Squandered Wealth of America-A simple solution

We all have our fears of what is to come.We wonder how deep or how long this economic crisis will go? It becomes more evident everyday that Washington is clueless as to how to stop this spiral.If we get a moniker of good news our hopes are quickly dashed with more bad news. The President and congress are starting to feel us out to see how we will react to yet another corporate bailout in the TRILLION dollar range.One thing we know or should know by now is that government IS the problem and is inept at offering solutions.
Many of us knew this when Bush proposed the first bailout.Many of us called our representatives and begged them to let these companies fail and let markets find solid ground on their own. A precious few in congress understood that would be the only way to get out of this mess in a timely,least expensive manner.Oh well.....no one listened and now we find ourselves outraged over bonuses paid to employees of companies that took federal money.
First off we shouldn't be in a position that the taxpayer has skin in the game on wall street anyway.None the less, warnings weren't heeded and for some unknown reason we allowed our government to do what most of us should know is not a principle of our republic or constitution.Secondly, we have the audacity to be outraged that less than 2% of the money AIG received was paid to employees for competing the obligations required by a contract they made with the employer.
I understand how people can perceive this and what has lead to the outrage but before we get into solutions for our problems I think its important to look at this situation and come to terms with some of the realities.
The outrage comes from the perception that employees at AIG were paid bonuses while they were responsible for running the company into the ground.THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE. Based on testimony from the current head of AIG yesterday on Capitol Hill,the employees that WERE in charge of AIGFP(AIG financial products)are gone.Mr Liddy told congress that other AIG employees were pulled in because they had the knowledge and talent to wind down these toxic accounts which had totaled over 2.5 trillion and are now down to 1.6 trillion. They are still a large risk to the future of AIG but these employee's cut that risk in half. When they agreed to take on this monumental task these employees were GUARANTEED to receive healthy bonuses if they stayed and closed the accounts given to them to oversee in a satisfactory manner to the AIG board. Now I don't know about you but I would like to know that in this country a contract still means something regardless of what congress or the uneducated public think of them. A contract is a bond! It is open to renegotiation but when congress acts in a reactionary manner to satisfy a lynch mob populace to pass special laws to punish a small group of people I take issue with that.This rush to judgement based on public outcry is dangerous.Not to mention that many Americans lack the common sense to balance their own checkbooks or make a wise decision on a purchase of a home.
How do we expect people to enter in to contracts in the future when we set the precedent that they can be nullified if public outcry strikes a chord with congress?Aren't we a nation of laws and individual rights? In the face of crisis have we lost our principles and will allow ourselves to revert to a basic democracy where two wolves and one sheep can decide whats for dinner? I hope not.
The prospect of these bonuses is distasteful,as Mr Liddy told congress yesterday but whats done is done.We can't abandon our principles to try to achieve some sort of vengeful satisfaction.Remember,if we hadn't abandoned capitalism and our principles in the first place,we wouldn't care what AIG did and they would be in bankruptcy court where these bonuses would have been nullified LEGALLY.Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20.
All of this controversy and populist vengeance that is brewing makes me wonder if it is not part of some grand plan. Has the government and a few on Wall Street realized that this kind of legislation sells well to the masses that are busy watching American Idol and will only lift their head when congress feigns outrage and crisis to take us one step further to socialism. I know you will want to tell me that Wall Street fat cats support capitalism and republicans but you are wrong.AIG gave hundreds of thousands to Obama and democrats. Wall Street corporations give 2-1 to democrats over republicans. You have to realize,these guys live, by and large on the east coast and are liberals if not liberal republicans.We know Bush and MCcain leaned to the left and Washington caters to the Harvard/Yale crowd regardless of party affiliation.I will provide a link later that proves my theory that we have drifted decidedly left under most administrations since 1960 regardless of party affiliation. We've done it America.While we have been too busy to govern ourselves in a republic based on self government,we have allowed the few elitist to garner all the power. They have us convinced to fight over democrat vs republican when the real battle lies in conservatism vs liberalism.We bought in hook line and sinker. I myself used to wage battle on this false premise until I realized the in today's political climate democrats are extreme liberal and republicans are merely liberal light.If this makes sense to you,you have taken the first step toward being truly enlightened of the battle and how it needs to be fought. To win any war you have to understand the battlefield and your enemy.Now we know,the enemy is government and the battlefield is not made up of democrats vs republicans. Its us vs them-the people vs the tyrants.
