Most Important Idea to Reduce Debt and Government

The Line Item Vote

Richard Salbato,  May 27, 2010

 Recently the Republican Party announced that they were going to attempt to cut $1.4 Trillion Dollars from the Federal Budget and seemed to be patting themselves on the back for this.  As a Tea Party Constitutional Conservative that angered me, and as you think about it, it will anger all conservatives.  To save America from inevitable Bankruptcy we must, and I mean must, cut $4,000,000,000,000 4 Trillion Dollars each year for the next 5 years or we will go into a great depression and then Federal, State and city bankruptcies.  This will be the end of the nation and another American civil war.  

Republican Whip, Eric Cantor, came up with a great idea called “You Cut” and each week puts up 5 good ideas to cut Federal spending and lets the America public vote on these. This site also allows you to come up with your own ideas and that is why I am putting this one idea on a single document that I can reference to when I post this idea on that web site. http://www.republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/

However, even this web site is thinking too small.  In reading their first ideas (all good), they are cutting millions from the debt when they need to cut billions and trillions.  I have looked at how we got here and how to stop it.  The number one thing we can do to cut the Federal Government debt is pass a Line Item Vote. You might ask: what does that have to do with debt? I will explain.  This is the reason we are in debt.

Line Item Vote

First understand that there are many things today that a President gets away with and does not even ask Congress (presidential orders and Czars) and most of these are not constitutional. But what he does not have power to do is pay for these, only Congress has the power to pay for anything in the government and it has to do this year after year.  If Congress refuses to pay for something it does not get paid and has to close down.  How then do hundreds of departments keep getting funding year after year and even with larger budgets and members of Congress do not even know what they do?  The answer to that question is “the system”.

How many times have Congressmen submitted a good bill to the House or Senate and then could not even vote for their own bill?  The answer is that little by little over the past 70 years all bills have been corrupted to COMPREHENSIVE bills.  Why is the coming Finance Bill over 1300 pages instead of 6 or 7 separate bills?  Why was the Health Care bill over 2000 pages instead of 40 or 50 separate bills?  Why is the yearly budget one bill that you can vote for or against but cannot vote for part of and refuse other parts?  Why is the Military Budget all or nothing?  Why does a Military Budget have a line item of millions of dollars for bike paths in Boston?  How do Congressmen and Senators get millions of dollars from Special Interest groups?  The can tack on to any bill, no matter what that bill is, a Special Interest project in exchange for the guarantee of their vote and thereby pay the Special interest off for their support.  Without this ability to tack on a line item to any bill, Special Interests would have no power.  If a special interest has a good idea then it should be able to stand the entire vote of the house and senate.  Some will argue that line 21 of a bill will not work without line 43 also being approved.  I am sure we voted for people smart enough to see that. 

Line item votes force people to read the bill.  Line item votes force people to be accountable for every item of the vote. Under the present system if I ask a Senator why he voted for bridges to no where, he has a legitimate answer.  He had to vote for it or vote completely against the entire bill.

Why cannot we vote for a Border Fence in one vote, a National ID card in another vote, a pathway to citizenship in another vote?  Why cannot we vote for each item separately?  The way Washington wants to force Amnesty on us is as much as to say unless you agree with Amnesty, the border will stay open and we will do nothing.

The way bills are written now is that the sections and subsections are numbered so that lawyers can reference the different parts of the law similar to how court documents are written.

Under a Line Item Vote law, each and every numbered section would have to be voted on separately by every member of the House and Senate and those that did not get a majority of the vote would be removed.  Only the approved items would go to the president for signature.    

We now have a 13 trillion direct debt (90% of GDP and higher than Greece) and another 100 trillion projected and promised debt already in the books.  In the next few weeks we are going to be presented the new 1011 year’s budget that will be even higher than this year’s.  Our Senators and Congressman have to vote yes or no on this bill and cannot add or remove anything, except through the amendment system and these do not even make the floor for vote.

This has  no chance to do anything about the debt.  If we had a line idem vote and I was a Senator or Congressman, there would be 165 Federal Departments that I would not finance at all.  I would not finance any Czar.  At the same time the real job of government (to be the referee to see all things are equal and save) is being under financed.  

I want to look at every bill on the Internet and little by little see every item and how everyone voted on that item without having any excuse.  I believe this is the most important idea of all the following other 34 good ideas.

Outline of Ideas for American

Save America by passing the following laws and regulations: 1. Line Item Vote, 2. Change Social Security, 3. Fix Medicare, 4. Double GDP, 5. Get Congress Out of Washington, 6. Repeal the 17th Amendment, 7. Remove all Education from the Federal Government, 8. Change the Legal System methods, 9. Repeal All Unconstitutional Laws, 10. Close 75% of Federal Departments, 11. Pass the Flat Tax, 12. Police Review Board for Washington, 13. All government workers to be Non-Union, and 14. Remove all benefits from business.

