Governments become cumbersome over many years of adding, writing and rewriting laws. It becomes a major burden to the people it actually serves and begins to serve special interest instead. That is the current plight of the United States Government. Such things are not easily fixed because of disparity in goals between political parties, bureaucrats that buck change because that's the way it has always been done and the general laziness or incompetence of the system.
Here is how I would fix it if I were in charge:
1. Everyone would pay taxes but first the tax code would need to be simplified. Most of the 70,000 page code is on how to spend the money after it is collected which would need to be modified as well but we would first look at a fair tax for all brackets and do away with all the shenanigans of credits and deductions. We would structure the business tax code to be similar to the one used by The Maldives.
2. Everyone over the age of eighteen would receive a public stipend equivalent to the poverty level and include all current program like welfare, medicare, housing and food stamp allotments all in one check. No more paying for mamma to have babies or people to be out of work. This stipend would be removed when a job or income of the individual will replace it by 1.5 times or may be reduced as income increases over time.
3. Everyone that received a public stipend would be required to have a job or be given one. Women/men may chose to stay home and raise children only if there is another partner or wage earner in the home making more than 1.5 times the stipend. Work loads may be reduced for families providing adequate reasons to do so.
4. I would eliminate the current welfare system as it exist, it is not working and keeps poor people poor.
5. Public employees would not be able to bargain for rights past a current administration. Guidelines for pay, pension and benefits must always be in the budget.
6. All deficits budget departments would be cut until they are fully funded and functional. No exceptions.
7. The departments of interior, education and environmental protection agency would be restructured and many of the functions given back to the states.
8. The affordable care act, medicare, and medicaid would be restructured into a single functioning health care act funded through taxation of the working class, which reading line 3 would include everyone over the age of 18.
9. Social security would be done away with and employers and employees would instead be required to pay into a retirement plan for the individual insured by the government.
10. Social Security funding for all current retirees would continue using a combination of line 2 and a phased out plan for social security that would insure retirement for all at age 67. This would be paid for through taxation of the working class, which reading line 3 would include everyone over the age of 18.
11. Unemployment insurance will become employment and reeducation insurance. It will introduce people back into the work force immediately. The government will provide them a job until they are reemployed somewhere else.
12. We will stop watching people for the sake of watching them. All government agencies will need to have a reason to have your information and have to provide a signed subpoena or warrant to get it.
13. There will be an immigration program that will turn undocumented workers into documented workers, these workers will only be allowed access to public services when employed and paying taxes. Any documented worker convicted of a crime may be immediately deported.
14. The disability system will be revised to provide for short term as well as long term disability and
will provide for reeducation and introduction back into the workforce for those it deems able.
15. Public officials, whether elected or bureaucrat will post all meetings with lobbyist on a public website including attendees, detailed subject matter and cost to provide such meeting, and who paid for it.
16. The budget will be balanced
Other things I would consider: elimination of the federal reserve system, changes to the commodities exchanges that would limit speculation and fluctuation of markets like oil, gas and grain. Restructuring the penal system to provide education and training to all prisoners, including behavior modification for drugs and alcohol and anger management.
Things I would encourage: the elimination of the direct deposit requirement (people should start using cash more often), remove the issues of gay marriage, abortion, and gun control from the federal level and let it be handled by individual states, Tort reform capping the awards of damages, a federal voter picture id for everyone, removal of pensions and expansive benefits from elected officials, term limits, line item veto and value engineering for all federal projects.
This won't fix every thing and may create other problems but it would creating a large class of people all in the same boat working for the common good of the government and each other. It would provide for checks and balances but allow much more freedom. It would also reduce large fluctuations in the workforce and tax base. I want our country to be great. It can only be as great as our weakest member. My system would make the weak stronger. It would support the family model of having more than one parent in the home. It would encourage productivity. It would make us a country for the people, led by the people again. It would give each individual more power in their own decision making process.
Maybe I don't need to be president to affect a change. Maybe I just need to put some good ideas on paper that others can consider. So if you like my ideas, let me know, let others know, it will take all of us to make it work.
