What Do Wingnuts Want?
Bill Walsh ·
September 11, 2012 at 8:21am
Stepping away from the horse race, here's a question. Romney & Ryan are the candidates of most of the Ricochettsia—say they win, what do y'all want them to do? Stipulate they have a reasonably cooperative Congress, and take for granted the desiderata they've already expressed—repeal of ObamaCare in some fashion, some large fiscal reform, etc.
What, in particular, would you like them to do? More incandescent bulbs and F-22s? A 400-ship Navy and high-flow toilets and shower heads? More nuclear plants? The Keystone Pipeline? Privatize the TSA? Reclassification of Cheers and George & Leo reruns as public-service television (Rob Long only)?
Consider this your memo to the President's chief of staff.
- Comment (74)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (10)
Comments:
Sep '12
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
I haven't lobbied them, and I have the same hope for them as I do all elected representatives: keep as many promises as they can, and follow the oath of office.
But since you're asking what I would submit to them, I'll start with a budgeting rule that makes a lot of sense; that they ask congress to pass a rule forbidding further payment to contractors overrunning their budget.
We're all familiar with highway and military contractors being paid well above the estimates they submitted when they first won a bid. If it takes a constitutional amendment, it's a commonsense one that should pass easily enough.
My other wishes may be too far outside the Overton Window to bother mentioning here.
Dec '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
First and foremost, please oh please reign in the EPA, ATF, DEA, FDA, BLM, and any other alphabet soup agency that is actively interferring with job creation or otherwise destroying liberty without even the veneer of "democracy" that the Obamacare debacle had.
Fix that first, then we can get to the light bulbs and heavy battle cruisers while the economy winds back up to full song.
After all that, someone needs to have a chat with his judicial team about strengthening property rights and how we can go about reforming the tax structure so as to limit the number of times you have to pay tax on the same things (say, like how you pay tax on the money you make, then you pay tax when you buy property with that money, then you pay taxes every year you own that property, and when you die your kids get to pay taxes on the property again, then THEY get to pay taxes on it every year until they die, and the cycle repeats).
But everything else will wait.
Regulatory reform STAT! The economy must come first.
Dec '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Travis McKee:
We're all familiar with highway and military contractors being paid well above the estimates they submitted when they first won a bid.
That's easy enough to say, but much of the time, the reason they went horribly over budget is the same reason any engineering project goes over budget and/or over deadline. The customer (the govt) keeps changing the parameters.
You start with a bid to build a bridge, but then they want a bridge with two more lanes, and then they want a roundabout on both ends instead of on/off ramps, and then they want decorative patterned and stained concrete on the abutments, and then they want terraced landscaping all around the abutments, and then they want state of the art surveillance equipment with speed and load sensors, and then they want this masterpiece to last for 75 years instead of the original design life of 50 years, and on and on and on.
Continued . . .
Dec '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
I've seen it happen in person, and I can tell you that nothing frustrates engineers more than having to add things half way into a job, but it happens ALL the time.
You can't stick the contractor with the cost for those changes.
Force the govt to use change orders, and have contractor only accept them when they're approved by the legislature? That I might get behind.
Cost Plus contracting gets a lot of flak, but the truth is, that it has its place.
Some things simply must be done, done right, and done right now, cost be damned.
Doesn't happen a lot, but when it does, you need a mechanism in place to deal with it. A red tape short circuit (if you will), for emergencies and the like.
But again, that's small ball stuff. We can have that discussion and argue about how to fix it while the economy is winding back up.
Loosen the regulatory noose on the economy first.
PLEASE, I beg you!
Oct '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
How about publishing transparent (and potentially audited) national accounts that follow some reasonably GAAP-ish principles, rather than the magical fantasy rules used at the moment.
I realize there are all sorts of laws, regulations and understandings that cause things to be 'scored' the way they are, and that budgeting is really the province of Congress, but why not use the bully pulpit and Paul "Jack" Ryan's unique understanding and stature to just do an end-run around the whole thing and publish the Common Sense Accounts (or some such), that anyone with a passing knowledge of normal accounting principles will understand? Move the whole debate to another level.
Oct '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
In keeping with the Nixon to China theme of Ricochet this week, Romney could pick a fight with Homeland Security, institute an urgent review of all their programs to determine if goals are or can be met (cue wonkish PowerPoint presentation with Key Metrics), conclude that many are unsalvageable and shut them down - including the TSA.
This achieves the following:
Oct '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Abolish the White House Press Corps.
Make all announcements via live streaming on whitehouse.gov, or by releasing pre-recorded clips.
Restrict any interviews to up-and-coming alternative conservative media outlets (blogs, podcasts etc.), forcing the legacy media to cite them, instead of the other way around.
