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This is how America should be governed, from a policy perspective:
Taxes - Eliminate the income tax, eliminate the corporate tax, eliminate the capital gains tax. Implement a 20% flat national sales tax on all purchases above $50.
Entitlements - Raise the social security retirement age & reduce benefits for those earning above $150,000 per year. Block-grant medicaid to the states. Increase medicare premiums on those earning more than $150,000 per year, turn the program into a voucher program, and import inexpensive prescription drugs to reduce medicare Part D expenses.
Fiscal Policy: Use savings associated with entitlement reform & shrinking government to balance the budget.
Monetary Policy: Abolish the Federal Reserve & return to a gold standard
Federal Bureaucracy: Eliminate the EPA, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, HUD, and the Department of Agriculture
Military & Defense Spending: Freeze defense spending at FY2016 levels through FY2021, reduce the number of overseas military bases, continue to keep military bases open on our soil
Foreign Policy: Ensure the United States is safe, but refrain from nation-building & policing the world. Stay out of the civil wars of other lands.
Immigration: Increase the number of border-patrol agents, defund Sanctuary Cities, promote the federal employment-verification program, establish a pathway to legalized status, establish a temporary worker program
Veterans Affairs: Allow veterans to seek help at their local hospital free-of-charge
Health Care: Repeal Obamacare, allow people to buy insurance across state lines, and return money to states for the purpose of helping those with pre-existing conditions pool together to buy insurance
Free Trade: Eliminate barriers to trade, support open markets, allow companies to make more decisions over trade as opposed to the federal government
Regulations: Reverse every single Obama-era regulation (Ex. Dodd-Frank, Clean Power Rule etc.)
Subsidies: Eliminate all forms of corporate welfare, no more subsidies for farms or large corporations
War on Drugs: Legalize weed but continue to crack down on the trafficking of hard drugs
Same-Sex Marriage: Get the government out of the bedroom, the government shouldn't be involved
Abortion: Over-turn Roe V. Wade and let states decide abortion; continue to ban taxpayer-funding for abortion
Gun Control: Support background checks and crack down on gun trafficking, but support the right to keep and bear arms for law-abiding Americans
Religious Liberty: Oppose discrimination, but support religious conscious
Affirmative Action: Abolish it
Welfare: Mandatory drug-testing for all welfare recipients, reduce benefits after 4 months, reduce the amount of time people are allowed to receive benefits from 24 months to 18 months
Minimum Wage: Abolish the federal minimum wage, let states decide
Energy/Environment: De-regulate the energy sector; only enforce the Clean Air & Water Act, nothing else
This is how America should be governed, from a policy perspective:
Taxes - Eliminate the income tax, eliminate the corporate tax, eliminate the capital gains tax. Implement a 20% flat national sales tax on all purchases above $50.
Entitlements - Raise the social security retirement age & reduce benefits for those earning above $150,000 per year. Block-grant medicaid to the states. Increase medicare premiums on those earning more than $150,000 per year, turn the program into a voucher program, and import inexpensive prescription drugs to reduce medicare Part D expenses.
Fiscal Policy: Use savings associated with entitlement reform & shrinking government to balance the budget.
Monetary Policy: Abolish the Federal Reserve & return to a gold standard
Federal Bureaucracy: Eliminate the EPA, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, HUD, and the Department of Agriculture
Military & Defense Spending: Freeze defense spending at FY2016 levels through FY2021, reduce the number of overseas military bases, continue to keep military bases open on our soil
Foreign Policy: Ensure the United States is safe, but refrain from nation-building & policing the world. Stay out of the civil wars of other lands.
Immigration: Increase the number of border-patrol agents, defund Sanctuary Cities, promote the federal employment-verification program, establish a pathway to legalized status, establish a temporary worker program
Veterans Affairs: Allow veterans to seek help at their local hospital free-of-charge
Health Care: Repeal Obamacare, allow people to buy insurance across state lines, and return money to states for the purpose of helping those with pre-existing conditions pool together to buy insurance
Free Trade: Eliminate barriers to trade, support open markets, allow companies to make more decisions over trade as opposed to the federal government
Regulations: Reverse every single Obama-era regulation (Ex. Dodd-Frank, Clean Power Rule etc.)
