Larry wrote "I'm glad that you have figured out that all the problems in this country have been caused by liberals and all the solutions only come from conservatives. Conservatives, the Pro-fetus not pro-life group."
I presume the first sentence to be facetious because, after all, Larry is a progressive, liberal, socialist, communist or whatever they call themselves these days. They keep changing their monikers to distract us from their purpose of making all Americans dependent on the government teat while punishing those who work.
Of course, contrary to Larry's facetious intent, I think the first sentence is quite correct. The mortgage meltdown was caused by liberal policies that tried to encourage home ownership by reducing loan underwriting thresholds. The erosion of the middle class was caused by free trade agreements that forced jobs abroad. The current mess in the Middle East was caused (9/11/2001) by ignoring foreign policy in favor of things like Hillarycare and the 'service economy', then topping it off by putting Hillary in charge; heaven help us in 2016. All three policies began under (Slick Willie) Clinton but I digress.
It was the second sentence has me writing this post; not just because the meaning is unclear (fetuses are alive, right?); aside from a possible jab at conservatives in general.
Larry, like most progressive, liberal, socialist, communist types has mistaken my fiscal conservatism for social conservatism. I'm not sure if they do it on purpose or if they do it out of ignorance.
Larry is an excellent engineer and a pretty smart guy (excepting his political leanings) so I'm hard pressed to call him an ignoramus like Paul Krugman. Thus, I must conclude that he wrote the pro-fetus nonsense on purpose to steer the conversation away from money; my only conflict with liberals.
The problem for Larry and other redistributionists (a moniker marginally shorter than progressive, liberal, socialist, communist types) is that I simply have no interest in fetuses, pro-life, pro-choice, rubbers or abortions; nor should government since it's a woman's choice. Not that I favor them but if more young and poor people had more abortions there’d be fewer poor children for the liberals to use as human shields for their dumb ideas.
As I've said before, if government got out of health care then the whole abortion and birth control debate would go away or at least fade to page seven below the fold. Surgical abortion is cheap and abortion pills are cheaper. Condoms and abstinence are cheaper still.
The million or so abortions (25% of the birthrate) in the US every year would cost less than 10% of what liberals pay for their coffee at Starbucks. Since it's legal, liberals (and anyone else) can buy as many abortions as they'd like; please just leave the rest of us out of it. Same goes for welfare (including corporate welfare, Medicaid and all the rest of the 100+ other redistribution programs) and the biggest ripoff of them all; FICA.
I have no use for social conservatives; Muslims, who routinely beat and abuse women are among the most socially conservative groups on earth. I would no sooner go to the Middle East than I would shove a hot poker in my eye.
If the Republicans would back away from social conservatism and focus solely on fiscal conservatism they'd get a lot more votes, even in blue states.
Why? Because most of us lean liberal when we're young but those paying attention soon realize that liberal programs are stupidly expensive; the ideas are noble but the implementations are highly inefficient and ineffective.
As proof of this assertion, consider that the percentage of poor has not really changed in 50 years despite (borrowing and) spending $17 trillion plus $9 trillion more in debt service and ignoring the cost of lost opportunity. This clearly is not having the desired effect.
Our government has no legitimate business in our bedrooms, on our telephones or in our doctor's offices without a proper warrant based on reasonable cause. How we choose to pursue happiness is none of their damned business until we infringe on the rights of others.
As I keep saying, government should focus on Justice, State/Intelligence, Defense and Treasury; everything else should be voluntary. This brings the cost of government to a little over 10%. A bit more than the tax level that brought on the American Revolution (7%) but the world is a bigger place now.
This change would put about $5 trillion/year back in play for ordinary Americans (~30% of GDP).
Liberals could then cut checks for $30,000/year to each of the 50 million poor out of their $2.5 trillion and pay off the entire $20 trillion national debt (federal, state and local) that their policies have racked up. The area under the curve below (1/2bh) is equal the federal debt of $17 trillion. State and local debt is about $3 trillion.
They'll be done with the debt in 20 years and they can subsidize the poor as long as they like with the extra $1 trillion/year to see if their Great Society will ever happen; my guess is that the ranks will grow, not shrink so they'll need the extra trillion/year. However, with this scheme, I couldn't care less.
Poor kids will be able to pay for school choice, pre-K and post-secondary training. The poor will have the so-called living wage and can buy their own damned insurance; all without having to work. Sounds like a disaster to me but, again, it's not my money.
Conservatives could bankroll a proper retirement savings plan for all those on FICA as well as government employees; they pay current benefit levels for 20 years while the 15.3% payroll taxes go into individual Roth (tax free) IRAs to grow until age 65 or disability. They could also seed the entire workforce's IRA's with $4,000/year for 20 years with the leftovers.
Fund transportation with targeted taxation on users.
All other taxpayer-funded insurance goes away except FDIC and unemployment which shall be funded by banks and employers, not taxpayers.
All deductions, subsidies, exemptions and credits go away. All of it.
The 5-10 million government employees who deliver welfare can reorganize into private businesses or join the liberal-funded gravy train since their jobs would no longer exist; fair trade of 10 million for 50 million, yes?
After 20 years, America will have restored itself; Debt-free. Taxes will be 10%, no exceptions. Public schools in impoverished cities will have to compete like other businesses. Welfare will hopefully have ended when the liberals get tired of the stupidity of it. Lifetime savings can be passed to heirs. People will have 30% more of their gross pay in their pockets. Those in need of long term care can get it with maybe a small assist from charities. Charities will do much better with so much freed up cash.
Simple arithmetic.
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