Wednesday, August 08, 2007
|
|
What's the Agenda?
|
|
Posted by:
Patrick Ruffini at
11:48 PM
|
|
So what’s the agenda around which a Movement 2.0 might be built? Ideas, not technology or tactics, are what any political movement is built around. They’re what animated the New Right.
The netroots has been strikingly devoid of new policy ideas. They are all about infrastructure and mechanics. We’ll build something stronger than them if we focus on the ideas. Here’s my (by no means exhaustive) list of big policy ideas that aren’t getting enough attention — and that we might exploit.
War on Terror
- Take the War on Terror into Pakistan if necessary. I don’t think Barack Obama is wrong here. It seems kind of inconsistent for conservatives to lash into “our friends the Saudis” while standing up for the Pakistani status quo. Has anyone considered that it might strengthen Musharraf against local Islamists to be able to huff and puff against American military incursions, instead of always having to play pattycake with us? Musharraf long ago relinquished sovereignty over the tribal areas and his people will probably hate us no matter what we do.
- Define an achievable victory in Iraq. Focus on defeating al Qaeda and seal the borders. De-emphasize nation-building (not the military’s core competency) and sectarian violence. Throw everything at defeating transnational Islamist terrorists. Extend gains in Anbar and build a safe haven there.
- Screw the b*tching about FISA. More covert operations and HumInt. Now.
- Reorient our focus in the Middle East toward strengthening civil society and institutions (the rule of law, education, etc.) instead of immediate elections; Rudy Giuliani made this point at the debate. Most of this is non-military.
Foreign Policy
- John McCain’s idea of a Union of Democracies to delegitimize the U.N.
- Position the Republican Party as the only party able to deal with increasing competition from China. Raise the Clintons’ coziness with the Chinese in the industrial swing states. Launch a moral crusade for democracy in China like we did against the Soviets. We would not endorse protectionism, but making America more competitive. Part of this will require increased legal immigration, particularly the high-skilled kind (H1-B, etc.) to be able to confront an economic engine of 1.2 billion people. If the Middle East ever diminishes in importance, the China issue returns with a vengeance.
Health Care
- Refundable tax credits for health insurance.
- Allow people to buy health insurance across state lines (many candidates have proposed this).
- Make it easy for anyone, including non-employers, to start a health insurance pool. Support association health plans.
- Any other elements of RomneyCare worth looking at?
- Package these all together as H.R. 1, the Health Freedom & Deregulation Act of 2009. I bet a Republican President could claim a significant improvement in the number of uninsured by the end of the first term. I think it’s time for a Republican to do for health care what George Bush did for education: “steal” the issue from the Democrats, with a free-market, accountability focus.
Reform
- End all earmarks. Don’t just reform them. Kill them. Dead.
- Broad tax reform (any other tax changes suggested below are an interim fallback).
- Open APIs for all government data — so our government’s dirty little secrets can be mashed up in third party applications and brought to light. National security and intelligence would be exempt. Imagine something like this for all government activity in your area? Unleash the Army of Davids on all manner of government information, including decades old bridge blueprints.
- FEC-like reporting of all government expenditures over a certain amount ($10K, $100K?) in near real-time. National security exempt.
- Purely as a process thing, I’d love to see Republican legislators do what Durbin is doing now on broadband: collaboratively draft legislation with the blogosphere. That would help rebuild a bond of trust that was broken by immigration.
Budget & Taxes
- Lower tax rates for small businesses in the first three years of operation.
- Index income tax rates to income growth not inflation — would stop de-facto tax increases as society as a whole gets richer and chill revenue growth.
- Rudy Giuliani’s emphasis on shrinking the government payroll through attrition. An astounding percentage of the federal workforce will retire in the next five years, and government service is not exactly an appealing option for recent college grads. (But how do stanch the flow of ex-feds being rehired into the same jobs as contractors for twice the pay?)
Social Security
- Keep on plugging on personal accounts for Social Security. The Democrats keep re-proposing universal health insurance every election, without result. We need to keep going on this until we win, the gutlessness of Congress in 2005 notwithstanding.