What is our strategy? That's a good question. Now we will talk about real solutions.First we must dispel the myth that I ,myself was guilty of buying. We need a 3rd party. I know many will say that conservatives should just wait for the right republicans to come along and we will get back to our roots.....Well,Ive been waiting a long time and we haven't seen true conservatism in a long time. Right now a battle rages in the republican party over who will gain control.The east coast liberal republicans or the true conservatives.Ive watched this unfold for a while and I'm convinced that the liberal republicans will prevail. Many in power on the right have made it clear that in effort to win elections we must compromise our principles and move left in order to increase our base.What they forget is we just tried that and MCcain lost!Why did he lose? He didn't contrast enough from Obama and was ineffective in articulating conservatism because he DOESN'T TOTALLY BELIEVE IN IT!MCcain was firm on Iraq and other than that he was not much different than Obama.He had no credibility on tax cuts because he voted against Bush on it.He had no credibility on illegal immigration because he hailed from Arizona,a state with a very porous border.We tried it their way and ended up with Obama and the biggest liberal agenda in history.Be honest,Mccain was for the bailouts,he was soft on tax cuts,he was soft on immigration and when you add it all up, he was liberal light.
Now we can debate about need for a 3rd party but I don't think there is any denying that the direction some want to take the republican party has been tried and failed.Some will say that we need to be more inclusive but when you consider that most Americans oppose late term abortions and Obama and MCcain were in sinc on gay marriage just who is it we need to include? Illegal immigrants? Islamic extremist?No thank you,I'll keep my principles and take my chances at the ballot box.
What we need is a clear message of freedom,Americanism and fill the peoples minds with the myriad of examples that exist to show that government is the problem not the solution.We need to remind people of why we have the constitution,what rights its gives and what ones it doesn't. We need to explain that we are a wealthy enough country to be able to fund our military ,settle trade disputes foreign and domestic and care for our elderly and disabled. If we didn't squander so much wealth on frivolous programs we can do all that and still provide a reasonable safety net for those that fall on hard times but still keep welfare from sapping people of their motivation and becoming a generational epidemic.If you look at the charts on the link below you will see a number of things. You will see that discretionary spending makes up around 30% of our federal budget and if eliminated we could balance the budget and still do a better job of funding the responsibilities I mentioned above.Do we ever get the opportunity to talk about these discretionary spending issues during elections? No! These are slipped in to bills in the form of earmarks and is basically money that is sent to Washington and sent back to states to help insure politicians can be in office perpetually.I say, If the state wants it-put it to a vote and if the citizens in that state see it as a worthy program THEY can fund it through sales tax increases or other STATE taxes. I would bet,when people were asked up front if they think some of these programs are worthwhile,most of them wouldn't exist.That's just another way Washington has taken our voice away.Whats sad is that our forefathers protected us from this in the constitution,we just let politicians,over time convince us that this is how its supposed to be.
Term limits are the final piece to the puzzle to get us on the right track. To me this is a no-brainer. Lets let the politicians have to actually go home and live under the laws they made.We would save a small fortune on the gold plated health insurance and retirement alone. This is not unreasonable,after all its supposed to be public service,not a club for the rich,educated elite to go and build alliances for power on the taxpayers dole.One term your out!PERIOD!Why do we have a government so large and complicated we think we need "experts" to run it anyway? If you read the constitution the federal governments powers are few and not complicated.I even added care for the elderly,disabled and welfare because I believe if spent wisely we can do all these things and still have a balanced budget.The way we do it now,many people that have paid into the system will never see any retirement or security when ACTUALLY disabled because we waste it all on nonsense.
If a 3rd party or a true conservative that chooses to work under the banner of republican would adopt this simple plan,explain it well and stick to it, they could win the hearts and minds of much of the people.The best part is we could keep taxes at present levels or lower while promoting freedom,individual success and prosperity for all willing to seek it.As Ive said before,we have to get back to our roots or all could be lost.We have to govern ourselves or be controlled by bureaucrats.Ive laid out a plan that would appeal to most Americans and it would cure our ills.This is not rocket science-the Washington bureaucrats and politicians just want us to think it is.Lets stop trying to reinvent the wheel and do what we all know is right.

http://www.heritage.org/research/features/budgetchartbook/index.html?CFID=56940763&CFTOKEN=62778766
(Sorry-I was unable to provide direct link-please copy and paste to your browswer)