Now I’ll
reveal the results in potential Vice President Poll. Thanks again for all of the responses; we had
another great turnout this week. It was
a very tight race, but Former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice came out on
top with 34.78%. In a close second was
U.S. Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio with 30.43% of the vote. Third place belonged to the “Someone Else”
option, in which a few of the recommended candidates (Bobby Jindal, Rudy
Giuliani, and of course Joe Biden) received 26.09%. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and South
Carolina Governor Nikki Haley each received 4.35% of the vote. Thanks again; I hope you will vote again next
week! There two major issues that I
would like to get to, so I’ll cut to the chase.
Let’s kick off our night with something that I think will
build on our discussion last week. We
talked about Class Warfare and how increasing taxes for anyone would not solve
the predicament we are now in. However,
the question remains: What should be
done?
Obviously there is a need for spending cuts in government,
regardless of where one thinks they should come from. Never before in our nation’s history, has so
much tax revenue been flowing in. On the
opposite side of the spectrum though, is the fact that our government is now
responsible for more people than ever.
The 2010 United States Census showed a total of 309,050,816 living in
the nation that year.1
Still, we must remember that not all of these people need
government assistance economically.
According to patdollard.com, President Obama’s administration spent $888
billion in 2010 on welfare alone. 2
In fact the same report claims that this was $265 billion more than what
was spent on the war in Iraq during the Bush administration (just under six
years).
No matter how one feels about the war, the fact remains that
President Obama has spent far too much on welfare. There are some essential elements of the
welfare program that should not see spending cuts. There are millions of Americans out of work
who need benefits while they try to find work; there are those who are
physically or mentally unable to care for themselves; and there are those who
have given so much of themselves to this nation over the course of their
lifetimes and now deserve to be cared for in their old age (Social Security and
Medicare). We need to develop a viable
plan for the future generations retirement now.
By raising the retirement age one month each year, a subtle but
essential change will be made to prevent Social Security from going
bankrupt. This will not be done with
those near retirement, but rather with the younger generations (for example,
those under the age of 35). Americans
deserve a time of rest and reflection in their twilight years and defending
that should be a top priority.
However, there are a large percentage of those who are
receiving welfare benefits who should not be.
The Los Angeles Times reported that 24% of welfare applications in San
Diego County contained some form of fraud.3 If that held true for the entire country,
that would equal almost one fourth of all welfare applications in the United
States.
What a massive chunk of the welfare budget that would
be! There obviously is an incredible
amount of unnecessary spending going on in regards to the welfare budget. So what is my conclusion? Like I said last week, increasing taxes for
anyone at this point would be foolish.
Why should we further burden the people who are actually contributing to
our nation’s finances as they should be?
Once we have these welfare programs in check, we should
return control of them to the individual states. Each state could then make important
decisions that will benefit their people the most. It would also take the burden off of the
federal government which has been trying to juggle too many programs.
At the same time, we must be careful not to cut Social
Security or Medicare, or any benefits for people who are physically or mentally
unable to support themselves. For
everyone else on welfare, I offer this quote by Ronald Reagan I posted on
Twitter earlier this week.
“Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as
possible, the need for its own existence.” - Ronald Reagan
The ultimate goal should be getting these people back to
work, and talking the real problem of unemployment and poverty’s
parallels. As far as Social Security and
Medicare go, they should not see cuts, but rather be reformed in order to
insure their existence for future generations.
The tax code should be sealed, but the same is true for the welfare
system. The less fraud that occurs in
our nation, the brighter our economic situation will be down the road.
The second issue I want to tackle tonight ties together
nicely with the first topic we covered.
We have talked about budget cuts and reform, and we shot down the idea
of increasing taxes, but thus far we have failed to offer a solution to the
economic problem, one of the key roots for the issue with our deficit. Obviously the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
have been costly both in human lives and finances, and welfare fraud is
threatening to bankrupt our nation from the inside out. Even with the spending cuts I recommended and
the hope for an end to the war in Afghanistan, we are still in a very large
financial hole. So what do Americans do
when they are in a predicament? They
innovate their way out of it!
In a future blog I will focus on what I think our military
goals should be, but for now let me offer a quick insight in regards to
it. Our goal in Iraq was to first
eliminate any military threat Saddam Hussein’s military posed and then to
establish a democracy there. Once we had
done that and established stability it was time to leave. In 2008, President Obama would have agreed
with this situation, but in reality he simply lacked the leadership skills to
deliver on his promise as quickly as he had originally planned. Interestingly enough, he ended the war less
than a year before the election to decide if he gets to keep his job for
another four years or not.