- Rename “Social Security” as part of any comprehensive reform to something that honors the individual rather than the state. Framing matters! They won’t be able to say “Republicans will cut Social Security” anymore.
Immigration
- Build the border fence — then let’s talk about regularization that requires illegals to exit the U.S. for a period of time (tied to ~70-80% reductions in border crossings).
Anything else? Leave them in the comments. Or post them on a site like Solutions Factory for others to rate.
|
|
In counterinsurgency, we have to nationbuild - if the electricity doesn't work, jobs and food aren't available and water isn't clean, you have a fertile ground for unrest - if life is good, you are less inclined to join the insurgency.
We will win militarily, but we could lose the insurgency if the infrastructure does not improve - quality of life to the average Iraqi is how they measure our success - not the number of AQI we kill. The metric of how long the electricity is on should be measured - it was a mistake to take it out of the things the military was reporting. |
|
|
Cell phones and the internet are battlefield communications as much as the coded messages of the Japanese and Germans were in WWII - last time I checked, there weren't any judges involved in solving Enigma or the Japanese codes. FISA is Foreign Intelligence - so a warrant should not be needed even if that operative is in the US - if you want accountability have members of the Judicial branch have some type of Audit role so that he/she can search through the surveillance to make sure they are not being abused or used for other purposes. Having Judges in the loop prior to the surveillance will gum up the works, and dots will not get connected and Americans will die as a result. |
|
For profit health care, so what. What about the right to legal representation. Should attorneys be allowed to charge 400.00 an hour. The state says I must have auto insurance. Are they going to pay for it? I by law have to carry malpractice insurance that continues to go up because attorneys show commercials on TV all day asking if you have been wronged and you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Someone that is too lazy to get up off the couch and exercise demands a new med to help them loose weight but when the med causes problems they sue me for giving it to them. Is the government going to pay for my insurance to protect me from some maggot suing me.
Redistribution of wealth is a load of poop. I worked extremely hard to get where I am at and sorry if I just don't want to share. I started out as a grunt. Fought in DS and Bosnia. Used that to finish my undergrad before going to med school. Here is a news flash, the world owes you nothing. Stop whining because someone has more than you do.
How often do you have people calling you at 3 in the morning because they have a cough and want a Rx for something but then get made if I send them a bill. Or get verbally abusive with the staff because I am running an hour late because every patient that day has had 5 BTWs (by the ways). Try dealing with the red tape of medicare or medicaid. Personally I am going to a concierge practice.
The people that have to pay for their own health care are the ones that take the best care of themselves. It's the people with "free" health care that are the most demanding and worst patients. |
|
I have always believed that those who think redistribution of wealth is the right way to deliver what is essentially a welfare state should be the very first people to line up and to donate: Give 42% of your gross paycheck to the IRS and that will include your contribution for universal health care; then, give another another 12% to the state you live in for state income tax and for property taxes, which are increasing everywhere. Then, continue to pay whatever your state's sales tax is as well.
If you make $1,000 a week ($52,000 a year), that means you will have $510 net BEFORE your Social Security deductions, the deducting of your own premium for your employer-sponsored health care and any contribution you might make to an employer-based 401K.
If I am figuring right, you might turn a $1,000 per week paycheck into about $400 net. Like it? Then go right to the head of the line and be the first of offer yourself to the feds and IRS. You can take my place in line anyway.
Briggsy, for you to label health care as a basic "amenity" in society illustrates your fairly comprehensive lack of understanding of health care delivery and delivery systems within the continental U.S., and of commercial insurance and commercial health plan organizations, as well as how they operate and are regulated. An amenity? Bus tokens are an amenity, my dear.
As someone has already pointed out, society does not make a "compact" with people. The word you are looking for is "contract," and a society does not make a contract with people either. A society IS people. Society contracts with institutions on behalf of its citizens. |
|
|
Be careful with this one. Bill and Al were successful in accomplishing a major reduction in workforce numbers. Problem was, it was at the expense of our military.....actually the only federal employees that are covered by the constitution. |
|
Hi Patrick-
Since this is the first time I’ve commented on one of your posts I just wanted to express an appreciation for the work and vision you have for the conservative movement.
