So, fellow critics of Obama, what would we do instead? It is easy to harp, as Obama did in 2007-8, but hard to govern, as Obama learned in 2009. So for all the criticism, let us put up some sample proposals of our own.
Ok, try the following.
1. Pay as you go, balanced budget—whatever you wish to call a return to fiscal sanity. Conservatives need to stop talking about tolerable deficits in terms of GDP; and liberals should cease the charade that trillion-plus annual borrowing is great stimulus.
The psychological effect on the American people of paying down the debt through annual surpluses would be incalculable. “Decline” is as much psychological as real, and begins with perceptions of financial insolvency. We have a $11 trillion economy, so balancing the books is not impossible. Note how Obama intends to “address the deficit” only after he has set two budgets that will increase it by nearly four trillion dollars. Note how Bush’s sin of running up large annual deficits is used to excuse Obama’s mortal sin of doubling them. Note how Democrats, after lining up for a trillion-dollar federal take-over of health care, are worried about a multi-billion dollar expense in Afghanistan. Cuts in defense, as the later Romans knew, are always the first reaction to profligate domestic spending and entitlement.
2. Freeze federal spending at the present rate, and let increased revenues balance the budget. The idea that we could ever cut outright the budget seems long ago impossible—given the culture of complaint and the melodramatic rants about starvation and murder if another entitlement is not granted. Still, some sort of leadership is required to remind the American people that much of what their government does is not just unnecessary, but counter-productive and they would be better off without it.
Apparently, Obama simultaneously believes (a) he can create a permanent loyal constituency of millions who either receive or disperse federal “stimulus”, in the fashion of the old Roman turba; (b )he can borrow so much money that higher taxes will be seen as vital and therefore the original intent of income redistribution accomplished; (c) that, having had little experience in the private sector, but much financial success as a community or government employee, he can assume that money comes out of thin air and is to be dispersed non-stop through public benefaction; (d) the upper-middle class, which strives to be as rich as he is, is somehow culpable. A common theme throughout history is a paradoxical hatred of the equestrian, productive class, by both the idle aristocratic and entitlement constituents, who hand in glove need each other.
3. Some sort of fair or flat tax that ends the trillion-dollar industry of tax preparation, avoidance, and fraud. For about a quarter of the population April 15 is a spooky sort of Halloween. Instead, we need a tax system in which one can complete the necessary preparation in about 2 hours. Whose bright idea was it to excuse nearly half the American households from income tax exposure (Clinton and Bush, and now Obama?)—a fact that explains why in Pavlovian fashion recently Senators have been saying that we can add on a new war tax, a health-care surcharge, and a new high rate on “them”? The justification of a 40% income tax, 10% state income tax, 15.3% payroll tax, and new war and health care surcharge taxes can only be that one’s income was undeserved, ill-gotten, and thus better “rectified” by more enlightened federal redistributors.
4. Close the borders to illegal immigration, through completion of the fence, biometric IDs, employer sanctions, beefed up enforcement—coupled with a radical change in legal immigration law that favors education and skill, rather than simply family ties. The present mockery of existing law undermines the sanctity of every law. Those who knowingly break immigration laws, and know that they will not in the future be enforced, naturally assume that other laws likewise will not apply to them, from tax reporting to the vehicle code. We really must ask—why the national outcry over whether illegal aliens will be included in the new health care plan when $50 billion is sent back as remittances to Latin America each year? In rough math, each of the supposedly 11 million illegal aliens sends out on average around $4000-5000 per year southward. Perhaps we could tax remittances to fund their health care? Something is strange about the attitude of “I must send $400-500 a month home to support my family, but now I am broke and need someone to pay for my care at the emergency room, etc.”
5. A can-do energy plan. Offer tax incentives for development of nuclear power. Promote exploitation of gas and oil reserves in, and off, the United States, as a way to transition over 20 years to next generation fuels without enriching our enemies or going broke in the process. I never understood why nuclear power for electricity and natural gas/hybrids for transportation—we could be nearly energy independent through both—were declared environmentally incorrect when dotting pristine fields, deserts, and mountain passes with ugly wind turbines, acres of solar panels, and miles of access roads was considered “green.” Does Obama really think that the truther Van Jones knows more about power production than the head of a natural gas or oil company, or the engineer of a nuclear power plant?
Now the symbolic and randomly odd suggestions:
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77 Comments
1. Allende:So the rich kids shout “Toga, toga!” while the poor kids shout “Turba, turba!”?
Nov 29, 2009 - 11:19 am 2. Reader:A generally very good list and you had me agreeing with almost everything until you slapped us with a stamp of approval for “affirmative action based on class.” And what pray tell is “class”?
