UPDATE: Within minutes of this post going up, our readers were offering suggestions on how to improve this plan. I already realized some things I had left out, including repealing Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, not to mention Sarbanes-Oxley. So, please feel free to chime in and I’ll offer an updated post later this week with a more comprehensive plan.
And I’ll daresay we unpaid bloggers will put forward a GayPatriot plan before the president puts forward his.
Glenn has a good roundup of conservative and libertarian critiques of the president’s remarks earlier today on the downgrade, including this devastating analysis from Jennifer Rubin:
All he can do is promise to raise taxes.
Now that’s not exactly right. He did trot our proposals for a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut and extension of unemployment benefits. And he promised to make his own proposal to the debt committee. That’s it. It is what he has been saying for what seems like forever. He has nothing new.
While the president dithers, let me offer a 5-point plan to address the problem:
- Using the FY 2007 budget as a baseline, with adjustments for inflation and population increase, redraft the FY 2012 budget. Task House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan to set up a committee to find more cuts.
- Set up a commission composed of businessman and scholars from the Cato Institute to identify those federal regulations which stifle innovation, exploration and growth. As soon as their report is complete, task the various agency heads to rescind those regulations. Reduce the staffs of the agencies responsible for enforcing said regulations.
- Immediate across the board salary cuts for all federal employees (save active duty military).
- Repeal Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
- Simplify the tax code along the lines of the 1986 Tax Reform Act.
Of course, this basic framework may require some tweaking. There are, for example, some good things in the 1974 Budget Act. And we may be able to identify a smart CEO to helm the regulatory relief committee. (And we may want scholars from think tanks other than Cato.) But, this is a start. And it represents not just a break from the last two-and-one-half years, but from the last ten years as the immediate past president was not much of a fan of deregulation.
I think some other steps may be necessary. For instance, broad-margin personnel changes at the EPA, and maybe some other federal agencies.
6. Make Cheap Abundant Energy the central goal of US energy, environmental, and economic policy. End all moratoriums on domestic energy production. Repeal the EPA’s authority to regulate CO2. Adopt a “will-issue” policy for approving new clean coal, natural gas, nuclear, and geothermal power plants.
This is special: Communist China advises the U.S. to cut its “bloated social programs” (Democrats are you listening?): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/business/global/china-a-big-creditor-says-us-has-only-itself-to-blame.html?_r=2&ref=business
Dan, as for your plan:
1) Yes, more please. Indeed, one observer claims that if Congress would only set a future spending baseline increase of 2% a year (as opposed to the 5-6% baseline they use), the budget should balance in 7 years, without tax hikes and without additional cuts.
2) Sounds OK, but for greater speed, I would simply repeal every regulation, executive order, and congressional Act that has been promulgated or signed by the Obama administration.
3-5) Yes, yes, yes.
🙂
This debt ceiling is a compromise. You want a real conservative in the Senate? Vote for Andrew “CAS” Castanuela!
http://www.facebook.com/CASforSenate
Could Obama be behind this?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023809/Did-George-Soros-win-10-1-return-S-Ps-US-credit-rating-downgrade.html
Obama is doing what he MUST do. He is doubling down and standing pat. He and his horde have driven the country to this point and they can only blame the enemy for throwing broken glass on the road to recovery.
Obama wants reelection and Democrats want to hold onto their power and increase it, if possible. They can not back down, shift, compromise or let any light through the window.
They are going to ratchet up the attacks on everyone who opposes them and they are going to go down and dirty, because they have no other choice.
The economy can not recover to help them. They do not dare to admit any failing on their part. This has nothing whatsoever about the people, the economy, the country. The only issue is political power and Obama and the Progressives are in the bunker and taking a lot of hits. So, do they surrender, call for a truce or do they continue with their plan to demonize and set blame?
Obama has no choice and, frankly, he is not the least bit interested in considering another option.
Unlike “Slick Willie”, Obama is incapable of feeling other peoples’ pain…
Or to GW Bush’s, “We hear you,I hear you, and those who did this will hear you”, Obama is stone-deaf…
Wow. Republicans spent years cutting taxes for the wealthiest citizens and corporations. Where is all the prosperity that was supposed to come from that? Oh right, it didn’t come.
