1. Return to more of our roots: constitutional principals and societal "moral and ethical" moorings. After 1963, things like birth rates for single parents, capital crime rates, drop-out rates, STD disease rates skyrocketed (see the Statistical Abstract of the United States).
2. Simplify the tax code like a flat tax (to be honest - I need to research the "fair tax" more. But to add a VAT tax on top of an income tax is economically stiffling; every country that left the income tax and also added a VAT tax added to the cost of everything and still had additional taxes. This stops the "favoritism" in the tax code by politicians and will encourage more tax payers and not tax "dodgers".
3. Reign in runaway government spending by revising entitlement programs and getting rid of "baseline budgeting" which has many entitlements on auto-pilot regardless of economic realities.
4. Examine our total military committment worldwide: do we need to be in all the places we are in? We need to be in some (like South Korea), but where can we cut back. It is also a poignant historical fact that we were not in Afghanistan or Iraq when we were attacked and more people died that died in Pearl Harbor. But, we are not the world's "police force".
5. Fire the people in government who disregard what their constituents want in favor of being re-elected. Find genuine statespeople, not politicians. To say, "This is the way politics is" is a cop-out for "I am ignorant of the facts" and " I'm uninvolved in the process".
6. Combine or disolve some government agencies. The Department of Education, for instance (with its 82 duplicate programs for evaluating teacher effectiveness) could be folded into another agency and their focus narrowed from dictating what is taught in our local schools and be more active in being a clearing house for ideas that really work in diverse areas of the country. They should be less ruled by the public teachers' unions (which is really ruled by a few and not the "shoes on the street folks", and more active in promoting things like getting rid of tenure (promotes mediocrity and lack of creativity and keeps bad teachers), helping to get creative teachers paid for coming up with creative and innovative teaching solutions that engage students and don't "bore the dickens" out of them, and promote merit oriented pay plans. You could achieve this by attrition and not having to fire people. 7. Reduce capital gains taxes. The people who benefit from these (in better economic times for sure), are seniors and people like us with 401Ks, etc. that have our investments in mutual funds, etc. It is mostly "middle America" that benefits. By the way, when Clinton raised capital gains taxes, the government lost 600+ billion in revenues over the subsequent five years. 8. I am not in favor of the "estate or death" tax. Why should someone who gets up off the couch, starts a small business, works their butts off for 15 or 20 years and finally builds a good small business (that hires people), have to pay the federal or state governements up to half of their net worth (even though we have an exemption) and not pass it along to their chidren (who may work in the business). This is nothing but Marxist in its roots (see the number two pillar of the Communist Manifesto), and discourages productivity, personal investment and entrepreneurship. Why should someone who is not as motivated to invest their own time "leech" off of the efforts of the producer - this is fundamentally wrong and even Jefferson (along with most of the founders) was emphatically opposed to this and the "progessive concept" of wealth re-distibution. 9. Work to teach fiscal responsiblity in our high schools and colleges (nobody ever taught me or anyone I know how to handle income, debt, and manage finances on a personal level). and get something like the Dave Ramsey approach to debt and financial responsibility. 10. Encourage the concepts of personal responsibility, hard work, and good diligence and not the "entitlement" mentality and "someone owes me because I got born" mentality. In reality, nobody "owes" you anything - period". You are responsible for you (when you are grown up of course). Let's get more common sense in all levels of life and government.
For instance, let's look at our opinion on the capital gains tax. Personally, I think that in time, a low capital gains tax results in aggregation of capital to those who can afford to invest it. That is, once salary isn't your main source of income, you graduate into a special low income tax bracket. IMO, this rewards wealth more than it does work or investment. If you couple that with no estate tax, you get wealthy children that are born into a low tax bracket, and they and their grandchildren will remain so with only modest effort. But, to be honest. I'm not really interested that much in that argument. Because, truth be said, in some ways we are both wrong. That is, there are probably two scenarios in which a healthy society could thrive: one where the capital gains rate was reasonable in my mind, and one where there was no capital gains (the scenario that you feel is reasonable). HOWEVER, both those scenarios probably require implementation of other parts of our ideologies to be viable overall. Or, in short: A liberal law in a conservative system is perverted, and a conservative law in a liberal system is perverted. This is where I find the US. We are in an ideological struggle that neither side will win. And, what is worse, each of our respective victories will not provide what we intend, because they are not implemented as part of a rational system. Our individual victories each reflect different systems that will never come to pass. It's that classic: "But you're not doing it right!" Perhaps I am arguing for a centralist position, but I think it's more than that. There are many many ways that you and I can make our country a better place to be. However, it will never look like the way that either of us would choose. I think we need not to be half conservative and half liberal, but something else. Something that would probably be very difficult to label. Deep down, you and I will likely always wish that the country was doing something closer to our personal worldview. However if we want the country to do well, we need to understand that that will never come to pass. IMHO we need to build a workable system that is enlightened by our worldviews, but not reflective of them. I strongly believe if any country represents the worldview of one person (or one group of persons in agreement) then the country will fail. Even if that worldview happens to be my own. As an example, although I disagree with much of his political ideology, I voted for the Republican Rick Snyder for Governor of MI. He is a conservative, but I believe he is more than that. I didn't get that his Democrat opponent Bernero was more than a liberal. Perhaps he is, but I didn't hear it. BTW, I do agree with a couple of your points. :)
