SOUND BANKING

We need to have a true banking system that is built to last. There are two separate purposes to a bank. The primary reason of a bank's existence is to safely store your money. That is why banks have vaults. You bring your money to them and they keep it safe for you. Today we also have available services such as internet banking, cashiers checks, electronic transfers, debit cards, ATM's, etc. The bank keeps your money safe, accessible and today able to be used much more conveniently. That is the sole purpose of a bank. Every last penny you put in would be held in reserve and available to you on request. Banks would not lend any of it out. Banks would make money in this model because you would pay fees to the bank for their services, and you would always know your money is safe, secure and that any "run on the bank" could be covered by the bank's reserves.

The second and separate function of a bank is lending/investing. This function should be entirely separate from the first function. This function is for those who wish to put some or all of their money at risk for a possible gain, and they also accept the losses if their investment fails. If you want to invest in such services of a bank you could buy stock, bonds, CD's or other investment opportunities at agreed upon terms between you and the bank. If we have a crash in the economy, only this "at risk" or invested money is in jeopardy. Currently both these functions are intermingled and when one goes down it takes the entire financial system with it. We must end this insanity and return to a sound banking model.

END THE FED RESERVE

We can't say it much more clearly than that. The Federal Reserve System needs to be systematically taken apart and replaced with hard money and a sound banking system. Money should be issued by the US Treasury and have some if not full hard assets backing it. We should also end legal tender laws so there can be competing currencies issued by the private market as well.

LIMITED GOVERNMENT

We must re-define the scope of government. The original idea of America was to have a strong but very limited in scope Federal Government. The Constitution laid out clearly what the scope was to be and it is a small fraction of what it has evolved into today.

There is no question that as time goes on there are new issues that arise because of new problems and technologies, but the inherent and legal philosophy can and should still be used to make the determination on whether it fits into the federal government's proper role to manage these things. If it is something that falls outside of what the constitution allows, they either must not do it or we change the constitution to accommodate this new responsibility. The reason this is so important is not just because one is a stickler for the letter of the Constitution but because Governments, unless strictly held in check, only grow over time.

Most bureaucrats and elected officials want more money and control, and as this occurs they get their hands into more and more areas of life. The problem is that as the organism of central government grows it becomes unfocused and loses transparency. Waste and corruption go up and accountability goes down. Just look at recent events with the banking bailouts, the BP oil spill and other areas of corruption and incompetence such as Katrina. Another important problem is that you have a lot less individual say in your federal government as you are only 1 in 231 million eligible voters and it takes huge amounts of money and organization to make an impact on a national level. On the other hand you can have far more impact in your city or even your state. It's much easier to hold local governments accountable than it is a national government. You could reasonably have a chance of being on your city council or maybe even the state assembly. It is much more difficult to be in the House of Representatives, not to mention the Senate or President.

Less government is better, but the government we have should be as local as possible. We are often caught up with reform rather then elimination, and while we can reform the government until we are blue in the face, much of it just needs to be eliminated. To give you a feeling about how the size of the Federal Government has grown here are the percentages of the Gross Domestic Product that our Federal Government spends. This number tells us how big a piece of the entire economy the government is:

1913
Federal government 2.5% of GDP
All government (including Federal, state and local) 7% of GDP

1940
Federal government 10% of GDP
All government was 20% of GDP

1980
Federal government 20% of GDP
All government 32% of GDP

2009
Federal government 25% of GDP
All government 45% of GDP

In less than 100 years the size of the federal government has grown ten fold. We need to reign in the size of government and get it down to less than half its current size relative to GDP. The total of all government in the US should not exceed 20% and the federal government should be less than 10%. We need to cut, but what are we to cut? It's not as hard as you may think, and you will be surprised at how long we have managed to live without these programs that have now become untouchable.

Cut the following departments to either their proper role or cut them entirely and take the few responsibilities that some of them have that are needed and lawful and merge them into departments that are more justifiable. We need a department of defense we just don't need them to police the world:

Department of Defense (Created 1947)

We should bring most if not every troop home, not only from the middle east wars but also from our foreign bases. There is no increased long term safety to have troops all over the world and spend the $1trillion dollars annually to maintain this false sense of security. It's always funny how these war hawk, anti-terror, hard liners can't wait to send troops all over the world and yet our borders and ports are totally unsecured. Wait, here's an idea, bring our troops home, reunite them with their families, spend a hell of a lot less money and have them secure our borders and ports! Let these other countries figure out their own issues. Defense policy should not run on fear. That's what they constantly feed us. Do not become a victim of fear. As Ben Franklin said, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety".