I have *never* heard any expression of approval for “class-based” affirmative action that wasn’t founded upon transparent bigotry and envy. You don’t want to be in that category do you? The envy-obsessed class hucksters are *no different* from the racist race hucksters.
Nov 29, 2009 - 12:33 pm 3. Gylippus:Excellent suggestions. Here’s another: call the war against radical Islam what it is: a clashing of civilizations with radically antithetical value systems from A to Z.
Address it in those terms, making it clear that while we recognize that a vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and wish us no harm, that their overall belief system is uncompromising in its call to wage eternal war against non-Muslim kafir. As such, it is our responsibility to do what we must to ‘change’ this belief, i.e. to promote religious reform such that it promotes peaceful co-existence with non-Muslims. This may be attained through dialog alone, though that is unlikely.
Nov 29, 2009 - 12:38 pm 4. Ron Kean:How about taking the military out of Europe?
Nov 29, 2009 - 12:39 pm 5. Ari Tai:… getting more of our natural gas into making machines run.
… religious institutions concentrating more on family and less on politics.
… increasing employment in defense and aerospace industries.
… investing in start-up’s in democratic countries.
… saying publicly that bad governments and their leaders are bad.
… caring about debt.
… admitting that capitalism with all it’s ups and downs works better than socialism and using examples.
I’d like to find numbers to support the following thesis (granted, most commerce department numbers are politicized – in discussions with some of their people, they’ve reminded me they (must) follow the law rather than seek statistical truth, fair representation):
The federal government has seen little of the modernization that created such wrenching changes (and benefits) in the private sector in the 70s and 80s. If we had jobs aplenty in the private sector (a big if, since growth seems to track entrepreneurship and our willingness to reward taking big risks with giant payoffs – with the government / elites sharing the power that comes with great wealth and its delta between workers and management), we could re-employ in “above the line” return work by automating 9 of 10 jobs in the public sector. Consider that the IRS data processing (given a tax law that could be specified in a spreadsheet – granted, congress likes the indeterminacy of the current rules requiring armies of interpreters and process) could be managed (completely) on one of today’s $1000 laptop – for our 100 million taxpayers.
Assuming the majority of this new output could be diverted to paying down the deficits, and transfers being held at COLA (per capita) we’d have a manageable debt including off-the-books obligations in a decade or three. If we sold off half of the federal lands and facilities (given 10% of the employees) we’d slice off another decade.
Whatever incentives work for getting the public payroll down should also be made to work for the terrible pension situation many public institutions face (state, local, education, public safety, etc.).
Where the incentives may need to be cruel – including making profuse apologies and then assigning people who are not working to jobs as a gate to receiving publicly-funded benefits that currently are free-of-strings (note that taxing benefits are a less-painful form of this). Menial jobs on up. We’ve a lot of fruit that needs to be picked. We could put the department of labor to work. Maybe part of the answer is to unionize all jobs. If everyone is a member of a special interest, there are no special interests (given unions can only shift income from one group of workers to another..).
Nov 29, 2009 - 1:07 pm 6. bill:The first 5 sound logical and painfully obvious yet we sadly know nothing of the sort will happen. Too many vested interests stand in the way. Same thing with healthcare. Instead of something reasonable we end up with special interest driven healthcare reform cobbled together in such a manner it will be worse than what we have now. This of course because we can’t start from scratch (Obama is no FDR) and do what is right. I wonder what the average family trying to get by would think of VDH’s idea’s? I would imagine they would make a lot of sense to most of us.
Otherwise today’s news, ammo sales have increased 50% over last year, food stamps are widespread with no particular stigma and walking away from a mortgage is becoming fashionable. So rather than the sensible VDH plan we will either end up either on of the few fabulously well off or on the dole until the money runs out.
Nov 29, 2009 - 1:22 pm 7. Ari Tai:Wrt energy, folks forget energy is a special type of commodity, a different kind of economic input. Energy is the essential force (and intellect) multiplier. The more expensive energy is, the more we sweat, the lower our quality of life.
We are never poorer than when we work for ourselves. And never richer than when we work for everyone (our output is of use, sought by everyone, even at a very low price), and everyone works for us (competing for our wallet). Energy is what enables this. The more it costs per unit of energy (work), the poorer we are. At one extreme is the yeoman farmer out in the wilderness, consuming (only) what the family can produce, with no specialization, no other suppliers, consumers of goods or services. At the other end is the maximally connected individual and small specialist firms (or giant horizontally specialized firms), supplying the entire world, and consuming from the same. Today we see some of this in the intellectual property business and the very low cost of moving electronic bits (and the wealth and jobs it has created around the world). Tomorrow people will realize that free-trade agreements need not be geographical since the cost of shipping an additional ton of (non-perishable) goods on water is now near zero.