I think the most serious issue besides the war on terror is legal reform. Loser’s pay would be a great achievement (however unlikely as RG suggested). But I believe what we need is radically more invasive: Lawyers are the only profession I know that perpetuate work exponentially for their profession. If there is a field in dire need of federal regularization it is the legal profession. Addressing this problem in this field is both radical and unlikely, but the benefits would trickle down into a field like healthcare reducing malpractice insurance premiums.
Funny how the legal profession can hold healthcare practitioners accountable for not being perfect, but are not held accountable for what I believe to be gross mis-conduct so many fronts.
Or maybe I’ve just watched too much Next Generation and got to wishing.
|
|
|
Hello to socialized medicine, Goodbye to research and development on new drugs. Goodbye to very talented people spending decades studying medicine and paying hundreds of thousands to get educated only to work for the government. Say hello to waiting a few months for a check-up on that lump. Say hello to flying to India for surgery. The Indy 500 would take 1200 if the government took it over. They do nothing efficiently. What I don't understand is that we have many world examples of universal healthcare, and they all stink. Why do liberals think we would do any better than those examples? Not only will socialized medicine wreck healthcare, it will wreck our economy and our freedom. I'll be da$%ed when some politician tells me I have to wait for surgery or can't get something done medically. Getting rid of the employee tax exemption and letting people shop in every state is the smartest thing to do. Make all savings tax free and push Health Savings Accounts for people. Again, people spend more time shopping around for a muffler than they do for a health check-up. |
|
"I do call it a basic amenity which is an integral part of the compact any modern society makes with its people."
Society cannot make a "compact" with itself. Society can however make a compact with government. We have one. If you want socialism, get a Constitutional Amendment.
"I disagree with him that the free market can solve the problem of no care and impossibly expensive care."
First of all, health care is expensive because the government subsidizes the industry.
Secondly, the only reasons I care whether or not someone has access to HC is because I'm subsidizing the industry, and because govt. meddling has already severely limited HC alternatives.
I'm perfectly willing to live with the notion that some people will have access to premium HC, some good HC, some not-so-good, and some not at all/reliant on charity. Fact is, prices would come down and options would greatly expand. It's a Dr Hibbert/Dr Riveria thing but with more options in-between.
I'll know when HC is truly reformed: when I hear a hospital ad that offers a free colonic for every customer (Dems would like that one), or perhaps a "buy one night, get the second night half off" sale. How about a free ride to the hospital? Or discount ambulance with a stay of a week or more?
I want to see HC providers hawking their services like furniture salesmen, and you want to coerce altruism. Your velvet-clad thumb actually hurts more the harder you push, not less. |
|
(where have you been lately?)
With you all the way: Duncan Hunter is by far the best man for the job. If only Americans cared about that and not how you look or how you tell a joke....
I wish I could figure out a way to get a groundswell going under this guy. You would think there would be one commentator on the web who would not just write him off just because they think he has no support.
All he needs is a forum and to be taken seriously by some of these "right-wing pundits." |
|
Republican voters still get to decide who their nominee will be. Money only buys elections when people act like sheep. If 80% of Republicans are indeed seeking a conservative, we can nominate one. We can nominate Duncan Hunter. The money players won't like it and are trying to convince us only Rudy, Romney, or McCain can win. Hogwash. They want an open borders candidate. Give Americans a chance to vote for a candidate who WILL secure the border and watch turnout soar. Americans want their government to fulfill it's most basic responsibility.
The primary responsibility of the U.S. government is to protect the territorial integrity and people of this country. They have completely abdicated this responsibility. Both parties have been complicit in this. We are being told it is not possible to control our borders, enforce our laws, and thereby control our destiny as a nation. Hogwash. We are being sold out by corporations intent on importing workers for jobs that can't be exported with the taxpayers paying the true costs, financial and human. If we act like sheep and don't stop the inundation across our borders, we will lose our country without a bleat.
http://www.gohunter08.com
|
|
Please show me in the Constitution where health care is a right.
I am an FP and do not support universal health care.
|
|
The only way we get to keep our representative republic is to restore respect for the law and the faith of the American people that their government is not selling them out.
