printAs has been said over these pixelated pages, “government commissions are where accountability goes to die.” You get my meaning. For example: Some major cost-cutting measures suggested by Obama’s deficit commission’s preliminary report only kick-in in 2050 and 2075.
Like his father, Rand Paul promises to be a beacon for liberty. Intuitively, Rand cleaves to free-market principles. Here are some salient points Rand has made in response to some silly questions, concerning the deficit commission’s preliminary report, fielded from Face The Nation moderator Bob Schieffer:
“… if you’re serious about the budget, you have to look at the entire budget–military and domestic, if you want to make a dent in the debt.
“…I don’t think I want to raise taxes right now. I think government
is too big and so I think we need to cut spending. The way I see it is, is that you want the private sector to have more money. I want to expand the private sector because we have a– a serious recession so I want to leave more money in the private sector. I want to shrink the ineffective sector of the economy which is the government.”
“… I want to be on the side of reducing spending. So I think really the compromise is where you find the reductions in spending. But I don’t think the compromise is in raising taxes. I mean here, you have to put things in perspective. We now consume at the federal level twenty-five percent of the Gross Domestic Product. [Actually, it is more like 40%, as a lot of spending is off budget] Historically, we were at twenty percent. So we’ve taken five percent away from the private sector. And the private sector is the engine that creates all these jobs. I want to send that five percent back to the private sector.”
“…you should shrink the federal work force and you should make their pay more comparable. Right now the total compensation for government workers versus private workers is almost two to one.”
“…make the tax cuts permanent.”
MORE…
We’ve got more than enough taxes. We need to cut spending. Treat defense spending with caution. Trim waste, of course, but don’t leave us with dangerous gaps like we have now. Trim back the bloated civil service. Start trimming back entitlements. Repeal Obamacare right off the bat. Get serious about tort reform and universal availability of health insurance. Cut taxes and excess regulations so businesses can breathe and start hiring people. Start weeding out the “inside the beltway” elites, of both parties. All that just to start. Now, all of you are yawning and saying so what. When is Huggins going to come up with something new and brilliant? That’s the point. We don’t need to do anything complicated. These same old remedies will go along way toward getting this country back on a paying basis. Some simple solutions from a simple mind.
I recently read about a scientific study that said being cynical can take years off your life. At age 61 I don’t want too many years taken off my life.
So I resolved to decrease my cynicism but when it comes to congress reducing cutting ANYTHING AT ALL I must confess that I really don’t think I will be successful.
Sorry, James. If we follow your path and proceed with caution, we’ll simply go bankrupt at a slower rate. Here’s a simple plan that will never get adopted due to lack of political will:
1. Default on the debt. Not through inflation, which will only wipe out the poor and middle class. I’m talking about an honest default. Don’t pay. Bondholders get stuck, but they shouldn’t have lent in the first place. No one will want to lend to us again, and that’s a good thing. It’ll force Congress to make choices they so far refuse to make.
2. Take a meat cleaver to the Pentagon budget. End the empire. Bring the troops home. Demobilize. No wars, coups, torture, occupations, or drone strikes, which means less blowback. We might even get onto an airplane without being fondled by strangers!
3. Repeal all legal tender laws. When people can use whatever they want as money, FRNs will become a distant memory.
4. Abolish all cabinet departments other than War (not defense), Treasury, Justice, and State…and if people get a taste of freedom, maybe they’ll want to get rid of these as well.
Sunday’s Face the Nation with Rand Paul…via the CBS News YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&gl=CA&client=mv-google&hl=en&v=oDBcMqASja0&fulldescription=1&nomobile=1
Steve, numbers 1 and 4 sound interesting. 2 and 3, I’m not so sure.
As the Sundance Kid said to Butch Cassiday in the movie: “Just keep on thinking Butch. That’s what you do best”.
Schumer is completely unapologetic on his massive spending – and the deficit problem can be solved by merely taxing N Warren Buffets as N goes to infinity. All that is fine except that when the marginal tax rates go way up, N goes down! We quickly run out of Buffets to gouge.
Rand Paul is better but disappointing with his hemming and hawing. Don’t touch Veterans Benefits – well what about future Veterans Benefits? Why should the Federal Government be running a network of VA Hospitals? Why should Veterans get “retirement pensions” in their 40’s which they collect for the next 50 years? And how do you treat them in the VA Hospital if you arbitrarily cut the federal staff by 10% – does this reduce the number of heart attacks by 10%? Do you replace the 10% with Blackwater Nurses instead?
Do you send men back to the moon with 10% less federal workers or do you just say that sending men back to the moon is unnecessary and should be CUT???
America needs LESS GOVERNMENT – not accounting gimmicks!
Schumer proposes more statism while Paul relies on gimmickry to balance the budget – all [POLITICALLY and FINANCIALLY] painless, of course!