Energy enables all this. And more efficient use of energy never reduces, only expands energy’s use as additional uses that were not cost effective are enabled. So we should run, not walk, to the future. Encourage energy consumption (to get to a better future faster) rather than use something other than market forces to retard it. Reward whatever the converse of the “precautionary principle” is. Note that we’ve lots of examples where survival is directly proportional to (individual) wealth, which roughly equates to the energy an individual has under their control – we see it in the survival rates of various population under the stress of natural and manmade disasters. Want to survive an asteroid hit or Yellowstone cooking off? Then (as quickly as possible) put the energy of the sun in every citizen’s pocket.
Which suggests we should have a goal of exhausting as soon as possible all traditional, legacy energy sources. Use up all of our own, buy up everyone else’s (note that no one creates more wealth per input of a unit of energy than we do). When alternatives fail, go to war to preserve the free flow of energy and markets in energy. And remember that regulation is a form of a dictated purchase decision – reactionary by definition (contra-progress, and harmful to the least of us most).
What’s surprising is how poorly this is understood by policy makers and the leading economists.
Nov 29, 2009 - 1:32 pm 8. Sulla:When I was young I thought some rich guys named “Fulbright” and “Pell” endowed the Fulbright Scholarships, and the Pell Grants. I believe a lot of Americans don’t realize that they are named after two US Senators and should be known as “Tax-Payer Scholarships” and “Tax-Payer Grants”— The idea behind these programs is justifiable, but it should be clear who is paying for them.
May I also add one item: Tax all “non-profit” organizations. With every politician setting up his or her own individual non-profit “charity”, we should realize that these have become money laundering sites for the wealthy and powerful.
Nov 29, 2009 - 1:53 pm 9. R. Richard Schweitzer:It won’t happen, But:
End “baseline Budgeting” whereby the current level of spending is taken as the level for continuing appropriations, and return to “Zero-Based” budgets which have to be “justifed from the ground up (as well as on results).”
Provide that ALL legislation shall have termination dates unless re-enacted; the duration term (1 to 10 years) to be based on the time needs for projected results. ALL existing legislation to be subjected to the same criteria and time limits.
Basically – Sunset all legislation, civil and criminal.
That would provide an added advantage of keepinf politicians and their staffs busy dealing with the status of existing legislation and limit the new to the necessary and proper.
It would also require review and fights over renewal of all revenue matters. Anything to keep the plunderers on their toes.
Nov 29, 2009 - 1:59 pm 10. Allison Aller:BRAVO!!! A standing Ovation for this post!!!!
Nov 29, 2009 - 1:59 pm 11. Tina Trent:“melodramatic rants about starvation and murder if another entitlement is not granted”
Bingo. Whenever somebody whines to me that we “aren’t doing enough” to “keep young people from gunning each other down” because we’re not “funding pre-K” or “investing in the community/youth/the poor,” et cetera, I tell them to go to their state government corporations registration page and type in the words “community development corporation.” The scores of names that come up represent just a fraction of the sinkholes where “we” spend and largely waste such pricey, taxpayer-funded community investments (the corporate officer lists of these organizations read like a roadmap of crooked elected officials).
I was recently driving through a small neighborhood called Newtown, where dysfunction and crime took a big toll in the 1980’s despite massive social investment stretching back to the 1960’s. There is a social service or outreach agency of one type or another anchoring every other street corner. And the neighborhood is still mired in precisely the same dysfunction and crime, forty years and many, many, many million dollars later.
What does that tell you?
Nov 29, 2009 - 2:28 pm 12. Hugh:Nicely done sir!…may I add – as you fittingly ended wih a nostrum from a “dead”, yet relevant language – gesta non verba…or quite appropriately my old school(high school!)legend…esse quam videre, listen up Obama, you longlegged mack daddy, as it were in the vernacular…..jesus wept!
Nov 29, 2009 - 3:12 pm 13. Larry Crowder:I tend to lean toward most of Mr. Hanson’s ideas, except implementing ideas such as taxes,education and immigration, will not happen due to theses novelties are tied to politics and to change thes are simply not going to happen due to politics.
Nov 29, 2009 - 4:00 pm 14. frankns:Moving the UN is an item in which I disagree with, as the reason, we are the UN, and moving it would not benefit us at all. Now if would say abolish the UN then I would be in agreement. If you say we the people are in control, then maybe you should observe what has been happening since Obama was elected. As a Republic the only power we as people have is to elect, and that is all. I can give you an example of this nations apathy at present. I am not sure which way to go in Afganistan, but regardless of what the President desides to do, I will probably oppose him.
