Some Simple Solutions to our National Debt
Written on December 29, 2011 by Ann-Marie Murrell
Back in the August debates, former Speaker Newt Gingrich said some pretty prophetic words about the Washington Supercommittee, which never did come to a bipartisan agreement.
Gingrich said:
I think this ‘super committee’ is as dumb an idea as Washington has come up with. The idea that 523 Senators & Congressmen are gonna sit around for 4 months while 12 brilliant people, mostly picked for political reasons, are gonna sit in some room & brilliantly come up with a trillion dollars or force us to choose between gutting our military and accepting a tax increase is irrational. They’re gonna walk in just before Thanksgiving & say, ‘We can shoot you in the head or cut off your right leg, which do you prefer?’
In that same debate Gingrich suggested they scrap the committee & assign every subcommittee the task of finding savings, adding “And they should do it out in the open through regular legislative order and get rid of this secret, phony business!”
Somehow, at the last minute, they’ve reached some type of compromise. For months the Democrats refuse to cut entitlements but feel very generous in cutting our military budget and the GOP refused to raise taxes. Meanwhile we’ve been stuck in a dangerous downward spiral that had already caused our credit rating to drop this summer.
So now, supposedly, we get the Keystone Pipeline project back. If Obama is truly serious about jobs creation, it’s the only thing that makes any sense. Before the compromise, the previous deal was that the oil deal from Canada was “delayed”, despite the fact that supporters said the pipeline could significantly reduce U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil and provide up to a million jobs.
Ironically, I kind of wish the folks in Washington had consulted with Conservative game show host Chuck Woolery months ago about balancing our budget. In a very straightforward, common sense way, Woolery recently created a video offering ways he proposes to cut out some of the PORK from our budget, including the following cuts:
- $90 million free mail for Congress
- $146 million per year 1st Class Airfair Upgrades for Federal workers
- $3.6 billion per year to run the UN
- $200 million travel allowance for President
- $30 billion farm subsidies
- $30 billion department of energy
- $1 million per year for albino squirrel studies
- $77 billion Dept. of Education
- $10.7 billion per year Environmental Protection Agency (GREEN HEADS SPIN!)
I also believe it’s time we work on eliminating aid to foreign countries—beginning with all the Middle Eastern countries that DESPISE the United States and want all of us dead.
I looked into how all this foreign aid got started and it basically began in a good, positive way with the Marshall Plan about 50 years ago.
Originally, the Marshall Plan sought to help the suffering people of Europe rebuild their countries which had been devastated by World War II. However in 2011, foreign aid doesn’t help the US. Acc. to an MSU report:
- Over 2 trillion dollars has been spent on US foreign aid since World War II; this amount equals 40% of America’s national debt.
- It could have been used to fight poverty in the US.
- Giving out foreign aid does not improve our national security. According to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, many countries that receive US foreign aid often oppose pro-American actions and resolutions in the UN.
- Pakistan is suspected of using US aid money to finance their nuclear-weapons development program.
- Billions of dollars of aid have gone to the former Soviet empire, which fought a Cold War with us for 45 years.
- American taxpayers, the people who have had to foot the bill for foreign aid programs, overwhelmingly oppose foreign aid and favor large cuts in it.
- US foreign aid has not helped the countries who are recipients. According to a Clinton Admin report, most of Africa & parts of Latin America, Asia, & the Middle East are economically worse off today than they were 20 years ago, despite receiving significant amounts of US foreign aid.
- According to the UN Development Program, 70 developing countries that are aid recipients are poorer now than they were in 1980; 43 are worse off than they were in 1970.
- According to the US Agency for International Development, only a very small fraction of countries that begin to receive American aid in the 1950′s and 1960′s have become economically non-dependent.
- Foreign aid increases the likelihood that the recipient government will embark on inefficient spending instead of research and development, and investment. In fact, about 75% of foreign aid money goes to into bureaucratic institutions, solely helping the elite (not the truly needy) of the recipient country.
- The most successful developing countries have been the ones who have refused aid or who have been cut off from aid.
