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What would a Contract with America Look (2008) Like?
By mdetlh Posted in Elections — Comments (26) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
I've received fundraising requests from the RNCC and Mitch McConnell's office. McConnell is specifically being targeted by MoveOn.org. I'm a Mitch McConnell fan. What was extraordinary was that both appeal letters appeared with only solicitations without any agenda of what they would pursue. Their role has been spoiler of the radical left agenda, I'll give them some credit.
People are starved for Conservative leadership.
I know I can't help McConnell out, but wanted to try to start a brainstorming blog about what would the essential of the conservative movement on issues look like?
My proficiencies and studies have taken me to currencies, tax policy and the Fairtax. I'm pretty well versed as an amateur about the above topics and my trading of currencies is getting better.
Basic assumption #1
Support the USD and all major currencies. The G7 noted that currency volatility is undesirable was code for the USD has depreciated too much against the Euro in particular. There is no room for an alternative currency, especially one that would depreciate the value of the USD, period.
With inflation at record levels, the need for higher interest rates will be a necessity, though once that realization sinks in to Wall Street there may be major selloffs due to the obvious inflation factor, but will be bullish for the USD.
The remainder will turn into hopefully a hold no punches on the most egregious issues based on
"the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
So feel free to add on or revise regarding the most egregious things that are observed. But please this should not include personalities, cause the persons who would want to win the conservative movement would need to placate conservatives with the following:
1.A USD bullish move is to - cut all subsidies for the ethanol crop
With the Dec 2007 law that requires the whole American corn crop to be turned into ethanol by
cutting the subsidies off would bring the corn futures back to earth. For further discussion amongst traders there is this for freezing the ethanol production from corn: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?p=1971724
2. The Fairtax has been beaten to death, so instead I'd propose two ideas:
Advocate an across the board 25% corporate tax rate, and no deductions for workers from their pay. Eliminate the federal fuel tax at $.18.
3. Sue the life out of the environmentalists until they allow drilling on American lands and offshore.
4. Repeal the Clinton era tobacco settlement so that farmers will another potentially profitable crop and that we don't outsource our cigars and cigarettes to offshore exporters. No I'm not a smoker but the across the board 25% tax rate should take of the revenue needs.
5. Allow choice with the medical insurers so that third parties' payment mentality isn't a cause parabolically rising medical and insurance costs.
6. Start a national database that shows who is where in relationship to a first come first served citizenship path through the INS.
7. Free Compean and Ramos.
8. Make government smaller by?
9. When revenues surged due to lower tax rates under Reagan and Bush II, how do you control spending? And what do you do in the 2001 era when the equity bubble burst, 9/11 occurred, and there is a need for a war? BTW capital gains fell to anemic records during the 2001 era and have since surged with the 2003-2007 bull market.
Ok your turn--? What works and what doesn't?
Was this idea treated somewhere else and I missed it due infrequent visits of late? Provide a link please. :)
I've pondered this a couple times as well.
by liandro
1. I think I agree with this point, but is strategically wise to put it into the actual contract?
2. I'm firmly against dropping the gas tax. People are starting to take lowering gas consumption seriously. There are plenty of other taxes that take much higher priority for targeting. As for the corp tax: don't know enough about the issue to comment. I do know that the unemployement tax on businesses hits the smallest businesses the hardest. I wouldn't mind seeing that axed, or spread out further (first $50K in pay instead of first $7K, or something like that).
3. Again, whether or not this has merit it isn't something that should be put into the Contract.
4. I don't really understand this proposal, probably due to my own ignorance of the related issues, but it again doesn't seem like something that belongs in the Contract.
5. Yes, yes, yes. Give the market more power to do one of it's jobs: lowering prices.
6. Interesting?
7. ?
8. let me throw out some ideas that may or may not have merit: start by freezing spending in several agencies. attacking pork, and translating that into savings. allowing SS to be optional (okay, probably too controversial to put into the Contract, but I love it). taking GAO reports on wasteful spending seriously and passing bills to end/modify that spending. reforming the government awarding of contracts. eliminate no-bid contracts in nearly all situations. rewarding agencies that shrink their budget. eliminating unnecessary government jobs (I think Giuliani had some ideas along that line?)