Ultra wealthy Americans simply held onto their money and so they can amass more (the amount of money in the hands of nation’s wealthiest continues to grow, while it’s still on the decline for the middle classes)
Large corporations with billions in profits continue to cry about how badly they’re treated (ie-Verizon wanting employees to give back more even though they’ve posted record profits. Apple has billions in profits overseas they don’t want to bring back because they’ll be taxed too much – boo hoo)
The Budget Act of 1974 does include provisions with respect to the operations of Congress, such as Congressional Committee structure and reporting requirements. Portions of the Act should be retained. Salary cuts to Federal employees is a start – however it would be much more cost effective to root out employees who are wasteful or redundant.
Those are pretty good ideas, for MITT ROMNEY!
Obama can’t go there, his soul is socialist. The next 15 months will be a haphazard flailing presidency. Dangerous for America and her allies. Let’s hope we make it to January 2013 in one piece.
Gee, Kevin, what’s the problem? Do you think the government exists to satisfy your jealous instincts and revenge fantasies against people who make more and have more money than you do?
Liberals like Kevin are such losers. They failed, so now they want to use the government to force everyone else to be as miserable as they are.
If you were successful, Kevin, you wouldn’t be so bitter. But you’re a failure, aren’t you, worthless little boy? That’s why you can’t stand the wealthy, and that’s why you’re such a whiny little gay puss.
Well put!
At this moment, gold is setting a new all-time high at… $1761.
I’m floored. I’ve seen this coming for years. I’ve prepared for it (no more details than that, sorry). I know it’s justified, in terms of the reckless irresponsibility of Obama’s policies. And still… with the moment here… I’m floored.
(for anyone who might not understand what it means, or why it’s relevant: it’s a sign of people’s lack of faith in the U.S. and the dollar. Some, like me, take the position that it’s a sign of dollar depreciation or devaluation. Bad policies have also depreciated the yen and the euro, so they may maintain their value relative to one another, while they all go down the toilet together, relative to “real stuff” like oil or gold.)
I’m floored. I’ve seen this coming for years. I’ve prepared for it (no more details than that, sorry).
Some of us have also taken your advice. 🙂
But what scares me the most is that I am sitting here tonight looking at what should be a spectacular rate of return on investment and seriously wondering if it will be enough.
Actually Kevin … if you actually looked into the numbers, did some research, stopped listening to the MSM and Obamanauts …. you’d know that under the Bush Tax Cuts (which cut taxes for EVERYONE; not just the “wealthy”/”millionaires & billionaires”) actually INCREASED revenues!!! And, again, if you had done any research or you know, had a thought of your own, you’d realize that those “millionaires & billionaires” are not just big corporate CEOs, but they’re actually small to medium business owners who are millionaires and billionaires on PAPER ONLY … because of the way in which they file their taxes in order to avoid being taxed twice. Really all that profit does not go into the pockets of those individuals, but it gets reinvested into the companies and into the economy … and providing jobs to millions of people, therefore improving the economy. Stop being ignorant and jealous of success. And start thinking on your own, not liberal talking points.
Exactly. It’s the dollar (and other fiat currencies) spiraling down… which is a bad thing. We’re getting a little break on oil right now, but tdhat won’t last.
When Obama took office he adjusted the application of the Davis-Bacon Act to apply to ALL people who get paid even one penny of federal funding.
This means prevailing wages (union scale) had to be paid to ”Stimulus” weatherization caulkers and everyone else under any Federal funded program.
No need to repeal the Davis-Bacon Act, simply roll back appication of it to what was done pre-Obama.
We would save tons of cash.
Kevin, what does your comment have to do with the post to which it is attached?
Where do I mention tax cuts (save to cite them as part of president‘s proposal? (And simplifying the tax code means closing loopholes and thus some corporations might actually see their taxes go up.)
As to cutting taxes and growing the economy. Just look at the record, in the Kennedy, Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.
To social parasites like Kevin (and Obama, for that matter), punishing those who have more will always be more important than achieving greater prosperity for all.
Do Kevin, Levi, or Cas have any economic ideas other than taking money away from people who have more than they do?
#23 – “Do Kevin, Levi, or Cas have any economic ideas other than taking money away from people who have more than they do?”
No, V – because they lack any intellectual depth or marketable skills. In other words, they CAN’T fend for themselves.
In other words: MOOCHERS.
Regards,
Peter H.