Another thing we could/should cut out is Planned Parenthood. According to a Heritage Foundation report, from 2002 to 2007, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates took in a net income of $388 million more than they spent on programs and services. Even in the midst of the recession, the president of the organization still received more than $337,000 in an annual salary and tens of thousands more in benefits and allowances. Planned Parenthood is receiving a rolling, annual bailout, which they don’t seem to need.
Even after Andrew Breitbart filmed undercover video of fake pimps bringing in underage girls to Planned Parenthood offices nationwide, they STILL continue to receive government funding.
Along with Planned Parenthood, we should also cut out funding for NPR. Again, despite Andrew Breitbart’s undercover footage of NPR execs trying to make multi-million dollar deals with the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD they continue to receive government funding.
And finally we have the Department of Education. YES, liberals, I love children and my mother was an amazing high school English/Speech/Spanish teacher for over 44 years.
The Department of Education has little to do with truly caring about children OR teachers.
According to the Heritage Foundation, since 1985, inflation-adjusted federal spending on K-12 education has increased 138 percent. Yet, indicators of educational improvement such as increases in academic achievement and graduation rates have remained flat.
Despite the evidence that more spending is not the answer to increasing academic achievement, Obama wants to increase funding for the Department of Education, topping $77 billion. The budget increase comes on top of last year’s $100 billion stimulus package for the Department of Education.
The solution to all of this—in my simple, humble opinion—is that rather than increases in federal spending, threatening to tax us to death and/or threatening to defund our military, take away people’s Social Security checks etc, Congress and the Obama administration should focus on streamlining and reforming all federally funded programs to better serve the American People.
Hopefully the big Washington Compromise will work—but even typing those two words together just doesn’t seem to make much sense these days…sigh.
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Now that we know where the cuts should be and how much each one cost how do you get those who make the rules, set their own pay raises and hold the purse strings to cut off their noses in spite of their faces. If you were getting perks and kickbacks , insider trading, to make yourself richer, etc. would you give it all up just to see some slimy low life people, that would be 310,000,000+ of you who do nothing for them but bi-tch are taken care of? I think you know the answer. Nothing is going to change and the only way this nation is going to survive is to fix the income the government gets to operate on, cap the debt ceiling, abolish the IRS, go to a flat tax where everyone regardless of income pays their 10% and take then put the world on a cashless traceable income where no transactions of any kind can be done without total disclosure. The government is now on a fixed income, they can never raise taxes for any reason what so ever, the books must be balanced on Dec 31st of each years and criminal activity is now tracked. If you guys can’t accomplish both of these in tandum rather fast, the US of A is doomed. We must have someone in the Whitehouse that’ll write EO on the first day to get all of what is said above implemented within 24 hours. The best we’ve seen so far with ball I hate to say it is the one you hate the most. I dislike his steal from the rich to pay for the parasite concept but I do like his audacity and the in your face attitude. From what I can see we only have wimps running against him and that’s why my friends you’re going to have Obama for 4 more year.
nvrpc: Agreed. Gingrich has vowed to fire all of king O’s czars about two hours after he is sworn-in, if he gets elected. He has further vowed to issue Executive Orders immediately dismantling the devastating agenda king O has put in place such as the “cap-and-trade” EO’s the king has issued. Those items alone are why I like Gingrich and I don’t care a whit about his marital affairs. The most conservative candidate out there is Michelle Bachmann but the GOP “good ol’ boy” establishment keeps her in the closet.
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No but the Libs are still working on it. If the Progressives push through Cap-and-Trade then your hero Al Gore and his minions will rake in the cash using the Carbon Trading Credits they came up with.
Remember, your kids and grandkids are already saddled with TRILLIONS of Progressive driven debt, saying you Love them while giving them even more debt is a thinly veiled kick in the head.
There is an EPA and they are overstepping their bounds accomplishing some of the things that obama can’t. Time to end the EPA and the FED.
YOU NEED TO WAKE UP.OBAMA IS ENFORCING BACK DOOR CAP AND TRADE THROUGH THE EPA AND DEPT. OF INTERIOR.
Dave, you don’t know what you are talking about. Congress didn’t pass cap and trade, but Obama is trying to implement it through his EPA!!!!!!!!!!!! So is the UN!
