DEBT - ENERGY -ECONOMY
I have these listed together because they are the most important issues facing us individually and as a nation, and the collapse of our Republic is imminent, if this is not handled immediately and decisively! It IS that serious.
You must remember that the rest of the world's countries have economies in the same or worse shape then ours. And we're all looking for financial investors (other countries) who will keep us afloat by buying up our debt in the form of bonds. The problem is too few countries financially solvent enough to buy up the debt. Too many sellers, not enough buyers.
What you might not know is that many European countries are seriously looking into the possibility of bringing lawsuits against our country and our Wall street investment houses
for "selling them a bill of goods", namely the subprime mortgage securities investments that pushed their admittedly frail economies, over the edge! Now, with that as your background,
take a fresh look at where we stand.
A Congress that not only REFUSES to live within a budget, but they REFUSE to curtail
their extravagant lifestyle of the rich and famous when they're traveling on the American taxpayer's "dime". Our operating budget that ended last September was over a trillion dollars in the red, and we expect not only this year's budget to end up 1.4 trillion dollars more in the red, but its projected that the next ten years will have similar results. Our current national debt is past 13-Trillion and that's expected to DOUBLE by 2020. When you add in all of our federal unfunded obligations, not only social security, medicare and medicaid, but all the new buy outs and guarantees now totals more than 109-Trillion dollars. Since the primary source of revenue our government receives is from the American taxpayer, that means each of us has an IOU that totals about $351,000. And that's not per American family, that's the bill for every man, woman and child in America. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm a little "light" this week.
And what is Congress' answer when Moody's warns them to "repent" before its too late...
What is Congress' answer when the American people stood up in the form of tea parties
and shouted enough is enough, and stop the spending?? They passed a new two-trillion
dollar healthcare entitlement that 2/3rd's of America shouted they didn't want!! This goes
far beyond throwing the bums out. This is an out-of-control government that just created 162 new federal agencies and commissions just to manage the new healthcare law...it's leaders hell bent on destroying our economy and collapsing our government under its own weight, and they're nearly there.
I will go to Washington to fight this evil, sinister cancer and rip the power away from their
grasp. I will fight to repeal the healthcare legislation as well as fight to remove much of
what has been passed in the last four years of the Democratic Congress which has been
building a new structure to support their new form of secular-socialist government. But the first thing to be addressed has to be the debt problem.
I believe (and here we go, folks) that the last, quickly fading hope, is for the serious downsizing of our federal government, back within the confines for which it was intended as spelled out in the Constitution. I'm not just talking about cutting back 10% or 20% from
everyone's budgets...I'm talking about the kind of reductions in government's size that will cause an immediate impact, not just locally but on the world's stage, as well. Because I believe that the rest of the world is about to come apart at the seams, and that if the United States were to show serious and dramatic cuts that leave nothing to the imagination . . . that we are finally getting our financial house on solid ground; actually starting to operate on a balanced budget; actually starting to pay off our National Debt and not just the interest ...THEN those same countries who have been desperately looking for a safe place to park their nation's wealth during this time of upheaval, will come back to the U-S dollar and deposit it with us, making the U-S dollar once again, the strongest currency around. And you don't need me to tell you what that would mean for our economy.
I believe for this to happen, we need to go further than what Rep. Paul Ryan has proposed with his "Roadmap for America". Its going to take a wholesale deconstruction of our existing federal bureaucracy, eliminating some cabinet positions, entire departments, agencies and commissions. We'll be transferring much of it back to the states' responsibility where it has always belonged. We will also be privatizing as much of the rest as possible, while at the same time removing ourselves entirely from areas already handled by the private sector. The goal here is to cut the size of federal government by one-half... to two-thirds!
This will undoubtedly drive the Washington special interest groups nuts, not to mention the wildfires generated by those Washington bureaucrats about to lose their jobs. To them I say better get your resumes out to your favorite state! The backlash and the opposition will be
fierce, but I think that "We-the-People" are ready for the fight. Why? Because I believe that all the working, productive members of this great land of ours, realize this is our only way out.
This is our only way out.
Like I said before, we're past the point of a painless solution as we're all going to feel the pain. I just happen to feel that Congress and our Federal government should feel it first!
There are three rules to "holes"
First, if you find yourself in one...stop digging.
Second, come up with a plan to get yourself out
Third, find a way to keep yourself from falling back in.
And now for our pain. Once we have pared down our existing government to a new economical streamlined version of itself, getting rid of the deadwood, the duplicity and the departments that have long outlived their usefulness or never worked at all, as well as those parasitic agencies and commissions that have attached themselves to the taxpayers purse strings...then it is time for us to pay the piper. Defend it as the price we have to pay for not having been vigilant...allowing our stewardship to fall into the wrong hands, and the only way to regain our freedoms, liberty and security. I happen to believe that the people will be willing to accept their medicine...once they are convinced, through the actions described above, that must be acted upon first, that we are finally serious about fixing our country. I believe they will also get on the bandwagon when they realize that we're solving not just the balanced budget issue, but our national debt issue and our total federal unfunded liabilities issue, the whole enchilada! I also believe there should be total participation by all Americans.
