4 CURES

doityourself · Aug 10, 2008

I have 4 ideas on to share with yall.

Immigration, you can't stop it, building a wall won't, in fact I don't believe immigration is the problem, the problem is the system is pandering to these people. No more food stamps, no free health care, better learn english, we treat them the same as everyone else, they get taxed and earn the same priviledges as the rest of us. If and when they commit crime though they are punished and deported depending on the crime. Instead of spending billions trying to keep 'em out use that money to pay off the national debt, health care, etc.....

Taxes. I'm not a tax professional, but here's my idea. Elimintate income tax, increase sales tax. That way everyone is paying the same, no way to "cheat" the system, everyone pays, rich, poor, everybody. Also with no income tax we would have no need for the IRS thus saving more money.

Social Security. If you really want the government to clothe and feed you when you retire, that is your choice. Just don't complain that your retired life isn't that great. Who sold us on the idea that the government is obligated to financially take care of us???? Roosevelt? We live in a country with unlimited opportunities around us and we don't take advantage of them. Whatever happened to being self-reliant? Taking care of your own future? Providing for your own life the way you want to live it? Our country can only be as strong as the individuals and families that live here. If we are all depending on the government we are doomed for failure. I feel that anyone with the opinion that the government is to take care of them financially is the problem.

What if our elected officials were paid on a performance based salary? They get paid the same as their approval rating?

It's time to stop complaining that the government isn't doing enough to fix our problems. Fix 'em yourself. There is no shortage of money in the world, find a way to make more. Tired of not having the kind of life you want to have? It's not the government's fault. You want your life to be better? You need to be better. If we want our country to be better, we need to look in the mirror and do something ourselves.

RELH · Aug 10, 2008

Boy! the socialist libs on this forum are going to give you a bad time for being so tight fisted with your hard earned dollars.

RELH

piper · Aug 11, 2008

1 more cure, lower pay and no more guaranteed retirement for government employees, state or federal and results based pay for all government programs

Adventurewriter · Aug 11, 2008

Good Lord Lil Piper you never cease to amaze me. Results based pay for Govt programs.....you better edit that quick there gonna throw you out of the wacko liberal club...

Bugler · Aug 11, 2008

I'll tell you what Piper, you dork. I have worked 17 years for the State Govt, 13 for the Army. Now I agree with congress people not having such a great retirement after such a short time in office, but don't lump all Govt employees into the same group. What I pay into isnt any different than anyone else paying into a 401 k or other retirement. I get paid to deal with bonehead,crying, whining people all the time I aint griping cuz it's my job and I love to do it, but when I hear someone make a comment like that I hope they can either justify their remarks or pinpoint just which group of Govt Employees they speak of. The retire military personnel, the firefighter who works for the city or forest service, the police officer etc. Just which group are you speaking of here sweetheart.

overton · Aug 11, 2008

Bugler

Just when piper crossed ideological lines you scared him back.

Ransom

piper · Aug 11, 2008

All government jobs and programs should be looked at, Military included, read Gen Eisenhowers farewell speech, the whole country needs to read it, one example, the cost for the forest service to fight fires in one year has never even come close to what we spend in one week in Iraq, unbelievable, wastefull, Most gov. workers that I know are lacking in motivation and they are sucking this country to death, many just want to retire, counting the days, in this state because of massive health care inflation the gov health care fund was running out of money, but the taxpayers made up the multimillion dollar shortfall, of course,the typical response, The economy in America is spiraling down and this is just the start, people that look at whats happening long term say it looks grim, boomers retiring, health care mess, a 200 billion dollar a year war on drugs that hasn't worked at all, more drugs than ever, the private sector middle class workers losing to inflation, but the gov. workers still want their cost of living increases, if the stock market goes down taxpayers will still pay for all the gov. retirees, just watch, small town firefighters, what a joke that job is, prisons full of pot smokers, what a joke, I need to be saved from life so lets create some more gov. jobs, lets just suck the taxpayers dry and then borrow trillions from the Chinese, its like one bumper sticker says, if your not pissed your not paying attention

NMPaul · Aug 11, 2008

Good post Piper. Your sounding like a Libertarian.

