I don't have many rules in my staff meetings. However one rule I do have is that you can't gripe about something without an idea or suggestion to fix the problem. I don't like President Obama's jobs bill nor his plan to pay for it. I don't dislike it because I don't like Obama or because I favor rich fat cats. I don't like his plan because it won't work. It has not worked in the past and it won't work now. This position is not political or personal, it's just reality.
If I make this comment, it is now my obligation to propose an alternative that will work. None of this is new, nor is it brain surgery.
1) The Tax Code - scrap it in total and start over. Propose a new tax system that at its inception will be revenue neutral. Tax all income above the national poverty rate at a single rate - likely less than 20%. No deductions for mortgages, charitable contributions, child credits, nothing. Corporations pay the same rate...and they get a one time tax holiday to repatriate foreign earnings at 10%. 1% national sales tax that requires a 3/4 majority in congress to raise. Everyone pays at a lower rate and they can do their taxes on the back of a cocktail napkin.
2) Obama Care - Scrap it and start over. Everyone outside of the Obama administration, his cheerleaders in the mainstream media, and his storm troopers at Salon, MoveOn, etc knows that this is a bad plan. Using the media analogy of passing legislation is like making sausage, if we made sausage when passing Obamacare, then we made a bad batch of sausage and it is giving the American economy a stroke. Scrap this bad plan and start over. There are laudable ideas in the 2000 pages of Obamacare, great, use them and a starting point, but getting this boot off the neck of the economy will create millions of jobs.
3) Invest in domestic energy production - Our high energy prices equate to a surtax that we transfer to the OPEC nations every day. Drill offshore, drill in Alaska, mine oil sand and shale and we will drive our energy costs down. We will create real jobs - we won't have to make up fictional statistics about "saved" jobs, rather we will create real jobs in an industry sector that his been shackled by our government for years.
You know how much these ideas cost? Nothing.If Obama announced this as his new plan, markets would soar, energy prices would drop, unemployment would trend down. Let's not forget the other consequence of this plan...government revenues would soar. I am not an advocate of starving the government, but rather than doubling down on policies that have failed and spending money we don't have, why not give this a whirl. The results can't be any worse than the proposal on the table. If Obama proposed this, his second term would be secure. Heck, I'd probably vote for him if he could get this plan passed before the 2012 elections. Want to put the ball in the Republicans court and see if they bounce it off their knee out of bounds? Try this plan and see what those guys do. I know what I would do, I'd high-five my buddy Obama.
No comments:
Post a Comment