I am an aging businessman, managing a smallish IT department in a major US urban medical center. I hold an MA in English plus 30 credits. I am published. I have written actively in my career for over 20 years and am living proof of what my high school English teacher opined: “As long as you can write, you’ll get a job.” Left over from my early career, I have over 20 years in the classroom teaching college-level English … yet the Education Bureaucracy says that I am not qualified to teach English to grades 10-12. Mind you, I was good enough to clean up the mess they left behind when their students arrived in my college freshman English classroom.
Indeed Professor Hanson, set the people like me free. Many of us aging MA’s would love to teach again …
Nov 29, 2009 - 7:27 pm 15. cfbleachers:Our political class, not content with being increasingly corrupt, is now buffoonish as well. The career of the court-jester John Murtha is emblematic of the age.
VDH, you are indeed a man of the ages, simply not our current one, I fear. You wish to instill reason into a debate that is tone deaf to it.
You wish to search the hypothesis again to find the best answer, when this current bunch start with an answer and throw out the entire process of searching, if it doesn’t fit.
There is a reason for this, VDH, that needs examination. Feel free to grade my attempt and please infuse it with anything you see fit to make it better.
I believe we are swirling in the midst of an eddy that will take us down to the depths and where we will be discharged, I cannot see at the moment.
We are being ruled by a cultural dynamic that spans four decades. It’s the Aspirin Bottle culture, that surrounds us. One aspirin eased my pain, so the whole bottle will cure everything that ails me.
The left, lefter, leftist side of our culture had some very heady days just about 35-40 years ago. Think about this soberly for a moment.
1)Viet Nam war
2)Pollution
3)Race Relations
4)Gender equality
5)Sexual freedom
6)Watergate
What we are witnessing today, is the “whole bottle” force feeding of the need to remain the “moral superiors” for our society.
The left, lefter, leftist side of the spectrum got an enormous rush out of being on the “correct” side of the above issues (forget for a moment whether it’s true, it’s a TRUISM that is so ingrained, it’s not worth trying to convince anyone otherwise).
So much so, that they now would lie, cheat, steal, rape, pillage, plunder…in order to keep the moral high ground. An oxymoron? Of course. That’s the point.
Pollution was worth fighting against…once everyone agreed, or nearly everyone…it became “axiomatic” that the leftists would be on the “right” side of the ecology issue. And they could force feed everyone their pedantic screeds, without the fussy business of actually doing any real scientific research. Ergo, global warming fraud. Committing fraud to keep the moral superiority rush alive, is Machiavellian to be sure, but once you have that high ground and it is your lifeblood, your raison d’etre…you will break any rule to retain it.
War…if “we were right” about Viet Nam…then, ergo…EVERY war is unjustified, for the wrong reasons, a quagmire. An aspirin helped, the whole bottle is 100 times better.
Martin Luther King marched for decency, so today…if you disagree with any person or on any issue related to race…you are a NASCAR LOVING, tobacco chewing, backwoods racist. In fact, you don’t even have to disagree on any issue…just if you don’t agree with EVERYTHING…the mere dissent is enough to label you a racist. On issues having NOTHING to do with race, whatsoever.
Pick an issue. Any issue. It’s a magic trick. Sleight of hand.
If you are a Republican, Watergate was a crooked mess…therefore, you are not worthy of anything but contempt.
You see, VDH…it matters not one whit what the best solution might be. The culture vulture has swallowed reason whole and it does not need a place at our table. The legacy media is the falconer for this bird of prey. It has eaten logic, reason, fairness, principled dissent…whole.
The hypothesis doesn’t matter. The answer has been pre-written. And you know what they call swallowing a whole bottle of aspirin?
Attempted suicide.
Nov 29, 2009 - 7:52 pm 16. Morgan:I hope to be a US citizen by this summer, and registered to vote by 2010. I plan to use this article as a voting guide. Thanks again, Dr. Hanson.
Nov 29, 2009 - 8:51 pm 17. Paul from Boston:Another suggestion, cut their pay and send them home. There’s no reason for Congress to be perpetually in session. Make the maximum session six months and the minimum time between sessions six months. The representatives of the people should live and work among their constituents to really understand their problems instead of being engulfed in the hothouse atmosphere of Washington and its twisted culture. We’ve learned that term limits don’t work and every one loves their own members of Congress, it’s the other guys who are the problem. This is the only way to get them out of the cesspool. As the rabbis wrote in the Talmud, you can’t change your habits without changing your environment.
