Change
(Not just what we need, but what we can see!)
Preface
I am writing this mainly because of the political climate that we have recently been observing as well as what has been occurring over many years through many administrations. Our latest President ran on a campaign of change, and I believe won for a few reasons. One, he had an enormous amount of money thrown into the campaign. Two he talked of change at time when people were desperate for something different than had been occurring for far too long. And three, because he was a half black person who could speak well. I don’t believe Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton would have a chance. I remember listening to Senator Obama early on in the primary race and thought that he was someone I could get behind from what he was saying. I am and have been a registered Republican since I first registered mainly because that is what I saw in my house growing up. However, that being said, I have never voted by strict “Party lines” due to the fact that I don’t agree wholly on what many of the candidates stand for. I changed my opinion of our current half white President early on though because I started listening to the words he was saying and diagnosing what he seemed to mean. I soon became aware that he was just like all the politicians who were saying what people wanted to hear. I do not agree with many of his policies and disagree with some of his actions. Do I think I could do a better job? Of course, in some instances. Do I think I am smarter than him? Of course, in some aspects. Do I have a better education than him? Certainly not. I never set foot inside a college other than to perform jobs I was called out to do in the field I was employed in. Do I think that attending a college and getting a degree is a determinate in the quality of a persons beliefs? No. The problem that I see is this, the Government has grown too powerful and too influential and too controlling in the American Citizens daily lives. The reason I am writing this is basically to put down some of my thoughts as to how we could change things in the way our Government operates that would improve the lives of the majority of our citizens. These are my opinions and only my point of view. I am not driven by any financial gain from any one to say these things and don’t really see how I could gain anything for myself. I simply think if we took a different approach to the way we act as a nation in whole, we would all be better off, not just the elite and the ones with power, money and influence.
The
Our country is actually an accumulation of 50 states. Each of which has their own rules, regulations, and laws and governing bodies. However, the Federal Government has seen fit to impose many laws across the country which tends to supersede the States. This is a problem as I see it. I believe that each state should actually be in a friendly competition with each other to not just gain a tourism trade, but a population as well. After all, if a state has more people living and working in it on a regular basis, wouldn’t they not receive the benefit of all the jobs that would be created for its inhabitants? They have to shop somewhere, eat somewhere, work somewhere and so forth. If the States were allowed to have their own independent welfare laws and policies, abortion rules, Gay marriage rights and whatever, wouldn’t that give them the ability to either attract or repel a population to their state? Imagine a state that imposed all kinds of restrictions, laws, taxes and other unattractive ideals as opposed to one that offered more benefits and freedoms and opportunity for prosperity. Which one do you think would attract a larger population? Since the number of residents would in essence dictate the prosperity of the State, the State that was more attractive would probably attract more. I believe more power and control needs to be given back to states so they can have an opportunity to be all that they can be. You see, if a State allowed more people to say be on welfare and not contribute to the income of the State but instead withdraw from it, it would have to impose a larger burden on the people who WERE actually contributing to it to pay the way for those that don’t. I believe that eventually, those that were working hard and paying for those that don’t, would get tired of it and move to another State that did not have such a high debt and actually rewarded those for their efforts as opposed to rewarding those who don’t put forth an effort. This would be a form of friendly competition. If a State wanted to allow for Gay Marriage, Pro Choice, Rights to carry guns and other freedoms that many people want, they would probably attract a population to help sustain it. My opinion is, if you want to “Marry” someone of the same sex, go ahead, if you don’t want to, don’t. If you don’t want an abortion, don’t have one. If you want to carry a gun, go ahead, if not, don’t. People should be allowed to make choices that affect themselves as long as they don’t affect others. As far as the abortion issue, well that will never end with a one or the other is right. It is a personal issue. If a State chooses to allow for a safe procedure, who are some of these people who say they can’t. Granted, if you don’t want or can’t afford a child, you should take some precautions. However, for one reason or another, unwanted pregnancies happen. Here is an idea. If a young girl gets pregnant but either doesn’t want or can’t take care of a child, someone who wants a child, and there are plenty of them according to the waiting lists we hear about for adoption, then those adoptive parents can foot the medical bills and expenses in return with a signing off of any future rights to the child. Not this “The actual birth mother always has a right.” You make a decision, and you live with it. The States need to have more control over their State to be given a chance.