9. the government should have made it's citizens pay for the war. that's easy for me to say, since I'm not terribly for it, and therefore I don't mind the lashback from a war tax. But if the war is worth it, then it's worth paying for. At the very least war bonds, etc.
Some things I would like to add:
1. language addressing the deficit, and how to deal with it.
2. Some specific plans on either welfare or SS. Yes, it can be polarizing, but somebody needs to come up with a plan on this stuff. Somebody much wiser then I.
3. Some solid ideas on Health Care--there is no reason Dems should own this issue.
I think there should be a heavy economic emphasis.
Re:1
at current levels, thats a good middle of the road tack to take, agreed. But I would not want to hide anything from anyone regarding the current ethanol craze from corn. So the declaration would stay whether or not I got reelected, I have nothing to hide as a conservative. Lowering the price of corn is the compassionate thing to do for the world. Thirty three countries have had food riots because of food inflation. Part of it is the week USD, part of it is the environmentalist dogma of corn to fuel as a form of energy independence. So nothing else gets planted cause corn is where the USDs are at and nothing else pays as well until people want other crops as well.- which there is scarcity of crops that no else get subsidies for cause everyone was planting corn.
In how many ways are we taxed at the pump? The 40% corporate tax if they are US based, 18 cents consumption tax, 25? cents to 46 cents for state taxes, its time to simplify the tax code and get rid of the onerous taxes that the consumer ultimately pays. Then there is a tax that Alaska imposed on the oil producers in spite of the 6% decline in oil production there year of year.
The oil companies need advocates in the Congress as well as the Big Corn people. So who is supporting Big Oil?
Earmark reform
by SteveLA
Reform of earmarks that prohibit earmark from being approved without a full vote of the congress and some requirement for advance publication in the Congressional record of 5 Congressional business days before being voted on.
______________________________________
Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !
For mother's days and always.
by mdetlh
Get rid of the incandescent light bulb ban that starts in 2012 thanks to the 110th Congress and the San Francisco Democrat.
Two nos from the women, wife and daughter, in my house, we'll have a life time supply of those things if that law isn't rescinded.
an orderly process to LEGAL immigration.....which everyone can agree is what the USA needs and desires.
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
Border Security first
by mdetlh
... there is no point in deporting people without a mutual agreement for both countries. However, sticking it to the employers has helped send the illegals back and there are signs that the states are picking up where the Fed is failing, and there have been stories of illegals returning south of the border.
Some type of database would help, is there such a database big enough to centralize who is where in the citizenship line?
Reduce government by...
by dglenn
...either eliminating the federal income tax all together or creating a flat tax someone in the neighborhood 10-15%, and point to how well that policy works for eastern European countries like the Czech Republic.
"A man can be destroyed but not defeated" - Ernest Hemingway
someone=somwhere
by dglenn
"A man can be destroyed but not defeated" - Ernest Hemingway
we should turn to the architect of the first Contract. Newt Gingrich has spent a considerable amount examining the issues that American's today care about. He calls it the Platform of the American People (pdf). In it he outlines the positions that vast majorities of the American public would get behind. The top ten (what would be the big issues for a new Contract) are:
Top 10 Reasons YOU Should Support the Platform
English should be the official language of government. (87 to 11)
The option of a single rate system should give taxpayers the convenience of filing their taxes with just a single sheet of paper. (82 to 15)
Every worker should continue to have the right to a federally supervised secret ballot election when deciding whether to organize a union. (79 to 12)
Keeping the reference to “One Nation Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is very important. (88 to 11)
We favor the option of a single employer tax rate of 17% that would lower taxes for some businesses that pay up to 38%, while also closing loopholes that some corporations use to pay less in taxes. (74 to 22)
Congress should make it a crime to advocate acts of terrorism, violent conduct, or the killing of innocent people in the United States. (83 to 12)
We should dramatically increase our investment in math and science education. (91 to 8)
The United States should only grant citizenship to those who want to embrace American values and culture. (68 to 29)
Illegal immigrants who commit felonies should be deported. (88 to 10)
We support giving a large financial prize to the first company or individual who invents a new, safer way to dispose of nuclear waste products. (79 to 16)
These are issues, given the strength of the polling, that any party or politician could seize upon, craft effective solutions and win.
