Ideas to help our nation's debt problem

[StrangeRanger]

Just because I?ve been up too long and I?m feeling a bit punchy, I?ve come up w/ some ideas for helping our nation?s debt problem.

? Legalize pot: Instead of paying American farmers subsidies to NOT grow crops (which just blows my mind to begin w/) have them grow hemp. Hemp can be used for a ton of different products and for the Pineapple Express variety the gov?t can tax the crap out of it just like they do alcohol, fuel and tobacco products. Tons of money to be made in hemp and there are 1,000?s of acres available to grow it in.
? Implement the SAT: No, not the SAT that scares the crap out of millions of high school students. I?m talking about the Stoopid Ass Tax. This would be a fee/penalty/tax levied against assholes who start up frivolous law suits. Everyone from RIAA to the McDonald?s coffee lady would have this huge tax hammered on them for wasting everyone?s time and resources. Oh, and the folks that bother to follow through w/ their dumb ass law suit and win, they pay like half their winnings in tax.
? Churches & ?Ministries?: This is because there so many dumb ass, bible thumpin? fuktards in this country that can?t seem to understand the concept of separation of church and state. Fine, you want all your right wing religious bullshit agendas to be addressed and you want to ram your crap ass ideologies down everyone?s throat while compromising everyone else?s rights? Then we gonna tax the shit out of your churches and ministries. Just look how much money those southern ministries rake in in donations. All those people that donate all that cash? I wanna sell you some bridges. And you can?t tell me the catholic church aint got millions socked away. Just look at how much they?ve already dolled out to keep all the victims of their ass pirating priests quiet. If you?re not willing to keep YOUR church out of my state, they better pay up biotch.
? Extra Red Tax: My personal fav, everyone that voted Bush into office the first time pays 10X their annual income tax for each year that ass wipe was in office. Including penalties b/c you?re now very late on back taxes. And if you voted him into office the second time around, you pay 20X your annual income taxes.

These were just some random 3:35 in the morning thoughts. I?d love to hear your ideas for helping our nation out. While I think Barack has some good ideas the poor bastard can?t be expected to clean up this mess all by himself eh. Let?s give him some ideas. What are yours?
j

 

[Leros]

P&N?

 

[Fenixgoon]

stop buying shit you can't afford.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

- Legalize and decriminalize pot immediately. All prisoners in on pot charges released. If you want to grow your own you have to have a liscence charge some fee for liscence. Same as required for producing/distributing alcohol.

- Tax the shit out of papparazzi and any celebrity gossip related coverage and business.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
stop buying shit you can't afford.

this is it! live within your means.

also, putting an end to greedy sobs.

 

[Queasy]

Here's a simple idea that will work and doesn't needlessly target people for thoughtcrimes.....STOP THE F*CKING GOVERNMENT SPENDING!

 

[Blieb]

I HEAR education is bad here.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
stop buying shit you can't afford.

this is it! live within your means.

also, putting an end to greedy sobs.

Think the op is talking about national dept not personal debt.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
stop buying shit you can't afford.

this is it! live within your means.

also, putting an end to greedy sobs.

Think the op is talking about national dept not personal debt.

it all began with personal debt

 

[Blieb]

I don't smoke pot, would not be opposed to leagalization when treated like alcohol.

 

[Barfo]

Send SWAT and Special Forces teams to rob other countries banks.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: barfo
Send SWAT and Special Forces teams to rob other countries banks.

or we could go all Robin Hood on them.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
stop buying shit you can't afford.

this is it! live within your means.

also, putting an end to greedy sobs.

Think the op is talking about national dept not personal debt.

it all began with personal debt

not really

 

[oiprocs]

I support your views. Please add a 5th law:

Members of ATOT who signed up before or on June 21, 2007, get lifetime annual payment of $50,000.

Edit: Oops, tax free!

 

[nanette1985]

Originally posted by: obscenethistle
I support your views. Please add a 5th law:

Members of ATOT who signed up before or on June 21, 2007, get lifetime annual payment of $50,000.

Edit: Oops, tax free!

Heck, I'd even pay taxes on that.

 

[acheron]

Originally posted by: StrangeRanger
? Extra Red Tax: My personal fav, everyone that voted Bush into office the first time pays 10X their annual income tax for each year that ass wipe was in office. Including penalties b/c you?re now very late on back taxes. And if you voted him into office the second time around, you pay 20X your annual income taxes.

Good plan, except it should include people who voted for Gore or Kerry too. You don't honestly think they would have been any different, do you?

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
stop buying shit you can't afford.

this is it! live within your means.

also, putting an end to greedy sobs.

