My Budget Plan

It’s been a while since I’ve written, but I haven’t felt as though I have anything to say. That however has changed.

Recently the talk in our political discourse has given over to the debate on reducing our great land’s debt I feel the need to weigh in with my own proposal.

The problem is that all parties involved believe that their plan is the only one worth talking about I on the other hand have no such qualms. So my plan is as follows:

1. Increase the taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent, the Bill Gates and Warren Buffetts, of the country, Buffett has said he should pay more, so why not take him up on that offer. Plus if any of those wealthy people want to pay more, let them.
2. Cap spending. I keep hearing 18 percent from sources that I trust, so that’s what I’d be inclined to say.3. Foreign Spending:

a. Cut foreign aid, both military and diplomatic, in 2009 this was $47.7 Billion dollars, cut it to $0.

b. Cut funding/withdraw from the UN and NATO, the UN cost the United States $3 Billion in fy2010, while NATO for the same period totaled $711.8 million

4. Defense:

a. Bring the US Military home, from everywhere. Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Okinawa, Italy, the Middle East. Everywhere, even South Korea. This will allow us to stop paying for those bases, and in conflict zones we would stop having to pay combat rates and hazardous duty pay. It will also cut down on wear and tear on men and equipment, lowering costs in that area too.

b. Once the military is home transfer about a third of them in each branch to the reserves. This will cut cost too; admittedly the downside is that you will be flooding the job market, but you can hope some will take advantage of the GI bill.

c. Cut Defense spending. The US spends 4.8% of our GDP on defense spending that’s $698 billion for fy2010, more than 6 times what the next nearest spends. Cut it to $350 billion that’s still almost 3 times what China spends.

5. ) Internal

a. Cut funding to Colleges. I know this will jack the price of tuition through the roof but it could also make college degrees more valuable again.

b. Cut Welfare, I know that there are people who depend on this but we do have an actual welfare class, people that don’t even try to do anything but live on handouts.

c. Cut tax returns in half.

d. Liquidate about a quarter of the gold in the US reserve at Fort Knox. This at current market value could be about $69 billion. This would also have the effect of driving gold prices down which could hinder any country that is currently investing in gold. (I thought of this before I saw that Ron Paul had said something similar.)

e. Cut Executive and Legislative branch wages, pensions, and other benefits. By about one third sounds good to me. Also, no vacations on the government’s tab for the first family, unless the President is along to.

This is my plan as it exists now, I understand much of it will be unpopular with one group or the other, but frankly if it helps...

I don’t know how much it will save but anything is better than nothing.

A Few Points

A Few Points

Gulf of Mexico:
I think we can all agree that what has happened in the Gulf of Mexico is a tragedy, 11 people have died, an there is a good bit of damage to the ecosystem.
However I have a problem with people who say this proves that BP and other Oil Companies are evil, and that BP is not really trying to fix the hole.
Admittedly, none of their ideas have yet to yield fruit, but there may be a reason for that; It is entirely possible that they are doing the things that they are doing because they don't want to be seen as doing nothing. Because: "It is more noble to try and fail than not to try at all." Really how would it have been perceived if they had spent the past month doing nothing but saying “We’re thinking up a solution.”
I believe it is possible that they are doing these things while they work on ideas that have a better chance of success.
Then there is the nuke idea, which basically calls for using a nuclear device to seal the 30” hole. Problem is, BP can’t do that. That would be a solution that would have to be employed by the US Government. This is the solution that I tend to favor, even though it involves the Government in a sector which, I believe, doesn’t concern them. Although in the interest of full disclosure, one of my favorite movie quotes is "Take off and Nuke it from orbit, it's the only ay to be sure."
At this moment they are trying a few solutions that could help in the short and long term.

Israeli Blockade
I love how the Israeli raid on the Flotilla heading for Gaza has been called a massacre. I find it absolutely astonishing that this action, enforcing a blockade, has been drummed up this much.
It appears that when Israeli forces boarded the lead ship they were attacked by men armed with baseball bats, knives and slingshots loaded with metal balls. According to Israeli sources the boarding team was armed with mostly nonlethal weapons. They acknowledge that they had pistols, but according to one source “…never expected to use [the pistols].” Israel says that the troops roped down from helicopters and were immediately attacked, and several had they pistols taken from them.
Reports state that coming into the hospitals several soldiers and passengers had gunshot wounds as well as bruises. It is entirely possible and even probable that the attacks against the Israeli soldiers were perpetrated by a small portion of the ships 500+ passengers. However when you start fighting back you’re probably going to hit people who have done nothing because you’re mad. This was supposed to be a relatively simple and peaceful mission, the group that set up the flotilla is supposed to be one of the very peaceful groups, but I guess that’s like saying Christianity and Islam are religions of peace, however that’s an entirely different subject.
I believe that Israel is in the right, at least as far as stopping those ships is concerned. Israel is attempting to maintain a blockade of a hostile territory. A blockade is only effective if you prevent ships from entering the blockaded ports.
Also the flotilla suffered a better fate than most failed blockade runners. During the American Civil War, while Southern ports were blockaded, most blockade runners were either sunk or captured and sold as prizes. During the World Wars, when German was using U-Boats to try and blockade Britain, they sank every ship that they could that was carrying supplies to the beleaguered British. So they were detained, and might loose their ships, at least they have their lives.

