Brad’s Take

Net Right Daily’s Frank McCaffrey reports that President B. Hussein Obama wants to cut spending, but doesn’t know where to start.

I could think of one place to stop spending. ACORN. But that would bite the hand that helped put him in office. I doubt he will change his priorities now. (Barry Soetoro/Obama keeps paying off the unions, foreign interests, etc.)

I posted a comment on where to cut spending. I like it – here it is again.

I might suggest moving the controlled substance list to the IRS, impose a 50% VAT on anything “controlled” and disband the DEA.

Disband the Dept of Ed.

Disband the Dept of Homeland Security. Disband all Patriot Act activity, and hold the FBI accountable for security within the borders of America.

Cut past-Congressmen and past-Senator pensions in half. Reduce future pensions.

Reduce Air Force 1 to the weight and capacity of a C-130.

Cut BATFE enforcement activities by 30%. Make advancement and raises in the BATFE conditional on the number of rifles sold and number of gunsmith and gun seller licenses issued.

Remember President Reagan and PATCO, the once-upon-a-time air traffic controllers union? Disband SEIU.

Terminate and forbid federal mandates on states – including ObamaCare, NAIS, FSA (S.510) – and terminate funding states.

Terminate and forbid federal mandates on citizens of the US. Eliminate exemptions from income taxes, most especially for tax shelters, capital gains, and charitable or religious contributions. Capital gains should be untaxed by regulation, not exemption. Only individuals should be taxed, not organizations or business entities. Eliminate estate taxes, they disenfranchise descendants and those with vested interests.

Forbid and prohibit courts from imposing continuing judgments – including establishing post-divorce obligations and relationships, punitive oversight and auditing, and ongoing “legislation from the bench” such as bussing school children, etc. The judgement of the court is supposed to evaluate the evidence presented. The judgment should be restricted to the conditions present at the time verdict is rendered – and not capable of future control of anyone outside a recognized department of correction’s custody.

Congress should require that every agency review every federal regulation under their purview, and testify to Congress, within two years, why that regulation, in detail, should be retained. Anything not reviewed in that time, or that isn’t presented for review should be automatically invalidated, marked obsolete and no longer in effect. No regulation should be permitted to stand longer than 10 years without Congressional review. Repeat above for each item of each Federal law, within four years, and as the 15th anniversary of each item approaches. Where timely review isn’t possible, those laws and regulations would have to be written again, and passed and signed, again, subject to then-current needs and priorities. Re-authorizing in blank would only be permitted for items reviewed in full detail, through deliberative testimony.

Review the USDA. “We are from the government, we are here to help” should be a lie. If the government is acting to help someone – we cannot afford it, and government assistance is paid for in loss of liberty and freedom. The USDA should be concerned with farm produce safety to the extent they are involved in inspections and review today. And that is it.

The National Labor Relations Board should be disbanded. Today’s worker has access to attorneys and civil and criminal courts and processes that make labor unions a simple canker on the American economy, costing every American in loss of productivity, in diversion of investment capital, in reduction in service, and in diversion of taxes on income. Labor unions and members should explicitly be liable to civil and criminal penalties for intimidation, slander, fraud, deceit, violence, criminal mischief, and inflammatory speech. And especially for harm to image and productivity to any employer. Craft guilds have a purpose, but labor unions as collective bargaining units have a monopoly, and should be prosecuted as an errant, criminal monopoly.

Campaign finance. No federal matching money should be available for any contribution not directly and explicitly attributed to, as reported under sworn oath subject to perjury penalties by the campaign staff, to a registered citizen voter, in a state not suspected of failing to purge registered voter lists on a periodic basis as required by law. Impose a 50% excise tax on all other donations (business entities, foreign entities, or anything not explicitly donated by an citizen of the United States who is currently registered to vote in the local state.

Revert government procurement regulations to pre-Secretary McNamara’s tenure during President Kennedy’s administration. The notion that a paper chase is more “fair” – or even affordable – is patently false. Any procurement should favor the vendor best suited to meeting the need. Helping newcomers and competition is in the best interest of the nation, but not at the cost of multiplying program costs – or casting utility of the eventual procurement into doubt. Which is what often happens today. I note that the specific industry adaptability – and procurement agility – won WWII. Today’s procurement costs and bureaucracy employs thousands and thousands, introduces programmatic delays and oversights that further federal careers – and don’t demonstrably serve the nation’s best interests.

