My Contract with America
Do you agree with Rudy on his 12 step contract?
By Rudy Giuliani
TH-I am making 12 Commitments to the American People. They are intended to lift our vision from the rearview mirror to the road ahead. If I am elected president, I want to be held accountable for the progress we make as a nation.
1) I will keep America on offense in the Terrorists’ War on Us…..
2) I will end illegal immigration, secure our borders and identify every non-citizen in our nation….
3) I will restore fiscal discipline and cut wasteful Washington spending……
I saw this and I thought it was funny. Better get your papers and national ID ready for when Rudy shows up at your doorstep.
It’s a great, conservative minded agenda designed to show the vast differences between the GOP and dems.
One can imagine the dems response:
1. I will surrender to terrorists.
2. I will encourage illegal immigration
3. I will continue out of control spending and pork appropriations
4. I will raise taxes to pay for big govt. spending programs
5. I will ignore accountability in DC
6. I will lead America toward public transportation, walking and biking.
7. I will impose govt. socialized healthcare for all Americans whether they want it or not.
8. I will end adoption as we know it, encourage abortions.
9. I will modify the legal system to provide criminals with every opportunity at freedom without parole.
10. I will let every community know the war on terrorism is a bumper sticker, don’t worry, be happy!
11. I will force every child to attend govt. indoctrination courses at the nearest govt. school with teacher accountability abolished.
12. I will decrease America’s involvement in the world economy by imposing other facets of this socialist agenda thus ending our country’s position as a world super power.
LOL! Only the neocons and holy rollers will believe that one!
3) I will restore fiscal discipline and cut wasteful Washington spending.
Over the next two presidential terms, 42 percent of the federal civilian workforce is due to retire. We should only hire back half, replacing non-essential workers with technology. I’ll ask agency heads to identify annual budget cuts of 5 to 20 percent. With entitlement costs scheduled to explode, we need fiscal discipline to avoid passing an unsupportable burden on to the next generation.
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Good idea but Congress, not the President will have a lot to say about this too and most want more, not less government staffing. Get rid of departments that have no business being in the Federal Government and return them back to the states with the tax revenues that go for them might help but, states are in trouble too. State government employment is rising even faster than federal government and their own baby boom pension and healthcare crisis is facing them too.
4) I will cut taxes and reform the tax code.
How? With the amount of surplus going in each year to the trust funds declining, that is less and less each year the general fund will have to borrow that isn’t reported and more and more they will have to borrow from public sources to replace that lost revenue source if they don’t raise taxes.
However, if they do raise taxes, they will kill the economy and drive even more business out of the U.S.
Social Security says they want an immediate 16% increase in S.S. tax revenues and 121% increase in Medicare tax revenues to stay viable. So, even if they cut taxes in other areas, we still will get tax increases (if we don’t reform the programs) in these areas that may even be larger and affect all wage levels more than cuts benefit the same people.
Cutting income tax on people who don’t pay income tax to begin with, doesn’t change their situation but, raising payroll taxes will. Also, if the increase is also on business, that raises prices and drives more to buy imports over domestic products and services that can be outsourced.
Cutting taxes on corporate income would help but, compliance costs are often even higher than the taxes paid. To be really competitive, both tax and compliance costs have to be brought down and that requires reform, not just cuts.
With reforms done right, business could pay even higher taxes but, with reduced compliance costs also have higher profits. However, we should keep in mind that this government, when it depends on corporate income for tax revenues, also caters to those corporation so profits are higher to get more tax revenue.
The more this government cuts personal taxes, the more they depend on profits for tax revenue and that drives legislation, trade and immigration policies, tax loopholes, exemptions, government contracts, etc to get profits higher. That can have a negative impact on workers.
The more we try to relieve ourselves of taxes as individuals, the more it may end up costing us in higher U.S. prices for goods and services, lower wages, lost buying power, outsourcing, deficits in trade, and rising debt.
Will a Democratic Congress support him in these things? OR, will they undermine anything he requests? And even if he does them, will they really help in the long run and keep us from the entitlement train wreck that so many say is coming?
Rudy would be worse than Bush.
On the GWOT, he wants more troops, when troops are proving least effective against terrorists. No mention of intelligence, international cooperation, or meaningful security measures here at home.
On immigration, no mention of dealing with the cause of illegal immigration—illegal employers. He just wants to create a police state and harass immigrants.
On fiscal discipline, no mention of how to get entitlements under control, just rhetoric aimed at Republican govenment haters.
I quit reading at this point.