Quote:
Originally Posted by Skeptical
Not trying to start a flame war, just looking for some honest, thoughtful input.
Diatribes and talking points don't cut it. My question for the staunch conservatives is this. What do you think the government needs to do, from a conservative point of view, that has not been done before and failed?
Skeptical
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1. Congress should cut about one third of the federal government. It can be done by eliminating agencies/departments or it can be done across the board (reduce the size of each agency by x%). Ask GAO to help determine where the fat is in each agency but my guess it is in Washington headquarters for government agencies where, for example, Grade 15s are first line managers for a handful of Grade 14s compared to field offices where a Grade 10/11 manager might supervise 20 Grade 7/9s. Why is the span of control so small for high graded employees compared to the span of control in field offices with lower graded employees? The reason the fat exists with high graded employees in DC is to support/prop up unnecessary executive positions. The Democrats won't do it because the government workforce is reliably Democrat since Democrats give them the biggest annual pay increases. I don't know what the heck is wrong with the Republicans.
2. Why do we need so many intelligence gathering agencies? The reason it's a clusterbleep is because there are too many of them. Get rid of one or more of them.
3. Reassess government contracts. Why is it that government workers contract out things they should be doing themselves? What are we paying them for? You either need one or the other. You don't need both. Another thing GAO should look into.
4. Repeal Obamacare. Keep portability.
5. In the bills, insert the name of the Congressman that stuck in the earmarks. I want to know who the hypocrites are without railing against the entire House/Senate for things like turtle tunnels and tattoo removal for prisoners. If they know they will be exposed for foo-foo items maybe we'll have less of them.
6. No more unfunded mandates to the states.
7. End social security for people under a set age (to be determined) and force them into private retirement savings accounts. Over the set age will continue to collect social security until they die. Figure out a way to compensate those who will not be eligible to collect social security for the amount they have paid into the system to-date.
8. Put term limits, for the House and Senate, on the 2012 ballot. Certainly, the House and Senate won't initiate it so the public should force them.
9. Require bills, that come up for a vote in the House and Senate, have a signed standardized statement by each member "I have read (insert bill number here)" attesting to the fact that they read the bill before they voted on it...which means they have to read them before they vote and can't play dumb down the road. Establish a timeframe for doing it.
10. No national healthcare database and no government jobs to prop it up. Make Medicaid work for the poor uninsured American citizens.
11. No SmartGrid. No cap and trade. No carbon offsets. We have resources. Find them and use them. Keep developing new ones but nothing old is killed off or penalized until there is something available to replace it in the amount needed. Green stuff should supplement not replace. If it becomes popular enough, it will dominate the market on its own.
12. Arrest the mayors of sanctuary cities for violating federal law and cut off their government funding.
13. Shut down Directo a Mexico. The federal government shouldn't be in cahoots with financial institutions to make it easier for illegal aliens to send money out of the country. Mexico wouldn't be so eager to export their poor if the money wasn't coming back into their economy.
14. Establish minimum job experience criteria for Presidential candidates that demonstrates they have run something, implemented ideas, had to react to large scale problems and have experience balancing a budget. (governor, mayor, business owner/CEO)
15. Make English the official language of the US. No government tax dollars should be spent for forms/letters/signs/etc. in any other language.
16. Re-evaluate all current government regulations and get rid of some of them. If the governors want to stifle the economy in their state, with ridiculous regulations, let them. Just don't come whining to the rest of us.
17. No bailouts for anybody. This way, how much some CEO makes will not be an issue. If shareholders want to pay some jerk to run a business into the ground, let it fail on its own. By the same token, if union bennies are killing a state, tough tooties. National taxpayers should not bail out poor state management in another part of the country. The taxpayers in those states should revolt or leave the state.
18. If the individual income tax is kept, eliminate all deductions, credits and exemptions. The income tax should be the same percentage applied to income for everyone and be about a 5 line tax return.
19. Stiff sentences for drug users. Have a drug user prison. They are a bigger menace to law abiding citizens than drug dealers.
I'm getting tired but I could think of more.
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