A modest proposal for Obama's last-ditch spending spree, using classic socialist methods to deliver a result that conservatives will support.

As we all know, President Obama is desperate to get better employment numbers. At the same time, he opposes "Voter ID" laws. So far, his attempts to improve the economy have been mostly focused on "clean energy" and mostly unsuccessful. Then we have the thoroughly unpopular Obamacare, with a huge burden for the states that choose to expand Medicaid.

I propose to solve EVERYTHING.

The Big Train

Let's start with transportation. Recently, California decided to spend money it doesn't have -- to be combined with Federal money -- to build a high-speed rail system from LA to San Francisco. One of the biggest problems with high-speed rail is amortizing the cost by passenger mile. It's usually cheaper to just give each passenger a free air ticket in exchange for not riding the train. Nobody wants to ride train that costs more than an airline ticket for the purpose of going slower. My plan fixes that. There will be PLENTY of passengers.

Not many people will ride a train between the nearly bankrupt cities of LA and SF. As fewer people have jobs, the potential customer base is shrinking as you read this.

The high-speed rail line needs to be MUCH bigger:


How much would this cost? One trillion dollars? Two trillion? Who cares! My plan is so good, the cost is irrelevant.



Why would we need such a rail line and who would ride it? Hold that thought for now.

Voter ID

Liberals don't like "Voter ID" laws. Under my plan, all elections would be held on a special welfare festival day when benefits are paid in cash instead of by EBT. Wherever the voters receive their welfare is where they can vote. Under my plan, poor people are able to shop for the best deal on Welfare. To an extent, they do this already. Whatever ID is required to collect Welfare shall be deemed sufficient for voting at the instant they receive their benefits. If that doesn't boost the voter participation rate, nothing will.

Obamacare

Let's move on to Obamacare. Some states (like Texas) will opt out of as much of Obamacare as possible. That's a great deal for taxpayers, but not so great for poor people. Other states will go hog-wild with semi-socialized medicine. Great deal for poor people, not so great for taxpayers. If you want to receive expanded Medicaid or you want one of those nifty state-subsidized exchanges, you should set up your welfare to be in a high-benefit state like California. Certainly not Texas.

Back to the big train

Remember how there was concern about getting enough passengers to justify a cross-country high-speed train? Not anymore! People can live where they want to live! Thanks to a watered-down ID requirement for both voting, welfare, and medicaid, folks can collect benefits in states like California while living in states like Texas.

Under my plan, you can claim to be a resident of ANY state, and it determines your eligibility for welfare, medicaid, and state-subidized insurance. When you want benefits, you have to show up in that state. How do you get there? The train! It needs to be really fast, because it's a long trip from San Antonio to LA. We should spare no expense in making the best train money can buy.

Look at the map. States like California and New York will be magnets for entitlement recipients. Most exciting for the liberals is that the entire high-speed rail project is built for poor people! The train will transport them to either California or New York whenever they need to receive welfare or receive medicaid benefits.

No matter how much the train costs to build or operate, it would be of great value to everyone in the states that opt out of Obamacare. All I propose is to give poor people the same mobility rights as the rest of the population, while freeing them of burdensome ID requirements. Anyone who doesn't like their state's entitlement programs will have plenty of choices.

What's not to like?