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1st Time User | Obama - Need New `Bargain` -  Barack Obama is saying
that long-term economic recovery won't be achieved
unless the government fixes Social Security and
Medicare.
These web sites are an attempt to contribute to that
process. I'd very much appreciate if you would take a few
minutes to review the material on these websites.
Any comments, suggestions,
criticisms, insights, etc. would be appreciated.
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| Summary - Faced with courage, honesty, and strength, the economic
and financial crisis facing us, is a once in a lifetime
opportunity to build a better future for not only ourselves
and our children, but all who follow us.
The simultaneous collapse of the housing, commercial real estate,
and stock markets is scary and dangerous. Worse, it
is well on its way to exposing the failures of three
generations of politicians, bureaucrats and corporate
executives to provide a solid basis for Federal, state,
and corporate guarantee programs. As those failures
take place, the current economic crisis will become
a political crisis.
They have promised far more health care (Medicare, Medicaid, and health
insurance), retirement security (Social Security, Federal
military and civilian pensions, state and corporate
pension plans, Pension Benefit Guarantees), financial
security (Federal Deposit Insurance (FDIC), mortgage
guarantees (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac)), then can ever be
delivered.
No one will receive all that they were promised, but
everyone can come out better than they were. The only
positive solution is to give the people
of the United States (the voters and taxpayers)
direct control over the difficult choices that must be
made, both as individuals and at all levels of government.
Click for more information.
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| Feedback, Fixes, News, and Ideas - The goal of these websites is to be accurate in both
the facts and analyses and then to help solve the
problems that are presented.
We very much appreciate feedback, fixes, news, and ideas.
Click for more information.
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Call to Action
Economic Crisis
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Creates Fear...and Opportunities
FDR uttered his classic line
`The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,` in his
first inaugural, in 1933, over three years after the
depression began with the stock market crash of 1929.
Fear evidently wasn`t the only problem because the
depression didn`t end until after World War II over
12 years later.
Fear is definitely not the only problem in the current
economic crisis.
But it has to be over come in order to realize that it
has given us the perfect opportunity to not only fix the
big disconnect
that has resulted in the mass of politically inspired false promises, but
to come out the other side with a much better future.
Ideally, someone among our elected leadership, whether
it be President Obama, a member of Congress, a state
governor, or even a mayor, will have the courage to
speak the truth. Part of that truth is realizing just
how much America, and the world, has to be thankful for.
The most important step is to put the citizenry,
in control, to put the ultimate responsibility for the
hard decisions in their hands.
For many that will be a scary prospect. For all,
it will be the ultimate test of their belief in
democracy and a free economy.
I believe that together we can make the hard decisions
in a way that creates a `rough equity` that allows us
to move forward and build a sustainable system.
There are no guaranteess of success. But inaction
guarantees another failure.
No Guarantees
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Take Ownership
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- Our Tax - Defined - With our tax, voters and taxpayers set the taxes that they
will by sending in the rates that they want, which are
averaged together to set the final rates. Generally,
one year`s our tax rates are averaged together with
several prior year rates to set the next year`s rates.
For instance, if the votes for one year were for a
state`s sales tax rate to be 4%, but the prior
votes had been 4%, 3%, 5%, and 5%, the current year
rate would be 4.2%.
Click for more information.
- Our Spending - Defined - In `Our Spending,` citizens set the government`s overall spending
priorities. On their tax forms, each citizen gives his or
her ideas. The tax collection agency, whether Federal,
state or local, averages their responses to provide
overall totals.
As with `Our Tax,` yearly changes are incorporated into
a rolling average. The legislative arm, whether it
be Congress, a state legislature, or a local government,
then passes appropriations based on the people`s
spending priorities
Click for more information.
- Our Choices - Defined - Whereas the `Our Tax` and `Our Spending` input would be
provided annually, `Our Choices` might not appear in
every year.
Click for more information.
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Stabilizing |
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The Keys to Stability - Begin with the Truth
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As the chart to the right illustrates, the U.S. is
way `under water.` There are many solutions that would
fix one or another of these issues in isolation. Unfortunately,
they can`t be solved in isolation. They must all be solved,
especially those tied to health care.
The only way to restore confidence and growth is
to start with the truth.
People have to understand the situation and believe
that they are back in control of their lives.
There have to be solutions that they accept as fair
and they have to see that their work will produce
a fair return for themselves and their loved ones.
- Control - Our Tax
- Stability - Build on Existing Institutions
- Equity
- Dedicated Revenues
- Restructured Promises
- Equity - Bottom to Top
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Build on Existing Institutions
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- First Step - As Confucius said, `A journey of a thousand miles begins with
a single step.` Coming out of the other side this situation,
has to begin with the existing businesses and institutions.