Karen-He ver does-He just spouts off his mouth where ever he can just to be heard-bet he is an Occupier.
Chuck Woolery stated almost verbatum all the policies that Ron Paul wants to get started with if he is elected President. So to say we have wimps running against Obama is a gross mis-statement….
Ron Paul for the Plan to Restore America
http://www.ronpaul2012.com check it out! It’s all right there!!
There is a diffference, Wollery is not a nutcase like paul is.
nvrpc , So you like the fraud obama ? Are you nuts ? Obama is a criminal and a fraud . This pice of garbage is using someone else social security number and the Certificate of live birth he has shown the American people has been proven to be a forgery ? And You say you like Him ? How dumb do you have to be to be an Obot or liberal ?
O’s father was never an American therefore he is ineligible to be president he is in the job illegally.
Chuck Woolery stated almost verbatum all the policies that Ron Paul wants to get started with if he is elected President. So to say we have wimps running against Obama is a gross mis-statement….
Ron Paul for the Plan to Restore America
http://www.ronpaul2012.com check it out! It’s all right there!!
you forgot stop foriegn aid, stop any and all support to illegals, and that includes forcing hospitals to give medical treatment to non american citizens, stop welfare, and remember there was a time it never existed and somehow they survived, giving them welfare have only increased the numbers. reduce teh salaries and benifits of congress 50%. make them state employees and two terms for live in any elected position. repreal obama care and use that money collected to pay a part of the debit congress makes without the consent of the people! then, tell congress start working for the american people or they will be dragged out of their homes and hanged as traitors of the american people.most of teh country has witnessed their high treason against the american people, and it is time teh american people get justice and not congress writting laws to protect their sorry asses!
Don’t forget the two NEAs (National Ed. Assoc. and Nat’l Endowment for the “Arts”.
They should be defunded, also. I’m also hoping for the ACLU to lose funding.
I think the most important part of this is welfare these people should have to take a drug/alcohol test to get my money.I have to be tested to make it.
Illegals not one penny of my money should be used for illegals except to help pay for transportation out of here…
Major savings..
Most illegals will leave on their own if you cut off any and all economic incentives. They keep coming here because some American companies hire them to save on labor costs. In addition enforce the curerent immigratio laws and remove the idiotic idea that the children of illegals become instant US Citizens if born here. Leaving on their own will cost us nothing.
I’d wager that if Congress would convene a panel of ordinary blue-collar workers to make suggestions on where to cut the budget, they would find enough to balance the budget. The “token” cuts Congress makes are insignificant. For instance, instead of “trimming” the budget of the EPA, it should be defunded to bare bones and their regulatory authority should be replaced with ADVISORY TO CONGRESS ONLY status. Let Congress make the decisions about balancing environmental protection with good economic policy. And I’d further wager that blue-collar citizens could fix our economy without throwing our Senior Citizens down the stairs! Just eliminating WASTE AND LARGESS in government operations alone would save $billions.
Your thoughts are on the money, blue collar workers would take the politics out of Gov’t spending and agencies and put them back to work doing their original job.
I bet blue collar workers would force lay-offs of Gov’t employees that are there only for the check and preform no real roll for Americans.
Some clown clicked on negative on your comment, I negated it with a positive click.
DO NOT vote for an incumbent for any office in the upcoming elections! And….
Chuck Woolery stated almost verbatum all the policies that Ron Paul wants to get started with if he is elected President.
Ron Paul for the Plan to Restore America
http://www.ronpaul2012.com check it out! It’s all right there!!:)
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Many government agencies and departments should be eliminated. They conflict with the state departments that sould really be in charge. What the H%(( ever happened to States Rights tell the Feds to mind their own business.
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There are enough morons to go around! No need for you to be one !!!
Saludos Vato !
Great article and if he makes it I will vote for him. Just maybe he’ll write the EO we need to get this country back on track. However, he has to write the EO and don’t ask the congress or the senate for anything. he just needs to get-r-done witin 24 hours of taking office.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/07/v-print/132440/ron-paul-national-town-crier-for.html
We should only give foreign aid when they let us set up a bank and an agency to distribute it so their ruling class never touches it. And, we should get out of Japan, Germany and Korea as well as everywhere else. It they threaten us drop a nuke on their capitol. That solves the problem.