The Political Picture
We are hearing a lot of talk about Bi-Partisan.
Which means "Both" parties or would indicate that we have a two party
system. This is not actually the
case though, there are several other parties.
The
Constitution Party,
Green Party,
Libertarian Party are
just a few of the more notable ones.
Obviously though, the Republican and the Democrat parties get the most
attention and actually have an unfair advantage.
To solve this problem of the one with the most money wins is to simply
put all the players on even ground to start with and then really let the best
man/woman win. Can a Black person
run the country? Certainly, we’ve already shown that a Half Black person can win
and be in the position of power, what he does for the rest of his term has yet
to be seen. So far he has made some
very bad calls, in my opinion, but that blame can also be placed on his so
called advisors and the people who are actually pulling his strings.
Can a woman run the greatest country on earth? Absolutely.
We are not talking of a postion which requires physical prowess, although
I have seen some pretty tough women.
Can someone whos parents came from some other country rule our country?
Why not, everyone here, with the exeption of the Native americans,
ancestors came from somewhere else.
Can a Jewish person, Christian, Catholic, Jehovah Witness, Buddhist, Atheist or
any other religion run the country, as long as they have the interest of the
people as a whole and not their individual beliefs running roughshod, I don’t
see why not. But when it came to
the Republic and Democratic national conventions, they each received 50 Million
taxpayer dollars to help provide security for the events.
How much was given to the Constitutional party, the Liberitarians or the
Green Party? I don’t know if
anything was, because the news agencies didn’t report on that.
The news media is another biased means which assist in the election
process. Look at which stations
backed which politician and what kind of coverage they received.
I guarantee you it was no where near equitable.
So this is one thing I propose, all candidates get to draw equally from
the campaign pool. All money contributed by individuals, business, foreign
governments and wherever, would all go into one fund.
The only money which could be spent on the campaign would have to come
from that fund which would be distributed equally between any qualified
candidates. No more of these
greatly lopsided races where one candidate has 50 million to spend while another
has 250 million while another has 650 million to influence people’s decisions.
The news media would be required to provide the same amount of coverage
to all candidates if they chose to cover any of them.
We can’t require NBC to cover any one, but if they give 5 hours a week to
a Democrat, they must also provide the same amount of time to a Republican,
Constitution party or whatever.
Fair and equitable. If a printer is
donating his time and money to make signs for a Republican, then he must also
give the same to every other candidate, like them or not.
That starts the ball rolling on fairness, not just making the candidates
with money and power have an unfair advantage.
Second is the association with lobbyists.
No politician either campaigning for office or in office would be allowed
to have any association at all.
None what so ever other than being able to receive correspondence which would be
directed to everyone in the race or in a position of power.
As well as all corespondence would be provided to numerous watchdog type
agencies so there would be what would be considerd true transparency.
The days of the “Pork spending” would come to an end.
No longer would anyone be able to use their position to provide special
consideration to the special interests.
They would no longer have the ability to “Sweeten the pot” for someone
going along with them. A Government
servant position would be just that. No longer could it be a career.
Term limits would need to be imposed to destroy the “Good ‘ole boy”
network. No more of these deals
that gave unnecessary money for unneccesary projects simply because it would
benefit a friend or collegue. The
taxpayer should not be on the hook for paying for someones vacation just because
they are elected to office. You
knew the job was dangerous when you took it.
My opinion is that someone serving in a public office should be doing it
because of the help they could provide to the masses, not just to themselves or
some special interest group. It
should be something that should be limited to terms just like we limit our
President. If they did well enough
while they were in, I’m sure they would have no problem being elected after
someone else has a chance.