Also require that any proposed law reported out of committee in one session can’t be voted into law until the following session. That should put the damper on these banana republic two thousand page monstrosities that are passed without being read.
Nov 29, 2009 - 10:13 pm 18. Gareth:Vero Possumus – good one. The only Latin I know is from “Ernest Goes To Jail” – mano a mano. I miss Ernest P. Worrell. Now there was some seriously great comedy.
Nov 29, 2009 - 11:49 pm 19. James:As always, enjoy reading anything written by Victor Hanson.
Agree with all… my only addition would be a reduction in capital gains tax rate to something like 5 or 10% for a 2-year period minimum. The shot-in-the-arm that would provide to our economy cannot be over-estimated. I’m convinced we’d be out of this recession in under 6 months without question. Of course, the idea of allowing capitalism to carry the day runs counter to everything leftists believe; so this and just about everything you mention will never be attempted under this administration. Pity.
Nov 30, 2009 - 12:05 am 20. Howard Sandefer:One more reason to declare VDH a national treasure. Now we just need someone to head up the effort.
Nov 30, 2009 - 4:11 am 21. David:Mr.Hanson
Nov 30, 2009 - 4:40 am 22. Freedom:You sir are needed to serve this Country in the role of POTUS
And we are not going to take no for an answer.
We will support you 100 %
Excellent article,how can we implement it ?
Nov 30, 2009 - 5:01 am 23. jb:Another fine essay, Doc.
Virtually every point is one I’ve vocalized myself, especially your point about what passes for education these days. Sad,,, very sad.
I think we can get the notion of fairness in the tax code out of our heads, as long as the politicians look upon lower income groups as fertile fields in which to grow constituencies, it’ll never change. What we need to grow is a better class of politician.
An end to race based affirmative action??? Blasphemy! You’d better watch your back, the Obama’s, Al Sharpton’s, Jessie Jackson’s, Van Jones’, and their eternal victimhood class followers will be after your head. I don’t understand how you’ve lasted this long in California with an attitude like that. But it is remarkable to note that even with all their wealth, status, and family position, the Obama girls, Malia and Natasha, will forever be classified as more deserving of aid and assistance than the poor white coal miner’s kids.
I sometimes think Lee Harvey Oswald shot the wrong politician that November day back in 1963. Johnson with his so called “Great Society”; has done more lasting and deeper damage to the fabric of America than JFK was capable of. After all, JFK just wanted some Hollywood cutie to be tossed his way from time to time.
Nov 30, 2009 - 5:03 am 24. formwiz:Shame on you, doc. You’re thinking logically again. Where is your compassion, your empathy, your guilt over past wrongs? You’re actually trying to improve this country. The only thing you left out was actually start cutting entitlements and other money-wasting government programs, although getting away from the income tax would have the effect of making them die on the vine.
The only thing I could add is get rid of Judicial Review. If that’s all the appellate courts have to do, then we can do without some of them. For two hundred years, it has been used to subvert the Constitution and produces a lot of bad law, to boot. For every Brown vs. Board of Education, there are probably a hundred Plessy vs. Fergusons and a thousand Dred Scotts.
Nov 30, 2009 - 5:05 am 25. Robert F:The Professor for President. You have my vote.
Nov 30, 2009 - 5:06 am 26. Catherine Wilson:I would also happily settle for a candidate who would have you as one of their advisers.
For personal reasons, the timing of this essay is lovely.
Positive suggestions delivered with that Hanson twinkle in the eye killer laser beam.
Ah yes. Vero possumus!
Nov 30, 2009 - 5:16 am 27. TennesseeVolunteer:Please add: No Ivy League Congressman, Senators or presidential candidates unless they have worked 2/3 of their career in private industry.
Nov 30, 2009 - 5:21 am 28. blotto:1. End the anchor baby entitlement and the health, welfare and education of illegals in the nation. If anyone is here for over 5 years with steady work and can pass an English and American civics test and renounce their former citizenship, they can stay.
2. Establish a wealth tax of 10% on assets over $500 million per year, 5% on assets over $100-$499, and 3% for assets over $10-$99 million. That will make the uber-wealthy liberals put their money where their mouths are.
3. End NLRB and unions so that we can build up the once prosperous steel, manufacturing, textile and auto industries. We must become a producer nation instead of our current 70% service nation.
4. Eliminate many of the government bureaucracies.
5. Bring all our troops from around the world back home.
6. Tax at 99% trial lawyers, NLG, and ACLU.
7. End diversity seminars and diversity czars at all levels. No more “athletes” getting scholarships unless they can enter college on their grades as well as athletic prowess. Then the NFL and NBA will return to normal and appropriate racial levels. This in turn will force black kids to want an education instead of only thinking they must be athletes. Force any politician or college administrator who continues to support diversity after ending affirmative action to make his/her staff really look like America and that means 70% white, 30% black or Hispanic.
