A critical change in our political/government system would be to establish a renewed relationship with our legislators. House and Senate members would be covered by the same health insurance plans as the citizenry; no special deals for elected Members of Congress or their staffs (535 elected and 8,000+ appointed staff). Term limits would become a reality; six 2-year terms for House members and two 6-year terms for Senators. No retirement packages. As suggested by Warren Buffett, “Anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.” Currently, 3% would be about $500 billion (1/2 trillion $). Expensive Presidential benefits (security, aides, etc) would be reduced from lifetime to ten years.
It is peculiar that nearly all Senators and Representatives end up quite well off financially. A recent article in The Washington Post reports that Mary Landrieu lives in a $2.5 million home near Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. where her husband is a real estate salesman. Mary uses her parent’s address in New Orleans as her ‘voting’ address.
Commercial functions that continue to lose billions of dollars of taxpayer funds would be privatized. For example, Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution states that the government shall have Power: To establish Post Offices and post Roads.” Notice that it does not require the government to own post offices or post roads, only to establish them.
Any commercial firm that is open eight hours daily and at least five days a week can have a postal facility. Boxes could be rented; at least two employees could be certified, bonded mail handlers. Trucking firms and local delivery companies could compete for long hauls and local distribution. Daily home delivery would be terminated. A US Postal Service would continue to exist for the purpose of assuring compliance with contractual agreements.
Here is some sobering financial data about the vaunted USPS: Since 2006, the USPS has lost $40 Billion. There are many reasons for these losses, but major contributors to the red ink are union work rules plus compensation and retirement and healthcare benefits for workers after 25 years of employment.
The assets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the home mortgage giants, would be sold off in whole or in parts to privately held financial institutions. The assets of Amtrak would be auctioned off to people that know how to invest in and operate railroads. Operating under government leadership, Amtrak is awash in debt and losing more daily based on the illusion that government subsidized rail travel is essential.
The Flood Insurance program is $24 billion in debt as announced by FEMA Director Craig Fugate recently to the House Financial Services Committee. Government people hobbled by laws and regulations are unable to operate a high-risk insurance program. That could and should be the responsibility of insurance companies who know how to invest in and accommodate risk factors associated with real estate. Why should taxpayers carry the burden of insurance risk when we have a thriving private insurance industry?
The list of failing government entities goes on endlessly. Student loan debt now exceeds $1 trillion and taxpayers will be asked to pick up the pieces of broken promises by unemployed and failing students to the tune of an estimated $400 billion. The government spends $1.7 billion per year to maintain 6,700 unused government owned buildings and an astonishing 71,000 underused buildings.
The Great United States of America has become infested with politicians who dance to the tunes of lobbyists and pressure groups and vote as their proxies. Glib politicians have become government dignitaries and celebrate their victories at the polls but cover-up their actions in legislation they haven’t read and don’t understand. We are led by an administration that revises laws at will and spends money as though it was inherited from a dead rich uncle.
A huge swath of US citizens has become addicted to ‘free’ government benefits. People will never enjoy the jubilation of self-sufficiency if they are willing to tolerate the indignity of government dependency.
– Dick Baynton