Subsidies: Eliminate all forms of corporate welfare, no more subsidies for farms or large corporations
War on Drugs: Legalize weed but continue to crack down on the trafficking of hard drugs
Same-Sex Marriage: Get the government out of the bedroom, the government shouldn't be involved
Abortion: Over-turn Roe V. Wade and let states decide abortion; continue to ban taxpayer-funding for abortion
Gun Control: Support background checks and crack down on gun trafficking, but support the right to keep and bear arms for law-abiding Americans
Religious Liberty: Oppose discrimination, but support religious conscious
Affirmative Action: Abolish it
Welfare: Mandatory drug-testing for all welfare recipients, reduce benefits after 4 months, reduce the amount of time people are allowed to receive benefits from 24 months to 18 months
Minimum Wage: Abolish the federal minimum wage, let states decide
Energy/Environment: De-regulate the energy sector; only enforce the Clean Air & Water Act, nothing else
Selling insurance accross state lines will have a negligible effect on the price of insurance, let alone healthcare. Even though, in that scenario, insurance companies are "competing" against each other they still have to pay the same amounts for claims as the other guy because the price of healthcare won't change. It will still be astronomically high.
Competition does not work in healthcare. Selling accross state lines is just a bone conservatives throw out to their constituents to make them think they have a solution. At best it's nothing short of a cop out, something said to avoid the subject altogether.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ahzzie
Selling insurance accross state lines will have a negligible effect on the price of insurance, let alone healthcare. Even though, in that scenario, insurance companies are "competing" against each other they still have to pay the same amounts for claims as the other guy because the price of healthcare won't change. It will still be astronomically high.
Competition does not work in healthcare. Selling accross state lines is just a bone conservatives throw out to their constituents to make them think they have a solution. At best it's nothing short of a cop out, something said to avoid the subject altogether.
Exactly, unless doctors and nurses take like an 80% cut in pay, which won't happen, healthcare will remain expensive
I don't know that there is enough gold in the world to back all the dollars printed by the US.
Defense spending should be cut by 25%. Close all military bases abroad & bring our military home. Stop imposing our will (nation building and otherwise interfering in other nations).
Immigration: ELIMINATE ALL government entitlement programs for everyone including free lunch, free schooling, etc. Then let in anyone who wants to come in for equal opportunity. They (immigrants and citizens) just can't get ANY government assistance at taxpayer expense.
Include the FDA, Homeland Security, HHS, Medicare & Medicaid and many other departments and agencies for complete elimination.
Decriminalize rather than legalize ALL drugs. Legalizing it gives the government the opportunity to steal via taxes. No one should be able to say what another can ingest, smoke or otherwise take, up to and including assisted suicide meds.
Get the government at all levels out of abortion. By what right does one look at another and demand to impose their morality?
Gun control, get the government out of it period. Even felons who have completed their sentence and court ordered restitution, thereby repaying their debt to society, have a natural right to self defense and a right to defend themselves from a tyrannical government.
Religious Liberty: ALL religious beliefs should be for the individual and NO ONE should have a say via government, one way or another if what the individual chooses does not encroach upon the rights or property of another.
Welfare: ELIMINATE it. Let charities, corporations and individuals get back into the business of helping those who need help.
Energy/Environment: I agree with one exception. Carbon Dioxide should be ELIMINATED as a harmful gas. It is plant food.
Otherwise I agree with most of this list, and maybe believe there should be additions. I believe the ONLY purpose of government, at any and ALL levels is to protect the natural rights and property of the individual.
Selling insurance accross state lines will have a negligible effect on the price of insurance, let alone healthcare. Even though, in that scenario, insurance companies are "competing" against each other they still have to pay the same amounts for claims as the other guy because the price of healthcare won't change. It will still be astronomically high.
Competition does not work in healthcare. Selling accross state lines is just a bone conservatives throw out to their constituents to make them think they have a solution. At best it's nothing short of a cop out, something said to avoid the subject altogether.
The elimination of Medicare and Medicaid, along with allowing insurance sales across State lines AND deregulating the medical field WOULD cause prices to drop and competition to work.
Again, that's just MY opinion, fwiw.
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