Blame President Bush all you want, but in reality the
situation was not one in which the United States could withdraw during his
presidency. President Obama had the
progression of nearly three years of war, after he had originally promised to
have the troops home much sooner.
A similar but also quite different situation created the war
in Afghanistan. It all started with the
September 11th attacks over ten years ago, when we went after the
Taliban who were harboring al-Qaeda terrorists within their borders.
But now that much (although not all) of the Taliban threat
has subsided, and we have killed Osama bin Laden, the question becomes: At what point do we declare victory and
withdraw our troops completely?
According to the Huffington Post, a single person making
$40,000 a year spent $1,694 on the war in Afghanistan alone.4 That report goes on to claim that a couple
making a combined $100,000 in a year, spent $4,757 in 2010 on this war. At the same time, we have hostile nations
like North Korea and Iran issuing challenges to us because they know we do not
want to fight a second war right now. In
fact, President Obama’s plan to trim $350 billion from military spending
between 2013 and 2023 will only encourage them.5
Personally, I like the idea of having the most powerful
military in the world. However, we
should use this power to defend ourselves and our faithful allies, not as a
police unit. I want us to create more
military jobs innovating new technologies to strengthen us, rather than paying
men to go over to a foreign land and fight another nation’s battles for
them. When we go to war, our men and
women in uniform put their lives on the line, and unless we have something to
gain for us or our friends, there is simply too much to give. If we have a reason to go to another nation
in the first place (if there’s a threat to our national security or our allies
are under attack), then we might as well point the people there to democracy
when given the chance. After that, they
must realize that with preserving their freedom comes with their own sacrifice.
Meanwhile we have a budding superpower like China increasing
its military spending exponentially, courtesy of everything we buy and the
interest we pay on our debt to them. According
to The Hill, the Chinese plan on spending almost 13% more on their military
than they did last year.5
I am not suggesting that we withdraw from trade with China
entirely, nor am I suggesting a sudden drop in trade. I believe in free global trade, and I do not
think it is the government’s place to force people and businesses to buy from
someone or sell to someone else. Instead
we should offer a viable alternative to American companies manufacturing goods
there. We should encourage them to come
home by not increasing taxes, but rather lowering or even completely doing away
with the repatriation tax in order to allow American companies to bring their
earnings back home rather than investing money in China or other foreign
nations. According to The New York Times, as much as $1.5 trillion is sitting
offshore.6 By allowing this
money to be brought back without penalizing taxes, this money could be used by
the companies to invest at home and create jobs. We should even explore some more incentives
to keep these companies manufacturing in or returning to the United
States. Some options include lowering
the corporate income tax rate, cut some of the bureaucracy and regulations that
make creating jobs in America less attractive, and lower personal income tax
rates across the board to encourage job creation. Finally, if there are foreign countries
placing tariffs on goods we export to them, we should at least match that on
what they import to us. So, maybe buying
the “Made in the USA” shirt will eventually be just as cheap (if not cheaper)
than buying another poor quality shirt made in a Chinese sweatshop.
If we bring back American companies, we are not only going
to help their sales and decrease shipping costs, but we will also create
countless American jobs. Our businesses
want the tax system fixed, and it seems hard to find someone who doesn’t. The problems are not the tax rates, but
rather the system’s infrastructure. If
we could do this in a way that appealed to a majority of Americans, taking
ideas from both sides of the aisle, we could effectively bring jobs back
home. Once we get Americans working
again and buying American made products, it is only a matter of time before
that good old economy roars again.
That’s all the
time we have for tonight. Thank you for
joining me on “What’s Wrong With Washington”.
I will see you on Sunday with “Lance’s Weekly Walk.” Also, be sure to tell me what you think with
a message or reply at: http://lponline.wufoo.com/forms/z7x3k7/.
It might be shared on the next show.
This week our
poll question deals with the issue of abortion.
I understand this is a very heated issue in our nation today, and I
would like to see where we all stand.
Next week I will share my take as well.
Be sure to tell us who you think at:
http://poll.fm/3obcm. You can also access this poll
and many other features through Lance Pisowicz Online, www.wix.com/lancejp/online.
I hope you
have enjoyed our broadcast tonight, as much as I have. Thanks again, and God bless you all. See you Sunday!
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