As promised here is installment three of my ten part series Fixing America- Restoring the American Dream. In this segment I deal with ways we can shrink the size of gowverment. By government I mean Federal, State and local. Some of the ideas are contrraversial but they need to be vetted and explored because the track we are on today will take over an economic presipiss. As always I welcome your input, thoughts and comments. Enjoy.
Shrinking Government and Regulations
Shrinking Government and Regulations
Politicians particularly on the Republican side of the aisle
like to preach about this. What’s funny is they have never succeeded in doing
it either. G.W. Bush grew the Federal government more than B. Clinton and he
had control of Congress. No, I believe that our founding fathers are rolling in
their graves as they see the horror that has become our government. At both the
Federal and State level we are grossly oversized for our population and we over
regulate to the point of the ridiculous.
The feds today employ over 2.65 million people and the
states are employing over 3.8 million. Look at California and New York, two of
the most populated states in the country. They employ over 340,000 and 251,000
respectively. Can we really afford this type and size of governance? The
federal employment represents nearly 1.5% of the civilian workforce. Do we want
that? Whatever happened to free enterprise, honesty, integrity and common
sense? Are we micro-managing our economy to failure? The global competitive
results would say it is not working at all and the balance sheet says it is an
utter failure.
So how do we fix this? It is not easy because the lines are
very blurred and people’s lives are at stake. I think it has to start with
developing national pride and recreating the family unit. From there we need to
adopt an understanding that while we all want to succeed we can’t trample others
and our country to do it. We need corporate responsibility and
government cooperation not regulation.
In practical terms here is how we start. By implementing a
new tax code we will eliminate a great deal of the IRS and many state taxing
authorities. This means less folks will be employed by the governments. Today
the IRS has over 106,000 employees and plans to increase that by 15% in 2014
just to administer parts of the PPACA law. With my tax plan they don’t need to hire.
The new healthcare system changes will also shrink both
state and federal bureaucracies considerably as their will be less regulation
and complexity. This means another decrease in the number of folks on the
governmental payroll. I estimate we can shrink Federal and State regulatory
agencies by more than 5%.
Through my proposed foreign policy we will decrease the size
of our armed forces as we will no longer be the world’s police force.
Additionally, we will gain further advantage on our enemies as we develop more
technological weapons requiring a smaller standing army. This will again shrink
the government payroll since National Defense is about 40% of our annual budget
and we employ over 774,000 people in that endeavor. (see the Foriegn Policy segment in the coming weeks).
As we continue through my fix for America you will
see further cuts in both State and federal employment ranks. When we are all
done we will have a much more fit governing body allowing us to live on fewer
taxes and enjoy the fruits of our labor to the fullest. In other words - rebuilding
the American Dream.
Let’s take a quick look at regulation. I believe strongly
that most people want to do the right thing. I also believe that in a democracy
if the majority exerts their will the minority will go along or leave. For the
last 20 plus years we have increasingly let the minority dictate a great deal
of our regulations. There are a number of reasons why this has happened but
suffice it to say the majority has been “guilted” into believing they are
oppressing the minorities and thus they have acquiesced. When I say minorities
I am NOT
referring to racial or class distinction but rather opinion status.
Let’s take language as a great example. Today in America we
do so much in multiple languages. While I highly advocate everyone should learn
another language I don’t think any country has the obligation to provide
services in multiple languages other than its own. Specifically, I believe that
we should make American the official language of our country and require that
all who wish to become citizens learn at least the basics. We should cease
offering standard schooling in multiple languages and the same for all
government services. Do you think when most of our ancestors came through Ellis
Island they had forms in 17 languages? Do you think those early citizens of
this great country had to learn to speak English? Did we have special classes
for them in their native tongues? The answer is no to all those questions. I
still agree that we should offer English courses to immigrants who need to
learn our language but if we don’t offer all our services in multiple languages
those soon to be citizens will be forced to learn English.
We need to stop pandering to minority opinions and start
reverting to our set of morals and values that made our country great. Honesty,
integrity, hard work, family first, personal responsibility, generosity,
national pride, service to our country and enjoying our unique freedoms. Now
let me be clear I am not suggesting we encourage bias to race, sex, creed or
otherwise. I am saying we need to recapture the morals and values that made
America great and exert that majority will on all who choose to live here.
Doing this will eliminate another whole set of bureaucracies
which will in turn shrink the government payroll further. Let enterprise and individuals
fill the gaps where government dare not tread; let families provide guidance
discipline and protection where the government should not and let all people
respect each other without having laws to force them to.
If we recover the moral fiber of this great country we will
not need to have the heavy hand of the government intervene. Let us never
forget that we elect our government and thus we control their actions. People
must stop being so selfish and greedy and focus on doing what is right not
necessarily easy, what will help your family not just you, what will be best
for your community not just yourself and what will be best for this country. To
some this may seem socialist but it is not – this is just common sense and
decent values.
One of the larger areas of State and Federal government is
unemployment and welfare. While everyone agrees that we need to have safety
nets in our society to protect the folks who fall on hard times and need a
helping hand. Unfortunately today we have over 35M of our people on some form
of Federal assistance program. This has grown significantly in the last few
years. For example we have over 50M Americans on Medicaid up by over 16% since
late 2007. Our food stamp program now has 44M enrolled up over 4.7M in just one
year.Some 34.2 percent of Americans
lived in a household that received benefits such as food stamps, subsidized
housing, cash welfare or Medicaid. We can’t sustain this and we need to
get these folks back to work where applicable and paying their own way. Part of
the problem is of course the way we administer these programs. The current
administration is calling for a further relaxing of the rules for getting
assistance and while there is much debate about this one thing is clear we
can’t afford this anymore.
