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[VAZHOG]

1.  Constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget (pay as you go).  This will force those who keep voting for more spending to also go on the record for the increased revenue to pay for it.  No more blaming the other guy for the taxes and fees, or the deficit, while taking credit for the pork and the handouts come election time.

2.  Strict term limits for all elected and appointed positions.  Professional politicians snuggled firmly in bed with the special interests is not a good thing for the average taxpayer.  Throw the bums out and bring in some new bums.  At least it will take awhile for the new guys to figure out where the cookie jar is and how to steal from the rest of us.

3.  Make professional lobbying a crime punishable by death.  Make congressmen actually do their own research and write their own bills (and pay their own way).  Maybe a novel new tradition could be started, where the representative actually gets his input from the folks in his district and not the slick corporate lobbyist looking for favors.

4.  Make civics a mandatory part of school curriculum's, so perhaps the next generations have at least a basic understanding of government and their responsibilities to make it work.  Why do we require immigrants to study this stuff to gain citizenship, but most of our schools no longer teach even the basics to the population as a whole?  Instead of concentrating just on math and science on the yearly step exams, include civics on those exams.  Our schools have abandoned proper education and curricula in their efforts to look good on the required exams.  So let's play their game and  include a requirement for at least a basic knowledge of how our government is supposed to work.

Jerry

You left out one. The most important one TERM LIMITS for Congress - That does away with long term graft and the need for Taxpayer funded Health care and pension.

[BIGDOG]

I am liking what I see on this thread. I see the hope for compassion and a understanding that we ALL need to work together to fix what's wrong. The I have mine let them get there's , is a setup for the class society we really do not want to further. We should reward doing something that gives back to the whole such as the WPA did in the depression. A lot of wonderful thing came out of the WPA maybe we should try it again.

[iski]

Well said. 

Free

Do not hear anyone talking about decreasing the size of federal government much anymore.  It's out of control - a behemoth of inefficient spending in a myriad of areas.   The trouble is, so much spending  is "guaranteed" the actual Congressional budget decisions affect only a slice of the pie for the most part.  Federal government got out of control soon after Social Security and as we have added more & more social welfare programs to the fed, the inefficiencies have increased to the point that for the most part we all just accept them.  But we should not.

Plus we have created a multi-generational class of welfare BUMS, non-race specific, who know they can parasite themselves onto the system & leach off those who pay taxes, while they burden the system with their various addictions, afflictions, and non productive irresponsible behaviors.  These folks, contrary to public opinion, have an EXCELLENT education.  Not in the area of productive careers, their education is in the area of living off the federal/state/county governments.  They learn it & then live it & those of us who work & pay taxes get to pay for it.

Instead of creating ever increasing layers of income redistribution (taxation used to re-distribute wealth) to those who won't, would prefer to see the federal government get back to what was intended originally and away from social engineering boondoggles that almost inevitably create more misery than they fix. 

Neither candidate appeals to me from a taxation standpoint - prefer McCain since Obama is a typical tax, & tax, & spend guy who views himself a a social engineer of "change".  McCain is slightly less so.

Mike

[Free]

i agree that if i could pick one thing to vote for it would be Term Limits.  If politicians did not have to worry about being reelected, they just might vote their conscious and we wouldnt have the partinship we have today.  I think many politicians have common sense but the system is so corrupt that in order for them to get what they want (to be reelected), they have to play ball and trade votes.  Its funny to see senators and congressman who announce their last term and all of a sudden they start voting different than they have previously. Its a shame to see our country go in the wrong direction.  The rest of the civilized world is lowering taxes, being more efficient with health care and balancing their accounts.  We are doing the exact opposite.  I guess we will find  out how we deal with our problems in the next 10 years or so which will define where this country is going.

Free

[comfortablynumb]

I think the answer is really this simple-first we must eliminate the deadly elitist mentality that politicians have by make our elected officials live to the same standards as the citizens, meaning, eliminate their "lifetime pension" plan where they get full salary after 2 terms and make them eke out their survival on their own savings and Make them retire on Social Security stipends like the rest of us instead of their own "Special Retirement Funding Plan"; revoke their "guaranteed lifetime healthcare" and let them start with copays and out of pocket(their pocket, not ours) expenses. Eliminate ALL lobbying, make them responsive to the people that elect them,not corporations that contribute millions for their own benefit. End all subsidies and Stop bailing out the failed businesses with our money, e.g.savings and loan, mortgage companies. If my business fails nobody is going to help me. Why do oil companies get millions of tax dollars in subsidies while they are making record profits? These basic plans will cure a few things in record time: 1) Social Security funding scare tactics will cease and they would find funding for it in a half second; healthcare reforms would be enacted by the end of the next term- can you see Obama or McCain in a waiting room for 45 minutes to see the Doc? The get-rich quick lawyers in office would leave because all the perks are gone and the country would return to the control of the people, by the people and for the people. Where's Tom Jefferson when you need him? AND MOST OF ALL GET YOUR BUTTS OUT AND VOTE! AND DRAG ALL REGISTERED VOTERS WITH YOU! The pols know just which groups they have to seem to appease because of the majority that stays home. YOU DON"T VOTE, YOU LOSE YOU RIGHT TO COMPLAIN!!! and speaking of healthcare and taxes, Mr. McCain has a bill to take the dollar value of your company supplied healthcare plan, if you're lucky enough to have one, and tax you on it as if it were income. Oops, I just broke my soapbox, I'm done venting -for now

