After November, Then What?
Happy Labor Day. For most of our neighbors, election season really begins tomorrow. Republicans, led by conservatives, are poised to do extremely well in November. But what then? The statist project has burrowed into our constitutional republic over a span of 80 years. How do we stage a concerted, long-term effort to reverse the trend, first by reigniting economic growth to ward off immediate calamity, then by slowly and methodically restoring our country?
I offer here my own omnibus American Liberty and Recovery Act of 2011, fully realizing that it is too ambitious in scope -- one of many reasons why I'm not a politician.
Liberty
- Repeal Obamacare. If repeal is vetoed refuse to fund implementation of the bill.
- Reform health care (for real this time) by permitting consumers to purchase health insurance across state lines. Also, equalize the tax treatment of employer-provided and individually-purchased health insurance.
- Deny EPA funding to regulate carbon dioxide, eliminating this backdoor effort at centralized industrial policy via administratively enacted cap and trade.
- Direct Treasury to unwind and privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
- Direct Treasury to sell its stakes in US banks and automakers.
- Reverse the Gulf of Mexico oil-drilling ban.
- Repeal Obama’s new CAFÉ standards – automaker stimulus we can believe in.
- Repeal Dodd-Frank financial regulation – avoid the coming nightmare.
- Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley financial regulation – end the nightmare we already know by bringing back small company IPOs.
- Repeal the ethanol mandate for automobile fuel. Direct EPA to preempt state-by-state custom fuel blends, creating a truly national market.
Recovery
- Extend the Bush tax cuts – all of them.
- Reduce the US corporate income tax rate, at 35 percent the second highest on earth, to 15 percent. Get out of the way as corporate dollars and jobs flood back into America.
- Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax. One tax system at a time is enough.
- Implement an Accelerated Cost Recovery System modeled on the Reagan-era depreciation schedule to spur investment in plant and equipment. Watch American small businesses start growing again.
- Enact the Ryan plan to place entitlement spending on a more sustainable trajectory
- Weed TARP and stimulus dollars out of the federal budget baseline. Return overall federal spending to pre-financial crisis levels.
So, fellow Ricochetans, if you were the incoming Speaker in the 112th Congress, what would you do in the first 100 days to save our country from the current crisis and set the stage for 2012 and beyond?
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: After November, Then What?
To open jobs for younger people, lower Social Security retirement age to 60-ish. Fund by extending payroll tax to all salary income.
This is stupid on stilts. Privatize social security and let people retire when they want to.
Jul '10
Re: After November, Then What?
Kenneth
You should read John Batchelor's article on Boehner over at The Daily Beast.
Brutal. Brutal.
Byron York was chatting with Laura Ingraham the other day about why the GOP "leadership" is backing away from Obamacare repeal. He has been talking to them personally.
And they say they're terrified to mention it because people might react badly to "losing" their new "benefits".
I was so angry I did what I always do when I'm agitated. Started cleaning and oiling my AR-15.
So soothing. · Sep 6 at 11:05am
Same here, except mine is plural....-15's :)
Jul '10
Re: After November, Then What?
Michael Tee: To open jobs for younger people, lower Social Security retirement age to 60-ish. Fund by extending payroll tax to all salary income.
This is stupid on stilts. Privatize social security and let people retire when they want to. · Sep 6 at 2:18pm
Does he realize he is talking about levying the biggest tax increase in history? That's a total of 12.4 percent of additional tax on all income over $106,800. "High income" earners would be forking over 53.5% of every penny they make to Washington- and that's before the raft of excise taxes included in Obamacare.
Boy, the line to turn in your citizenship in the Christchurch American embassy would extend all the way to Tasmania.
Edited on Sep 6, 2010 at 3:03pmRe: After November, Then What?
Patrick, I'm with Michael Tee and Kenneth on this one. We need to reduce taxes on marginal employment and investment, not raise them as you propose. We also need to cut spending. Otherwise, aren't we doubling down on the same sort of policies that are failing today?
Re: After November, Then What?
I don't know if this would be considered cosmetic, or perhaps it has already been proposed, but wouldn't it be novel if every bit of legislation had to list the specific Constitutional enumerated power that authorized it? Yes, they are already changing the Constitution into silly putty,...but wouldn't it be interesting to require them to spell out their mental gymnastics in the actual legislation? Otherwise, George, great list.
Jul '10
Re: After November, Then What?
As Nancy Pelosi says," The Constitution? You're joking, right? You must be joking."
Feb '10
Re: After November, Then What?
Good luck with all that. As Kenneth pointed out, the Constitution is long gone. Watching Yoo and Epstein argue through some case law makes it clear that enough precedent has been set (and precedent apparently trumps a common-sense reading of the Constitution) that "serious" discussions on Constitutional law don't actually take the Constitution seriously.
Plus, unwinding all of the welfare state will have enough people up in arms that it would be the death of the revolution come the next election. That's the way government dependency works, folks.
Sorry to be such a pessimist, but I don't see any feasible way back to true Constitutional rule. As for the government systems we have in place today, such as Social (In)Security, they will unwind, but not in an orderly fashion. It's going to take a great crisis or two, which have already been set into motion, because government programs like this inevitably end in ruin. Something new will arise from the ashes, but it's not likely to be anything like a restoration of true Constitutional rule.
Jul '10
Re: After November, Then What?