8. End welare increases for increased numbers of births per woman. And stop all welfare payments when a women fails to know who the father is. Force fathers to support children.
9. Any politician who lies about something is immediately censored. Any MSM who does not objectively report the news is subject to increased taxation, fines and eventually loses its right to produce.
10. Eliminate all private and PAC funding for a candidate after the primary phase. All politicians are given public funds only for use on a campaign. Eliminate all 527s. WE have to get the wealthy and lawyers out of politics.
Nov 30, 2009 - 5:58 am 29. Alpha Maser:If I were running for president this would be my platform (at least as much of it as I can come up with over a cup of coffee!).
Decentralize, decentralize and then decentralize some more!
Central planning does not scale (it never has and never will) and it limits our freedoms and increases statist tyranny upon our lives. We need to move most of the centralized “money laundering” functions ran from D.C. back to the states and local level.
Most of the three and four letter agencies should go away on simple constitutional grounds (Article 1 Section
alone and be moved to state and local control. This would match the manner in which a true republic should function.
Elect leaders that truly support our constitution as written constructively and go through the hard work of amending it if they need a “change” for someone’s “hope” – rather than ignoring it like they do now.
Decommission the Federal Reserve and put that function back into congress where it belongs according to the constitution.
Repeal the 17th ammendment to dis-empower the Senate, the current center of corruption in D.C.
Make Washington D.C. float to a different state location each presidential election cycle, alternating across the Mississippi river to drain the swamp in D.C. and allow each state better over site over D.C.’s actions and force the established corruption of D.C. to move from state to state if they want to influence our corrupt bureaucrats.
We have not had a true “Free Market” since before 1913 in this country when progressive policies took over. We need to free the markets and disembowel 100 years of progressive policies that have nearly destroyed our inner cities and our great country – use Detroit as a case study!
Expose the Eco-Marxists and their global warming fraud for everybody to plainly see.
Drill here an drill now and stop sending Oil money to the middle east. Help Canada harvest oil from the oil sands in Alberta.
Pull our troops out of Europe and Asia and let them fend for themselves and see if they can then afford their Utopian leftists agendas when they have to pay for their own defense.
Pull out of the corrupt UN and defund it. Defund the WHO, IMF and World Bank.
Give tax breaks to all private charitable organizations.
Give tax incentives to small business owners and entrepreneurs that are the life blood of U.S. innovation and its jobs engine.
Tax Unions and regulate them heavier to remove political corruption, use SEIU and ACORN as case studies in corruption.
Privatize social security, medicare and medicaid clearly the government is too incompetent to run these agencies.
Enact a two term limit for the U.S. Senate.
Make all executive branch Czars illegal and require Senate approval of ALL presidential cabinet level appointments.
Nov 30, 2009 - 6:03 am 30. Ashen:Hi doc. Good ideas all. Does anyone think these things will happen? The federal govt is far to large and I can’t see these ideas being moved through this congress. Who’s for secession?
Nov 30, 2009 - 6:03 am 31. RKV:Please also consider adding …
a) Repeal of all so-called “hate crimes” legislation.
Nov 30, 2009 - 6:22 am 32. Sparky:b) End all attempts to pass cap and tax.
Victor Davis Hanson for President!
Nov 30, 2009 - 6:23 am 33. Tao Jones:Ainsi soit-il, Vic.
Nov 30, 2009 - 6:52 am 34. geoffgo:Your lips, etc.
Professor,
Great start. In ref to your Change #2, my bumper sticker reads:
United Nations = Withdraw…Defund…Evict!
Nov 30, 2009 - 6:53 am 35. Samson:VDH …those are great suggestions.
I do see you slowly (too slowly or too diplomatically) moving away from the thought that the obuma administration will change for the better.
They are ideologues and will not change. The only change you will see will be forced, either by them on the people or by the people on them.
As a historian you should be happy you have a front row seat to the destruction of freedom of the individual and civilized society.
There will still be grand white house parties …just you wont be invited.
Nov 30, 2009 - 7:30 am 36. Samson:7. Samson:
There will still be grand white house parties …just you wont be invited. (but rest assured you will be paying for it)
….I don’t think I will be invited either.
regards
Nov 30, 2009 - 7:46 am 37. Bruce:OK, pretty good, but that “symbolic #1″ seems to beg the question, “What is the Constitutional parameters of the federal government?”
