Rave this if you think SH conservatives can't do anymore to Obama then rant!

Was that the senile Margaret Thatcher or earlier....? : ) European countries are unfortunate in that they ran out of credit and the US continues to be the preferred last resort debtor---very fortunate for us. Yes, we have to get hold of our debt. Entitlement reform, social security reform and military spending reduction are all a part of that - call me the Simpson Bowles poster child. Romney will take us even further from a sane budget with planned further tax relief for the wealthy and increased Military spending. The ultimate answer is going to be painful political medicine for Dems and Reps but Obama's much closer than Romney to at least starting down the right path.

Neither party wins my full support....

Were I King...
*A phase up of 1 year every 5 years for Social Security until 75 became the new 65. (because Statistics SUPPORT this!)
*Means testing for Social Security (I've got $2.9M in investments - I hardly need the help)
*Unemployment would become a decreasing proposition after 12 weeks declining to zero payout by 6-8 months. (Lets add some motivation to accepting some 'lesser' positions.)
*Military cutbacks of 5% every year for next 5 years. (We would still outspend the next 20 countries combined)
*New Stimulus package of $1T targeted directly on Telecom and Transportation infrastructure builds. Decrease by $200B every year??? (Our infrastructure is in ruins and will cripple our economy in the future.).
*4 year transition to Single Payer Regional Medical model. (We really stink at Health Care - learn from the Canadians where 4% less GDP buys them better health care by most measures)
*Carbon Tax phase in - (See Sweden or British Columbia, Canada for great models that have not hindered economic growth)
*Immediate Roll Back of High Income BUSH tax breaks. (4% of my income means my next Audi has fewer options.)
*Phased 3 year Roll Back of Middle Income TAX breaks. (All of the tax breaks need revisiting but middle income disposable income drives economic growth so we need to be careful and wait for economy to be on a more sound footing.)
*Establish a minimum TAX rate of 8-10% for ALL Americans. (We ARE all in this together and ALL Americans should pay something so they have skin in the game..)
*Constitutional Convention addressing election and lobbying reform specifically. (Special interests are the root of all evil.)

I'm a progressive and many of my liberal and progressive friends would HATE parts of this plan but I'm also closely tuned to legitimate concerns of the right and think some of their points are very legitimate. You're a conservative and many parts of this plan would cause angst on the right BUT is this a kind of bipartisan direction that both makes sense to you and seems unachievable in the existing political environment? How do we get there?

You are very rude. Margaret Thatcher made that comment when she was Prime Minister. What "sane" budget are you referring to?? Balmy sent a ridiculous one late last year to the Senate and it was voted down 100 to 0. Your proposals sound more like Reagan than Balmy by a far cry. He has already blown 5.4 Trillion with little to show for it. You should have added to the SSI that all salaries are to pay SSI with no cut off. If you make a billion you pay SSI on it. The unemployment compensation needs to be cut after 6 months. It does not encourage looking for a job. i agree with you that any job will do. There is no room for prima donnas waiting for the right job to turn up. The military needs to reup on their old battered equipment.Two ten year wars have taken its toll on it. Make darn certain it is manufactured in America and not China. Also get rid of the prevailing wage. It is a drain on the economy. After that your 5% makes sense. Forget the stimulus package of $1T it will be wasted as the previous billions were on not shovel ready jobs, bankrupt green enterprises and public sector pension funds. What needs to be done is the lower the corporate taxs to 0%. This would have the companies beating a path back to America. Next edit the god awful regulations that Cat Sunstein is so gallantly writing at a rate of about a thousand a week. There are now 39,000 pages of regulations. I would estimate the probability that we could do without 3/4s of them. In socialism parlance this will cripple the small business and make more people dependent upon the government which is their intent.
We, the people have to realize that our government is out of money. We have to cease raising the debt limit and using the credit card as it only compounds our financial difficulties. Econ 101 taught me that you cannot spend your way out of a depression. Lower the taxes and regulations and let the free market take over.

Sorry if it's rude to make fun of either Saint Maggie or Saint Ronny but truth's the truth. Like Ronny, Thatcher was showing dementia while still in office---but in Maggie's favor her dementia probably equaled Ronny at his finest hour. Obama's budget was indeed a political statement and was voted down as much on politics as substance - but there was no substance there because you have two parties (and I would argue one much more than the other) are unwilling to practice politics (compromise). As to the Military - Don't you think we might just squeeze by with lets say the military budget of the next 20 biggest militarys combined rather than 28? Battered equipment - be real, Pentagon replaces their equipment that often anyway traditionally. Military spending on Military Capital is an economic black hole. Spending on military hardware for traditional war when our opponents wage asymmetric war is illogical. As to the previous stimulus - some of the $500+ B spending stimulus (PS - not a trillion - $300+ B was tax cuts that had some effect, although some misplaced tax cuts) spent non-ideally as some money will always be in business and government. (I think we just has a $6B example of that from the private sector)). Many of my proposals might actually have a place in the Reagan world but not in today's Republican't party where tax cuts for the wealthy are the mantra line. Prevailing wage rule - that is a FUNNY concept when so many government bids go to the low bidder but prevailing wage is required....just tells them to use as few employees and as much capital and outsourced 3rd party contracting as possible.

Reagan got the economy growing and growing. His admistration lowered the taxes and held back on the regulations so the small businesses could prosper and hence employment rise. He was wise enough to know that you can't spend your way out of a depression. It was sad that the Great Depression ended the day FDR died. He created jobs by sending the men off to war. After the war jobs were limited to the point that women had to give up their good jobs so that the men could have them.

Why the current administration's failing is the stimulus was spent on the public sector- my state shored up its pension fund with its grant. How did this help the economy? The waste of billions was on the "green" companies that went bankrupt and the end of last year Solydan's executives got a bonus. That aparently was where the "lost" funds went. The money should have gone to the coal fired electric generating plants to help with their emissions in order meet air quality standards. By so doing it would have given job security to the thousands of employees in the coal industry.

The only tax outlay mentioned in the Constitution is to provide for the military. I know that there is a great disdain for the military, but if push comes to shove those who disdain it could be screaming for it's intervention. Too many now believe that the drones can handle our defense. How about a defense system to counter a foreign drone attack? Is that being developed?

There is no mention of health care, food stamps, extended unemployment coverage, etc. in the Constitution. When there is a largess of "free" income, the intended purpose is perverted. Knowing that an unempolyed worker has a time limit of 26 weeks makes finding a job much easier. No it may not be the job of choice, but who knows it may start the worker on a new career that is meaningful. Clinton passed legislation limiting the time that a welfare recipient could be on the books was 2 years. During that time the recipient was to get job training and move on.