Have no press on Air Force One and make no allowance for the press to accompany the President on his travels. Have someone film the press and release that footage to the world. No commentary will be necessary.
Have no press secretary. Or hire David Burge, to underline the contempt in which the MSM should be held.
Oct '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Immigration reform: secure borders, more high-skilled legal immigration, and a timeline--say, ten years--for a conditional amnesty if the border has been secure during that time (as evaluated by a credible independent commission, not the federal government).
Getting rid of no-fault divorce would be welcome, but I'm not sure that's a federal issue. And of course there's abortion: we need a conservative SCOTUS majority to repeal Roe v. Wade. A strengthening of religious rights is another no-brainer; no more silly lawsuits by people who feel they should be "free" from the burden of watching other people practice their religion.
Oct '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Don't just tinker with the NLRA, repeal it altogether. (Since you're going to repeal Davis-Bacon.)
Don't just amend Sarbanes-Oxley, repeal it altogether.
Appoint Richard Epstein as regulatory czar, to do what Cass Sunstein ought to have done. Make every department and agency read the whole text of any proposed regulation, out loud, to Prof Epstein on three separate occasions before they may be promulgated. Prof Epstein will work one day per week.
Edited on September 11, 2012 at 12:13pmMay '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Dick Durbin in Guantanamo.
Oct '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Abolish all Federal "gun free" zones.
Mar '11
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
I'd be happy with a government that understood the intrinsic oxymoronic nature of the phrase "government solution."
Oct '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
I think I'm going to have pleasant dreams on that topic tonight. A world without Davis-Bacon and the NLRA. . .
Aug '11
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Remember the saying, "Nothing succeeds like success." With that in mind:
Romney should seek to pass the easy legislation with as many non-progressive Democrats as he can muster. As each new law improves the economy, he can attract yet more Democrats.
In short, Romney's early success buys him even more success later, no just with elected Democrats but with the citizenry at large. Then we can start in on the real improvements like re-architecting our environmental protection laws so we can get at all that new found oil and gas.
Mar '11
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Deregulate.
All else flows from that.
Jun '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Stephen Dawson: Deregulate.
All else flows from that.
Absolutely. And let us make full use of our domestic energy. It's ridiculous to keep importing what we have plenty of right here.
Jun '11
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Mostly, we need Romney to stop doing all the bad things Obama is doing. Stop spending so much money that the country doesn't have. Stop demonizing rich and successful people, and lying about how they don't pay their fair share. Stop making government loans to private companies, interfering in bankruptcies, selective regulatory harrassment, and other crony capitalist activities. Stop making up your own rules that have nothing to do with the law as it stands.
For positive actions: get serious quick about Iranian nukes, repeal and replace Obamacare ASAP, get a budget passed, get a legislative fix for the EPA's CO2 rules, revisit and probably approve the Keystone pipeline, back out of federal overreach where possible in areas such as ethanol mandates, CAFE standards, farm subsidies, student loans, health care. If I can wish for the moon, how about start over with the tax code.
Sep '10
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Entitlement reform is the glacier in the living room, but a few smaller specific things.
1) Reform of the SS long term disability program (this should be easier than the broader SS reform and is more sorely needed).
2) Reform of government retirement benefits. The private sector has shifted away from defined benefit plans. The government should scrub itself of those plans for anyone under 50 who is still on them.
3) Remove the anti-trust exemption for organized labor given in the Clayton Anti Trust Act of 1914 (specific enough?)
4) Reform the mandate of the FDA to prove drugs are safe only. Make drug efficacy the realm of doctors and drug companies alone (FDA could intervene in cases of fraud).
5) Break up the big banks/brokerages. Be a Bank. Be a Brokerage.
6) Shutter, Fannie and Freddy, sell off the assets to whomever will pay for them.
7) Simple Mortgage reforms - Reduce the cap for mortgage interest deduction to $250 K. Require a minimum down payment for mortgages of 10%.
Mar '12
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
Repeal
Obamacare
The bank regulation that requires giving mortgages to people who cannot afford them (Community Redevelopment Act)
Sarbanes/Oxley
Virtually everything from the EPA in the last four years
A great deal of the HHS mandates
The czars should be fired
Geithner should be fired
About half the Supreme Court should be invited to resign
Rebuild the military, including the F22s, the additional Marine/Navy assault fleet as part of a 600 ship Navy, whatever the Army needs.
Rid military boot camps of mixed gender platoons. Segregate men and women and for physical training, let the men compete with the men, the women with the women. Classroom training and rifle ranges can be mixed gender.
Edited on September 11, 2012 at 2:50pmMay '12
Re: What Do Wingnuts Want?
All of the above.
Plus, I want never again to be referred to as a wingnut, teabagger, etc. But that's just wishful thinking.