The Two Minute Conservative at http://adrianvance.blogspot.com for political analysis, science and humor. Daily on Kindle.
Look at what Barack Obama is giving away
and guess who’s paying for it, you are.
https://www.safelinkwireless.com/Safelink/home
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The ~8 -2 -0 ~Plan
8% Fed = 2% State = 0% Sales + Immediate Abolishment of the IRS
It’s time for a revolution in American.. It’s time to put an end to the Socialist Democratic Party nationwide, once and forever and a new beginning for America. It’s as simple as this and it can be done with an Executive Order within the first 24 hours of the new presidency.
Action #1 = Abolish the IRS and all of its tax codes immediately without ado
Action #2 = Establish a flat 10% tax rate whereby your annual obligation is automatically withdrawn from each paycheck. This 10% will cover the individuals state and federal obligation for the year with no 1040 to be filed what so ever. There’s to be no other taxes of any kind for any reason. The 10% pays 2% to the state and 8% the federal government and is to be frozen at 10% for eternity. Your salary may go up but your taxes never will
If the United States of America cannot run it’s government on 10% of everyone’s income then shut down all none essential programs and keep only those the 10% will support. There will be no borrowing to sustain or to support any program, period. There is absolutely no need for the government to take more than 10% of everyone’s income per year, especially in a cashless society where nothing can be earned without an electronic transaction at which time the automatic withdraw will take place, and surely there’s no need for a government bureaucracy to be allowed to run amuck for the sole purpose to enslave the people by controlling their livelihood via taxation; which is directly relational to establishing classes of people.
Only _YOU_ the tax paying people of America can stop the insanity of being taxed into poverty and used as a never ending involuntary donor to support the parasite of this world. If you have no balls to abolish the IRS or to mandate the establishment of a fare tax policy then just change your name to Johnny Bendover and smile as they molest you relentlessly. As it stands now this is exactly what they’re doing to you at this moment.
Please take the time to view this video below. If you’re not pissed and ready to revolt, then you’re not an American I want to be associated with. I say, as you will, after viewing this, “Cut All Funding Now”
daves,that’s because you can’t see a bad idea if it hit you in the head.you believe everything that obama says even if it’s loaded with corruption & stupidity.
It has zero to do with what President Obama says and everything to do with common sense.
I notice that your reply lacks a counter argument with supporting evidence.
Could not agree more about changing our financial works starting from the top down !
uioStop all of the perks to travel and other ghoodies that Congress and Higher ups, Staffers get, example, paying for Nancy Pelosi’s plane flights back and forth between Ca. and D.C., Congress members having more than two offices, one in D.C. one in their home district as people are willing to travel and mmeet with them up to two hours,unless they pay for this out of their own pockets ! cut Congressional staffers and let interns earn college tuition by serving up to $5000.oo per year maximum ! No moreoutlandish Presidential Vacations and trips especially when only the first lady and her children go and the President doesn’t ! We have to cut at every corner we turn and start being realistic with income tx and our Country’s income ! Any person making above $300,000.00 yearly pay a twenty percent flat tax, those who make from above 150,000 up to $300,000.00 pay a twelve percent flat tax, $75,000.00 to $150,000.00 nine percent flat tax, and those under that amount to $20,000.00 five percent Flat tax, and any person, individual or married couple making less pay a flat $150.00 annually ! That way everyone contributes plus the normal social security payment o make this sytem workable again ! Government workers, President, Congress Members etc. all pay taxes and social security and all moies in the federal retirement system is put into the social security fund and they are given credits as any worker is for payment of benefits ! Install term limits of two terms on Congress Members and no lifetime payouts as it is now! We need to stop the presence and contact of all lobbyists in the halls of Congress and make sure that there are no more EARMARKS in our legislation beginning immediately ! This is the only way we are ever going to balance our budget plus we need to stop being the provider of money to all of these countries during disasters and for general use as we have so many unemployed and people living below the poverty level. Get rid of CAP AND TRADE PLUS all of the outide funding and military supplies we send overseas ! The fact is we need to stop sending over 3 Billion a year to the United Nations and get out of that organization as it does not benefit but, depletes our resources and manpower. Take our true allies and work with them plus it is against our Constitution for any U.S. Military Forces to take orders from Officers of foreign countries ! We have several true allies and other than one no others need any military forces in them, South Korea needs our military presence, The U.K. doesn’t, France doesn’t, Germany doesn’t, Japan doesn’t, plus these are our only true allies other than some smaller european countries which we are allies with ! There is no more gravy train it is done and over !