Think the op is talking about national dept not personal debt.

it all began with personal debt

not really

people buying houses they couldn't afford got us into this mess. i'm not arguing whether it's the lenders' or buyers' fault, simply stating that either way, this event caused us to be in the clusterfuck we are now.

 

[JDub02]

This one is easy.

Step 1 - Take the tax code, individual and corporate, and burn it. Create a simple 1 page tax code --- 10% national sales tax. Now all income/savings are tax free. This encourages people to save, which is good. There are also no more loopholes.
Step 2 - Cut government spending completely to everything except for defense and infrastructure. Really big missiles and really smooth roads .. that's it. No more welfare, social security, medicare, medicaid, health care, etc. You don't want to work? There's the door to Canada.


I don't know why the idiots in Washington thing that the solution to massive debt is borrowing and spending more money.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Much better ideas can be found here.

For example, the Monetary System has been long deemed a positive force in society due to its claim to produce incentive and progress. In actuality, the monetary system has become a vehicle for division and totalitarian control.

...what you are seeing today IS the Free market at work, with all its differential advantage and corruption. No laws will ever stop the insider trading, collusion, monopoly, labor abuse, pollution, planned obsolescence or the like... this is what the competition based system produces without fail, for it is based on the premise of taking advantage of others for profit. Period.

We must begin to transition out of these oppressive ideals and move towards a system which is "designed" to support human beings... not force them to fight in order to survive.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: JDub02
This one is easy.

Step 1 - Take the tax code, individual and corporate, and burn it. Create a simple 1 page tax code --- 10% national sales tax. Now all income/savings are tax free. This encourages people to save, which is good. There are also no more loopholes.
Step 2 - Cut government spending completely to everything except for defense and infrastructure. Really big missiles and really smooth roads .. that's it. No more welfare, social security, medicare, medicaid, health care, etc. You don't want to work? There's the door to Canada.


I don't know why the idiots in Washington thing that the solution to massive debt is borrowing and spending more money.

Because they aren't interested in solving the economic problems as much as they are about getting their pet programs going and consolidating power with them. Never let a crisis go to waste...

 

[MovingTarget]

End the war on drugs. It has proven to be ineffective as prohibition, if not worse. Legalize, tax, rinse, repeat, profit.

Scale back overseas military deployment. Where's the 'peace dividend' we were supposed to get after WW2 or the cold war? (Keep up R&D and stateside readiness - I'm no hippie. )

End subsidies to large farms/agribusinesses.

Increase taxes. (Capital gains to parity w/ income tax, estate tax on estates worth $2M or more, income tax on $350k+ in addition to what Obama is doing now, close loopholes)

Tarriffs. Yes, I said it. I am not pro free trade. Reevaluate trade on a bilateral basis, applying tariffs where we see fit, not for protectionism, but to equalize the restrictions placed on us by other countries. This will indirectly help our own industry, and bring in some dough. Fair trade != free trade.

Crack down on offshoring corporate HQ to tax shelters. If you do the vast majority of your business in the US, you should be based there and pay taxes.

Eliminate unfunded mandates by the federal gvt to the states. If the federal gvt doesn't have the power to do something directly, then they simply shouldn't. This will go a long way to helping state/local budgets.

Hookers and blow. Why the hell not.

FDR-style bank holiday for the national banks....review books, make changes, reopen under private hands w/ gvt assurance to restore market confidence.

Annex Canada. We <3 them anyway since we were under the Articles of Confederation. Nice tax base. Pass on Quebec though. Even as a Francophile, they aren't worth the trouble.

Crack down on illegal immigration to soften the blow on the social services they use. (and other reasons) More legal immigration though....it helps our R&D and has the added effect of legal immigrants paying taxes and trying to keep off the public doles.

Rework healthcare completely. Scrap the whole system. Start over. It is a black hole/money pit even in private hands right now...

Energy independence R&D....we need to get to the point where we aren't 'over a barrel' from the market or the ME. This will have long-term savings.

Eliminate mandatory education beyond grade 10 for students, separate into vocational and higher ed tracks. Keep public ed going through 12th grade though, but don't require students who don't want to be there to continue. Cost savings + better education for those who want it.

Stop foreign governmental aid. You can't buy friends over the long run, especially with cash.

Edit: formatting FAIL

 

[Tea Bag]

Set up a fund where other countries can invest and we'll assure them a great ROI. Essentially, it will grow and we get more investors because they'll be telling other countries who got involved how they got an awesome deal and will sing the praises of the fund to everyone..

Oh wait, I think I seen this on the news. It didn't work out so well for that guy.

 

[zebano]

These won't all help the debt, but they are the things I think the governement should work on.

