Preamble:
America is in the condition it is in with Republican votes complicit every step of the way until the present health care debate, which begs the question “what forces exist in our government to cause a battle line to finally be drawn?” The answer is that the Progressive Movement has taken control of the Democratic Party in combination with the defeat of Progressives in the Republican Party, made possible by the emergence of Fox and alternate media breaking the monopoly of the main stream media.
Progressives have camouflaged themselves in the Republican Party as Rockefeller Republicans to RINOS of late and they provided the key votes in the name of bi-partisanship that brought us to the brink of destruction. Since Democrats use the term Progressive Movement, it is the safest descriptor to fight against, but fight we must. It was the re-birth of the Progressive Movement once before that inspired William F. Buckley to father conservative thought (by the way, Bruce Brown owns www.conservativemovement.com ).
It is essential that “we the people” do everything necessary (i.e. contribute and volunteer) to send conservative representatives to the Capital who are dedicated to preserving the gift of FREEDOM for which millions have died. This will shut down the Progressive Movement for a generation.
Progressive Movement:
There is no point in running for office and ignoring the Progressive Movement. For too long, Republicans have gone to the Capital to “play the game” as if the debate winner went home with a washer dryer instead of our FREEDOM, while the Progressives changed the game before our very eyes, Now stop and think – our Constitution describes a Republic form of government designed to protect individual FREEDOM and gives “we the people” the power over our government. Given that fact, why do we tolerate any doctrine that specifically works to dilute and destroy our own FREEDOM? Why even enter the debate? Do not be “the party of no, be the party of Hell No!” when it comes to the Progressive agenda.
Our Constitution:
Our Constitution gives tremendous power to “we the people,” but we have to exercise it. For example, when I inform people in my speeches that 100% of the House is re-elected every two years, the typical response is “really?” The Supreme Court has never been hesitant to usurp the people’s power but is all in when it comes to protecting Federal Power. The Commerce Clause has been stretched to the point of wondering why the Founders even bothered with the other clauses.
But, the people even have power over the Supreme Court. People believe Amendments must start in Congress and they are wrong. Two thirds of the states can call a convention, pass amendments to be ratified by two thirds of the states, and the Constitution can be changed without Congress ever saying a word. At present, 37 States are considering suing the Federal Government over health care and it only takes 34 States to call a Convention. With health care as a catalyst, “we the people” could gut federal power, create an unambiguous right to own guns, fix Social Security, restore God to the Public Square and snap this country back into shape as fast as the eye can blink. Neither the Supreme Court nor Congress can stop it. The only procedural requirement is that to succeed, a consensus needs reached before hand so that the Convention is to ratify the consensus but the momentum of the Tea Party Movement combined with conservative leadership can get this done with a sweep in the fall.
Smaller Government:
It is silly to speak of smaller government without a guideline of what government should and should not be doing. This is necessary to make the choices that cannot be won as individual debates. Our Constitution says our government is a Defender, a Referee and a Regulator. Government should never be a Parent or Economic Decider and it especially should not be corrupt.
Start the reduction with the Department of Education as an indefensible use of Federal Funds. There is nothing the federal government can do or has done to improve education – they have only made it an agenda delivery system. Education is the rare subject that the more we spend, the worse it gets so it is perfect to cut first. Just make all schools Charter Schools and get on with it – we know local control without overwhelming bureaucracy is what works – just do it. Then go through each agency and get rid of everything that does not look like a Republic.
Social Security:
Every person in the Profit Sector collecting other people’s retirement funds and borrowing them without re-payment is in jail or headed there. Yet, this is exactly what Congress has done since 1935. Government collects the levy, then borrows it for the General Fund and leaves an IOU from Congress. What exactly is an IOU from the 84th Congress (1955-1957) worth today? Exactly ZERO.
Either lock down private individual accounts that are invested in an indexed stock fund or stop the program. With private accounts, a clerk making $20,000/yr could retire in 40 years with $1.5 million; their family would never be poor again. I use this example in the minority community and have yet to meet a person who did not want it and would also choose such a job over welfare. With the RINOs no longer there to give away our position, we can and must get this accomplished.
Energy:
There are three universal components to our economy that touch everyone without exception – taxes, interest and ENERGY. We know what happens when taxes and interest get too high, how can a government not have a policy commitment to the lowest weighted cost energy to drive the economy? (Weighted with related use costs like cleanup.) In addition, how can a government send billions offshore for our energy when we have a forever supply right here and the dollar value is linked to the price of oil? This is inexcusable.