If Bush had secured the border on September 12, 2001 and actually enforced employer sanctions vigorously and consistently since then, we'd be talking about a much smaller problem and many more would be willing to listen to some kind of compromise. It is the complete lack of enforcement that has doubled this problem in the last six years that exposes the deceitful attempt at forcing us into another amnesty by flooding the country with illegal aliens. The cynical way we are told we will not get border security or enforcement until we give them amnesty and a guestworker program is sickening. We won't be fooled again. We remember 1986. No amnesty/regularization/guestworker until we see ACTUAL fences and ACTUAL enforcement. By every law enforcement agency at every level.
|
|
|
Why do employers have to be the pervayor of healthcare insurance and options? Let's cut out the employers and go direct for health insurance. For example, employers do not provide car insurance. Make it illegal for any company to offer health insurance to their employees. Then let the market set the rates and coverage for individuals. |
|
Unfortunately, those of us who know that socialism is slavery are a dying breed in the United States. It's rather distressing when "allies" (Republicans) marginalize true belivers in 19th Century liberalism as nuts who are unworthy of serious consideration.
Patrick's post about Ron Paul a couple of weeks ago, and Hugh's post about Tancredo a couple days ago are great example's. Their posts were light on political analysis, very light, but they both managed to call two of the three "second tier" candidates derogetory names. Then PR and HH get called to the table in the comments, and where are PR and HH? Where are the follow-up posts that deal with question's raised by the commentor's?
Taking on a modern liberal is easy because s/he is almost always wrong. Taking on a conservative/libertarian is much tougher for the Rockefellers. Best to just call them names and move on. |
|
"...requires illegals to exit the U.S. for a period of time..."
Hoo Boy! That's a good one. Who's going to make them leave? Rudy? Mitt? John? Fred?
Build a fence? Who's going to do that, Patrick? I'm looking at your Rockefeller Republicans...
If any of these four guy's say they they'll build a fence, we'll all be witness to an even greater lie than "I did not have sexual relation's..."
A bold-faced lie.
|
|
|
Great thread. I guess the trolls are taking the day off. ; )) |
|
Private, voluntary charity is the only thing any person in need has a right to ask for. Not only is private charity the only moral way to deliver help to the needy, it is also the most practical way.
A private charity is forced to recognize the crucial fact that NOT EVERYONE "IN NEED" DESERVES TO BE HELPED. A private charity’s funds are limited to what people will donate voluntarily. Therefore, the charity must make an effort to screen the recipients of their charity to weed out those who are "in need" through their own stupidity, negligence or irrationality. People will give to a charity that helps, for instance, mothers with children whose father has unexpectedly abandoned them – but they won’t give as much to soup kitchens that feed drug addicts and alcholics. The welfare state generally makes no such distinctions.
|
|
You asked:
"Obviously you're not keen on the welfare state, but would you remove even basic safety nets? I'm thinking of benefits for the elderly, infirm, homeless, etc."
Yes, I am opposed to all aspects of the welfare state. Those in need have the right to ask for help -- but not the right to initiate the use of force to get it from the unwilling. No amount of need on the part of any one person justifies the seizure of another person’s money. The “needy” are not endowed with some special right to the funds of the “less needy”. Nothing whatsoever justifies the notion that if another man has $1 more than you do, you have a right to 10 cents of it or even a right to 1 cent of it. The only proper source of help for the needy is charity.
Did you know that when Lyndon Johnson sold the nation on the Medicare and Medicaid programs, he did not do so by arguing that the elderly and the poor did not have access to health care. He didn't make that argument because he couldn’t -- it was false -- they did have access to health care. The argument he made was that they had to depend on charity for it -- and that was deemed to be "beneath their dignity". Well, the fact is, they are still dependent on charity -- it's just charity forced at the point of a gun.
|
|
|
you stop at a border fence. The fence is nice, but not the end all. Border fence plus enhanced and fully manned ICE division, with flexible ops agents who can shift between emerging threats at the border or in ports or airports. Then we have a deal. |
|
|
End the employer tax exemption on health insurance. Tax credits are not the way to go. I know your guy Rudy says they are, but they aren't. Let companies give actual raises rather than healthcare. Let people openly rate doctors and give prices for everything medical, that way people can shop around like they do for a car repair. |
|
|
of "leadership meets solutions" .... and that category (otherwise defined by Jimmy Carter) is "ineffective leadership teamed up with ineffective solutions". |
|
but to paraphrase an old Navy saying about opinions, "solutions are like a*sholes .... everybody's got one" ... with the corollary to that being, "and so what?"