Introduce a moratorium. Restrict federal pay scales from the President and Congress on down to 1973 levels until annual Federal expenditures fall below collected revenues for three consecutive years – while no longer combining earmarked collections (Social Security, etc.) into the general fund. Restrict House of Representative and Senate staffing levels and budgets to the 1973 average until the budget balances for three consecutive years.

There – does that provide a starting point?

Frank’s story is short, but includes a good video of Colorado Congressman Doug Lamborn’s proposal to cut NPR and Corporation for Public Broadcasting support to: none. Duh. That is about as likely as cutting ACORN funding while Obama is still in the White House. But the video is still worth watching.

Ooh! Good ideas are still coming! Sell Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Auction them off for whatever anyone wants to bid. Revert FHA policies and authority to pre-Carter and pre-CRA (and pre community organizer) regulations.

Require English competency for all applications for citizenship. Forbid any government interaction with citizens – most especially voting – be conducted in any language but English. Immigration and Naturalization should spend more an English as Second Language classes as raiding employers suspected of employing undocumented workers. Anyone facing deportment should spend a minimum 60 days in Sheriff Arpaio’s tent jails in Arizona, or in a similar facility with similar accommodations and costs of operation.

The local store/deli I eat at – Snyders Chicken and Catering, 3151 W. North Ave., Ponca City, OK – has gotten more expensive. The chicken is just great – the best in town. The meal I get most often, though has gone from about $4.50 last fall to $6.10. That makes a 35% jump in inflation.

It is happening at Wal-Mart, too. Beanee Weanees, the short can, GreatValue store brand, have gone from 58 cents last summer to 86 cents this week. For me that is an inflation of 48%.

Everything is going up. Let’s not talk about Propane and gas prices, on their way up again, both.

And that “incentive” tax credit? Up to $800 for $20,000 earnings? That seems mostly like 4% – much less than inflation since last November by any count.

Fedex, UPS, and the Post Office keep raising their prices – which ripples through to affect everyone once or twice over as companies absorb extra costs – and taxes, and costs of borrowing money – and raise their prices to recover some of those expenses.

The story at Wal-Mart is even worse for me. I like the 10 cent Great Value brand Ramen Noodles. Only they aren’t available any more – off the shelves, no space for them. Only the Ramuchen at 13 cents. GreatValue pudding four-packs at 88 cents? Gone. Only the Hunts at $1.00 so far. That looks like 30% and 12% inflation right there. The Sam’s Choice plastic wrap? Gone. And that was a really good weight, easy to use dispenser box, at a moderate price.

AT&T bought out Southwest Bell telephone service here. And my bill went up from $59 a month, gradually, to $71 last fall. It still climbs by nickels and dimes, but I changed to a long distance company that charges less ($4.64 last month, vs. $34 with addons and fees).

I work part time at the local theatre. Until the minimum wage went up last summer I was making $0.80 more than minimum. Not I get $0.30 more, and expect to lose that in July when the minimum wage goes up next time.

That is – Barack Hussein Obama is going to have to do a hell of a lot more to repay me what he has cost me this far. And he should keep in mind that the KGB is predicting the US comes apart and unglued by June next year – well before the next elections. The rationale is that the government goes broke, and the states stop sending money in to be wasted. That scenario was apparent to Moscow 9 years ago – why the Democrats don’t see the danger this week is a moral and political conundrum (puzzle, that is). Seriously – Pandarin’s map shows the states divided 6 ways, and each group dominated by a foreign country.

I got some more garden seed ordered yesterday – some oilseed sunflowers, for salad oil. I found this writeup on hulling the seeds and extracting the oil. If I can find some sugar beet seed, I want that for horse feed (the beet pulp). I don’t plan on competing with sugar companies – yet – but the beet pulp will help with the livestock, that and the vegetable oil. That and the half dozen chicks growing in the barn, I am starting to plan for the future.

Yep, our president is a mighty handsome man, and he will tell anyone how smart he is. It is the graft, corruption, kickbacks (like giving Chrysler to the UAW), and ignoring the needs and rights of working Americans I detest. I like a cartoon I saw yesterday, “Obama has the *pork* flu – keep him unconscious, every time he wakes up he spends a trillion dollars!”

But I’m not bitter.