These are the most important but for a complete list see below:

1. Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment.  (Explanation below)

2. House member to represent no more than 100,000 citizens. (Explanation below)

3. Eliminate all Federal Departments that are not allowed in the Constitution. (Explanation below)

4. Eliminate all house and senate payrolls to members and their staff by the Federal Government and have them paid by the counties and states. (Explanation below)

5. Make illegal all campaign funding for any elected office. (Explanation below)

6. Make all government workers Non-Union. (Explanation below)

7. Make it illegal for businesses to offer Medical, Retirement, or SSI to employees (Explanation below)

8. Make all taxes equal to all - rich, poor, young or old without deductions.  (Explanation below)

9. Eliminate all Corporate and Business taxes.  (Explanation below)

10. Eliminate all tax on tax.  (Explanation below)

11. Stop all payments and votes to the United Nations. (Explanation below)

12. Help form a “League of Real Democratic Nations UDN”. (Explanation below)

13. Repeal all Federal Environmental Laws regarding Climate Change. (Explanation below)

14. Eliminate the Federal Education and Energy Departments. (Explanation below)

15. Make sure that no international treaty be signed without 3/4th approval of congress. (Explanation below)

16. No money be printed that exceeds growth of GDP and/or replacement of old bills.  (Explanation below)

17. No comprehensive bill shall be passed period.  Every section should be voted on separately. (Explanation below)

18. No bill will have unrelated attachments.  (Explanation below)

19. No Government employee will accept money or perks from anyone whatsoever and for any reason whatsoever.  (Explanation below)

20. To eliminate all laws that protects me from me.  (Explanation below)

21. To make all tenure laws illegal - period.  (Explanation below)

22. Sell all Federal Lands to States or private citizens that are unconstitutional and/or could be used better by states or citizens. (Explanation below)

23. Bring the Federal budget down to 15% of GDP and never allow it over again without congressionally declared national emergency or war.  (Explanation below)

24. Enforce Monopoly Laws for unions and companies. (Explanation below)

25. Eliminate all mandatory classes in 1-12 grades that are not part of basic education. (Explanation below)

26. Eliminate all College mandatory classes that are not needed for a degree.  (Explanation below)

27. No federal laws should regulate production, but only interstate and international distribution.  (Explanation below)

28. Create and require a tamper proof ID that proves citizenship for any job, private or government.  This proof shall be a valid Birth Certificate. (Explanation below)

29. Demand that the FBI investigate entire background of anyone holding a Federal Job of any kind whatsoever.  (No explanation needed)

30. Repeal all laws that are not strictly constitutional to the letter of the law and require all laws to be judged by the Courts with or without a challenge being made. (Explanation below)

31. To keep our military the greatest in the world by far.  (Explanation below)

32. To encourage all citizens to serve two years in the military.  (Explanation below)

33. To pass a law requiring all court and lawyer costs, civil or criminal to be paid entirely by the looser of the case and no awards be beyond reason.  (Explanation below)

34. To outlaw restrictions to Interstate Health Insurance Competition and itemized inclusions to each person and not to groups.  (No explanation needed)

35. There is no such thing as separation of Church and State in the Constitution. (No explanation heeded)

Notes:

1. Articles in support of the above ideas to reduce debt and government:

Ideas to Save America: 1. Line Item Vote

Ideas to Save America: 2. Social Security

  Ideas to Save America: 3. Medicare

Ideas to Save American: 4. Double GDP

Ideas to Save USA: 5. Get Congress out of DC

Ideas to Save USA: 6. Repeal the 17th Amendment

Ideas to Save America: 7. Education

Ideas to Save America: 8. Legal Systems

National ID Card: 9. - Get Over It

Stop Federal Growth Now - Not Later

Predictions and Solutions for America

Science Predictions Related to Politics

A New Contract with America

Getting away with Unconstitutional Laws

 

Millions Dying From American Seeds (GMOs)

GMO Foods Making Men Sterile

Fair Tax, Flat Tax, or Sales Tax?

Did Soros Cause the 2008 Crash?

America's Debt Clock

A Compete Dollar Crash

Maurice Strong - Father of American Destruction

American Revolution in One to Three Years

Union of Socialist America - USA

Galveston Social Security Plan 

World Government - The Actual Plan

Pros and Cons of a Third Party

The Truth about Global Warming

Copenhagen's Climate Treaty

 

1. Explanations to 35 Ideas:

Explanations

1. Before the Seventeenth Amendment, Senators were not elected, but appointed by the Legislators of the States.  This kept the power in the hands of the States and eliminated the infusion of money from outside the State to elect people that could vote on things that had no effect on the State.  It also gave the State Legislators the power to remove a Senator that was not looking out for the State and abusing his power.  It was this Amendment more than anything else that resulted in the growth of the Federal Government and the massive Pork Barrel projects.  Under this term limits will not be needed.

