27 posts
After reading Charger's comments I thought this would be a fun topic to start. Feel free to say anything you'd like to see changed (regardless of whether it has a prayer of happening or not) in today's politics. Here's my starter list:
- Information regarding our Government should reside in single area (which obviously could mean with links to other areas of course). Whatever is kept should be verified by at least one independent source. While there will be plenty of "canned" reports, the raw data should be available for people to make their own select statements against.
- During election times, there should be ONE website that everyone can go to. From there, you should be able to narrow down what you want to look for and the bulk of all information on each campaign and candidate should be there maybe even with a comparison table. You should be able to see a candidates history, education, qualifications (if any :D ), party affiliations, family connections, what they stand for as well as videos of all ads and interviews that they make or become involved with. Oh yeah, and you should be able to see where every dollar that they raise comes from - I like Charger's idea of capping this as well, we want the best candidate not just the wealthiest or the one with the secret supporters.
- All elected positions should have term limits. I can't think of any that should be less than four years or more than 12 though.
- The electoral college needs to be balanced out better (as Charger already mentioned)
- The number of Government jobs need to be reduced considerably with all areas being made more accountable and more efficient (we shouldn't be wasting 82% of an area's budget on overhead like HUD was).
- If you want to stimulate American jobs and Americans stop giving subsidies to foreign countries (e.g., a lot of Oregon stimulus money will be actually going to Germany!)
- Stop wasting time and money restricting things that don't need to be restricted. Yes, this includes many drugs and supplements. Offer education and treatment options but let consenting adults start thinking for themseleves.
- Start realizing that illegal aliens are just that: illegal. Send them packing and let teenagers and those who need work do the grunt work that no one appears to want to do (just like most of us did when we were young).
- If you can't afford to keep this country running correctly, STOP giving billions away to so-called third-world countries. Help is always fine, but we have enough dependents at home already.
I know I have more, but I've finished lunch and need to get back to work! :)
I think your post would be an example of what I would like to change about politics
Information provided as raw data - not helpfully filtered through factoids and assertions by people,
for example you said
If you want to stimulate American jobs and Americans stop giving subsidies to foreign countries (e.g., a lot of Oregon stimulus money will be actually going to Germany!)
Need the raw data not the opinion.
As you may be totally wrong in your opinion about Germany.
and your political initiative fucks up big time with larger losses to American jobs elsewhere.
Truth is - you don't know.
I am going to generalise this beyond the parochial.
The biggest change in politics ever is happening right now.
This discussion in itself is an tiny example of it,
I think that people are quite capable of providing interpretation and argument,
The most important thing is information - the necessary starting point for any informed judgement.
it is necessary but not sufficient condition.
You have to rely on the education system to have provided the average citizen with a decent levels of independent logical analysis.
But start with the former, then sort out the latter,
The only way to sort the latter is for people to have open access to the education data
Data needs to be in helpful form for analysing,
Helpful is the important word legally - in IT it means a well designed useful database.
open government will keep politicians on the straight and narrow.
fingers — Feb 25, 2010 for example you said
If you want to stimulate American jobs and Americans stop giving subsidies to foreign countries (e.g., a lot of Oregon stimulus money will be actually going to Germany!)
Need the raw data not the opinion.
As you may be totally wrong in your opinion about Germany.
Actually, that's a real example. Some of the Oregon stimulus money is going to a German company to build and maintain a solar energy plant out here
in hopes that they will hire Americans - there's no requirement for this though.It was a front-page article in the Oregonian:
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/three_oregon_projects_land_87.html
CraigBert — Feb 26, 2010[quote author=fingers link=1267134861/0#1 date=1267139782] for example you said
If you want to stimulate American jobs and Americans stop giving subsidies to foreign countries (e.g., a lot of Oregon stimulus money will be actually going to Germany!)
Need the raw data not the opinion.
As you may be totally wrong in your opinion about Germany.
Actually, that's a real example. Some of the Oregon stimulus money is going to a German company to build and maintain a solar energy plant out here
in hopes that they will hire Americans - there's no requirement for this though.It was a front-page article in the Oregonian:
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/three_oregon_projects_land_87.htmlDude, read the article again. Sounds like a score for your state. Bottom line, there are no American solar panel manufacturers. Of course they come from Europe... where people have been doing alternative energies forever. The other alternative is China. The article also said these companies have substantial hiring going on in your area.
I know many, many people who work for Nokia--a Finnish company--and I'm sure Nokia gets tons of tax breaks for their US subsidiaries. Thousands of Americans work for Toyota, and they also get tons of tax breaks. Philips... I'm pretty sure they are German, too. They have a huge plant down the street from my work where they design LED lights. Again, I would be shocked if they WEREN'T getting massive tax breaks.
I'm not sure why you would argue against a foreign company doing business in America. We do business all over the world, and when we hire foreign workers in those countries, we get tax breaks, too.