Nov 30, 2009 - 8:37 am 38. HalifaxCB:Here’s a better “hope and change”. Giving teeth to the IG’s, even if it means corralling in your personal agenda, or embarrassing your pals. Ethics, you know?
To add to your energy point – “Drill, baby, drill!”
Nov 30, 2009 - 8:38 am 39. Mr Lucky:Aside from the financial aspect, it’s a hugely symbolic point – America has the capability to stand on its own energy and thrive by the sweat of its own brow, but nanny statists need it to remain a dependent nation.
Well said Dr. Hanson.
27. Alpha Maser.
“…100 years of progressive policies…”
Yes indeed.
Nov 30, 2009 - 8:49 am 40. Jeffrey:Yes we can!
Nov 30, 2009 - 8:56 am 41. jb:Yes we must!
If we don’t we’re done for. The western world will not survive without a free America. Not that we are really free now, not with the huge enslaving debt hanging over ALL of our heads. This debt monster will not go away or be forgiven. It must be dealt with as thoroughly as you have described.
VDH your recommendations are worth fighting for.
Dr. Hanson;
Perhaps a subject for some future blog might be; “Why I decided to quit drinking the good stuff”. (This is about me of course,,, not you.)
My drinking habits are best described as political. I used to love Scotch whiskey, and I mean, I liked the expensive single malt stuff. I’ve spent lots of money over the years in support of these allies, Scotland and by extension, the UK, sort of. The Lockerbie bomber was released by the Scots on August 20th with only 90 days left to live,,, he’s still alive and kickin’ the last I heard. Surely his well deserved death would have made a headline somewhere.
Scotch whiskey just went on my boycott list.
I’ve always thought German beer was over rated. I prefer Budweiser.
I wouldn’t buy any thing from an Italian except locally produced pizza. (You never know where Tony Soprano is or what he’s up to.) Italian’s don’t make a whiskey, do they? I know they make the world’s worst beer, “Peroni”. I’ll bet even the mobsters drink something imported.
I’ve never liked the arrogant French anyway, fortunately California makes a better tasting wine, available much cheaper to boot. If Air France was giving away free tickets to Paris, I’d pay double to go to Amsterdam. Anything French has been on my boycott list since Desert Storm.
I’m not pleased with Norway at the moment, but can’t find anything on the market shelf made there. If I did I probably wouldn’t buy it.
Mexico has been on my crap list forever, I’m a Texan and I remember the Alamo. Same thing goes for Japan and Pearl Harbor. I continue to drive a Chevy.
Russian Vodka; the subject speaks for itself.
I’d love to boycott WalMart, Target, and China, however I’m afraid if I did the Chinese would repossess half of America and I can’t imagine that. Besides, it’s a good thing the Chinese don’t make any tasty beverages.
What’s left? I think my drinking habits are going to become very domestic. In fact, I recommend it.
Surely, sir, there is a topic worth your consideration here.
Nov 30, 2009 - 8:58 am 42. Bill:Trouble with moving the UN to a third world kleptocracy is that the host nation’s elites would grow stinking rich from the graft. Living close to the poor? Come on, the UN I-care-more-than-you folk would simply build a wall around the UN compounds and live high off the hog free from even having to look at the peasants (even poor nations, have their rich classes that would live high on the hog – with additional help from membership dues from the richer countries). Getting sick from bad salad? Uh no. The best food will be shipped in, once again, from membership dues and a BYOB. And they ‘d still blame it all on the Yanks and the Jews.
As nice as it sounds on paper, it would change nothing except empower an already-rich president for life.
Nov 30, 2009 - 8:59 am 43. Matt Clark:Great ideas. I would add a BRAC type commission to review all federal programs that are over 5, 10, 20 years old and then prepare a report on their effectiveness and whether they are meeting their goals, along with a recommendation on what programs should survive, be absorbed, or eleiminated. In addition, I would require that all new programs have a 2-5 ear sunset provision that reqires review by Congress and a supermajority vote to survive. Liberals are masters at doing this, i.e. tax cuts and Patriot Act, but conservatives fail to use these same tactics as a way to shed some light on wasteful and useless programs. As for education, I would give a “keep the change” voucher to every family with children in school. It can be spent on any school private, public, or charter, and if an amount is left over it can be used for educational purposes like tutors, transportation, college prep classes, and college savings accounts. Just my two cents, but I love your ideas.
Nov 30, 2009 - 9:06 am 44. Mel Williams:Yet another addition:
The jail/prison system. Take away the ‘rights’ of prisoners and make prison a tolerable place at best, otherwise an uncomfortable place.
