Our Economy
This Nation did not become great because of powerful government bureaucracies. It became great through the principles of government established by our founding fathers and because the genius of our citizens who were allowed to create and grow.
The Problem
The fact that we are in a war to protect the freedoms we have enjoyed for over 200 years is not, in and of itself, justification for failing to abide by the principles of Fiscal Responsibility.
Since World Terrorism declared war on the United States on September 11, 2001, our senators and congressmen, from both Parties, have spent billions per year ($27,000,000,000 in 2006) on pork barrel projects (EARMARKS) while our fighting men and women were sent off to war with inadequate body protection and vehicles without adequate armor. The cost to develop the best protection and vehicle armor would have been less than 1/3 the money our leaders have spent annually on their individual, pet projects. How can we trust leaders who have shown so little judgment in setting priorities? This takes us back to the core problem, Integrity, Ethics and Accountability.
Now take Social Security. Both major parties have been well aware of the serious problem facing Social Security for over 20 years. Yet neither one of them has taken any corrective action. To do nothing is a decision. It is a decision to avoid the truth. The impact of fixing Social Security will have a major impact on our economy, as will fixing Medicare and fixing our borders.
Government spending (in addition to war) continues to grow as the government bureaucracies grow. The INS (Immigration And Naturalization Service) is broken. The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) continues to fail random inspections. Homeland Security, rather than helping in the Katrina disaster, appeared to be paralyzed, unable to perform. The old story about the $500 hammer in the Defense Department is real. The bureaucratic jungle of paperwork turns simple solutions into financial nightmares. All of this is known. As hard as some well-meaning people work, efficiencies are slow to come in these agencies. If these bureaucracies were in the private sector, they would fail under the weight of their inefficiencies. The problem is, in government there is no competition to encourage efficiency as there is in the free market place. Consequently, there is no general desire to improve or to be more efficient. Good, hardworking people seem to just get swallowed up.
What We Must Do
As in all cases, there is no easy solution. Again, this also takes us back to the basic problem, the loss of Integrity, Ethics and Accountability in government. And the Economy is a complex system. First, get the government off the backs of our people. You cannot successfully reduce taxes if you do not reduce government involvement. Second, start the process of fixing Social Security, which is one of the Nations largest liabilities, and take it by steps. Step one, make congress abide by the same rules by which every other business must abide regarding pension plans. If a company sets up a pension plan and the employees and company make contributions to it, the company and its officers cannot touch that money unless they want to go to jail. In other words, the Social Security Trust should be run by the same rules by which all other pension trusts are operated. Stop allowing congress to treat the Social Security Trust as a petty cash account. Step two, set up a program whereby the current non-tradable securities congress has dumped on the Social Security Trust or replaced with the same quality of securities that all other pension trusts have (let’s not kid ourselves, this will cost money). With these steps accomplished, one can start pulling together responsible parties and solve the rest of the Social Security Problem. Third, follow the same process for Medicare. Fourth, dissect each and every one of the government’s major bureaucracies. Start with Homeland Security, INS and TSA. Do what is necessary to create the competitive environment that has made the Nation so strong. If the agency is not needed as a government entity and it is of value, move it to the private sector. Fifth, find out if NAFTA is truly “fair trade.”