*1 term presidential appointment
*1 term congressional appointment
*balanced budget. only exception being war, an actual declared by congress war
*enormous social program scaleback to match what we can afford.
*i would like to do something about the handicapping of our military in conflict right now (see current ROE as examples) but i don't know where to start. to make it simple we need to go, kick ass, and come back. leave the stabilization to an actual coalition. not the circus that the US is propping up right now. war is ugly and brutal by nature
*make the clowns in congress actually read the entire bill they are passing before doing so. it infuriates me that a bill can be voted on without complete understanding of what is in it. i realize the volume of legislation prevents everyone from reading everything, but the committee/subcommittee idea is not working in its present state
*reserved for whatever else i think of.
CraigBert — Feb 26, 2010
Actually, that's a real example. Some of the Oregon stimulus money is going to a German company to build and maintain a solar energy plant out here in hopes that they will hire Americans - there's no requirement for this though.
It was a front-page article in the Oregonian: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/three_oregon_projects_land_87.html
I don't dispute the story - just the knee jerk assumption that it was a bad thing when you clearly have no idea.
I;d like to see unlimited terms for the President with elections held every 4 years.
Chase - that is the list of a Gun Nut
I love the cliches about war
actually the war bit is pretty easy these days
due to overwhelming mismatch in technology.
The hard dirty brutal bit is the aftermath the insurgency.
the bit you don't want to do and expect others to clean up after you do the easy fun bit
no fucking way in hell will that happen.
fingers — Feb 26, 2010Chase - that is the list of a Gun Nut
I love the cliches about war
actually the war bit is pretty easy these days
due to overwhelming mismatch in technology.
The hard dirty brutal bit is the aftermath the insurgency.
the bit you don't want to do and expect others to clean up after you do the easy fun bit
no fucking way in hell will that happen.
what are you talking about? did you read everything or did you just find specifically what you wanted to argue about?
balanced budget?
mandatory time limits before a vote?
only paying for programs we have the money for?
limited terms for politicians?
i'm failing to see how those are the ramblings of a "gun nut".
I'd love to see a balanced budget too, but I believe that we will never get that without raising taxes. Certainly, there are programs that can be cut, but we can't just blanket cut every social program. To do so would mean a serious hit to our standard of living. And truthfully, I have no problem helping out people who are now unable to work, who are old, who worked their whole lives and ended up... not rich. After all, most of us will not end up rich at the end of our lives. In order for their to be superwealthy people, there have to be a shitload of poor and middle class people who spend their every dime. It's certainly attractive to think if we just cut all welfare and social programs, everything would get better; anybody who believes that, I have bridges in Arizona and real estate in Vegas to sell you.
I also don't think 1 term for president or Congress is adequate. I think the best and brightest won't even run if they know they are lame ducks instantly. Once in a while we get someone brilliant in there... I'd hate to see them axed before their time. I think public financing and spending limits will serve the same purpose, weed out the less effective incumbents.
I'm not sure what any of the war stuff is, I only know that we shouldn't be in most of the wars we get into anyway. If we actually concentrated on defense and stopped trying to change regimes who controlled the oil, we would be in a lot better position.
chase — Feb 26, 2010[quote author=fingers link=1267134861/0#8 date=1267194799]Chase - that is the list of a Gun Nut
I love the cliches about war
actually the war bit is pretty easy these days
due to overwhelming mismatch in technology.
The hard dirty brutal bit is the aftermath the insurgency.
the bit you don't want to do and expect others to clean up after you do the easy fun bit
no fucking way in hell will that happen.
what are you talking about? did you read everything or did you just find specifically what you wanted to argue about?
balanced budget?
mandatory time limits before a vote?
only paying for programs we have the money for?
limited terms for politicians?
i'm failing to see how those are the ramblings of a "gun nut".
It was the cliche of the political position.
The only bit of government spending you respect is military.
Small government and big miltary.
It goes with gun love
;D ;D
It won't be long before Chase realizes he's a republican. :D
fingers — Feb 26, 2010[quote author=chase link=1267134861/0#9 date=1267220275][quote author=fingers link=1267134861/0#8 date=1267194799]Chase - that is the list of a Gun Nut
I love the cliches about war
actually the war bit is pretty easy these days
due to overwhelming mismatch in technology.
The hard dirty brutal bit is the aftermath the insurgency.
the bit you don't want to do and expect others to clean up after you do the easy fun bit
no fucking way in hell will that happen.
what are you talking about? did you read everything or did you just find specifically what you wanted to argue about?
balanced budget?
mandatory time limits before a vote?
only paying for programs we have the money for?
limited terms for politicians?
i'm failing to see how those are the ramblings of a "gun nut".
It was the cliche of the political position.
The only bit of government spending you respect is military.
Small government and big miltary.
It goes with gun love
by all means; lets spend money we don't have, reelect corrupt politicians, and vote on bills we haven't read. it's worked well and put us in the position we are in now. everything seems to be fine and dandy
http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending
Politicians that spend huge money on the military complex.