[BIGDOG]

I think the answer is really this simple-first we must eliminate the deadly elitist mentality that politicians have by make our elected officials live to the same standards as the citizens, meaning, eliminate their "lifetime pension" plan where they get full salary after 2 terms and make them eke out their survival on their own savings and Make them retire on Social Security stipends like the rest of us instead of their own "Special Retirement Funding Plan"; revoke their "guaranteed lifetime healthcare" and let them start with copays and out of pocket(their pocket, not ours) expenses. Eliminate ALL lobbying, make them responsive to the people that elect them,not corporations that contribute millions for their own benefit. End all subsidies and Stop bailing out the failed businesses with our money, e.g.savings and loan, mortgage companies. If my business fails nobody is going to help me. Why do oil companies get millions of tax dollars in subsidies while they are making record profits? These basic plans will cure a few things in record time: 1) Social Security funding scare tactics will cease and they would find funding for it in a half second; healthcare reforms would be enacted by the end of the next term- can you see Obama or McCain in a waiting room for 45 minutes to see the Doc? The get-rich quick lawyers in office would leave because all the perks are gone and the country would return to the control of the people, by the people and for the people. Where's Tom Jefferson when you need him? AND MOST OF ALL GET YOUR BUTTS OUT AND VOTE! AND DRAG ALL REGISTERED VOTERS WITH YOU! The pols know just which groups they have to seem to appease because of the majority that stays home. YOU DON"T VOTE, YOU LOSE YOU RIGHT TO COMPLAIN!!! and speaking of healthcare and taxes, Mr. McCain has a bill to take the dollar value of your company supplied healthcare plan, if you're lucky enough to have one, and tax you on it as if it were income. Oops, I just broke my soapbox, I'm done venting -for now

THANK YOU , THANK YOU  Someone I agree with. The McCain hit was prime , he has to pay for chit just like the rest , and it's comeing from you and I.

[Ozzie]

Hey, I like that New Jersey Guy, Very Good Statement of Solutions.  Now if we could only vote all these Politicians out of office and start over. 
I agree and we need to start with our own NJ government, some to the worst in the nation when it comes to budget and taxes.

[Midnight Rider]

THANK YOU , THANK YOU  Someone I agree with. The McCain hit was prime , he has to pay for chit just like the rest , and it's comeing from you and I.

McCain hit was prime...Healthcare costs you 150 bucks now...it would cost you 200 then.  Tax increases...ah, how cleverly the Republican's disguise them...except for the very richest people, who get to write off even more chit.

[iski]

If we were seriously thinking about reforming our tax system (and as a country we are not) the first thing needed would be to either:

1.  Eliminate ALL income taxes on corporations.  Corporate income taxes are the biggest "hidden" tax on our population that exists, without many people even knowing about the cost it places on them.   This hurts the poor the worst, but liberals especially have a garlic/vampiric reaction to that one.

2. Establish broad based consumption taxes in the form of sales taxes & let folks know what they are REALLY paying for each time they purchase a good or service, instead of the "hidden" tax that exists in #1.

3. Establish some sort of "Paygo" (Blue Dog Dem idea, among others) that would FORCE Congress to have monies available from taxation revenues instead of using future debt to pay for whatever idiotic boondoggled socio-nutwad guaranteed extreme cost overrun experiment they are considering in the future to even further screw up our country, like socialized health care.


There is zero chance any politician will do any of the above, but they will yammer about stuff from time to time that sounds good - both parties.  When a politician promises some kind of crappola & says they will pay for it by taxing rich folks or corps heavily, you are being lied to.  If you vote for them because you like that they are telling you that, you deserve what you get - hidden taxes, higher prices on goods & services (including oil), & inefficient govt.  filled with lying politicians.

And if we voted them ALL out of office, we would replace them with similar politicians, basically. That is the voting public at work - we vote for what we want.  The printing companies would rejoice due to all the new business cards & letterheads, though.