Busy System Admin: Good luck with all that. As Kenneth pointed out, the Constitution is long gone. Watching Yoo and Epstein argue through some case law makes it clear that enough precedent has been set (and precedent apparently trumps a common-sense reading of the Constitution) that "serious" discussions on Constitutional law don't actually take the Constitution seriously.
Plus, unwinding all of the welfare state will have enough people up in arms that it would be the death of the revolution come the next election. That's the way government dependency works, folks.
Sorry to be such a pessimist, but I don't see any feasible way back to true Constitutional rule. As for the government systems we have in place today, such as Social (In)Security, they will unwind, but not in an orderly fashion. It's going to take a great crisis or two, which have already been set into motion, because government programs like this inevitably end in ruin. Something new will arise from the ashes, but it's not likely to be anything like a restoration of true Constitutional rule. · Sep 6 at 8:49pm
That's where well-oiled AR-15's come in.
Re: After November, Then What?
Re: After November, Then What?
Good suggestions George, but if we get specific before the election, it will give the democrats time to respond with their usual tripe. Never try to kill a person who is comitting suicide. They are getting slaughtered in the polls. Let's let them destroy themselves. Then we take action. Phil...
Jul '10
Re: After November, Then What?
I disagree. I don't trust McConnell and Boehner. Their default position will be: well, we won, now it's back to business as usual.
Re: After November, Then What?
Phil, I understand that opposing is enough, tactically speaking, to win against an unpopular party. However, I worry that this won't be enough. The history of the last hundred years is a sort of leftist ratchet: Dems transform the country slowly or, as lately, quickly, while Republicans stanch the bleeding for while. Don't we need a positive agenda of our own, as in 1994, to have a chance of accomplishing anything? Or are we better off holding the agenda for 2012?
As for McConnell and Boehner, my worry is that they and the rest of the Old Guard on the R side of the aisle are mainly thinking about the levers of power rather than what needs to be done.
Sep '10
Re: After November, Then What?
Kenneth
Patrick in Albuquerque · Sep 6 at 11:54am
Huh? Wha'?
Do not touch my gas guzzler. Markets work, pal. When gas prices go high enough, I'll replace it my own self, without government forcing you and your children to fork over a subsidy to pay for my car.
Go there and I'll be replacing my vehicle every two years and your family will be subsisting on ramen noodles just to pay for my shiny new ride.
As for amnesty, don't even get me started. · Sep 6 at 12:51pm
Edited on Sep 06 at 12:55 pm
I'm already subsidizing your gas guzzler by paying for a big DoD budget. There are two reasons we're in the Middle East: Israel and oil.
As for amnesty, no matter what some part of conservatives would like, it's not likely that this country is going to do anything that will force some dude who's been here since 1987 to return to MX. The rest of conservatives need to agree to amnesty with requirements.
Edited on Sep 7, 2010 at 6:36amSep '10
Re: After November, Then What?
I'm sympathetic to your argument of course. But I'd like to have a discussion of the trade-off: restrain salary and benefits for bureaucrats in exchange for a lowered SS retirement age.
Jul '10
Re: After November, Then What?
Patrick in Albuquerque
I'm sympathetic to your argument of course. But I'd like to have a discussion of the trade-off: restrain salary and benefits for bureaucrats in exchange for a lowered SS retirement age. · Sep 7 at 6:46am
Yeah, low retirement age worked out swimmingly for Greece.
May '10
Re: After November, Then What?
First thing? Elect a new majority leader other than John Boehner.
Sep '10
Re: After November, Then What?
Kenneth
Patrick in Albuquerque
I'm sympathetic to your argument of course. But I'd like to have a discussion of the trade-off: restrain salary and benefits for bureaucrats in exchange for a lowered SS retirement age. · Sep 7 at 6:46am
Yeah, low retirement age worked out swimmingly for Greece. · Sep 7 at 6:55am
We ought to be having the discussion of how we open more jobs for young people. Getting fogies like me out of the work force is just one of the possibilities. And we need to quit importing cheap labor as I argue elsewhere.
Aug '10
Re: After November, Then What?
Patrick in Albuquerque
I'm already subsidizing your gas guzzler...
OK, in that case, the right thing to do is to remove existing subsidies, not pile on more.
If I go to the doctor with a busted right knee, I don't want him to bust my left knee and say, "Now you're fixed, 'cause you're even!" If we get even with subsidies rather than get rid of them, we only make the long-term problem worse.
Patrick, we have been having that discussion. Let's review just a bit:
- Scrap minimum-wage laws. These hurt the young and poor. However much we may wish otherwise, many of the young and poor need to develop on-the-job experience before they can be worth what the minimum wage pays. With minimum wage in place, they never get that experience, and remain unemployed.
- Reduce other barriers (such as unnecessary certification, union shutouts) to job entry.
- Mainly, the government has to quit constantly monkeying with the economy, so that businesses can plan ahead. Why hire if you don't know what'll happen next?
Edited on Sep 7, 2010 at 12:58pmMay '10
Re: After November, Then What?
Sunset laws on all spending programs (but not on tax cuts.)
Zero-based budgeting.
Eliminate the low-flow shower heads in the low-flush toilet bill.
Stop subsidizing unemployment.
Edited on Sep 7, 2010 at 10:48pmMay '10
Re: After November, Then What?
De-fund any government department -- such as DoJ -- that refuses to actually DO their job. I'm thinking of Eric Holder's refusal to prosecute the Black Panthers, his refusal to enforce Motor Voter registration list maintenance, etc. If they are not doing their job, why pay them?