Our debt is soaring, our unfunded liabilities are beyond comprehension, deficit spending continues unabated, and Congress refuses to make the tough decisions to solve any of these problems. Instead, they persist in perpetuating them via one “continuing resolution” after another instead of a responsible, balanced budget. However, as I pointed out seven weeks ago, just balancing the budget is not going to solve our problem – it will help and is a good first step, but there is no single, one-step solution, as I’ve spelled out over the past six weeks. So here is a recap of the several pieces I’ve put forth that must be employed simultaneously to bring us back from the brink of fiscal and economic collapse.
- Freeze our spending at current levels. Prioritize items and increase spending in areas desperately needed and constitutionally required while cutting back on those not constitutionally permitted. This would include immediate elimination of all government subsidies to businesses and organizations not constitutionally eligible for government funds.
- Eliminate all duplicative programs/agencies. Begin a five-year step down elimination of the funding to all unconstitutional agencies/bureaus at which time they will be eliminated completely. Return control of non-nationally related duties to the states as was intended by our founders.
- Repeal the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 and force Congress to assume all legislative responsibilities and the courts as the sole avenue for adjudication of disputes.
- Return to the welfare reforms put in place in the 1990s’ (and expand those reforms). By removing government’s heavy hand from our economy as stipulated in points two and three, we will experience economic growth that will provide employment opportunities to those currently on welfare – give people a hand up via a free economy, not a hand out from government dependency.
- Place a freeze on legal immigration and clamp down hard on illegal immigration, including the deportation of all those who are here illegally. Those here via both means constitute competition in the job market for Americans and place a huge drain on our overly generous welfare system (see point number four).
- Repeal the 16th amendment that authorized the income tax, thereby eliminating all income-related and payroll-related taxes and convert to a consumption-based system of revenue as outlined in H.R. 25, “The Fair Tax Act.”
As I’ve tried to outline, albeit briefly, each of these areas must be done in concert with each other. Some may be accelerated and fast-tracked so that they are accomplished sooner than others, but they all should and must be completed within a five-year time period for one simple reason – we’re out of time and the edge of the fiscal cliff is upon us.
-October 23, 2015