My Economic Policy Proposal

Tax cuts are essential to stimulate jobs and the economy. The tax cuts must be personal and at the small business level. These tax cuts would put more money in the pockets of the consumer and allow small business to have more money to invest in their business for providing more jobs. Increased money for the consumers would add money to the consumer economy. Added jobs from the small business sector would increase the number of families with income to add to the consumer economy while decreasing the number of individuals depending on the government for unemployment benefits. Lowering taxes on the individuals and small business would produce a very large stimulus for the economy. Extending the Bush tax cuts would be a major step in this direction.

Severe spending cuts must take place before necessary tax cuts are implemented. The tax cuts are needed to stimulate jobs but we must hold/reduce he deficit by first cutting the useless stimulus spending. A stimulus spending package would work if we had a large manufacturing base which we do not have (we have a service and consumer economy).

• cut government salaries (including Congress)
• he top 50% by 25%
• next 25% by 20%
• last 25% by 10%
• cut the number of government jobs by 20% immediately and 10% per year for next 3 years
• Freeze pay increases and hiring for 3 years
• A tax increase that I “could possibly” support is to lift the Social Security caps of $106000 and stop commingling it with the general fund. I am not a big fan of Social Security as it was not constitutionally conceived but drastic reform would kill thousands of elderly. I personally have a great deal invested in SS. Adjust SS benefits age
• up 1 year for ages 50 -55
• up 2 years for ages 40-50
• up 3 years for ages less than 40
• Reform government retirement (including Congress) to be similar to private sector pension (none other than 401k type) plans. Government employees should be in the same SS pool as people in the private sector.
• Reduce by 75% or get rid of Dept of education (let states handle education)
• Reduce EPA 40% (it was just increased 35%)
• Get rid of IRS (income tax). Replace with 11% flat tax. GDP would be taxed 2x11%=22% (business and consumer level)
• Cut DOD 30%
• Bring 50% of overseas troops home and start closing bases (Germany, Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Japan). Most of these just bolster foreign economies.
• Bring troops home from Iraq (Our job is done, they must stand on their own or fall on there own depending on how much they desire freedom).
• Wind down Afghanistan by end of year (see b). Our military is not nation builders. Our mission was to kill or dislodge Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is no longer in Afghanistan. They are where we are not (Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan)
• If we continue in Iraq and Afghanistan it will turn into another Viet Nam; Afghanistan is already looking like Viet Nam
• Returned Tarp Money should be used to pay down debt
• All funds remaining in the first stimulus should immediately be used to pay down the debt.
• All interest in private sector companies (GM,GMAC, AIG,etc) should be divested.

Second Stimulus

The first stimulus package was totally impotent in its conception and administration. An economic stimulus is generally affective in stimulating a manufacturing based economy which ours is not and if applied correctly (stimulus implies immediate application). Our economy is a service and consumer based economy and such an application does not work. The unemployment rate had already stopped increasing and the Stock market had bottomed (March 9, 2009) prior to the application of any of the stimulus. Much of the first stimulus has not even been released yet. A second stimulus would not only be more impotent but would actually harm the economy by increasing the obligations placed on the taxpayers who are at the heart of recovery.

American oil development

As a measure to become independent of foreign oil and keep the money that we spend on oil within our economy, we must step up American oil development. This includes offshore drilling and drilling in Alaska (ANWR etc). Oil independence through domestic oil development is essential to get the economy back on track.

Alternative energy

I support all alternative energy development in the free market environment. This development of alternative energy should be encouraged with tax incentives and possible grants to Universities for research. Alternative energy development should not deter economic development with penalties on use of existing energy sources. Tax incentives may be provided in order to encourage the usage of alternative energy sources in order to reduce any excess costs involved. Again, penalties should not be placed on cheaper energy sources in order to discourage use. We must also begin a program of nuclear plants to begin coming online in 10-15 years

CAP + Trade

We need to protect the environment and we can by providing tax credits for usage of cleaner energy instead of penalizing those who cannot afford to make the change as quickly. The tax credits will encourage companies to strive for cleaner and more efficient energy usage. Penalties on companies unable to afford the changes will seriously weaken them at a time that it might cause them to fail in a very weak economy. Penalties on carbon emissions that raise the cost of energy would necessarily increase the cost of all consumer goods. We need to utilize domestic natural gas (Boone Pickens Plan) to remove dependence on foreign oil.