Leading Politicians that have pretty much free reign to decide it's use - one of the few powers they can exercise easily is to command the military and go to war.
The military is the simplest department of state in an advanced industrial country with the tradition of drilled armed forces.
It is just a matter of how much you spend, it is easy to reform as military is built around reforming.
reforming the Health system
Or the social security system
That is far harder and a long haul thing as it is costed over a generation at least - long after the President has gone.
The most important thing in a leader is someone who has ego but makes good decisions in spite of it.
The military is important, and I can see in the current environment that it can't take much in the way of cuts on many existing fronts.
But it could take cuts and reform - a lot of the technology in the military is behind the times amazingly and better provided as private purchases straight off the market with some industrial strength mods.
The procurement processes are whack in the military worldwide.
But that is by the by - the fact you could not consider the growth of the military arm of your government as a target for cuts,
It is 4.2% of GDP
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ei=N56JS6jhGcet4QbyrsS9Dw&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CBAQBSgA&q=military+spending+US&spell=1&cts=1267311520841
Health spending is around 16% of GDP and that is clearly out of control economically.
A 16% tax on the economy effectively - whether it goes to private insurance or taxes to pay for private insurance through government programs.
The norm in countries with comparable health provision is generally < 10%
The bonus of health care reform is to recover 6% of GDP every year.
Buy you 1.5 US military every year.
or pay off the debt equivalent - near a trillion every year.
That is the goal - but it clearly won't get going.
military spending isn't the problem
entitlement programs are the problem.
Of course you don't think military spending is a
candidate for cuts
Your a Gun Nut.
Peace through greater firepower! :D
Not including Iraq/Afghan costs
your graph only shows an increase in total spending. ignoring the fact we are in a 2 front war, defense spending is still around the same percent of the total budget it has been.
everything is increasing spending as a function of the fact that we are spending more money total.
the total cost of both wars for 10 years is just now approaching a trillion.
simply the DEFICIT last year was 1.5 trillion. this year is going to be way above that. as much money as we have spent in the middle east, it pales in comparison to what we are spending on a regular basis just to keep the wheels turning
It is 23% of the budget
and those figures do not include the wars which are recorded seperately
being that trillion figure you mention.
It is not insignificant it is the single biggest item of spending.
I am not concerned about the politics of where cuts should be made
just pointing at the facts - if you are concerned about budget balancing
DOD budget is 23% of the total budget. medicare, medicaid and social security account for 40% of the budget. those facts are for the last fiscal year.
the congressional budget office estimates that by 2050 medicare medicaid and social security will account for 20% of the GDP of the united states. that is 100% of our current budget. by contrast, DOD spending has increased roughly 9% per year over the last decade, which falls BEHIND the increase in the federal budget total expenditures.
to make it simple, defense spending is a bit less than a quarter of our budget and not going to change drastically one way or the other. entitlement programs are around 40 percent of our budget, and will bankrupt us on its current path. by 2050 we will be spending more on entitlement programs than we will be taking in in tax receipts.
where should our priorities lie?
Err - it is currently 25% - if you see the kind of cuts you want in other departments it will be 30%+ of the spending.
If you eliminated health and social security spending entirely it would be 41%.
As I said,
Typical Gun Nut politics - Favours government focussed on military spending.
Making the claim that guns are needed in case the government turn tyrannical laughable in it's puniness as a deterrence.
It doesn't compute - A huge logical hole in the position - like a Christian talking NT Jesus Love one minute and claiming OT eye for an eye the next.
and we would be in the black on our budget. the % doesn't matter as much to me as the fact that we are spending more than we have.
By all means, Chase, push to elect representatives who will eliminate Medicare and Social Security. After those folks two year terms are up, there will be a tidal wave of voter retribution.
Yes, you have the people on your side on guns, more than half the country support them.
But the numbers on medicare and social security are staggering compared to your guns. Somewhere between 80 and 90% support. So you are not going to find a politician who will even introduce a bill to end medicare or social security, unless it's purely political theater. Certainly the polling on this is 5 years old, but I doubt anything has changed. You have some real ground to make up if you want to change that.
From http://www.pollingreport.com/social.htm
"On the whole, do you think it should or should not be the government's responsibility to provide a decent standard of living for the elderly?" Form A (N=588)
Should Should Not Unsure
% % %
6/10-15/05 80 16 4
5/20-24/05 81 15 4
2/24-28/05 79 17 4
"Do you think the government should or should not expand Medicare to cover people between the ages of 55 and 64 who do not have health insurance?" (Note that even with a year of assault on health care, the numbers only changed by ten points between '06 and december of '09)
Should Should Not Unsure
% % %
12/10-13/09
63 33 4
9/06
75 23 2
im not sure i want medicare/medicaid to end; reformed would be a good idea. welfare and social security is another issue