We Need to Discuss Social Security

The Gross National Debt

Common Sense Solutions: Social Security

America has some tough choices to make with respect to Social Security. The current course is unsustainable and is a major unfunded liability. There are straight forward solutions that need to be brought to the table. However, everyone needs to understand that change is necessary and that it could be significant for some. The graphic below shows the size of the unfunded liabilities we are facing. These have not been addressed by our elected officials in Washington, therefore, we need to challenge them to either step aside or actually deal with reality.

Below are my suggestions for addressing this over unfunded liability. They are based on common sense and the reality of the numbers.

1. Place Social Security payments on the annual budget. The science of demographics can predict within reason the funds needed based on the age distribution for each year. The Heritage Foundation predicts that the amount of liability is $6.6 Trillion. This is not a small number. We need to be honest with the American people and ourselves. The current situation is like not saving money each month for the rent or mortgage payment. It’s time we own up to reality.
   


2. Scale back payments to Wealthy Retirees. Currently, there are millionaires collecting Social Security checks each month. This is not sustainable. The limit should be set at around $75,000 of combined income per year. A sliding scale could be included down to some level closer to the poverty level for adjusting benefits.
   


3. Audit all those who collect benefits. The audit should identify those who are collecting benefits that have not paid into the system during their working years. These individuals should be terminated from the program. Being $12+ Trillion in debt, we cannot afford to be generous with our great grand children’s tax revenue.
   


4. Adjust the Retirement Age with Life Expectancy. In the 1930s the life expectancy was only around 60 years. Today, the life expectancy is much higher, nearly 80 years. This puts a much greater burden on the program. The retirement age, or age at which full benefits kick in should be adjusted over time. Currently there is token adjustments, but postponing full benefits by only a month or two will not make the system solvent.
   


5. Forbid Congress from spending the Trust Fund for annual budget items. Since the mid 1960s, Congress has been stealing from the trust fund and returning only IOUs. This intergenerational theft has been practiced by both major parties and must be stopped.
   


6. Develop a plan to terminate Social Security for those born after 01 Jan 2001. This program has been a PONZI scheme from the beginning. In a growing economy and population, it was easy to hide this little recognized fact. But today, with a terrible economy and much lower birth rate, the evidence should be clear that the program has been a house of cards from the start. We need to develop a plan, over several decades, to work our way out of this program. See the chart below, if Social Security is not a PONZI scheme, then why would they track this information?
   


7. Replace Social Security with Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA). We need to educate our children that they are responsible for their retirement. Everyone should be guided into an IRA at an early age. Some say this should be mandatory, some say it is an individual responsibility. Either way, we need to ensure that Congress cannot get their hands on the funds.
   
   
   

These are my common sense solutions to actually deal with Social Security in a fair and honest manner. Will this solve the issue completely, I don't think so, but it will be a significant start. Yes, there are some tough choices here, but dealing well with reality is what Manufacturing Engineers do for a living. My thanks to the Heritage Foundation {Heritage.org} for several of these ideas and the informative graphics.

Doing nothing is not an option. Nibbling around the edges is not leadership. It is time for bold actions, not pastel efforts.

Richard Grimes - Revolutionary Conservative March 2010

12 Items in Response to the Obama Budget

After a hardy laugh at the Messiah's insanity we (thinking Conservatives of principle) would offer the following steps to bring logic and reason to the fiscal and monetary policy of the Federal Government:

1. Reverse budgeting: For FY 2011 we would look at the revenues of FY2009 and select a percentage in the 80 to 90% range based on economic trends. That number would be the budget for FY2011. Not a penny more. Congress and the White House would need to barter on which programs get how much money, but the bottom line is defined. The excess would go towards debt reduction.

2. All items on Budget: Clinton claimed "Budget Surpluses" for many of his years in office, but for each year the National Debt increased. This is due to "OFF Budget Items" such as major entitlements and special items like TARP, the Stimulus bill, etc... This practice must stop. If a publicly traded company did their books like this, someone would go to jail.

