement plan;
Citizens born before 1950 would continue on Social Security plan as well as anyone else until they get their ISA started.
Then citizens born 1950-1980 would be given the choice of keeping Social Security and contributing 10% or having both and contributing 5% to each or giving up Social security and place 10% in their ISA
Citizens born after 1980 would contribute 10% to their ISA.
Sometime around 2050- 2080 Social Security would dry up and die.
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Student loans.
I was recently informed that some student loans have interest rates of 20% to 30% per year. Give me a break Give them a break. When I went to college I had student loans and the interest rates were between 3% and 7%. Tuition was about $1000 a year. Students are now facing $100,000 tuition and have to pay $30,000 a year in interest no wonder these bills are defaulting and more and more students moving back home. I propose that all loans past and present be adjusted back to their origin at 12% or less anything else is just criminal.

Once one accepts that economic models and theories are just that models and theories. You come to realize that the term laws can not realistically be applied to economics. All the rules have been made up by man, and there fore are as changeable as the weather.

One of the rules of economics has traditionally been that if something is destroyed then the wealth it represented has also been destroyed and thus the game of insurance evolves. Traditionally insurance doesn't cover the unpredictable, as insurance is an odds game. Therefore acts of nature or god often go uncovered...

One of the many many failures of the Bush administration was Hurricane Katrina and its devastating effects over several states, Millions of people without homes and no way to pay for it. If only we could accept a simple theory that wealth is not per say destructible. Why couldn't the government say that we know it existed and therefore we can replace it. They already do this with cash money, stocks and bonds and other things that occasionally get destroyed, because they represent wealth. Doesn't a house represent wealth just as much as anything else? I propose that in the event of catastrophic disasters that the government simply replace the value of an individual or family's equity in a home, with cold hard cash as soon as possible after a flood hurricane earth quake tornado or wildfire.

Of course we would only allow this to apply to homes, not businesses or corporations, because they would certainly figure out some way to abuse it, and just so people don't abuse it we should limit the amount to say $50,000 and in case of floods, require the people to move someplace geographically at least 20 feet higher than the highest flood stage in the region.

Still the skeptics cry out You Just cant do this!!!

I say to them What about an amendment to the constitution?

What about a Constitutional Convention, would that be a great place to bring this up?

How about just passing the law, attached to some unrelated bill taken out of context and added at the last moment, and never actually read? Is that not normal Washington D.C. behavior? Could we not sneak in the Goodwill Bill attached to the next raise Congress gives themselves?

What else can we do?
The Federal deficit, the unsolvable problem that the Democrats and the Republicans are just starting to seriously consider, is the easiest problem we have to solve. Why hasn't it been solved then? Did you know Thomas Jefferson first proposed the balanced budget amendment over two hundred years ago? It has not been "solved" because it is not in the best interests of our representatives (strange word considering) in Washington. The fact is just about every Congress person running for re-election in the last three election cycles was bragging about the pork they have brought back home. Hey wake up the pork is the problem, Congress is the problem. Do not re-elect any incumbents, they have had their chance. When voting look for independents, find out what they are about. They don't have a party platform to follow , so they will be more likely to tell you the truth instead of what they think you want to hear (standard politician). Always remember that age is not equal to wisdom. If you can't find a ideal candidate... run yourself.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.65 billion per day since September 30, 2002!
Interest on this debt is around 240 billion dollars a year.
Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House!
Those numbers have at least doubled since 2003.
This means in effect that you owe the federal government $32,000, that it has already spent.
What's worse each of your kids owe $32,500 as well.
Being born into today's economy means being born naked and deeply in debt.

I would Really Balance the federal budget, Here are a few suggestions on reducing the budget and deficit :

1 . Separate Social Security System from Federal budget. Basic accounting procedures require it. Basically now the federal government counts Social Security taxes as Income while telling the people it is savings. Then they turn around and say that SSI payments must go off budget. The system takes in over 100 billion more than it pays out and Congress steals the rest...