It will be a "sunset piece of legislation" that will last for fourteen years, with an end date that cannot be altered or expanded...a consumption tax of 10% on everything, except groceries and prescription drugs. (now before you start choking on your tobacco juice and reaching for the squirrel gun, be sure to read the very next paragraph) The legislation will see to it that all funds raised from it will be set aside exclusively for paying off our National Debt...and it's been estimated that it would raise over one trillion dollars per year. Also, keep in mind that when we finish paying off our National Debt, it will eliminate more than a third of a trillion dollars from our current operating budget, that we pay for the interest on that debt!
To help the "medicine" go down easier, as a part of this plan there must also be the abolishment of the IRS and in its place, a flat 10% income tax for the individual, with the first $20,000 in wages tax free for everyone, and a flat 15% income tax on business. This would also result in the elimination of almost all of the other federal taxes out there, including death/estate taxes, capital gains, corporate, excise, etc. And it's been said that doing this would still bring in about the same amount as we do now. (This is a slight variation to economist Art Laffer's study, out of Nashville) The first $20,000 in tax free wages benefits the lower paid workers and those in lower middle class, but would begin to be phased out in stages once incomes reach $65,000 and higher.
So, in other words, the money we would be saving from a drastic drop in federal taxes owed along with those other pesky federal taxes (think excise taxes on gasoline removed) will help with the sting of a consumption tax. Remember, the consumption tax is temporary and the 10% federal flat tax is permanent!
***The downsizing of our federal government to one third of its current size will immediately put
our budget into the black, and the excess trillion and a half to two trillion dollars will be put
into the coffers of Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security and along with the minor modifications needed and successfully made to each, will make them solvent again, which would eliminate a majority amount of our total unfunded debt obligations. And as I said earlier, the flight to safety by other countries into the U-S dollar will just be icing on the cake.
Friends and fellow Patriots, We have to get our financial house in order, first and foremost, if we are to survive as a free Republic and to regain our influential standing in the world. In the so-called docudrama movie on HBO called "Too Big to Fail" supposedly the Chinese told Paulson that Russia initiated a conversation with them about the idea to stop buying America's debt and perhaps sell off their existing holdings, but the Chinese refused to go along, but Paulson got the intended message.
Can YOU imagine what would follow should such a scenario be actually carried out?
42 cents of every dollar we spend is borrowed! We're living in a house of cards!
And now to our second Achilles heal, our dependence on foreign oil.
Again, the scenario is just as ugly. All it takes is just one of our major oil suppliers to stop selling us oil. With all the unrest in the Middle East, which way the wind is blowing in Russia, or what kind of a day Hugo Chavez is having in Venezuela, a plug can be pulled and we're SOL. America runs on oil - past, present and foreseeable future. 100% of all the products we like, buy or consume relies on oil in some shape or fashion in its production, or getting it to market. Our economy and more importantly the military that protects us all would come to an immediate halt without oil. And yet, our current administration is standing in the way of domestic drilling while they are out chasing windmills!
Here's a couple of facts the special interests like to keep hidden. The estimated 10-billion barrel oil reserve in ANWR is located on a stretch of land, about the size of Manhattan, in a barren, swampy tidal area along the Arctic Ocean and NOWHERE NEAR those beautiful, pristine wilderness photographs they love to show to us. But the most well kept secret of all, is that the ANWR drilling site is only about 70 miles away from the existing oil pipeline from Prudoe Bay and a spur line from ANWR could be connected up with the existing pipeline at pumphouse #2. What this means is that we could have a brand new, abundant source of oil flowing in less than a year's time! What's more, there appears to be two other Alaskan sites which promises equally large oil reserves potential.
Here's another thing you might not know. All of California's economic woes could be eliminated if they were to allow oil rigs back over the richly producing existing oil wells off the coast of Santa Barbara, as the royalties alone on those existing wells would bring in 20-billion dollars, which happens to be that state's current budget deficit. A recent poll of Californians showed they were again in favor of drilling for oil. Only politics and special interests groups are what's holding it back. And again, we could have a new source of oil flowing within a year.
And one last piece of information, the curvature of the Earth prevents anyone from seeing further out than 8-9 miles. Therefore, oil drilling rigs could be placed 12 miles out and no one could see them. Drilling where known reserves exist and in far shallower waters, makes the drilling not only far safer, but also less expensive to bring out and quicker to get online.