Just a little food for thought.
Now also found at The Minority Report
That's a pretty good list n/t
by SteveLA
______________________________________
Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !
1 I would have in a top 10 list
by pilgrim
Streamline by cutting as much red tape as possible to facilitate building new oil and natural gas pipelines and nuclear power plants.
The purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better.
Dr. Theodore Dalrymple
I like it
by simpson316
the challenge with that is to make sure that it doesn't sound too wonky. You say streamline and a lot of people's eyes glaze over. Terms like cut the fat usually work much better.
Now also found at The Minority Report
How about a futures market for oil?
by blooch
I'm pretty ignorant about the commodities market, but I do graze in Forbes magazine. According to the editor, William Baldwin, investment in "exotic oil"(shale and tar sands)is severely dampened by the prospect of intentional price crashes by OPEC. I won't debate that point here, but if it's true, this proposal by the editor sounds interesting:
"Solution: a futures market. Say the price settles on $90 for fuure delivery,lowering economic risks to energy consumers while guaranteeing profits to producers now sitting on $60 oil. For a soybean farmer a 12-month forward market is quite
adequate to tell him how many acres to plant. For Royal Dutch Shell, maybe the action needs to stretch out to 2028 to take the risk out of an Arctic platform or a transcontinental pipeline..."
"There are,of course, futures markets for energy, but liquidity dries up beyond a few years out. Buyers and sellers should show a little more imagination. Is it so absurd to hedge costs decades in advance?..."
"The federal government could set a good example by buying in advance some of the 1.6 billion barrels of oil it will burn up over the next decade. If this were done via contracts traded on a Chicago exchange, producers, consumers and speculators could dive in. The resulting market would send valuable price signals about what kind of homes, airplanes, highways, drilling rigs, factories and insulation we should be investing in now."
This was from the Side Lines feature in the May 19 dead tree Forbes. I don't know if it's online or if the idea is worth considering. Perhaps Blackhedd can weigh in. If this is a good idea, maybe it's something to incorporate as a subset of Pilgrim's plank above. Not too wonkish, and a market-based solution which only a Republican would ever consider.
I heartily endorse your idea. n/t
by pilgrim
The purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better.
Dr. Theodore Dalrymple
Forward-purchasing fuel for twenty years
by blackhedd
To do this is to make assumptions about the shape of supply and demand twenty years from now. It's basically the mother of all bull bets.
You won't find speculators to come into this market. Because futures contracts are marked to market every night, their time-horizon is measured in minutes or hours, not decades. They dump their positions the minute their bets move against them.
The essence of the proposal is that the US government will commit to buy fuel in 2028 that looks a lot like the kinds of fuel we use today, and at prices that reflect today's market.
Forget the proverbial "all kinds of things" that can change between now and 2028, including technological change and war.
What really matters to the counterparty to the contract? Let's say it's Royal Dutch Shell, who would commit to sell fuel to the US government in 2028 at a price like $90/barrel.
If I were RDS, my question would be this: How can I be sure that $90 in 2028 will be worth what it is now? How can I be sure the dollar will even exist in 2028?
If I were RDS and I became convinced that this trade made sense, I imagine I could hedge it by short-selling a few hundred billion dollars' worth of US Treasury bonds.
But that's just the finance guy in me talking. If I were an oiler, I'm not sure I'd want to take the risk. Especially since the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell is on the record as believing that the peak oil theory is true. In his shoes, I'd consider forward-selling for twenty years at $900/barrel, maybe, but not $90.
Heh. Thanks, Blackhedd.
by blooch
Must be why Forbes calls it Side Lines--for marginal stuff, I guess.
The RDS CEO believes in Peak Oil? Scary.