If any politician is caught dealing with any lobbyist, they will be
kicked out immediatley thereby setting an example of how not to act.
Politicians should be held to a higher standard since they are
representing the public and not allowed to get away with unacceptable practices
simply because of a position they hold. If a Bounty or reward was provided for
evidence which would cause them to be convicted of such actions, then we would
certainly have enough common citizens serving as the folks who police them, it
wouldn’t even cost us anything unless they end up catching someone which would
actually save us money. How
beautiful could it be? And if
someone doesn’t want the obligation of behaving and playing by the rules, then
they simply resign or don’t even run for office to begin with.
We would certainly never be able to stamp out corruption totally, but if
we could minimize it I don’t see how that could be a bad thing.
Another system that could easily be implemented would be to actually have
“The People” have a say in things.
I’m not talking like it is now where someone is elected to represent the people
and then does as they want once they are in, but a way for the masses to give
their input. At every Public
Library, input stations can be placed, they already have computers and internet
access. Then anyone who is
interested in registering as a concerned citizen who would like to put their 2
cents in, could be emailed on any of the important matters that will be
discussed by their representatives in Congress, and given a period of time to
stop by and quickly whay in on how they would vote.
Then, since transparency will be implemented, after a vote is made, the
actual numbers of the masses who voted could be compared to the actual vote of
their Senator or Congressmen and see if they really did vote as their
constituents wanted or simply how they felt.
That could give the voters a chance to really know who they put in to
office to speak for them.
Dealing
with other countries
Since many other countries dislike us because of what we
stand for, I say, fine. If you
don’t like US and won’t help US, leave US alone and we’ll leave you alone.
Instead of giving those billions of dollars that we have to borrow to
give to them and then we get to pay interest on it thereby increasing our
national debt we should just let them fend for themselves.
I’m not talking about countries that play nice with us, of course help
them proportionally, but after all, we really need to take care of ourselves
first. We are a great country.
We have become successful overall by our, what is considered, Capitalist
society. In all actuality, we
demonstrate some socialist tendencies as well.
Just look at our government entitlements programs, Medicare, Medicaid,
Welfare, these are actually forms of socialism in the sense that others are
paying for someone else to benefit.
The problem is that we have lost sight of what our country was founded on.
The freedoms, the rights, the sense of if you work hard, and play fair,
you can prosper. Now it is more
like if you can fill out the form, stand in the right line, tell the right lies;
you can have someone else pay your way.
We need to get back to the values which made our country great.
Help people who are willing to help themselves.
Lead by example, instead of force and intimidation.
Our country is a place that people from all over the world want to
migrate to. I’m not saying
everyone, just a lot. Do you hear
of a lot of other countries having a problem keeping their borders secure
because they are such a land of opportunity? Let
alone look at other countries immigration laws.
Are Americans crossing the border to Mexico or Canada in respective
numbers because they have such a better Government or life styles?
I don’t think so. Meanwhile,
our government pushes business to pull up stakes and build factories in other
countries with the sole motivation of money being their considerations.
We are the first ones to help other countries when they have a natural
disaster, which is the nature of Americans.