Roy · Aug 12, 2008

LAST EDITED ON Aug-12-08 AT 07:55AM (MST)[p]Piper I see that bumper sticker everyday right next to all the ones that say January 20th, 2009 - Bush's Last Day in Office! and Cindy Sheehan ROCKS! Sorry but it isn't even a good bumper sticker slogan. If you really read what Moveon.org and its supporters who sell this idiotic rhetoric say then you will realize that their main agenda is to get Bush out of office and to slander him, not necesarily make the country better or a better place to live. They are still sore about the 2000 election and have not been able to MOVE ON from their great day of defeat. So the rhetoric in comment confuses me a little - are you against the war in Iraq or just spending money on it? Are you against the war in Iraq just because Bush initiated it or because it has rid the world of some of its most cruel terrorists and is buliding a foundation to stabilize the middle east? I guess if we can save some money it is OK to let the Saddam Husseins and Abu Musab al-Zarqawis of this world roam free. Yeah - great thinking goes in to those bumper stickers!

I see major problems with these 4 cures too.

First, contrary to popular belief illegal immigration is not primarily due all the "benefits" illegal aliens recieve in this country though I am sure they are an incentive to some. However the vast majority of people from other countries who illegally immigrate to the US do so to find work. Here they can get paid 5 to 10 times more per day than they can in their home country. Even if they are working in the most menial jobs they are still working (whereas in their home country they may not be) making tons more here than they would be there. Taking away these programs would definitely save the tax payers of the US a great burden but would not stop the tide of illegal immigration. Oh- and mandating that they speak English won't work either. The communities that speak Spanish are too big and they can function totally and completely in society without ever having to learn English. Even if you took away the "press one for English" options and translated government documents it still wouldn't even make a dent. Most illegal immigrants WANT to learn English and is one of their goals upon coming here. It is just a very difficult thing to do, for any one! I have been learning English for 36 years and I still haven't perfected it! Language learning is a long and arduous process that doesn't come as easily to some as it does to others. I teach Spanish and there are some students that learn it quickly and others that no matter how hard they work and how much they study they still struggle and have great difficulties. Yes, they can function in the language as can a great number of illegal immigrants who have been here for a while, but it doesn't happen over night. The fact is, we live in the 5th largest Spanish speaking country in the world and we are not going to change that. Just going by the sheer numbers alone it is impossible. It would be almost the same as trying to get Venezuela to switch to English. Sorry - just not gonna happen! English is our official language and everyone should learn it, but we are WAY past the point of actually seeing it happen. The numbers are just too great. 42.7 million in 2005, add nearly 5 million more to that since then, and any efforts taken to try and force them all to learn English would create a bigger bureaucracy than we are prepared to deal with. It is like the little dutch boy holding his finger in the dike. Seriously, it is a lot more cost effective to pay me $75 dollars to translate a two page document into Spanish than it is to pay me $12 - $20/hr to teach a class of 25-30 students how to read that document over a period of 6 months.

No income tax but more sales tax. Not too bad of an idea actually, it is just the implementation that has its problems. I live in Texas and here we pay no State income tax. It is pretty nice, but the State does find other ways to make up for that and our sales tax is 8.25% on everything but food (which is not taxed). Mainly this comes in the way of property and business taxes which ultimately means that we pay more for our goods and services as they tax is hidden in there. However I think overall the state has found a way to balance things out and it works pretty well. However, we have a pretty big state government and a lot of state employees (to whom you also propose to not pay retiremente benefits - see how many you can get to stay in THAT job for more than 6 months). Yes, it may eliminate the IRS but it could create another equal or greater bureaucracy to make up for it.

Social security - here I agree with you. Let me take that money I pay and invest it myself! However, right now, I could use it just to pay the monthly finances and none of it would end up going towards the future. This is exactly why SS was initiated in the first place,m to allow the people to provide for their future by paying from their own wages throughout their lifetime. The problem is that it isn't working anymore either and something definitely has to be done, but I don't think it is plausible nor practical to get rid of it altogether.

Performance based salary for elected officials- sounds good! But who is going to judge them on their performance and how is it really going to be any different than it is now when it is all said and done? I work in a profession in which advancement is based on performance and to tell you the truth - it is just as much a political process as it is a merit based one.I just don't see it changing things as much as you think it will.

UTROY
Proverbs 21:19 (why I hunt!)

overton · Aug 12, 2008

Roy

Nice post. We need level headed thinkers like you in government but then again we wouldn't want to send you to that den of dumbness.
I think we have the answers it's just the fix will not come easily. Way way too many special interests to solve our problems. We can count on more problems than fixes.

Ransom