Owl For President

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Some Opinions and my response to them

Here are two folks with ideas that are very divergent from my own.

First, the Xenophobe/compartmentalist:

"Cut 100% of all foreign aid, entitlements, public unions, DOE, NAFTA, CAFTA, Homeland Security, all wars, all foreign bases, etc etc. Also around 30% of the defense budget. Force all homeless and low-income immigrants out of the USA along... with all illegal aliens. Make all outsourced companies return to American soil or face high taxes and tariffs to sell in the USA. The companies that return get a tax break to stay in the USA that's equal to the one they get for outsourcing. The companies that return and stay need to be required to hire legal Born Americans only, no foreigners or illegal aliens allowed."

Then and only then will there be a positive change in the USA and Our economy.

Let's see:

-cut half of foreign aid. "foreign aid" is mostly us maintaining military bases in other countries and bribing officials in other countries to accept american, as opposed to chinese, goods. What you are suggesting is giving up our assets around the world on some pipe-dream about American production capabilities to make us all happy.
-cut all entitlements. "Entitlements" include aid to dependent families, old people, orphans, disabled. You'd just cut the rug out from under them and "hope for the best." Then, I imagine, you'd be surprised (or maybe pleased) when they physically assaulted you and stole your stuff.
-cut public unions. So, here you are saying you don't care to protect public workers, you think folks that go into government work are "greedy," and consider the public sector "jackals."
-cut the DOE. So what, you can teach kids that the earth is 6000 years old at home? So you can reframe public history to what you wished it was as opposed to what it is?
-cut NAFTA/CAFTA. Well, here, amazingly, we agree, at least in the sense that I want a NAFTA that does not include a WTO court.
-cut the defense budget: well, sure, but not while your FORCING all illegal immigrants out of the US
-Make outsourcers an offer they can't refuse. Here we have a "takings" issue that could easily be abused. We are supposed to believe in the "net losses" that the company claims from "not" hiring slaves across the sea? The whole thing breaks down when you forget that companies have offices overseas, and don't care about us AT ALL. Until we have an internationally ELECTED authority that overseas them, they will continue to finance and support tyrants both here and abroad.
-only hire americans. What made this nation great was the incorporating of FOREIGNERS into our sciences and our large science and engineering departments and companies. Your ideas limit our industry to Americans, who are presently 64th in math on international levels. good job. I assume you failed math class yourself.

and the other guy, the "reform government to something unrecognizable" as it stands now.

"We need to make some serious Budget Cuts, starting with Congress. We need Term Limits, Line Item Veto, Congress on Social Security and with the same retirement as taxpayers. WE also need to change the way the directors of government agencies are paid. They are now paid based on the amount of taxpayer money they spend, not on how well they do what they are paid to do."

-Term limits increase the power of corporate paid lobbyists, who shill for large corporations. Congressmen tell us anecdotally that it takes about 6 years to FIGURE OUT congress, and some Lobbyists have been there 30 years or MORE! They get paid more then the congresssmen and have more time to focus on their specific special interest. We already have term limits: THEY'RE CALLED ELECTIONS.
-Line item Veto. Sure, if you're sick of living under an elected form of government, and want to see so much power concentrated in the Executive that elections become moot. If ONE MAN can just, with the flick of his pen, CHANGE LEGISLATION ALREADY PASSED???? You don't find that SCARY AND TYRANNICAL?
-"same pay as taxpayers??" WHICH ONES? Some "taxpayers" get 50,000,000 a year. Others get 0. Most taxpayers, unlike congressmen, aren't LAWYERS, DOCTORS AND PHD'S. Why, exactly, should the representatives of our Republic take a major paycut, when, in actuality, they get paid FAR LESS then their actual worth to private industry NOW. Unlike "Joe the Plumber," who actually has no real job, has no education, and has no real accomplishments, MOST congressmen have full post graduate educations, have contributed a great deal to their society before getting elected, and generally, are TAKING A PAY CUT to serve!
-merit based pay. Sure, i'm sure everyone in the government is an incompetent fool, unlike the poster.

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