Department of Energy (Created 1977)

The free market will handle energy demands. All we need is a department that manages mineral rights for mining and Oil/Gas drilling. We do not need a so called "energy policy". This department has caused far more bad than good. Do some research on ethanol and how the heavy subsidizing of corn to produce ethanol has caused massive deforestation, more pollution and higher food costs. The market will meet our energy needs not the government.

Department of Education (Created 1979)

This department hurts education, it doesn't help it. It exists because educational special interests have taken over the system in this country. Government in this country spends over $1 trillion on education annually. In 1970 we spent $56.5 billion. That is a 20 fold increase in spending and our test scores have stayed the same. How are we spending 20 times as much for the same? Some of that is inflation but most of it is not. Also remember that in 1970 people did not have computers and other high tech devices that should be accelerating learning today by leaps and bounds.

Department of Homeland Security (Created 2002)

This department does more to hurt civil liberties in this nation than anyone can imagine. We do not need this department. It opens the door to a massive loss on civil liberties.

Department of Labor (Created 1913)

Labor is a state issue. The federal government does not need to tell you how to have people do their jobs.

Department of Agriculture (Created 1862)

Farming is a state and market issue. The market place will meet the food demand and this department's rules are set up to favor a move to a mega agri-business model, where a few huge corporations make all the food. The food they make tends not to be healthy or made with care for you, the earth or the animals they sell.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (Created 1965)

Housing is a city and local issue. The federal government often creates large ghettos and is a major contributor to price inflation in real estate because of their interference.

Medicaid (Created 1965)

Providing healthcare for the poor is something that if it's going to be done should only be done at a state and local level. Really it should be done by charities and not the government. This program and the way it's designed bankrupts states, creates medical care inflation and creates a dependent class of people.

Social Security (Created 1935)

This program went from a national insurance policy for very old widows to a national retirement plan for the masses. Whether you like it or not, it will go bankrupt, and we have to, at a minimum, get this program solvent. This most fairly and easily could be done by raising the retirement age significantly. Think about this: when social security was created in the 1930's, the average life expectancy was 62, but you did not start receiving social security until the age of 65.

If you're going to do an apples to apples comparison with the current life expectancy then and now, the retirement age for social security should be 80 today. The people today who are at or near the current retirement age do need to have the promise we made them kept, but we need to begin to move this program into its intended direction. Social security should be a bottom line insurance plan for people who can no longer physically work and have outlived their savings.

Medicare (Created 1965)

This program is only about 45 years old and already threatens the entire United States as its deficits are going to be overwhelming very soon. There are two main issues. The first is that healthcare is too expensive, primarily due to the fact that we do not have a free market for healthcare. The way to create manageable healthcare costs is not difficult:

Get rid of mandates for coverage. Buy only the coverage that you desire and not what the state tells you to have.
Allow people to buy insurance across state lines so there is maximum competition.
We must have tort reform to bring down the frequency and the costs of lawsuits.
Make the tax laws the same for business and individuals so that people can purchase health insurance on their own rather than through company. This creates much more portability.
Get the government out of healthcare. They already spend 50% of every healthcare dollar and have driven costs and inefficiencies through the roof. We need individuals responsible for their own healthcare. If we knew the costs and had to pay for it, we would be much more conservative in what services we needed. Insurance is for the unforeseen. Cancer or a heart attack is unforeseen; the Flu or a broken finger is not. We must restore a marketplace to healthcare in the same way that we have a marketplace for most every other good or service.
The above ideas are just a start. Literally every level of government needs to be totally overhauled. We need to examine what we really need each level of government to be doing and what we or the market can do for ourselves. Most things fall into the latter.
We as Americans are facing a dire future and possible economic and structural collapse if we do not face the facts and take back individual responsibility. Political promises do nothing. The same speeches we hear every election cycle, but it is the power of the people given them by the law of our land that must hold our massive government accountable. Remember the government serves the people.

The warning of the upcoming cliff can be best summed up by a quote most attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, "The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money."

Repeal the 17th Amendment

In 1913 (bad year if you like freedom!), the same year that the Federal Reserve was created, there were two constitutional amendments put into place that have radically changed America for the worst. The first was the 16th Amendment which paved the way for the IRS and the personal income tax, and the second was the 17th Amendment put into affect in April of that same year.

The 17th amendment sounds simple and not too controversial. It changes election laws for Senators by mandating that our Senators be elected by popular vote. However prior to this, the Constitution mandated that all Senators were to be chosen by their state legislature.