Let's take one more example of the "Buffet Rule" since the current "politic speak" is, "Why should Warren Buffet pay less of a tax rate than his secretary? This is not FAIR!" Well look at FACT Check's research here: http://www.factcheck.org/2011/10/shes-no-buffetts-secretary/ Or this one about the teacher who makes $50,000.00 a year: http://www.factcheck.org/2011/09/obamas-teacher-tax-whopper/ Part of this "half baked" idiom is that Warren Buffet pays himself less of a "salary" than his secretary, so on ordinary "payroll" income; he would pay a lower percentage. Do you think that he really pays fewer taxes than his secretary? Here's a Forbes article on the subject: http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2012/01/25/w... As to those that "inherit" their wealth over those who actually invent stuff and work for it like a, now deceased, Steve Jobs, here are a couple of links if you care to read. Money magazine had an article a few years ago as well and estimated that only 10% of the top 1% of the wealthiest persons actually "inherited" it. http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/most-wealthy-individual... If you expand it to just billionaires: http://moneytipcentral.com/self-made-vs-inherited-billionair... As to who pays what and what is FAIR? Here's the real story: http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html The bottom line, this "the rich don't pay their fair share" is a bunch of bunk foisted on the American people by political "charlatans" who exploit those who won't do the research, into believing "half truths" and "twisted stories" and "slanted presentations of the whole story" to gain political favor and get "voted in" so that they can reward their "political buddies" who helped them gain power. The only way you and I can help "clean up Washington" is to make informed decisions about who we sent to represent us (no matter what party you have a tag to!), and send people who are willing to tackle the tough problems "head on" with no "cock-n-bull" stories and let the American people know the facts - period. As long as we vote these disingenuous individuals in, we will get what we vote for. Let's FIRE the ones that don't do a good job - they work for US - not the other way around!
I can see the benefit of a low capital gains targeting seniors or other middle income Americans. We could reinstate a marginal rate for capital gains similar to most of the rest of last century. Are you aware of what the marginal rates were? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MarginalIncomeTax.svg A very basic example of a fairer capital gains code, would be for earnings over 1M, it is taxed as normal income. Look, I do brain tumor research. I went to school for 20+ years to do it. I work to develop cures and treatments for a very deadly disease. If you are very savvy, you might get me to buy in on a philosophical level how someone like Warren Buffett or Mitt Romney does something commensurable to pay at a level of 1000x or 200x mine. But, you will never get me to agree that they should be taxed at half the rate. That's not a worldview I will buy. Tax rates shouldn't decrease as earnings do. Being wealthy is a pretty good reward, no need for a regressive tax rate.
I'm curious Hootsbox, what are some of the areas of politics that you think Left and Right agree on? What can we get done as a country? Where is there common ground? Now ask yourself this, how often do you focus your energy on these things?
On a very high level, at this point in the discussion, I would say both the Right (or Center Right) and the Left (or Center Left) would agree that: 1. Corruption is bad no matter where, when, who, and what realm it is in.
2. The concept that people take financial and political advantage of people and that is wrong is a point of agreement - that applies across the board I would think.
3. That politicians have taken the place of "statespeople" and honest representatives and made our current government structure one that is not enviable IMHO. That would be a point of agreeement.
Power is power. Whether it be government, corporate, or criminal, power can suppress. The state is subservient to me by design. No other power is. Of course, the state isn't wholly subservient to me, and it is very far from perfect, but it is in actually designed to serve me. Yes, if I am a potential customer, corporate power might bend to me, but only so far as that it can turn a profit from me. Corporate power bends to the state, and criminal power bends to violence and the state. We can have a healthy and subservient state. We must if we are to make sure that our rights aren't suppressed by other powers. IMO, "the nature of man" is the primary litmus test when designing government. That's why I am skeptical of libertarianism as much as communism, IMHO both are very fragile when exposed to the nature of man. I agree about avoiding laws that destroy personal incentive. Keep people moving forward, and build a sense of purpose and growth.
A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government....Thomas Jefferson
So say if the flat tax was 28%, Warren would pay 28%, even on income made from investments?
Unlike the current system, a flat tax is simple, fair, and good for growth. Instead of the 893 forms required by the current system,[4] a flat tax would use only two postcard-sized forms: one for labor income and the other for business and capital income. Unlike the current system, which discriminates based on the source, use, and level of income, a flat tax treats all taxpayers equally, fulfilling the "equal justice under law" principle etched above the main entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court building. And unlike the current system, which punishes people for contributing to the nation's wealth, a flat tax would lower marginal tax rates and eliminate the tax bias against saving and investment, thus ensuring better economic performance in a competitive global economy. [4]laborBased on a search of Internal Revenue Service "Forms and Publications" Web site, at www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html (April 19, 2005).