1. Our prison systems cost us tons of money and we provide far too many amenities to the inmates. I propose a bill which:
a. Remove all amenities from the inmates. They are allowed basic TV sometimes, no cable, or internet. Most of their time should be spent doing meaningless tasks.
b.1. Decriminalize victimless crimes. i.e. drug abuse. If people want to f-up their own lives, that's fine.
b.2. Release those imprisoned for drug consumption (but not those in for distribution as that is seeking to profit while breaking the law though in the spirit of this bill, their sentences should perhaps be halved).
b.3. End the "war on drugs" and retask those officers to something more useful.
b.4. Explicitly state that it is allowable for employers to hire based on drug use (and require drug tests) if they so choose.
b.5. Anyone wishing to receive welfare/medicare/medicade/food stamps/other government entitlements (excluded is social security since people are due this after paying into it) must pass a monthly drug test which proves that they are "drug free" by the old rules (i.e. Alcohol is acceptable, but pot, crack, meth etc. are not).


2. Retire the penny, they cost more to make than they are worth. The nickel will now be our minimum denomination. If deflation occurs, we can consider the return of the penny. In 10-20 years I don't think anyone will carry physical cash anyway.


3. Illegal Aliens: This country was founded on immigrants and we should make it easy to immigrate here, but you are not free to break our laws to do so. This will help insure that we collect tax revenues from all workers and that U.S. citizens are not cheated out of jobs by companies hiring cheap work illegally (yes this happens ask my coworker who quit the drywall business to go back to school and become a software engineer).


3.1: Give the INS 1 year to significantly improve their immigration proceedings. They must accept and respond to immigration request in a timely fashion (within 1 month). All people with a lack of a criminal record worldwide are welcome. Things like speeding, jaywalking, loitering or other non-felonies should be very leniently ignored (we do need some threshold however). After such a time 3.2 and 3.3 apply.
3.2 All Illegal Aliens will not receive any healthcare, education or other government services. They will be invited to apply for citizenship as in 3.1 but if they fail, immediately deported, their goods will be confiscated and auctioned off to defray this cost.
3.3 Any business found to be hiring illegals (knowingly or not) will immediately lose all government contracts. They will be fined $50,000 per such worker (with no upper limit) and the workers will be treated as in 3.2.


4. No more bailouts, let business succeed or fail on their own.
4.1 Toward encouraging competition, allow new phone/cable/power/utility companies in using existing lines. I haven't worked this out but I almost think the city or country governments should take over most physical lines and rent bandwidth with endpoints to all houses in a city (rural areas might be difficult to fit into this plan).
4.2 With the remaining bailout money specify that for any company receiving bailout money. Compensation for any employee or contractor may not exceed $200,000 / year. The companies also cannot give any type of bonus other than 3 months salary to workers who are quitting or getting laid off.
4.3 An executive convicted of falsifying their companies books is to receive a felony worth life in solitary confinement.

5. Money collected for certain things should be applied to funds specific to those appropriations.
For instance:
a. Social Security collections may be used to pay SS but nothing else.
b. gas taxes may be spent on roads or police forces.
c. Income tax would go to the general fund.

6. A minor priority would be reviewing/simplifying the existing laws. Ones such as those found at www.dumblaws.com would be stricken from the books and others would be edited with the goal that you don't need a lawyer to understand them.


7. End farm subsidies.

 

[StrangeRanger]

I gotta say, I'm impressed. My thoughts were simply random bullshit while I was awake in the middle of the night w/ a sick little one. But yes I have given serious consideration to our nation's state of affairs and it is honestly encouraging to see other folks willing to brain storm and throw out some ideas. We all know there's no grand plan, all fixing solution. That "baby steps" are the way to go. And there's actually a number of very good baby steps mentioned in this thread already.
Any plan is going to piss some people off. But tough noogies. We've got to collectively suck it up, man up, and get our heads out of our asses. The current situation is complete and udder bullshit. Just the thought of how much palm greasing and ass kissing that goes on in our government turns my stomach. We need a really big "DO OVER" button. I'd love to see the entire senate, congress, tax system, health plan system etc wiped clean and started over. And lobbyists? Oh man, I'd love to see those bastards A.) made illegal and B.) tared and feathered and then hung out for a public flogging.
Please, I'd truly like to see more ideas and thoughts from everyone.
j

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: JDub02
Step 1 - Take the tax code, individual and corporate, and burn it. Create a simple 1 page tax code --- 10% national sales tax. Now all income/savings are tax free. This encourages people to save, which is good. There are also no more loopholes.
Step 2 - Cut government spending completely to everything except for defense and infrastructure. Really big missiles and really smooth roads .. that's it. No more welfare, social security, medicare, medicaid, health care, etc. You don't want to work? There's the door to Canada.

I know that you're joking, but what's really depressing is that there are people out there who actually think that these are reasonable ideas which might actually work.