But when it comes to countries with Dictators and other forms of
government, the people have to take action themselves if they hope to effect
change for the better. Many
countries have felt the force of People Power when their citizens have finally
had enough. They don’t require the
Taxes and Spending
We seem to have gotten in the mode of buying what we want whether we can afford it or not. Then we will just tell everyone else that they have to pay for it. What would it be like if we didn’t work, had a $20,000 credit limit on our credit card and maxed it out but had our neighbor making the payments? Then we wanted a bigger screen TV even though the one we have is working fine but we had no more credit. Then we simply raised our limit on our own just so we could buy something else on credit even though we would have to have our neighbor make the payments. That is pretty much the way or Government is being run right now. They are so irresponsible it is amazing. Our Half Black President said that he wants to spend trillions of dollars on a government health care plan but he would pay for it by cutting the spending on programs we are currently spending money on. And if needed in the future he would cut spending even more if that wasn’t enough. Well if the spending cuts in his eyes can be made, then why in the heck aren’t they making those cuts instead of spending even more? Are they worried that if they pay off their credit card the bank wouldn’t loan them any more money. What kind of mentality are they using? They talk of taxing the rich, but really now, do you honestly think that if a rich man has to pay more, he won’t simply charge more thereby foregoing the price increase himself and simply passing it on to the little guy? Look at the Oil companies as an example. When oil rose to $140 a barrel, they simply raised the price of gasoline. When gas was over $4.00 per gallon, people obviously drove less as they couldn’t afford it because they didn’t get a pay raise. So what that meant was there was less gas being sold. Well if there was less gas being sold, how on earth could the Oil companies report RECORD PROFITS? Simple, if the net cost increase per gallon was $1.50 per gallon, they raised the cost by $1.75 per gallon offsetting the less gallons sold with a higher profit margin. How else could it have worked? It was only by the shear outrage of the masses that the cost of oil went back down. The Oil situation is so convoluted that we are never given the real facts. Knowledge is power. Or as the government seems to act, “By controlling the knowledge, they control the power.”
As far as income taxes anyway, how is that fair by anybodies standards? Different tax brackets for different levels. What about the people who earns lots of money, they get write offs and tax credits and breaks for this, that and the other thing. So they get to spend the money, and write it off so they don’t pay taxes on there income. Or the drug dealers, prostitutes, illegal aliens and anyone else who has unreported income, how much income tax do they pay? Why do we penalize people for making money, reward people who make no money and subsidize people who break our laws? A more fair system would be a Federal sales tax, or consumption tax. After all, what good doe’s money do you if you don’t spend it? So a sales tax affects everyone who buys stuff equitably. If you earn more money and buy more things, then you pay more in sales tax proportionally. Sounds fair to me. And for the really rich people who can afford to spend money on frivolous non necessary things like cars over $100,000 or $500,000 diamond necklaces or Million dollar paintings, they can pay an additional tax for being flamboyant. After all, they would buy it because they can payoff some account to cook the books so they would pay less income tax anyway, why not just simplify things. Then everyone else, who only dreams of such things, can feel better since they know that the rich are paying their fair share. People who can afford to spend $2,000 for a ticket to a single sporting event for a few hours of entertainment, should have no problem kicking into a society which allows them the opportunity to A) earn that money and B) a place to get that entertainment. This would also be a much simpler system as well. Think about it, have you ever heard of there being a single year that there were no changes to the income tax system? We have to pay our representative to sit there and deliberate for who knows how many hours on just who to screw out of how much and how they can give a break to someone who contributed to their campaign. Just think how much better off the country would be if they could spend their very valuable time figuring out what NOT to spend money on.
Gun Laws
Our Senators and Congressmen seem to feel it is their job on how to control guns in the citizenship of our great nation. Well, our forefathers decided that gun ownership was so important to our country, it was placed in the number two spot, only second to the right to free speech. Which by the way if your “Free Speech” happens to disagree with our current administration, you get to be labeled a Racist, Un-American, or Extremist. When the States get their power back, they can decide how they want to control the guns problem. That is of course, it doesn’t interfere with our constitutional rights. Say for example, a State wants to crack down on bad people doing bad things; they enact a law that if you commit a crime with the use of a firearm, you get push to death. I think the bad elements who want to use guns to intimidate people would probably move somewhere else to commit their crimes as opposed to a state that was serious about punishing the bad guys. That would ultimately mean that that state would be a safer place for its citizens. This in turn would probably mean that they would have a population of law abiding honest citizens’ as opposed to the State that chose to merely slap the wrist of the unsavory folks who would rather break the law. The lenient State would then be loaded with a bad element. How attractive would that be for people trying to decide where to live? Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Heck, Ted Kennedy’s car killed more people than my guns. As far as that goes, more people die in auto accidents each year than at the hands of guns. Think about it, when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns. Does anyone honestly believe that making a law will detour a criminal from plying his trade. The guy who plans to rob a bank doesn’t really worry about obtaining his gun legally so he doesn’t get caught for breaking another law. Laws are not the real detour ant, consequences are. Look at the juvenile problem. They are told that they are treated differently so they act differently. What if that young gang banger wannabe thought that he could actually be put to death simply by using a gun to rob a 7-11. Even if it was unloaded, if it meant he would die as a consequence from his action, not just spend a couple years locked away to become a better, more informed criminal, he would probably choose a different path. Bottom-line is that hardcore criminals are hardcore criminals and they will not be rehabilitated. So why waste honest hardworking taxpayers money trying to do so.