Also, let's jettison the "Movement 2.0" nomenclature .. 98% of Americans aren't tech-heads or software designers or webmasters who are going to salivate over the next version of "Movement __" , whatever it may be.
The reality is, leadership drives solutions and their implementation - not the solutions themselves. Leadership selects solutions that comport with the leader's thinking, and an effective leader convinces a majority to buy into his or her abilities and their solutions, whatever they may be, and then focuses on achieving measurable results.
What happens when leadership of varying quality meets up with solutions of varying quality?
- An effective leader teamed up with effective solutions yields effective results.
- An ineffective leader teamed up with effective solutions yields bupkus.
- An effective leader teamed up with ineffective solutions yields tremendous progress to nowhere.
We can all waste a lot of time and energy thinking up supposedly superior solutions to the world's problems. Without an effective leader "driving the train", however, it'll never leave the station.
The best way forward is if we get behind an effective leader and help him surround himself with good ideas people.
Ruffini - it seems to me that you are a fellow with a lot of ideas .. I don't know if they're good or not ... but if your ideas are any good, then you shoulda stayed with Rudy's team, because he is an effective leader who will take someone's good ideas and implement them and achieve results. Maybe Romney is the same as Rudy in that regard, but I'm less convinced by his record. But no matter what, your being a free-lance good ideas guy, un-hooked to an effective leader, is never going to get your ideas realized. |
|
Very Constructive:
You forgot the big one...
IRAN
Isolate, contain, sanction, pressure, use strategic air strikes, etc...
Enough is enough, which is exactly what the positive policy and admirable endeavor in Iraq is all about.
Syria is on the list as well.
|
|
this all needs to be framed in the context of one thing: COMPETENCE.
The next President will be the one who is able to [say they can] make government work. "Hillary, you want the government to run health care? What makes you think the government can do this well? Our fabulous track record in education? Or intelligence? How about disaster response? Before creating another federal boondoggle, let's end the government that doesn't work and build one in its place that does work."
And that may just start with not re-hiring all those jobs that will be retiring in five years.
Government is never the only solution, but the candidates that frame this as COMPETENT government being part of a lot of solutions will be able to control the agenda, and win the election. |
|
|
Patrick are you waving the white flag on the culture wars or are you saying we have no choice but to wave the white flag on culture if our tough on terror standard bearer enjoys appearing in drag? |
|
There is a huge, quasi-permanent, protected, self-serving bureaucracy that forms most of "government." A new administration comes in, spreads a thin veneer over the entrenched masses, struggles for a few years and is replaced by another new administration and its veneer. Meanwhile, status quo and inertia simply continue. Until *that* issue is addressed, most promises will remain promises no matter their merit, inefficiencies will grow, and the cost of governing will escalate.
The Dems embrace this situation; and Bush couldn't, or wouldn't, deal with it. We need a Republican president with the giant cojones and dogged determination of a Gen. Patton, backed by a strong and supportive Congress. I think (hope) Giuliani or Romney might be able to turn things around. Clinton would just become part of the problem. Vote early, vote often. |
|
Any compare/contrast between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is a smoke screen for someone, like Obama.
Consider:
The Pakistani govt does not fund anti-West propaganda. Saudi Arabia does.
Pakistan has a pro-Western leader who is actually trying to keep the lid on things. Saudi Arabia does not. Saudi Arabia is happy to export its unrest.
Saudi Arabia does not have nuclear weapons that the radicals would like to use against the US, Israel, and India. Pakistan does.
"Musharraf long ago relinquished sovereignty over the tribal areas..." Did he ever actually have control? If so, when? I don't think anyone has been able to control this area since Alexander the Great. In fact, I think he failed here.