You may think that this change shouldn't matter much, but simply put, America always had a balance of power in its federal government. Our elected House of Representatives are localized and popularly elected officials who are there to bring a very quick response from the people to Washington, and to give smaller groups of people a say in their government. With short two year terms this part of the congress could be reshuffled quickly to advocate the will of the people.

The President was meant to represent the will of our nation as a whole and Presidential terms were set at four years, which is in between the two years for Representatives and the six year terms of our Senators. This balanced our congress with both a shorter, medium term and longer national outlook. Senators were always picked by our state legislators to represent the interests of the individual states. This Senate branch of congress was meant to move more thoughtfully and slowly, hence the 6 year terms. Senators were created to defend the power and independence of the state they were chosen to represent.

However, the 17th Amendment changed this by changing the election of Senators to popular vote. In so doing, we have destroyed this carefully crafted congressional system that was put in place by our founding fathers. In part, running for Senator is generally much more expensive than it is to run for the House of Representatives, and money pours in from large companies and special interests intended to influence Senators and elect those that will advance their special agenda. Overall, this amendment allows for centralized powerbases and radically affects state sovereignty. Because the states no longer have a seat at the national table, we have seen a huge power move from constitutionally mandated state centered government to nationally centered government.

This amendment was not an accident but a carefully planned and executed coup. Passed under the smoke screen of giving "citizens"; more control of their government it has done just the opposite by adding further corruption to the system and vastly eroding state independence.

Our Republic took a big hit in 1913. We would do this nation a great justice by repealing the 16th amendment, 17th amendment and The Federal Reserve act.

END AN ECONOMY OF DEBT

We need to end the economy of Debt. Think about it: credit cards, car loans, long mortgages, financing for school, computers, big screen tv’s. All this credit everywhere. Most of us Americans live in debt. Many of our parents and most all of our grandparents didn’t live like this. You paid cash! You bought a new car when you had the money to pay for it. Many bought homes for cash and mortgages were often 7 years with big down payments. As our film shows, our current fiat money is inherently debt. It is loaned into existence. It is worth nothing inherently. It’s just an IOU. We all need to realize that we are going to have to live within our means. Spend only what we have and save for unforeseen events and our future. Living a debt free financially rational life is liberating; your relationships, family and sense of well being are all better. The materialism behind “buy now pay later” is a garbage lie that has us all chasing a carrot we can never catch. It has made many of us slaves. I implore to you be just a bit more old fashion and think of what your grandfather would have done.

HARD MONEY

We need to begin to reinstitute "real money". Historically money was gold and silver or a piece of paper that was redeemable for an amount of gold or silver. There are potential improvements possible than strict gold and silver standard, but the core idea here is that paper money has to represent something with long term real value which is finite and can be converted into a real asset. For example, we could have multiple precious metals, oil, food and other real assets put into a "basket" to stand behind our money. Gold and silver had a few problems as a hard money standard, but worked fairly well and could work even better with a few updates. Regardless of the backing, our money should only be created if it represents something that is valuable today, was valuable yesterday and has a good chance of being valuable tomorrow. Something real! Removing legal tender laws that prohibit private currencies would open up the marketplace to other ideas so we could have the best, most stable money there can be.

FAIR TAXATION

For the first 120 years of this country we had no income tax. We didn't need an income tax then and we don't need an income tax now. Whether we can repeal the 16th amendment and get rid of the income tax may not happen in step one, but let us at least have a fair and free system where everyone must share the burden of taxation. For instance, if you can vote to get a benefit for you, but demand that I pay for it, that is not going to promote long term freedom and prosperity for either of us. The more you use or make, the more you pay, but it must be proportional and that is the fundamental key to fair taxation.

Two other core ideas to fair taxation are that it be simple and only used for revenue generation and not intimidation or returning favors. This is what the current complex code does. It's so complicated that what the IRS demands you pay becomes a matter of interpretation. Loopholes are written into the code to favor the politically connected. It's nonsense. If we have to have an income tax it should be flat with very limited if any deductions, such as the money you give to charity. Remember most of the loopholes are for the politically connected anyway not for you or me.

The other core idea to fair taxation requires that the tax rate be as low as possible. A very common falsehood about taxes is that the higher the tax rate the more money the government raises in revenue. This is not true. The higher tax rates go up the more you cut economic growth. In economics, there is a point that higher taxes and maximum revenue cross which shows the most revenue the government can raise. It is much lower than you may think, about 10-15% depending on which economist's model and deductions you include, far lower than our current system. This rate is for all taxes, including social security and medicare. This rate should be applied to all forms of personal income and to business's net income. One rate, one set of rules, everyone pays. That is fair taxation.

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