2. The founding fathers intended that Representatives of the House be elected directly by the people and should represent no more than 30,000 people each.  Today we have only 435.  If we stuck to the 30,000 people we would have 10,000 members, because the population has increased by 23 times. That would be hard to change right away, but we should double it every two years until we reach at least 100,000 people per Representative.  At that point we would really know the representative and he would be one of us instead of special interest puppet. 

3. There are over 1000 departments and sub-departments in the Federal Government that are not constitutional and not needed.  In order to get out of the national debt, that is not sustainable, these have to be closed and closed forever.  Some of these are so stupid you would not even believe they exist.

4. If the states send members to the Federal government, the states should have the power in their hands. That means the power to regulate their pay, the quality and quantity of their staff and their pay. Who holds the purse holds the power.

5. Today because of Cable TV and the internet, any campaign funding for any office is not needed.  If I was not up against someone like the New York Major, who put $100,000,000 of his own money in his campaign, I could just create a web site, get the required number of signatures and run for office. I would get free TV coverage, free internet coverage and everyone would know my views and promises, and I could run against anyone, rich or poor. If I was running for major, I could go face to face with most people, and have town hall meetings without money.  A Federal Senator would not be elected and a Federal Representative would only have 100,000 people to reach through the above means.  Money and special interests are taken out of elections.

6. Government workers are paid by tax payers, but we tax payers have no say in what they are paid. Almost all government workers belong to only one union and this is the most powerful, corrupt and un-constitutional organization in the USA.  Just the health care and retirement plans of this union are bankrupting the State and Federal governments.  No one has a right to unionize with my money unless I have to right to vote for it and vote for any increase in wages or benefits. Government workers should not make more than private workers.

7. I have no problem with businesses offering benefits to workers but I have a problem with people not knowing how much of their money is paid out to these things. For example, if the company wrote a payroll check and then required us to write a check for our SSI and give back to them or prove we mailed it, we would know just how much we are paying.  Even as to contributions to retirement plans, we should actually see the check every week. 

As far as Medical Insurance, I believe it should be illegal for businesses to offer Medical Insurance. People have no idea what this costs in lack of wages because of this, and Insurance companies would have to sell directly to the people, and become more competitive.

I do believe states should require that everyone have at least Catastrophic Health Insurance, just like they do Liability Auto Insurance.  The reason for this is that Tax Payers end up paying for people who do not have it. 

If businesses could not offer benefits at all, they could compete with countries like China and India that do not pay beefits, and we would eliminate the 11% unemployment. 

8. The Constitution says that all people are equal, rich and poor, black and white, male or female, but the Tax code is not equal and in fact, does not work.  Of course, what I am promoting is a Flat Tax, but truth is that only the flat tax is legal.  In fact, because of the progressive tax and the 10,000 pages of loopholes and deductions, some millionaires pay less tax than I do. A flat tax without any loopholes or deductions would actually bring in more money from the rich than the system does now.

9. Is it possible to tax business?  No! Let me explain why.  Businesses total costs of doing business, add a profit to their costs and sell at the sum total of cost and profit.  A tax is part of the cost of doing business, so in the end the buyer pays the tax and not the business. 

In most cases the buyer is the poor person. It is not possible to tax a business at all.  Tax the money that people take out of the business but not the business. 

Why is it that the stock market goes up at a time when everyone is hurting?  Businesses can make money but reducing costs and adding profit to even inflation or a weaker dollar.  Only the people are harmed and not the companies.  Allow companies to be free from government and they will hire more of the people who actually do pay taxes.  This is called “Supply Side Economics” and it is the only thing that works, both for full employment and more taxes.  

10.  Tax on taxes is illegal but we do it all the time. When governments (both Federal and State) tax raw materials, and then tax again the production of that material into a product, and then tax again the distribution of that product, and then tax again the sale of that product, they taxed the tax again and again four times.  Under law you cannot tax tax.

11. We need to get out of the United Nations, but the first step is to just stop paying for it, and it will disappear by itself.

12. Cooperation between nations is a good idea, but we cannot cooperate in any way whatsoever with dictatorships and governments formed by forced and corrupted elections, and should not.  Most of the nations in the UN are not real democracies and yet have the same vote we do.

I would form a new UN made up of only free and democratic nations, which would have our economic and military support- United Democratic Nations.