And now the jerk is going to raise the debt ceiling before Congress comes back from another vacation to vote it out. 1.2 trillion is it, and the jerk will get away with it. He is ruling as a dictator more so everyday. Gingrich is right when he said about the dumb idea with the so called supercommittee. The JA does exactly as he pleases and listens to no one.
One simple thing would be to put congress and all government workers on a budget including the president. Cut all the frills and pork and we could balance the budget.
Gosh it all sounds so easy. The difficult part is getting the people we voted into office to start acting on these suggestions. Trust me when I say it will NEVER happen. They will continue to spend until this country goes under which, at the rate they are going, should be some time between now and summer. At which time osluma will declare martial law and th th that’s all folks.
Berenice,
The only way it will ever happen is for the American voters to get their heads out of the sand (or their own behinds) and realize that Obama and his shadow government are following orders from the new world order elitists and they could not get by with it if they were not being aided and abetted by our natural born citizen congressional illegitimi, who therefore must also be new world order puppets which makes them worse traitors than illegal alien Obama and his radicals.
Until we wake up and see the reality of our situation and vote them out, there is no hope of saving this nation!
There is only one patriot in either party who still supports and upholds our Constitution and believes in our sovereignty, freedom to choose and liberty. They call Ron Paul unelectable, but what they are really saying is “he cannot be allowed to win” because he will not work for the cause of the new world order. Wake Up and Stay Alert Forever More!
I vote to get rid of the drug war! That would be 20 billion, plus all the police,courts and prisons.
it’s not a drug war any longer,it’s a police action.that’s why obama & holder are making sure that the drug cartels have lots of weapons traceable to the US,even though they can get better ones elsewhere.
Here’s how we get rid of the drug war and the f-ing drugs. “Be resonable, do it my way”- as follows. It’s the same course of action that I’d use to control all AH’s.
American’s Making A Big Mistake
First of all let’s make this very clear. I could care less about the United Nations, One World Order or Executive Order 12333 which prohibits the act of state-sponsored killing, nor would I comply to this Executive Order if I were in command and neither would any real leader of a country.
By now it should be apparent to the American people that terminating the leader of a foreign country with extreme prejudice is the most efficient and effective means of resolving a conflict that’s obviously affecting the world economy, peoples lives and their futures. I sincerely believe after reading what I’m about to propose you’ll understand how such action would resolve 99.9% of all the problems 100% of the time. As a matter of a fact after doing what I’m proposing we’d probably have no problems at all.
Here’s where American’s have gone wrong in every conflict since Vietnam of which I’m a veteran of.
As you well know humans are creatures of habit and with today’s technology we should know on an hour by hour basis the exact physical location within a few feet of every _”problem child” _ we have in this world. If not, we are seriously lacking in the intelligence department.
Assuming we know a lot more than is disclosed to the public here’s how I would have resolved conflicts in Lydia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Venezuela and taken care of every problem child drug lord and cartel ring leader we currently have no matter what region of the world they inhabit, without notice.
In many cases such as Libya I would have targeted the very same sites our allies did, however, that would have only taken place after I positively located Muammar Gaddafi at his dinner table with his family, friends, politicians and followers, enjoying themselves, telling stories of grandeur about their daily defeats. At that time I would have delivered desert, a series of light weight ultra high explosive GPS / laser guided ordnance into the middle of his main course assuring everyone present was vaporize, inevitably cutting off the head of the snake leaving a message to whomever chose to take his place.