If it wasn’t for the common citizenry being armed with guns, the British would probably have had us under the control of the King and our way of life as we know it would be seriously different than what it is. Sadaam Hussein and Fidel Castro probably wouldn’t have enjoyed such long standing dictatorships if the people had had the ability to defend themselves.
Immigration
Our borders are not secure. They have been talking about that for more years than I can imagine. Again, actions speak louder than words. If our immigration law was the same as Mexico’s, would the problem be as big as it is? Who knows? I seriously doubt it. But any talk of amnesty for law breakers sends a definite wrong signal. It sent the wrong signal when it was done by Reagan, and talk of it now sends the wrong signal. What we need to say is, “Break our Laws, and Pay the price.” People want to come to the US because it has been know as the land of opportunity for a very long time. Face it, could Barack Obama become the ruler of any of these other countries he went and bowed down to an apologized to for us being the United States? Not if he wasn’t born into the power position. That is a dream that has kept our fires burning bright. How many citizens of Saudi Arabia or Britain or most other countries for that matter, could honestly grow up with the hope of being the King, Queen or whatever their lead position is called. Why is it that so many people want to come to the US?
Here is the way we solve our border crisis problem. We can’t do it all ourselves. We have to get assistance from the other side. We simply tell the President of Mexico, that if they don’t take an active part in the trafficking crossing the borders, it will affect them greatly. We GIVE them plenty of money that we must borrow and pay interest on to help them out. But they don’t seem to do as much as they could. We have immigrant quotas which allow for their citizens to migrate over here legally. First of all, we simply put the word out that if you are here illegally, and that doesn’t mean just Mexicans, your time is coming to an end of the free ride here. We announce that they will have 6 months to turn themselves in. When they turn themselves in, if they are not a criminal and the only laws they have broken is being here illegally either by overstaying a visa or simply entering illegally and not paying their fair share of income tax they will have to go back home and wait their turn like everyone else. Anyone who does not turn themselves in and return to their home country, when caught will be sent back and never allowed to return, ever. They will need to apply for immigration honestly and legally, pay the fees and when they are allowed to enter, pay a fine for having broken our laws, then and only then will they be allowed enter into this great country. As far as the getting Mexico to do their part, this is how that would work. Let’s say we presently give 100 million dollars a year aid to Mexico and allow for 1 million legal visas to be granted. After the cutoff date, for each person caught crossing our border illegally, the quota for visas will be reduced by 1. If they have contraband, IE guns or drugs when they cross, they will lose 10 visas. Also the money that is given to them will be reduced by $1000. I would actually like to stop giving everybody all the money that is given if it was not given willingly by the American people as a donation. Heck right now the government reaches into the pocket of its citizens and takes money to give to other countries, then whenever there is a disaster somewhere, the generous Americans chip in willingly. This way if the Mexican government saw that they actually had a dog in this race, they might work a little harder. Basically, every one of their citizens who live and works here that sends money back for their family to spend, helps out their own government. Seems to me they would work hard to ensure the Golden Goose continues to be healthy and lay its eggs.