Screw Health Care "Reform"

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am slightly put out. By slightly put out I mean befuddled and pissed the heck off.

Who does the US Government think it is? Really? I believe that this is only proof that the “C” students truly run the world. Admittedly the Health Care “Reform” Bill is still just a bill but I mean, what the heck? I have seen headlines stating that this bill could cost either $940 Billion bill or $875 Billion and it is going to reform and revolutionize the Health Care industry, as well as cut the National Deficit. Two things: 1) Let’s call it $1 trillion, what’s $60-$125 million at this point, how is spending that much money going to cut the national deficit? 2) Why does the healthcare industry need fixing?

A quick look at some of the “Highlights” of this bill:

It promises to mandate health insurance, if you don’t buy it you get in trouble, The government is going to tell me I have to buy insurance? What the heck? Our founders would be rolling over in their graves. Since when has the government had the right to require me to buy anything? Are they now telling me that they know better than me what I should and shouldn’t spend my money on? I should have a choice. If I become a billionaire and decide that I can afford whatever health expenses come my way why should I spend money on insurance? If I decide that I don’t believe in traditional medicine and am only going to be treated by holistic and new age practices how is health insurance going to benefit me? Speaking for myself, I have spent, I would guess, over the past 5 years about $100 dollars a year on medical expenses, and I have paid more than that in insurance, so if I decide it’s not worth it who is the government to tell me that I need insurance.

Then they will require health insurance companies to remove pre-existing condition exemptions. Let me explain something to you congress, Health Care, it’s a business, they are trying to make money, and not doing a very good job at it. If they can’t make money they are loosing money, and companies that loose money tend to die. So in order to maximize profits health insurance companies are going to look at a person and think along these lines “Are we going to make money off of this person?” If a person has a preexisting condition then it COULD cost more than the company will get out of it, so they may in some cases exclude that condition, deny coverage to the individual, or they might also just charge the person more. However, if I understand this new piece of crap right, they could no longer take any of that into account.

We all know this is just a government power grab, they are not fooling anyone.

So United States Politicians, I have a message for you, to assist me with this message I would like to bring in Johnny Cash:

On Israel

I think that Vice-Presidents need to be under a gag order, both when they are in and out of office. I don’t believe that any of the last three have said anything worth while, Al Gore just likes to make himself sound important when 90+% of Americans don’t care a bit about him, Dick Cheney has made it abundantly clear that he is going crazy, and Joe Biden, well, it is plain to see that he is an idiot.

I mean really Mr. Vice-President Biden, criticize Israel, for building some houses? If any country in history deserves some slack it would be Isreal. There have been at least 4 instances in their history where people have tried to destroy them. Although it would be 2 times once you discount the “exiles” in the bible, since they were actually taken as hostages, since a standard practice of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires was to relocate portions of the population in trouble areas to break apart the power base. Even with those instances discounted that still leaves the attempts by the Nazis and then the prolonged attempt by the Arabs by prolonged I am going back several hundred years, and including the persecution that the few Jews who remained in the Middle East faced at the hands of the Muslim and Christian rulers who held power there through various points over the past millennium.

I would say that they are better people than those who are fight them, they have never stated any desire to destroy the Palestinian people or all the Muslim peoples, in contrast to the leaders of Iran who have expressed a desire to destroy Israel and have repeatedly denied that the Holocaust happened. To make it more astounding people expect the leaders of Israel to meet with the leaders of the Palestinian Authority, this would be akin to the British meeting with the leaders of Sinn Féin when the Provisional IRA was highly active during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and expecting to get anything done. While the Fatah Party and not Hamas is in control of the PA, and Fatah is not technically recognized as a terrorist organization by their own organizational constitution they seek the "complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence." (http://www.alzaytouna.net/arabic/?c=1598&a=97061) They are also known to be supporters of multiple terrorist organizations, once again with the goal of destroying Israel. I also consider the Occupation of the Golan Heights and the West Bank to be perfectly justified, if for no other reason than to insure the long term strategic security of the State. Also I enjoy watching the UN pass all these resolutions condemning whatever Israel does in these areas and watching Israel ignore the UN. AHHH the futility of the UN makes me smile.

So Joe Biden, shut up.

As a final thought, I want whoever reads this to go to the following link and listen to the song that is there, I couldn’t find a good Youtube clip and Blogger won’t let me upload the actual song, there are several versions of this song out there but I prefer the Stan Rogers version but alas, The Tannahill Weavers will have to do.

http://tinyurl.com/ye9ql2q

Lyrics can be found here:

http://www.southernbranch.com/dramtreeo/watersd.html#pointed