CONCRETE STEPS TO RETURN PROSPERITY

Step 1, and the most critical because without this none of the rest will get accomplished:

We need a majority of our politicians to be those people who ARE willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the rest of us. Who do not care about getting reelected and/or getting rich. Because the things needing to be done will be extremely unpopular amongst many, many groups of voters. Extremely unpopular amongst many in big business. Extremely unpopular amongst the big bankers. And, I would venture to guess, some things I propose will not be agreed with by you, my friends and readers.

So, how do we get these good people in office? We all must stay involved in the political process. That means more than just voting on election day. That means staying on top of current issues and writing letters to Senators and Representatives.

Step 2: Let's assume we have accomplished step 1, and actually have people in D.C. who put America first. In order to insure that continues, we need to totally revamp our election process to get the influence of big money out of politics. I hate to say this, but I see no other choice than government campaign funds, equally divided between the candidates with NO private donations allowed. Each candidate will be required to answer a questionnaire detailing his positions on current and upcoming issues.

Step 3: Deficit reduction: This, of course, requires a multi-pronged attack. There is so much waste in every single government agency that it almost defies true understanding. Let's start with the real "entitlement" programs.
A: What used to be called welfare. Administered by one agency. Get rid of all the various giveaway programs, thereby eliminating at least a half dozen huge bureaucracies, a mind boggling savings in itself. Create a one check system run by one agency. It's not our problem if they take that check and smoke it up in crack in a couple of days. Too bad, they'll have to go hungry for the rest of the month. While they are picking up their check, they will also get their monthly birth control. No more money for more kids. If they don't use birth control and get pregnant, it's their problem to figure out how to pay the extra expenses. There will be no extra government money coming.
B: Unemployment. Make every recipient of unemployment perform some kind of work. ie: picking up litter, digging ditches, painting park benches, clerical, whatever, for 15 or 20 hours per week.
C: Every single agency gets audited, especially the Pentagon. No more $600 hammers.
D: Foreign Aid: Other than military, forget it. Done. Zilch. Why in the hell have we been giving hundreds of billions of dollars every year to countries who turn around and shove it up our a**es? We've got enough problems of our own, their problems are theirs, not ours. I'm not talking about disaster relief, that's a different thing.
E: Prisons: Every prisoner who is physically capable will work at some prison industry. The harder the work the better. Send em to the quarry and let em break rocks in the hot sun :-) Make them think real hard about commiting more crimes after they get out.
F: Congress goes into the social security system like the rest of us. No more full pay pensions ($148 to $178 thousand a year!) for a single term in Washington.
G: Get rid of one half the yoyo's at the EPA. Half the budget, half the people. Can those idiots who have nothing better to do than dream up things like banning sales of small dirt bikes and ATV's because a kid could be exposed to tiny amounts of lead if he decided to try and eat his machine.

Of course there is much, much more to this topic, but you get the idea. The next post will address revamping our income tax system, which will also contribute to deficit reduction.

Still ranting,
Dumb Farmer