Look, I know we are facing our worst oil spill in history. But we must keep one of our feet planted in reality. We currently get 30% of our oil supplies from off our coastlines,
and there is plenty of room to add more oil rigs and bring that 30% number upwards toward 50% or more. The fact is that we have had over 50,000 wells drilled in the Gulf, and more than 4000 oil rigs are currently in operation, and prior to this latest incident in the Gulf, when was the last time there was a serious oil rig spill? More than 40 years ago off the Santa Barbara coast, back in 1969. That is an exceptional record in anyone's book. And when you stop to realize that more than a half trillion dollars in our budget yearly goes into our oil producing enemies' hands to acquire weapons and technology with the ultimate aim to destroy us, you have to acknowledge the extreme national security issue here, not to mention another half trillion dollars we could remove from our government's yearly operating budget ! We must drill more, domestically, both offshore and on land, especially in that huge find in the Dakotas, and in Southwest Texas This is an issue of national security that demands that we remove politics from this issue once and for all. It is also from this same national security standpoint, that we endorse, support and do all that we can to help bring Sarah Palin's dream to reality with her hard fought campaign and success at bringing the largest find of natural gas in North America to market with the TransCanada pipeline from the north slope down to the lower 48, which would have a major impact on the price of natural gas energy. We also need to remove the red tape and the length of time it takes to build nuclear power plants so that they can eventually take over the bulk of our electrical power needs..
Here's something else to ponder. For the life of me, I don't understand Obama's move to tell Detroit to shelve the hydrogen fuel cell program and go instead to electric hybrids, even though the battery technology is still not there yet, which is why you can only travel 40 miles in an electric car before the batteries are drained. Smooth move Mr Leader of the free world! Its a perfect example of how government acts before it thinks. Our power plants and power grids are already at capacity and our nation is already facing an imminent power shortage.
Just read your Upper Cumberland Electric Cooperative newsletter, or any other for that matter and you will see that we are facing a 10% power deficit in a few short years from now and a 20% deficit a decade or two later. So why in the world are we wanting to hook up all our cars and trucks to the power grid?? I would have told GM and the rest to get those hydrogen fuel cell cars and trucks out as soon as possible (couple of years-their estimate) and then I would have told the oil companies to retrofit their service stations with hydrogen fuel tanks to accommodate the new vehicles, in return for getting the green light for domestic production again! Hydrogen fuel cells results in water vapor coming out of the tailpipes. Past research has shown that if there was some way to convert our cars and trucks off of gasoline and diesel fuel, it would reduce our daily oil consumption by one half. If we take the action listed above, we would soon be off foreign oil dependence. And during the interim we can have all our cities', counties', states' and federal fleets of cars, trucks and buses switched over to natural gas, which is another energy source our country has an abundance of. By the way, compressed natural gas fueled vehicles run cleaner and the fuel is
about 40 percent cheaper than gasoline, making one wonder why cash-strapped city and state governments haven't switched over sooner. Oh, that's right....politicians!
But far and away, the cheapest form of energy around, and which the United States holds
the world's largest reserve ...is coal. As a nation, we get 50% of our electricity from coal
fueled power plants, and here in Tennessee its 60%. It seems to me that we should be directing our priorities into technologies that remove as much of the pollutants as possible
from it and then use the bounty given us by our Creator, until our nuclear power plants eventually replace all the coal powered power plants. These are energy sources available to us TODAY that can remove us from foreign dependence in years and not decades. Remember, National Security is at stake. Look, I'm all for using non-polluting alternative energy sources just as much as the next guy. But on which side of the fence were all these environmental extremists back in the 70's when they stopped clean water vapor emitting nuclear energy in its tracks and curtailed any expansion of and the actual destruction of a naturally renewing energy source - clean hydro-electric power generating dams. Today we'd be like France with 80-90% of their energy coming from nuclear plants and coal-fired power plants would be a thing of the past. Put that in your pipes, you eco-power rangers!! Meanwhile, solar panels and wind mills in their current technology are intermittent at best, and wildly expensive to boot. Common sense should tell you their use is only regional at best, in areas where there is an almost constant flow of wind, or in areas where weather permits a high probability of sunlight. But neither in their present form, will replace fossil fuels in the foreseeable future. Like it or not, fossil fuels are here for the time being, to get us over the hump until nuclear power takes its place, or until we get serious about solar energy and put giant solar energy collectors in geo-synchronous orbit where the sunlight is 24/7, thereby solving the entire world's energy needs! Of course, that would put a lot of hand-wringers out of work.
One last thing, when everyone CLAIMS to looking out for the little guy, the poor and our senior citizens, isn't it interesting that the current political movement is away from coal, where we have the world's largest coal reserves, and which costs between 3-4 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity, to solar and wind power with the highest cost for energy - currently at 22 cents per kilowatt hour. Read that again. And again.
It goes without saying, that if we were to travel down this path as outlined above,
the economy would right itself, the investment in America would begin anew, and the
private sector, no longer in competition with the government over credit and available
investment cash, and unburdened by excessive taxes and regulations would quickly expand and grow, providing the necessary jobs to a starving labor force. In addition, think of all the new jobs that would be necessary to expand our domestic drilling for oil, the construction of nuclear power plants, retrofitting all the service stations in the country and rebuilding the nation's power grid to withstand an EMP attack and accommodate all the new power coming on line.
Tackle and solve the big problems and you will be surprised at how many of the smaller problems will dissolve away. Remove the debt burden and the financial health and the capitalist free market economy of our Republic will come bouncing back ...and your children and grandchildren will thank you.
