There we go. We agree on abortion. Now, let’s move to the other issues people looked at that caused them to vote the way they did. Is there no middle ground on social justice issues? We don’t have an election breathing down our necks at this moment. By example we can show that other issues are not as important as abortion and have our politicians make concessions on those issues, so they won’t be a distraction next election. Isn’t that what we should do?
No, this is no good. This is Obama’s formulation at Notre Dame, i.e. “Abortion is off the table. Now, what other positions of mine can we agree on?”
If there’s no respect for life, there’s no respect for anything. That, to me, is the threshold issue for coming to any kind of accommodation.
But okay, “social justice issues”
It is my position that this country treats the poorest of the poor shabbily. Bare essential of life and not much more; sometimes not even that. Those people are the disabled needy; the ones who must impoverish themselves to obtain any benefits at all. Neither party has done anything for them for decades. How about improving SSI, which is about $600/month? Let’s say, to $1200, and see how that goes?
To pay for that, how about if we do away entirely with the Dept of Education? Education is, or ought to be, locally controlled and financed. If some school districts are too poor to provide schools if they tax at an average rate, then perhaps they should simply be given a check by the Treasury Dept. Just like that. No middlemen. I’m sure the school administrators would be happy to submit the paperwork, certified by the county collector and the County commission in each county.
And we could raise at least a little money by defunding Planned Parenthood, abortions and abortifacients under any program at all, NPR and the National Endowment for the Arts. Considering the obscene profanations of religion the latter supports, it’s only a matter of time, it would seem, before they offend Muslims and get someone killed, not so?
And perhaps a bit or two could be raised if private foundations were taxed like any other corporation, whether they are rightist or leftist or middlest. Possibly, too, university endowments that constantly gain money, own stupefying fortunes and don’t give enough scholarships to legitimately claim any reason for having the endowments (e.g. Harvard, well, the whole Ivy League and then some, actually) could be taxed on their endowment income.
Possibly donations to private foundations should not be deductible at all? Think of the taxes Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will never have to pay (nor their estates) because they gave huge sums (mostly in appreciated stocks) to private foundations that do their bidding. So, you don’t like Rupert Murdoch? Do the same to him.
Eliminating the current administration’s increase in funding “well care”, which recent studies suggest are essentially without value in preventing disease, and also restoring its reduction in funding of care for “chronic” patients. Chronic patients are overrepresented among the poor. All disabled people are “chronic” patients by definition.
Oh, how could I forget elimination of tobacco subsidies. That too. And then there’s the ethanol subsidy.
Probably even I could come up with more things if i put thought to it. But I really did like the “Romney test” for deciding whether to eliminate or continue a government program. One would ask “Is this worth borrowing the money from China for?”
Oh yes. Phasing out FNMA and FHLMC entirely. Also FHA guaranteed loans. Forcing the SBA and FSA to actually underwrite loan guarantees before giving them. This country is going to lose unimaginably huge sums because of those programs. FNMA and FHLMC were once good programs, but they’re no longer even needed because banks and private corporations now do the very same thing,but do it better.
Sell the government’s interest in GM. Yes, I know, it’s in a multibillion loss position because the investing public knows GM is only breathing with life support. But the hit will probably be worse later, and the government could use the money.
Impose a ten year moratorium on any legislator, bureaucrat, general or admiral or acquisitions officer, from serving as a lobbyist at all, after serving in his public office.
And how about dollar-for-dollar pension offsets for double and triple and quadruple dippers?
On the subject of retirement, why not scale down SS for those making, oh, let’s start with $150,000/year. Maybe the means test for Medicare should be as high as, ummmm, $500,000/year, at least to start.
Now, once we have provided for the defense of the nation and have provided decently for the truly poor who can’t help themselves, which the Church says is the first priority, we can then look at whether there is a compelling reason to allocate scarce resources in other ways.