13. Environmental Laws regarding pollution of rivers and waterways are good.  There is no evidence whatsoever that CO2 causes any change whatsoever to the environment and no laws to this effect should be passes.  No Federal laws should be passed even on other environment things unless they affect more than one state.

14. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year (Billion with a B) and we import more oil than ever before.  The Department of Education costs more and since established we have gone from number one to last in the civilized world.  Education belongs to the cities and counties, not to the Fed.  It is not even constitutional, except for Military Colleges.

15. Treaty approval by 3/4th of the congress is the law but has been bypassed many times in the past 60 years.

16. The Federal Reserve (which we should eliminate in time) should not be allowed to increase the money supply for any reason whatsoever except to keep up with the growth of the GDP and should reduce it when GDP goes down. 

17. The entire concept of a Comprehensive bill is a way of saying it will have hidden and incomprehensible pork barrel and social programs.  There is no logical reason why each section of any bill, even the defense and budget bills, should not be voted on item by item.

18. It should be a congressional law that no bill should have unrelated attachments. This is why many socialist things were not vetoed by President Bush. They were included in the bills to support the war in Iraq that he needed badly and could not wait for them to be removed.  Why should a bill to add a bike trail in California be added to a Military budget?

19. This will eliminate most corruption and allow legitimate special interests to give an argument and not bribes.  Today they are forced because if they don’t others will. 

20. There are no laws (not even drug and alcohol laws) that are constitutionally legal that take away my personal freedom, unless it effects others.  The reason for government is to protect me from you and you from me, but not me from me.

21. Why should anyone in any job have preference over others simply because they have been there longer?  Preference should always be given to those who do more or better work.  Under the present system, if you had no job available, you could not hire Einstein because everyone else would have tenure.  If Bill Gates worked for you, but he was the newest, and you had to lay off 10 people, he would have to go. 

22.  The Federal Government owns so much useless land, it could almost pay the National Debt just by selling it off to states and citizens.  It owns the majority of Nevada, Utah, Colorado and South Dakoda; large parts of California, Washington and New Mexico; and some of every other state.  It even owns very expensive and unused beach front property. 

23.  The Federal Government was never supposed to be over 15% of the GDP and should be lower than that.  In fact, if we could get it slightly lower than that we could eliminate the Federal Income tax altogether.  If it only did was it was constitutional allowed to do, it could not go over that amount.  Eliminate 1000 departments.

24.  The founding fathers believed in individual and equal freedoms.  They knew that any monopoly would violate freedoms.  Mostly they believed that a monopoly of government was evil, but they also believed that a monopoly of democracy could be evil, so they divided everything so that no one person or group of people had too much power.  They also talked about and made laws preventing businesses from having a monopoly on anything the people needed or wanted. Even the founder of the first union in America warned that unions could be just as evil as some businesses if they became larger than the company they were in and/or the town.  The banking and therefore the entire economic system in 2008 was because we allowed a few banks to become too big and hold a monopoly on world wide money transactions.

25. We are graduating people from High School who cannot read or write, but they know how to relate to gays.  With only twelve year to learn basics there is no time for more than the basics of education.  Most of the basics we should know have been eliminated, like Geogrophy, American and Constitutional History, World History, Physics and advanced science. 

26. Why should a student of Mechanical Engineering be required to take a class in Social Science.  We can make 4 year degrees into 3 year degrees just be eliminating the garbage, which are just social engineering or brainwashing.

27. If I manufacture a gun or a chair and only sell it in my state, by law I only have to obey state laws, and only then if they are constitutionally lawful. But the Federal Government only has rights over interstate  transfer of goods, and even then only if it effect health and safety. 

28.  Illegal Immigration could be reduced by 80% if we would simply make it impossible for them to get a real job in this county and everyone knows it. If we had this law and enforced it, BO would not be President right now. 

29. No explanation needed.  

30. If we eliminated all that governments do that are not constitutional we would cut government by 70%.

31. China and Russia are now spending twice their percent of their GDP than we are.  Our Military is stronger because our GDP is bigger but in 20 years China’s GDP will be larger than ours if thing go the way they are going.  We should never go below 6% of our GDP.

32.  In Israel and Switzerland everyone has to serve two years in the army right after High School, and then they are required to own and keep their military rifle the rest of their lives.  Both these countries have the best and most productive businesses in the world.  Most think it is because of the discipline they learned in the army. I do not think it should be mandatory, but I think people who do should have preferential treatment to getting jobs because of the training. 

33.  Many countries including England have eliminated the high cost of courts and all the frivolous law suits by simply requiring that the person who looses a case pay all the costs of both parties and the system.  Why should it cost me millions to defend myself in court only to win, and loose the millions?  Why should tax payers pay millions to convict a convict who refuses to admit to guilt?  These costs should be paid or added to his sentence.