Here are five (5) things every person between 15-18 should know.
1. The Gettysberg Address
2. The 10 Commandments
3. How to fix a flat tire
4. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech
5. How to balance a check book
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving
I think Abraham Lincoln said it best when he pronounced the establishment of Thanksgiving Day as a holiday.
"I invite my fellow citizens to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiv ing and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. "
Abraham Lincoln
3 Oct 1863
I think Abraham Lincoln said it best when he pronounced the establishment of Thanksgiving Day as a holiday.
"I invite my fellow citizens to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiv ing and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. "
Abraham Lincoln
3 Oct 1863
Sunday, November 18, 2007
8 ways to save our economy
If I were king here are eight (8) things I would do to return fiscal sanity to our country. I welcome your thoughts and comments. (Note - these are note in priority.)
1. Cancel The Medicare Part D program: Too expensive and too inefficient; a mess that we cannot afford. "A camel is a horse designed by a committee."; Medicare Part D is a camel. In years past our politicians would build offices and monuments to themselves now they are building gold-plated entitlement programs that are neither understandable nor effective at solving the problem for which they were created. Bush's worst domestic program that is not needed when we already have a program that works just fine.
2. Replace Current Income Tax with National Sales Tax with no deductions or exceptions:
The single best and fastest way to restore sanity and trust to our government. The current income tax system is but a wage tax and touches mostly those whose salary is reduced by those who must pay the 941. Easy to implement - most every state currently collects from those selling products or services in their state - and more efficient - easier to track down 12+ million "sellers" than 160+ million individuals. For example a 22% National Sales tax combined with an $8,000/year prebate for each household spares the lowest earners while enabling everyone else to control and manage precisely how much tax they pay.
3. Cancel Corp Tax: Makes politicians feel good but doesn't work [has never worked] as it is just a cost passed along to consumers.
4. Raise Fed Gasoline tax by $.10/year for each of the next ten (10) years: It is in the best interest of everyone in our country for us to use less gasoline. Taxes when implemented correctly make sense and a tax on gasoline that is scheduled to increase at a prescribed amount over a period of time will enable consumers to make their own choices is just such an example.
5. Reduce the number of school districts to one per county: School districts are an anachronism that have outlived their usefulness with the exception of their ability at hiring over priced administrative staffs. Having one school district for one (1) town or worse one (1) school is simply a waste of money that offers almost nothing to students. (You don't need a school district to run a bus service let alone manage a set of elementary and secondary schools that serve less than 3,000 students) School districts exists almost solely for the purpose of hiring and spending money on administrative personnel. In addition to funding schools need teachers, principles and parents to be effective; not administrators.
6. Cut all Federal entitlement expenditures by 10% in each of the next three (3) years: There is so much fat, fraud and waste in every entitlement program that an across the board 10% cut is the least we should expect. Granted that most all of our Fed representatives are beholden to only a small percentage of their constituents and special interests but it would be a challenge worth offering.
7. Raise the qualifying age for Social Security to 70 for those born on or after 1958 and then to 75 for those born on or after 1967. The math is simple. Either we reduce SS by some small amount for all or the whole thing will collapse and serve as the foundation for a revolution. Defined pensions went the way of the unicorn so why shouldn't SS?
8. Elected officials should be for single but longer terms that are purely voluntary.Today's professional politicians (i.e. Murtha, Bruno, Byrd, etc) are the single most destructive force in our political system. They serve no one but themselves and exist solely to retain their power. Congress - save a few oversight committees - is a useless entity that serves no one but themselves. Time to hit the re-set button.
1. Cancel The Medicare Part D program: Too expensive and too inefficient; a mess that we cannot afford. "A camel is a horse designed by a committee."; Medicare Part D is a camel. In years past our politicians would build offices and monuments to themselves now they are building gold-plated entitlement programs that are neither understandable nor effective at solving the problem for which they were created. Bush's worst domestic program that is not needed when we already have a program that works just fine.
2. Replace Current Income Tax with National Sales Tax with no deductions or exceptions:
The single best and fastest way to restore sanity and trust to our government. The current income tax system is but a wage tax and touches mostly those whose salary is reduced by those who must pay the 941. Easy to implement - most every state currently collects from those selling products or services in their state - and more efficient - easier to track down 12+ million "sellers" than 160+ million individuals. For example a 22% National Sales tax combined with an $8,000/year prebate for each household spares the lowest earners while enabling everyone else to control and manage precisely how much tax they pay.
3. Cancel Corp Tax: Makes politicians feel good but doesn't work [has never worked] as it is just a cost passed along to consumers.
4. Raise Fed Gasoline tax by $.10/year for each of the next ten (10) years: It is in the best interest of everyone in our country for us to use less gasoline. Taxes when implemented correctly make sense and a tax on gasoline that is scheduled to increase at a prescribed amount over a period of time will enable consumers to make their own choices is just such an example.
5. Reduce the number of school districts to one per county: School districts are an anachronism that have outlived their usefulness with the exception of their ability at hiring over priced administrative staffs. Having one school district for one (1) town or worse one (1) school is simply a waste of money that offers almost nothing to students. (You don't need a school district to run a bus service let alone manage a set of elementary and secondary schools that serve less than 3,000 students) School districts exists almost solely for the purpose of hiring and spending money on administrative personnel. In addition to funding schools need teachers, principles and parents to be effective; not administrators.
6. Cut all Federal entitlement expenditures by 10% in each of the next three (3) years: There is so much fat, fraud and waste in every entitlement program that an across the board 10% cut is the least we should expect. Granted that most all of our Fed representatives are beholden to only a small percentage of their constituents and special interests but it would be a challenge worth offering.
7. Raise the qualifying age for Social Security to 70 for those born on or after 1958 and then to 75 for those born on or after 1967. The math is simple. Either we reduce SS by some small amount for all or the whole thing will collapse and serve as the foundation for a revolution. Defined pensions went the way of the unicorn so why shouldn't SS?
8. Elected officials should be for single but longer terms that are purely voluntary.Today's professional politicians (i.e. Murtha, Bruno, Byrd, etc) are the single most destructive force in our political system. They serve no one but themselves and exist solely to retain their power. Congress - save a few oversight committees - is a useless entity that serves no one but themselves. Time to hit the re-set button.
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