The keystone of the stabilization phase, the `our tax` proposal,
builds on the existing tax system. Similarly, the existing
Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance and health care system
need to continue to function and deliver their health
care services.
The existing pension system, including Social Security,
and existing Federal, state, local and private pension system have
to continue to function.
Click for more information.
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Dedicated Revenues
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- Extend Payroll Tax Idea - The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes
which fund Social Security and Medicare are examples
of dedicated revenue. Currently the Social Security
portion comprises a 12.4% tax on all payroll, while
the Medicare portion is 2.9% for a total 15.3%.
While the revenues generated by these taxes and
their self-employment counterpart will be far short
of the amount necessary to fund the benefits promised
under the programs, nevertheless they are dedicated
revenues.
The dedicated revenue concept extends this process to
the funding of the other Federal entitlement and
guarantee programs including:
- Medicaid
- Federal Military and Civilian Pensions
- Deposit Insurance
- Mortgage Guarantees
- Debt Payments
Click for more information.
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Our Futures
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- Our Futures - The Our Futures Fund extends control of a wide variety to
government entitlement programs directly to the individual
taxpayer/voter. The fund combines tax payments for
- Retirement
- Health Care
- Health Insurance
- Disability
- Long-term Care
- End of Life
- Unemployment
- Workman`s Compensation
- Child and Spousal Support
into a single fund.
The Federal government would estabilish investment guidelines
within which individuals could choose among investment
plans made available by qualified companies and government
agencies.
Each individual would be required to choose among
standardized health, disability and long-term care plans.
Click for more information.
- Components - The Unified Fund transitions Social Security and Medicare
from `pay as you go` to saving systems over an extended
period, say 50 years. They are also unified so that a
person who lives a healthy life style will be rewarded.
Click for more information.
- The Economics - The `Our Futures` funds have a number of positive economic
impacts. One of the biggest is that the savings are guaranteed
to be long-term. This allows them to be used to fund
long-term loans, such as mortgages. Currently many mortgages
are funded with short-term money. In situations like
the current crisis, the short-term money can leave, creating
problems for lenders.
Click for more information.
- Minimum Fund Balance - Each individual`s `Our Future` fund would have a minimum
balance established based up on a statutory minimum and a
personal minimum, which ever was greater.
Click for more information.
- Unemployment - Individuals could withdrawal up to 25% of the balance of
their `Our Futures` fund during any twelve month period
to pay their expenses during any period of unemployment,
up to a monthly maximum set by their state`s Labor Department.
Click for more information.
- Mandatory Insurance - Each individual would be required to have health,
life/disability/long-term care, and investment insurance. Each
company providing property, life, health, disability or long-term care
insurance coverage would be required to offer a statutory
minimum policy.
Click for more information.
- Tax Status - Contributions to and payments from the `Our Future` fund would
be exempt from all taxation up to fund balances in excess of
200% of the statutory minimum. Fund balances in excess of
that amount would be subject to the wealth tax (if applicable).
Click for more information.
- Inability to Make Insurance Payments - The Social Security administration would loan the
individual`s `Our Future` fund amounts required to make insurance
premium payments for individual`s whose combined income,
assets, charitable contributions, and `Our Fund` balance were
insufficient to make those payments.
Click for more information.
- Mandatory Contributions - Individuals whose `Our Future` fund exceeded twice the
statutory minimum could request that their mandatory
contributions be ended.
Click for more information.
- Retirement Benefits -
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Health
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From Medical Blank Check - To Encouraging Healthy Behavior
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The current U.S. health care system encourages:
- Unhealthy Behaviour
- Maximum Spending
The result is that health care spending has risen
from less than 4% of GDP in the early years of
this century to over 16% currently. Increases
in private health care premiums are already making
it impossible for many businesses to continue providing
this insurance.
Health insurance is one of the key costs that are
pushing the U.S. auto manufacturers toward bankruptcy.
As the graph from the Congressional Budget Office shows,
there is no end to this problem under the current system.
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Taxation
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- Remove Deductions - In 2007, total compensation earned by U.S. workers
was $7.8 trillion. Of that amount, they paid
$1.2 trillion or about 15%.
Radically simplifying the tax code would not only make
the system much fairer but would result in as much
as $500 per year in `found money.`
Click for more information.
- Other Taxes
- Wealth Tax - The wealth tax extends the idea of property taxes to
intangible assets like cash, stocks, and bonds.
Just as property owners pay taxes to finance local services,
the owner of intangible assets should pay a tax on
their wealth to finance the national government.
A tax rate of around 1.5% on those assets, similar to the national
average of property taxes, would produce revenues similar
to those produced by the corporate income and estate taxes.
Click for more information.
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