We have a moral obligation to help our fellow citizens in
need but there is a big difference between a helping hand and a hand out. We
need to reform these programs so folks get temporary help and get back to being
productive if they can. For those who can’t we must implement well managed
programs to assist long term that may even involve government and the private
sector working together. More than 70% of all those on assistance today can
work and be productive.
Welfare was developed to help folks who were disadvantaged and
not disabled. It really started in the 1930’s after the Great Depression but became
modern welfare in the 1960’s. It has been amended many times but most significantly
by President Clinton in 1996. His reform provided flat amounts to states based
on population and required that they drive recipients back to work. It also limited
the time on welfare to 5 years maximum (with some exceptions). It was not
deigned to be a permanent sustenance system that carries citizens’ indefinitely.
However, based on the statistics it appears that is exactly what we have created.
Perhaps this definition is the very heart of the issue? Maybe some people think
welfare is supposed to be a permanent arrangement for millions of Americans – I
do NOT. We need to fix this quickly if we are to dig out of this recession. The
beaucracy that drives this beast is also out of control at both the federal and
state level. Here are a few statistics from the Department of Commerce to chew on:
·
1 in 7 Americans are on some form of Welfare
·
38% are white; 39% are black and 16% are Hispanic
·
27% of AFCD recipients’ have been receiving benefits
for 2-5years; 19% over 5 years and only 19% less than 7 months
·
In 40 states welfare pays more than an $8 an hour
job. In 7 states it pays more than $12 an hour. In 9 states it pays more than a
typical teacher’s salary
·
Welfare is the 4th largest expenditure
by the Federal Government
·
We will spend over $679 Billion this year on Welfare
I suggest we do a number of things at the State level for
unemployment and welfare plans:
·
Strictly limit the amount of time folks can be
on these plans – there has to be an end
·
Require intense job searches – prep recipients
on interview and search skills and require updates on progress weekly (or no
check). Do this for 4 months.
·
After that period of time if no job is found
then the recipient must enter an intense job training program to develop a
specific new skill (the skills will vary based on state & local needs)
·
Then repeat the intense job search process with
the new skills sets, targeting local needs (maximum 2 months)
·
For those still unemployed after these steps
they can be moved to temp government positions in exchange for their welfare
payments but continue to search for a job too. At least this way they are
earning their keep and cutting federal, state and municipal payrolls while
increasing their workforce.
·
Streamline and modernize the payment system –
eliminating as much fraud as possible. We have the technology so let’s apply
it.
·
Review the state budgets and limit expansion
over time.
Remember if we build it they will come. If we provide
handouts with no strings attached folks will rush into these programs and they
will just continue to grow. Everyone wants something for nothing. For example
today the average government assistance value is $32,748 per annum while the
average American disposable income is only $32,444. No wonder many want to stay
on assistance programs. Many unemployed folks and welfare recipients are
selective about what they will and will not do. I think they lose this right
after a period of time on the dole. If we are paying then they must work where
the community needs them. Let’s study this problem carefully and add other
innovative ways to get folks back to work.
For example we have over 44M folks on Food Stamps today.
That is up by 4.7M in one year and represents over 14% of our entire
population. This is outrageous. I know that we can do better than this. Most of
these folks want to work and support themselves so let’s find a way to get them
productive again.
Let me share a story of a young woman I know in California.
This young lady came from a middle class family and graduated from high school
with some of my kids. Sadly she made a bad choice and got involved with a
troubled young man who made her pregnant. Because of her strong morals she
decided to have the child. The father as expected was not willing or able to
provide any support. She struggled with a tiny bit of support from her family,
working part time and receiving food stamps. She managed to raise this
beautiful little boy and still go to school to finish her degree (with loans
and family support). While all her friends were dating, traveling and enjoying
typical college lives she was lonely and trapped. After years of struggle she
graduated and got her teaching degree. She fought hard and finally landed a
teaching job which she starts this month. She is off food stamps, lives very
simply with her son but is happy and proud. She is one of my heroes and a
perfect example of personal responsibility and using the system correctly.
God Bless her and her son.
Finally, as we look at curbing regulation and shrinking the
government let us not forget the laws. Sadly any society must have them to
exist but just how many is the right amount? The lawyers would tell too much is
never enough but let’s not forget they have vested interest in saying so. Laws
should be passed to help the majority in a democracy and yet we have strayed
from this. We pass laws daily that are not in the best interest of the majority
but are designed to help or protect a minority. We have laws for everything. Do
we really need them? Can we afford this kind of micro statutory environment? If
we could decrease the number of laws – just wipe them out, we could cut the
size of government more and as a bonus have less lawyers!
An example of an over litigious sector of our economy is
malpractice. Malpractice is a huge sub industry for the trail lawyers and a
massive revenue stream. For years Americans and medical providers have been
crying for national tort reform. The trial lawyers have one of the most powerful
lobbies in the country and have been able to hold off such important reform.
Several States have however implemented some tort reform themselves with strong
results. Texas is probably the best example. By implementing this reform
malpractice premiums and their annual increases have decreased. Obviously lower premiums also means the
possibility of lower priced healthcare. While we have not seen doctors lower
their prices in Texas more have started practices in the state. In a recent
study the number of doctors in Texas has increased over 19% versus the
population. Most in the study said the lower premiums and decreased liability
encouraged them to practice in Texas. This is all positive especially when you
consider it will decrease the number of lawyers in that state over time.
There are many other examples of laws we can do without that
would decrease the size of government and allow our economy to flourish. I
don’t have enough time or paper to explore all of them but I am sure you get
the point. Let’s tell our Congress – State and Federal we want this done and
soon!