The cost of new technology must be driven down to the present marginal cost for adaptation and NEVER artificially drive up the present cost to justify new technology BEFORE IT’S TIME! This is so simple, how do we even debate it?
Health Care:
Citizens must carry their own health policy covering what they want covered, period, over and out. The issue not yet discussed is that large corporations self insure behind the façade of an insurance company for structure and employees do not really have insurance. We will now see every corporation that is self insuring announcing earnings write downs because of the new requirements of ObamaCare.
Nothing will work until this link is broken and companies switch to subsidizing the worker’s already owned policy. Then, changing jobs or unemployment is seamless for insurance issues. Companies can still throttle forward or back on the subsidy as they see fit and employees will know the component of their income that is benefit. Start with this first step, get government out of the way except for solvency requirements and with a few tweaks, the conservative ideas will solve this for everyone.
Last month I wrecked my car and had no insurance, now I have no car. Then I broke my arm and had no insurance, now I have a funny looking arm. Free care for the uninsured must be limited to life saving and public safety (infectious disease).
Illegal Immigration:
It makes no sense to discuss illegal immigration without addressing the size of the legal portal in place that restricts immigration in the first place. The present situation seems almost designed to maximize illegal infusion to then exploit them by forcing them into an underground society and the end result is that the entire demographic is discounted. Then, Democrats rise up to save them in return for votes. The results are now in for the Black community and it is despicable what has happened to the Black family.
There is a huge opening I use in my district for Republicans to enter the community with the message of uplift and pride in what the American Dream can mean to the Latino community and welcome the legal immigrant with open arms. The fact is, we run out of people in a few years and the thriving economy we are building will need them – they are conservative, believe in God and should be Republican. All they need is to meet some. And, if they came here illegally, they will never be a citizen, ever, but legal resident might be worked out. I do not want to live in a society with ICE rounding up 15 million people but if we trip over an illegal in the street, they need to be gone.
BOD and CBO:
Government is a $14 trillion business that is out of control. How does business stay under control? – Board of Directors (BOD). How do BOD’s control? – Priorities and financial statements. Government oversight procedures must be driven to BOD type review and even within separation of powers, at least the measurement tools must be put in place for follow up review of the winning arguments.
In the recent healthcare debate, Congress was allowed by Republicans to use a surrogate called the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to justify passing a bill on its economics. Every Democrat when asked about the fiscal impact deferred to the CBO and this is reprehensible.
The CBO debate missed a $500 billion double count, a ten year revenue stream compared to a six year expense stream and a host of other silliness that any public BOD in American would go to jail for. The BOD type review along with GAAP accounting has the imprimatur of authority and can be made to carry weight as we create the “informed society” that is required for FREEDOM to thrive. We must get the intelligent review of government programs installed.
Corruption:
I use this word to mean “spending of the people’s money on favored groups.” The point is best made in reference to tax cuts – Republicans typically favor structural changes in the code which are agnostic to individual groups, while Democrats favor targeted credits and payments to their friends. Democrats are against structural code changes because they cannot be corrupted. This fundamental difference between the two parties could not be more obvious and it is time to start tracking money spent and exposing the favored groups receiving the people’s money. ACORN is the poster child but Planned Parenthood is especially insidious as they are a $1billion industry and yet still receiving government grants, often created just for them. In too many cases, these activities help take political ground for Democrats at the expense of our FREEDOM.
Public employee unions must also be included in this topic as their behavior in politics is equal to a labor union in business bribing the CEO to agree to a higher wage package. A simple law that states that government employees cannot be paid more than 90% of the public average is clearly needed with the 10% penalty applied because of the Civil Service benefits granted.
Taxes and Dynamic Modeling:
It is inexcusable that in 2010 we are still debating “tax cuts for the rich” and using static economic models to predict revenue. Resolving this issue puts the Progressive Movement in the ground as it removes emotion from the debate. The classic example of static budgeting failure is the destruction of the yacht industry that occurred in 1990 when Congress passed a luxury tax based on [Tax % times Total Sales = Gov Revenue], the static model. However, the wealthy stopped buying yachts (dynamic behavior) in the USA because of the tax and unemployment cost in the industry exceeded increased revenue by millions of dollars. Dynamic modeling will predict these events better and stop the tax cuts for the rich battle cry. Banks, Universities and the Federal Reserve all have Dynamic econ models and it is time a non-partisan Dynamic Econ Modeling agency was created to develop these models for both parties in Congress to use for reference. Ironically, the CBO was set up for a similar purpose related to costing but the creators forgot to add arithmetic and logic to the exercise. The CBO is the epitome of “garbage in, garbage out” that must be fixed and learned from.