Posted by
Publius on Saturday, December 02, 2006 7:18:43 PM
In my first blog regarding a new platform for conservative republicans I focused on immigration and border security. Now I go after the next big issue for all conservative and republican voters as well as moderates and independents, that being fiscal policy.
When Ronald Reagan took office one of the first things he sought to do was revamp the way people are taxed and the way tax revenues are spent. His guide in this endeavor was the nobel prize winning economist, the recently deceased Milton Friedman. What became known as Reaganomics (or Trickle Down Economics to the sneering liberal left) started up the greatest period of economic growth since World War II. The only speed bump in the thriving Reagan economy was the Bush Tax Increase.
Lower taxation and reigned in federal spending brought prosperity to millions and helped raise all areas of society to the next rung of the economic ladder. I could reiterate the numbers but it would belabor the point. If you are truly interested in seeing the numbers I refer you to The Right Data, a guide to and defense of the Reagan legacy that was put together by the fine people at National Review.
The way to a sane and positive economic plan is to set goals that exercise fiscal responsibility while allowing the great mechanism of capitalism work at full power. Here are a few humble ideas, that while I will not and can not take credit for, I do believe that they need to be repeated again and again until the candidates for the republican party get the hint.
- Eliminate the current income tax laws and institute a 15% flat tax based with the following allowances: individual filers pay on all income over $20,000 per year, married couples filing jointly pay on all household income over $30,000 per year, families of 4 pay taxes on all household income over $45,000 per year and for each additional dependent under the age of 24 and attending school or dependent seniors over the age of 64 add $4,000 to the base of $45,000.
- Eliminate the Marriage Tax, which will encourage more couples to marry which is always a nice thing.
- Elimination of the Death Tax and any taxes that should have expired long ago like the telephone tax that was instituted to pay for the Spanish-American War.
- Elimination of the Department of Education, returning responsibilities for this to the individual states.
- Elimination of the Medicare Drug Benefit, replacing it with price controls for drugs for senior citizens. The pharmaceutical companies will go for this as it will allow them to show that they care.
- Salary caps on all congressional salaries along with term limits for all members of congress. This one will trim the pork down to the bone!
- Staff reductions across the board in all governmental departments through the elimination of redundancies and an end to patronage positions.
- Optional privatization of Social Security for all tax payers under the age of 50.
- Ban pork-laden riders on all legislation that has nothing to do with the main intent of the legislation.
- Identify and enumerate to the american people the exact cost for every single service the government provides to the people prior to any debate or voting on budgetary increases by congress.
- Require that the states balance their budgets and reign in spending on a state level in order to qualify for federal money.
- Finally, institute a balanced-budget amendment and give the president the line-item veto power to eliminate pork-laden riders that might slip through.
It is time for the government to balance their books and live on a budget just as all of the tax payers who support the government do.
Publius