Rolling the dice that our invasion might help Musharraf in the long run is dangerous. It has the same chance of destroying his ability to rule in Pakistan, which would be disasterous for us. Perhaps we should consider reducing the entire nation to smoking rubble. It's the only way to be sure. |
|
is that we need another "Contract with America". That may be so. I'm no Nostradaemus. However, I don't think a 22-point policy position paper is going to be the battle standard that the Republican party and the necessary moderates are likely to rally around. I doubt there is anyone who reads this board who won't find, and focus upon, at least one of your points.
Movements are based on ideals which are based on principles which are based on philosophies. Trying to promote tactics to the rank of strategy is not going to inspire the level of emotional and intellectual buy-in that is needed to produce a groundswell. We're all closet policy wonks, and there's nothing like minutiae to induce us to get out the micro-picks and start picking.
Newt seized on the idea of expressing conservative cornerstones in a language that everyone can understand and that found an emotional string to the good that exists in just about everyone. The idea was sound, perhaps brilliant, and may have begun something quite spectactular if the man himself weren't so flawed and arrogant, and if the Republicans hadn't lost faith when he fell and become born-again sinners.
We don't need a policy laundry list, Patrick. That is little better than the unguided ICBM that Markos built, though not for the same reasons. Enumerating specific policies is an invitation to endless (and fruitless) debate. What we need is a leader with the brains, the vision, the clarity and the integrity to articulate a future that people will want to buy into because it makes them feel like they are becoming a part of something bigger and greater and purer and more noble than themselves. That kind of thing has to come out of left field from a relative unknown who hasn't been compromised by compromise. |
|
Government continues to grow and the last vestiges of freedom and capitalims are being wiped out as the country is transformed into a completely socialistic welfare state. Republicans have failed to halt or even to slow this trend, despite their constant promises to do so.
The cause of the failure is simple: Republicans concede all the leftist premises behind this trend.
You cannot stop this runaway government until you challenge the fundamental premise of the welfare state. That premise is the notion that the needs of one man entitle him to have the government seize the funds of those who are "less needy" and use them for the benefit of the "more needy". Nothing on earth justifies that system. It robs from those who have earned and gives to those who have not earned. It is a system that punishes the virtues of rationality, productiveness, ingenuity, creativity and energetic hard work and rewards the vices of irrationality, sloth, stupidity, foolishness and laziness -- and as such, it is a thoroughly immoral and unjust system.
Until we get Republicans who can grasp that principle and have the courage to embrace it, we will continue our descent into the tyranny of the needy and the destruction of the men of ability that keep the whole system working. |
|
And how about education and social reform?
echo? |
|
|
Increase the enrollment in all medical colleges and nursing schools. Increase by several percentage points per year. If schools will not increase, then withhold tax monies. Competition will help to bring down the cost of medical treatment. |
|
|
Is this really a John McCain idea? I've been thinking about this for a few years and I haven't heard anything from anyone, but maybe I just missed it. If it is McCain's idea...it's about time he had a good one. I love the idea of bolstering our alliances with fellow democratic countries while at the same time laying the framework for the UN's demise. Start with the true allies (that means Russia is out of the loop with their fantasyland "democracy"). Use free trade between member states to encourage membership; draw up definitions of "terrorism" and "genocide"; and while we want as many nations to join as possible don't make the same mistake we made with the UN which is let everyone and their brother participate. You have to meet certain requirements or benchmarks before you are even considered and you bet we will have a final say before any nation is admitted and if Russia applies...can you say "VETO". |
|
|
Good point, bjk. But that still puts the list ahead of the Dems' offerings. Thy seem to be a bit shy about ideas and policies. No wonder they focus on tactics. |
|
|
These aren't ideas, they're policies. "Refundable tax credits" is not an idea. The very concept of a "tax credit" is an oxyoron. |
|
"Build the border fence — then let’s talk about regularization that requires illegals to exit the U.S. for a period of time (tied to ~70-80% reductions in border crossings)."
