Posted on 05/11/2019 7:44:51 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I think the time is coming for an idea that is so old that it is new again: cutting the Federal government in half.
The idea is: cancel all Federal welfare-type programs, including all means-tested welfare programs (apparently there are over 150 of them), all healthcare-related programs including Medicare and Medicaid, all education-related, arts-related and housing-related programs, and anything else of this sort -- in short, most everything except for the military, national parks, and maybe some public works. Social Security could eventually be reformed to a system of private retirement accounts, known as a "provident fund" system and in use today in over thirty countries.
No "block grants" or other such schemes. Just terminate the programs. This would make State governments responsible for all such welfare-type programs, to do as they see fit, and to impose taxes appropriately to pay for them. Give them twelve months to get ready. States like California and Massachusetts would be free to introduce the single-payer healthcare system of their dreams, while other states, like Utah or Texas, might have more private-sector-based solutions. States are active in all of these spheres already.
For a long time, such proposals have been on the outer fringe of political possibility. We have been in a period of political stasis, where things haven't changed much. Basically, today we have a spending structure that was built in the 1960s and 1970s, and a tax structure that was built in the late 1980s/early 1990s, with a few minor tweaks along the way. In the meantime, other governments have had huge changes. Some abandoned centrally-planned Communism and adopted free-market capitalism . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
“Cut The Federal Government In Half”
Half of America would starve.
Excellent idea and long overdue, but the dems would scream bloody murder.
It seem too often Forbes columns lean a LITTLE bit left.
Not this one!
Bravo.
Though people that paid into it for decades already, even though they paid into THIN AIR, it’s not their fault and they should get at least what they put in accrued at all of the years’ average interest rates on savings or CDs.
Or maybe that makes no sense at all :)
Wouldn’t be the first time for me!
Maybe?
Well, I think universal basic income is coming soon. Well more like in 20 years or so. Our economy will have developed to a point that much of our labor force will be surplus.
start with the FBI
Not nearly enough...
You could fire half of the government employees and it would make no difference in how things are working. In fact, in many cases the government would run better.
The only real debate for Freepers is how, exactly, to get back to Freedom from our currently adrift foundation of sand. Or, for some Freepers apparently, whether to even try.
The hook of left-leaning isms is barbed. Get people to bite on sweet-sounding poison like SS, then even when later recognizing the mistake the prey is unlikely to free itself.
SS for example. The fact that millions of people are currently hooked on a program is NOT evidence of its 'goodness'. To Freedom it is the measure of rot. Even so, it is silly and wrong to think we could or should just one day declare the obvious bankruptcy of the scheme and simply stop all payments cold turkey. Folks here are not wrong to point out we'd lose that debate... and the next three elections.
But it is not OK to give up. There are several other ways. Nobody seems to remember/admit now, but Paul Ryan was once a right wing/TEA party hero for galloping into town originally focused on turning entitlements back to the states and/or privatizing SS. Obviously, he failed, then turned constitutionally sour in general before tunneling back out of town. Anyway, with a better prez than Obama Ryan might have gotten farther. Great wars are rarely won in the first battle.
It would help if some folk would recognize the reality of SS today... the only sense in which SS 'owes' you money is in the sense that a car thief owes you a car.
Admit it. It's gone! You are NOT some concerned holder of any sort of real account. You are the victim of theft. Acknowledging this truth will not diminish your loss. And, yes, I believe most voters would fund a painful cleanup / weaning scheme for the victims of this most unnatural of disasters.
But our not-so-greatest generation and the next have to be honest. We f'd up. We can't keep paying the victims of theft (and increasingly non-paying beneficiaries) by stealing ever deeper from their kids.
The WWII generation was one of our bravest to be sure. But greatest generation will be the one which starts us on the path back to Freedom.
We always seem to lose and be discouraged with fed-level efforts to reform fed-level evils. I think because success would violate the 2nd Law of ThermoPolitics - power that flows always goes up and to the center. That is why the Founders gave us multi-dimensional divisions of power - to stop that flow. We say these men were uncommonly wise. But really what separates the Founders from today's flounders is that they were, to us, unrecognizably honest and determined regarding the value of common sense and natural truths.
It's probably going to take a ground-up approach to regain states' rights. The founding states were not carbon copies, they did not all reflexively agree. So the wisely common sense thing to do is agree to disagree - or at least agree to not butt in on each other's state and lower affairs. And agree the fed should stick only to specifically listed/pre-agreed activity.
We are not really more divided today than in the past. It's just that gov't policy, as a whole, is increasingly centralized - funneling various long-held and heart-felt positions of millions of people regarding more and more issues into a singularity of authority. Exactly opposite of the original intentionally up-side down, individual rights design of America.
Calls for parties in DC to reach across the aisle and to 'get things done', etc cause Lady Liberty to barf like a freshman. It is unnatural, immoral and blatantly anti-American to think we should all agree nationally on any internal or social issues. The best way to make the largest number of people the most satisfied with the decisions of government is to leave those decisions to the lowest level possible - NOT to the highest level where you personally have no input. The foundational secret of American Freedom's success is/was adherence to this principle:
Don't compromise. DE-CENTRALIZE.
Maybe??? Lol it’s beyond time!!
Friend, you said EXACTLY what I was thinking. CWII will happen unless emergency surgery is performed stat.
I agree.
Most FReepers don’t know what freedom is and why it is important to decentralize . Seriously, the left is pushing for cwII and the genocide of white males. We need drastic change and fast.
Absolutely. As I have said here many times, no intellectually honest conservative can deny that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the like are unconstitutional and immoral.
We must end all of them. And by that I don’t mean we should phase them out. On Medicare and Social Security, we need to stop collecting the taxes that support them and stop sending the checks. And Medicaid should just go away. Can’t pay the doc? Then don’t see the doc. Very simple.
It’s also ridiculous that people who “work” in civilian federal jobs (which are themselves a form of welfare) should also “retire” with a pension.
The GOPe does not want to do what’s right be a they fear losing to the DemonRATS. But I think candidates who speak the truth will win. God will change the hearts of the voters if candidates pledge to slash government and also proclaim The Word loudly and without hesitation or apology.
Dumb title! Only an idiot with their head up their rectal passage could write that!
Maybe It's Long Past Time To Cut The Federal Government In Half by 80%...
We need to cut everyone who works at the DOJ and FBI in half.
Even if Attila the Hun ruled Washington, he wouldn’t be able to eliminated Medicare. People paid premiums for that all their working lives and so they would rain down Hell on Washington until Attila relented and kept the program.
Perhaps move to a privatized health care retirement solution paid for in advance over a person’s working career?
I am less than 10 years from retirement and would gladly renounce all my SS today in exchange for eliminating all SS witholding. I would also agree to have my own taxes raised a little to pay for current recipients. By "a little" I mean I would get a extra IRA deduction to catch up my retirement savings since I am so close to retirement.
I would gladly opt out (less than 10 years from retirement). But the money I put in is gone, and can't be returned in any way shape or form. The only thing I would ask, as my taxes go up to pay for existing retirees, is that I can offset part of the tax increase with an enhanced IRA based on age.
Yep. I am always amused by people who want "their money" back.
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