2 . Shut down non-essential government operations immediately, hopefully for good ! Yes the same ones they shut down during a budget impasse. If they are non-essential why do we have them at all?

3 . THE BIG ONE Give the president line item veto power on all bills brought before him. An honest President will kill all pork at the source, no more multi-million dollar grants attached to jay walking bills.

4 . $normal cuts and caps for government employees.

5 . Serious cuts to foreign aid, we just can't afford it. In the past twenty five years we have sent a billion dollars in aid to each of a at least a dozen nations. Nations like Somalia, Sudan, Haiti, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Eygpt, India, and the list goes on and on... A billion dollars or more to each. These countries are still war torn, impoverished and no better off than they were two decades ago... The Governments here and abroad agree that most of the money just disappears with out a trace, funding someone's war chest or retirement. THIS IS YOUR TAX MONEY, not at work. We must end irresponsible aid packages now.

6. Refocus the war on drugs to education and treatment. Not only will we save money, it just makes sense. WAR ON DRUGS

7. Full government support of renewable energy sources; solar, geothermic, wind and hydro-electric. Government building conversions are a top priority. Bicycles for everyone!

8 . Discontinue the minting of pennies and nickels, it actually costs more than a penny to make a penny. The feds made 13.7 billion pennies in 1996 alone, which means we spent over 137 million dollars making pennies in one year !!! Without new minting maybe people will stop paving our streets and parking lots with small change. Eventually they will fade from use, and be forgotten. We stopped making the half penny around a hundred years ago, since then the cost of living has doubled several times. Where does that leave the value of a penny?

9 . Set a one trillion dollar budget spending limit on the Federal Government and pay off the debt with tax reforms. Tell belly aching bureaucrats to just do it.

10. Stop printing and start minting one and five dollar coins. Paper money wears out quickly, usually in five years or less. Coins on the other hand tend to last 50-100 years or more. The U. S. Treasury currently spends over 75 million dollars per year just for the paper that money is printed on ! Dollar bills account for most of the printing. Why should we care, they can just print a few extra to pay the bills for the bills right????

National Debt -- In the News

My promises to SAVE Money from Government spending

I will introduce the line item veto as an amendment to the constitution.
I will do everything in my power to kill all pork spending bills
I will demand a balanced budget, amendment or not..
I will demand a flat tax proposal for individuals earning less than 100K
I will push and approve any bill which decriminalizes victimless crimes.
I will shut down nonessential government operations until my demands are met by Congress

I will petition Congress to combine any departments with overlapping duties.
I will cancel the Inaugural Ball to save money
I will not redecorate the White House at tax payers expense
I will not start or accelerate any conflicts or wars.

Step 1. Free SSI from Federal Fiscal Polices
Step 2. Freeze Federal budget at 1 Trillion dollars
Step 3. Flat tax rate of 12% declining to 5% indexed against the federal debt.
Step 4. 1% Federal Gross receipts tax on all businesses

The gross receipts Tax would be used only to pay off interest and Federal Debt payments. Strictly off budget until the federal debt is paid off.

Flat tax of 5% for those making less than $50,000. For those making $50,000 to $100,000 flat tax would start at 12% Two years after the first Balanced budget is passed, decline to 10% when the National debt falls below 4 trillion dollars(1992 level), fall to 8% when the debt falls to 1 trillion dollars (1981 level) and settle at 5% when the debt is paid off. For those making 100k plus we would keep current tax indexes.

With a flat tax the need for tax returns and interaction between the IRS and citizens would be minimal, People wouldn't have to waste time filling out forms and the IRS wouldn't have to check them. Tax cheating would be eliminated for those involved. This alone would reduce the IRS work load by at least one third. It is also extremely likely that Income tax could be completely eliminated with the gross receipts tax completely funding the federal Government, if the government spending can be brought under control.

Placing ISA monies in Credit Unions would create a Million jobs a year through small business loans, make more homes available for Americans, help out during sickness, and maintain us during old age. Credit Unions only create local opportunities, all while placing a permanent stabilizer on the economy with the One Big Fixx.