Just another amnesty scheme, something Americans do not want. Then you'll have years more of illegal immigration and umpteen million more illegals here, just waiting for the next amnesty.
Build the border fence and improve system to keep tract of visa holders and all non-citizens, strict and punitive (to employers) internal enforcement of immigration and employment laws. Do nothing about the 12 - 20 million illegals now here, but enforce employment law and deport those encountered in normal course of ICE business. Many will self-deport.
Rather than more H-1B work visas, or legal immigration of any sort, we need to review our real unemployment (not just those looking for jobs), and review the H-1B and other work visa programs for fraud:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/16421&docid=9228
Maybe the real question is, how big a scam and fraud is the H-1B program. This program deserves no increases until thoroughly investigated for fraud. Time to stop taking employers word. Don't trust, but verify.
Everything about our immigration system needs to be reviewed and reformed, reformed to enforce the law and protect the interests of all US CITIZENS, not just Democrats wanting votes and Republicans wanting cheap workers. End the anchor baby nonsense or we'll never be able to control who comes here.
|
|
I'm afraid we've gone so far down the wrong road, GOP and Dems alike, that turning back will take a radical change and perhaps tax revolt.
The tax code is ridiculous. 17,000 pages of butt wiping material.
Illegal immigration is out of control. 40 years of immigration lawlessess and willfull non enforcement.
300,000 anchor babies per year are illegally given citizenship based on a gross misinterpretation of the 14th Amendement. Birthright citizeship must end. In fact it should end retroactive to the 1986 amnesty. Imagine trying to revoke citizenship for all anchor babies born after 1986? There would be riots in the streets of Los Angeles, but I think it should be done.
49,000 illegal immigrants with fraudulant Social Security cards were found to be working for the federal government between 2001 and 2003, based on a 2006 audit.
40 years of immigration lawlessness is enough. It's time to rise up and demand and end to the madness of illegal immigration, as well as the absurd and punitive tax code.
I'm for throwning all the earmark loving bums out of both houses of Congress and nixing the frontrunners in the next Presidential election for someone with a radical vision for cutting the size of the government in a big way, throwing the tax code in the toilet where it belongs, ending birthright citizenship immediately, securing both borders with a triple fence, and deporting all criminal aliens and gang members on day one in office.
I'm afraid it's time for radical change and Patrick's list is status quo soft.
|
|
|
Another list avioding the social issues. If we are to be reduced to a pornography saturated, child killing, boy scout sodomizing, projectile vomiting, head spinning, foul mouthed hell spawn, who care about tax rates? |
|
|
Another list avioding the social issues. If we are to be reduced to a pornography saturated, child killing, boy scout sodomizing, projectile vomiting, head spinning, foul mouthed hell spawn, who care about tax rates? |
|
Your comments about dealing with China parallel closely with Duncan Hunter. To wish more people would listen to him, and you, on this issue.
drgary |
|
"We would not endorse protectionism, but making America more competitive. Part of this will require increased legal immigration, particularly the high-skilled kind (H1-B, etc.) to be able to confront an economic engine of 1.2 billion people."
We cannot continue legal immigration at its current level, unless you plan on increasing everyone's taxes to pay for additional infrastructure, healthcare, etc.. It is already bankrupting us.
Also, if the MNC's get their way of unlimited H-1B's , even our consulting work will go the way of all the other high-tech work... to foreign nationals... so the MNC's can increase their margins and put U.S. citizens out of work. Somehow, you have this backwards... we need to be training and employing our own people. Our national economy and jobs for U.S. citizens are vital parts of our national security.
Somehow, the RNC has forgotten this in the rush to keep the MNC's happy. |
|
|
Do away with the INCOME TAX and replace it with a consumption tax. Let those who have lots of money and want to spend it pay more tax. Let the frugal people keep more of their money as a reward for NOT being conspicuous consumers. This will free up a lot of time and energy that can then be used to create new ideas and new enterprises. |
|
|
I think you raise some legitmate points. I do think more attention on Pakistan is necessary, although it is a very risky proposition to destablize Mushartaf. We should be pressuring the Saudis to curb its exportation of fundamentalism far far more. |
|
|
|