Drones are the ideal hardware, and tactics such as I have described above are to be used against the drug cartels world wide to stop drug trafficking, gun running and illegal immigration steaming from thousands of deaths in cities such a Juarez Mexico verses deploying troops or using this excuse to create more worthless gun control legislation against the American people.
Remember, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. It’s as simple as that.
Outcome ?– Problem resolved.
Agenda ? – Awaiting next problem child to appear.
Executive Order 12333
Bottom Line ? — Until America has the intestinal fortitudes to employ tactics such as I have laid out above the drug cartels will flourish, gangs will grow and prosper, deaths will escalate beyond belief, terror will rule your lives, illegal aliens and terrorist will live among you and drug addiction will grow until society’s God is Cocaine.
It’s your call America. What’s your choice?
With 16 trillon coming,the ony way this country is gonna come out of debt,is bankrupt. China won’t like it,to bad, it’s all we can look forward to.
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kenneth,that jobs already taken by king obama.
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Simple solutions as well are get muslims and radical left wingers out of washington!!!Simple!!
Yellow Horse there won’t be many left in dc!
Here’s two real simple one to start the recovery act:
Term limits for all elected and appointed officials, salary only.
Fair Tax to replace the progressive tax on a national ballot every ten years.
And a kicker, all elected and appointed officials to be publicly audited for earnings and holdings every year while in office.
Time to put the civil back into public service.
All these things and many more need to be cut, eliminated, or restructured, but who’s going to do it? The present structure of government is the power base of the politicians. Every handout, grant, loan guarantee, agency, regulation, licensing requirement, tax, board, commission, program, restriction and law has a constituancy. Politicians raise money and maintain themselves in power by doing these things for their supporters, directly benefitting them with money, legal advantge, or ordering some action they desire, or indirectly, by taxing, restricting and tormenting their competitors and enemies. As evil as all this is and destructive to the freedom and prosperity of the nation, the people who gained their power by doing it aren’t going to undo it. It’s going to take a drastic change of personnel in Congress and a strong, committed President, to begin dismantling this unaffordable, tyrannical nightmare.
I agree with most of these suggestions, but would add one more. The fed owns millions of acres of land. This land should be sold back to the states at fair market value and easily obtainable terms. (0% interest and 100 years ) The States and ONLY the States can purchase this land and then they can sell it to business, ranchers, farmers, etc. No land is to be sold to any foreign government. All proceeds of the land sales are to be directed soley to the national debt.
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Shane, you are one stupid AH. Cut SS , Medicare and Medicaid. I will not put up with that BS and would endorse the execution of anyone who would even imply that those programs should get cut and would NEVER find the person that pulled the trigger guilty for ANY crime for doing so what so ever. They would go down in my books as a hero. Now you can cut welfare, free ride for Mexicans and foreign national, all foreign aid and enforce the deportation of all no US citizen, illegal aliens and their off spring and I’ll be just fine with that. You can abolish the IRA and go to a flat 10% tax and a cashless society where we all pay the same % proportional to our income with the ability to track ALL transactions legal and illegal with GPS and time stamp of that transaction. I’m fine with that too, but for some JA to say cut SS, Medicare and medical or Medicaid I sure hope you never get old you stupid F. Or maybe you’re one of this DA’s that read a book decades age that said when you turned 70 years old we must lead all those people to the termination tanks because they severed their purpose on earth and now we need to make room for the young. FU AH !.
You are correct about Social Security and Medicare but neither party is going to cut benefits. For SS, raise the retirement age and the dollar threshold on withholding’s and it will be Solvent for at least another 80 years.
The National debt would more accurately be called the Congressional debt and since it is Congress’ debt all members of Congress should put forth all the loot they have aquired while living off of Americans. There property and assets should be confiscated and put towards the debt. I am not at all interetesed in paying more taxes to pay for their irresponsible spending. I am responsible for my spending habits ad Congress should be too.
The first and far and away the simplest thing is to get rid of the Kenyan and his socialist-democrap supporters. Until we do that, nothing else will work. The commie scum will just vote more progressive-socialists into office as fast as we vote them out. We need to end this revolving door BS and clean out that cesspool they call Washington DC.
CHUCK WOOLERY FOR PRESIDENT.