Assuming
by dglenn
That we find an alternative energy source to power our airplanes, ships, etc., with, wouldn't the government be spending money now on a resource that would not be needed twenty years from now?
"A man can be destroyed but not defeated" - Ernest Hemingway
Platform needs an update
by Uma Richie
Thanks for bringing this up. I remember 1994 like it was yesterday. The Contract With America was a beautiful thing. There are plenty however, we need some motivation to vote for Republicans.
Newt's platform was fine last summer, but what is on people's minds right now is rising gas and food prices. The dems have the advantage because voters are willing to believe it is the fault of oil companies, greedy Saudis, and war spending. Heck, I don't have a solution, but I think a miracle plan is needed if we are going to pull this one off.
Also, pledge self-imposed term limits. House members elected before 2000 should pledge that they will only seek reelection two more times. Those elected since should limit themselves to a total of 12 years of House service.
Good Post
by Whitehorse
I would focus on winning the war on terror as quickly, efficiently, and effectively as possible. Economic concerns, correcting the problems with illegal aliens & illegal alien employment, and market-based health care cost solutions are also good. The main thing is to get something to support & get others to vote for.
#1 Congressman to Adhere to the Contract
by rblack198
I think without the right people we get the same thing as 1994, a grasp for power and not much in the way of results. Great ideas, but without the support and determination from all parties involved they just stagnate as ideas. Just started reading Dr. Coburn's book and that seems to be the main problem he saw from the Contract. Once they had the majority the contract became a secondary issue to remaining in (and gaining) power.
"Cowards cut and run, Marines never do"
in '95 when people got spooked.
Some things couldn't get through the Senate, and other things got stopped by the President.
I would settle for a '94-95 type House any day of the week. Is there a better example to point to? What House class was better than '94.
Not saying anybody was perfect, but I recall there being bonafide attempts to eliminate government agencies, reduce spending, etc.
In addition to promoting a new "Contract with America"
by civil truth
The Republicans need to contrast our program against what we should label Democratic Party's "Contract on America", which is what their program amounts to.
Gee, I'll play...
by mbecker908
1. Win the War. That means a stable govt in Iraq.
2. Move most combat units out of Europe and put them I the ME (Iraq anyone?).
3. Eliminate Corporate taxes and institute a flat tax for individuals.
4. Eliminate the Dept of Education. Spend no federal money on any targeted programs, rather, issue vouchers to parents so they can choose the best school for their kids.
5. Privatize Social Security and Medicare.
6. Support market reforms to our health care system.
7. Eliminate all Agriculture subsidies including ethanol.
8. Privatize the air traffic control system.
9. Seal the borders, check the immigration ststus of every person arrested for any reason (felonies & misdemeanors) and deport illegals. Expand e-verify and toughen employer sanctions.
10. Build a monument to Franz, Prince of Dogness celebrating his benevolance.
The first nine are negotiable. Ten is not.
____
CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
mbecker, regarding item #10
by civil truth
I assume in fulfillment of this pledge, you intend to raze the Capitol to erect the world's largest sculpted turd, occupying the same approximate volume, in honor of Franz (and the Federal Register).
That's a project I could rally behind (so long as I were upwind).
a new contract until I saw his face with Pelosi on the "We Can Solve it," commercial.
1.No earmarks on Emergency Spending for the military, show by powerpoint of Perot style charts the extra +++++ put in the funding bills with the 110th Congress.
2.No cap and trade taxes, that's the only issue that McCain gets my goat on lately. Everything else, he has veered hard right. Though its tough to trust him. But I've got to vote for him, and hope the best of conservative agenda line is held.
3.Investigations of the 110th Congress for why they had investigations. Oh never mind- we are better than that.
4. End the payroll deductions, end the 16th amendment and go to consumption or flat tax.
5. Ensure that the oil companies pay no more than any other corporation's taxes.
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Isn't your item 7 a private members bill and as a matter of policy is wise to be that specific?
I'm not sure what the general case as a point of policy you could make on this one.
______________________________________
Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !