Garner, I mostly agree with your sentiments ... altho I'd cut the budget for "entitlements" (i.e., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, gov't pensions) before taxing computers or tech products.
Here's an email I got today that I'm sharing with y'all ... cuz I so wish it could be done. No wonder people are "occupying" all over the place. It's beyond the mortgage meltdown and jobs issue. It's our very own gov't standing as the pinnacle of ineptitude for all of us to see:
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Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:
"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election." Period.
Other suggestions:
1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office.
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security - just like the rest of us.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.
Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/ women are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/ women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
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garner wrote:
I think there's a lot of denial out there as to how we deal with our debt crisis and how so much of the indystries that employed people simply don't exist anymore. Like all these social programs are in serious jeopardy. We have only seen the beginning of the suffering. We are teetering on third-world status now. Life as we know is about to end.
there needs to be a paradigm shift in education. We aren't even in the top twenty in education. America is producing second-tier education.
We need to get rid of this Steve Jobs cancer in our schools and society at large. We should tax tech products and take the proceeds and build more boarding schools, and give scholarships to thw smart kids that want the good classical education. We need to identify the kids with the most potential and lure them away to get a proper education.
I Bug U