3. Earmark Moratorium: A minimum two year suspension of the process of political graft and the rewarding of campaign contributors. Let's see if the country implodes without earmarks.

4. Stop hiding behind the scam of "Mandatory Spending": Who determines what is and is not mandatory spending? Six no-neck guys at Elmo's Bar in Toledo, Ohio, that will knee cap you if you mess with it? Hiding behind this scam is for weak unprincipled politicians that have little courage to do the right thing.

5. 15% cut to ALL Departments: Including Defense and Homeland Security. Start at the top and thin the organizations. Look at the corporate organizations of General Motors and Wal-Mart. One is a bankrupt dinosaur, the other a lean global giant. If we were to eliminate several departments (Energy & Education), the cuts to the others could be less.

6. 25% cut to ALL Entitlement Programs: We're Trillions in debt, everyone is going to have to have skin in the game. If total programs were eliminated, the cuts to others could be reduced.

7. Stop the Presses: Stop the printing of money and either return to a gold standard or pass a Constitutional amendment that allows the M1 money supply to grow no more than 2.5% per year. The goal is stability of the currency. Use the money supply of 2006 as a basis.

8. End Fractional Reserve Banking for demand deposits: Require banks to keep 100% of their demand deposits on hand. The money for loans would come from investment accounts. This could end bank failures and lighten the burden on the taxpayer. It is also the first step to the elimination of the Federal Reserve.

9. Cut Taxes: Eliminate the AMT and death tax. Reduce capital gains and corporate rates to 13% and consider the merits of either a Flat Tax on income or the Fair Tax on consumption. Set a target of deciding on one or the other by Sept 1st.

10. No New Taxes: No new taxes on health insurance, energy use, the color of our cars, the size of our homes, or what we eat.

11. Just Say NO to the Fraud of Climate Crisis: Laugh out loud at the liars and their gullible followers that fear the end is near. Respect for the environment and continuous improvement in the reduction of emissions should be promoted.

12. Reduce Regulations: Government policies should set rules of the game, not micro manage each market. Reduce the compliance costs of all government regulations to aid businesses and job creation.

These items are the foundational elements of sound sustainable fiscal and monetary policy. Any attempt to continue business as usual is a sign of weakness. Intergenerational theft is immoral.

Cap and Trade, Climate Gate, and Freedom

With the debacle of a climate conference in Copenhagen behind us, and more startling revelations about climate scientists fudging the data how could any thinking individual support the Waxman-Markey bill approved in the House and waiting for action in the Senate?

As an engineer that collects, analyses, and presents data to corporate leadership, if one of my team members was found to have manipulated data in the manner of those at NASA and the CRU at the University of East Anglia, they would be out of a job by noon the next day. Even in this age of political correctness and diversity constraints.

These revelations prove to thinking people that the climate scientists behind the United Nations IPCC reports have been lying to push a political agenda. I will back these statements with 25 years of data interpretation experience and a handful of graduate level statistic courses.

Man made climate crisis is nothing more than a phony religion for those too lazy to think.

The narration below is an attempt to provide data and challenge the viewer to think about the agenda of those that are pushing this phony climate crisis. This is really about our freedom from the tyranny of big government.

Health Care Reform for Thinking People

With all the uproar over the House and Senate bills that will allegedly provide health care and health insurance for all Americans, it's time for a little rationale thought on the subject. The narration below is my attempt to identify the root cause of the issue and propose foundations for a rationale course of action. My 25 years as a professional problem solver in private industry has taught me that you cannot solve a problem until you understand the root cause(s) of the problem. The reason that costs of health care services are raising faster than general inflation is the same reason why health insurance costs are out of reach for the working poor in America. It can be summarized in one sentence: Government interference of the free market forces that work to reduce costs and increase supply in the health care services and insurance markets. The narration below is my attempt to offer ideas for people that want a solution to this mess, not the tyranny of bigger government, less liberty, and less health care services.