Nov 30, 2009 - 9:12 am 45. Saltherring:Brilliant, Dr. VDH. One of your finest. If only our politicians would listen and act.
Nov 30, 2009 - 9:33 am 46. M. Morgan:Excellent, reasonable piece (and I voted for Obama). Especially liked the class-based AA, simplifying tax schemes, etc. Creative, broad, effective solutions.
Nov 30, 2009 - 10:23 am 47. Sherab Zangpo:Yes ! Russians should have asked Stalin to foster free speech and free enterprise. Why didn’t they think about that ?
As I said months ago, America has not had the occasion to produce the antibodies to resist DOMESTIC totalitarianism … and now it shows it.
Nov 30, 2009 - 11:10 am 48. wingnut mike:The building of the regime goes on, and the intellectuals talk as nothing were happening.
“The idea that we could ever cut outright the budget seems long ago impossible—”
Nov 30, 2009 - 11:52 am 49. 6079SmithW:So we’re going to grow our way out of it? Why have a principle of limited govt if this impossibility is assumed? It’s why I’ll only vote Republican to stop Obama then go back to the sidelines till somebody says they WILL not just cut but ELIMINATE govt programs.
Didn’t see it so will add the following:
Minimum two years of Government service or two years in the military (any branch).
Apologies if I am duplicating…
Nov 30, 2009 - 11:52 am 50. Poor Citizen:Good ideas. Though I would hope that we would reduce or eliminate the federal government across the board, with the exception of National Defense and Health and a skeleton federal court lead by a supreme court. Congress would also be cut in half. Also, I would add a 10 grand fee for every vehicle that auto companies produce and/or import that gets less than 50 miles per gallon with eventually phasing out massed produced gas burning vehicles altoghether within 20 years. This, together with your proposels would create a renewed economic boom while removing the continued transfer of wealth from the west to the middle east, thus, saving our way of life and restoring our great economic wealth.
Nov 30, 2009 - 12:32 pm 51. jodetoad:Like the suggestions, but what tripped my trigger was a current pet peeve, govt. land ownership.
I live in a very rural high desert area, full of sagebrush, lizards and snakes, etc. BLM owns much of the land around here. Until recently, one could walk with one’s dog or horse on all the land. A couple years back, they stuck up ‘environmental preserve’ signs, and now you can’t get off the road. Trust me, there is nothing special or endangered here, in fact, everything that IS here there is too much of, but I have no desire to kill or destroy anything. But I can’t walk off the road or off my property. Rules, control, regulations.
Nov 30, 2009 - 12:45 pm 52. freedom:One leak from a nuclear plant and the surrounding environment is contaminated for centuries. Not to mention the damage it will do to humans at the time of the leak.
Nov 30, 2009 - 1:12 pm 53. Ashen:And another thing! Why hasn’t this article been linked to Instapundit, Hotair, NRO, and Hugh Hewitt yet? Well…… We are waiting Glenn, Michelle, Jonah, Hugh…..
Nov 30, 2009 - 1:21 pm 54. MisterH:Excelent and modest suggestions all. My favorite is the relocation of the UN. I would urge it be HQ’d in Zimbabwe… or better still, Cuba. There would be no finer method of “re-engaging” the Castro regime than dropping that institutional and intellectual boat anchor right onto their little island prison.
Nov 30, 2009 - 1:58 pm 55. He's Countin' Our Change!:cfbleachers – “VDH, you are indeed a man of the ages, simply not our current one, I fear. You wish to instill reason into a debate that is tone deaf to it.”
Webster’s defines: (1) : the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking especially in orderly rational ways : intelligence (2) : proper exercise of the mind (3) : sanity b : the sum of the intellectual powers
Therefore, we find ourselves swirling ’round the eddy of mental illness (on a global scale) that desires to discharge us out in to the bowl of collectivist slavery… and I don’t use the term lightly.
The basic laws of physics don’t allow us to overcome a force without an equal or greater force. The force will be greatest when people begin to go hungry on a massive scale in America… and not until.
Nov 30, 2009 - 3:33 pm 56. Jack Be Nimble:These thoughts are all or mostly good, but contain a bit of wishful, fantasy thinking.
Here are two:
1. raise the tax on gasoline at the federal level. It’s 18+ cents now so make it an even dollar, and use that money to reduce or eliminate corporate income taxes and capital gains taxes, in equal measure to the gas tax collections. This will reduce travel and consumption, and generate demand for fuel efficient vehicles, while reducing pollution. The business tax reductions would unlock entreprenurial energy and create a wave of investment…and maybe jobs?
2. Allow public schools to remove students from their classes if they don’t behave or don’t perform at grade level. Also allow removed students to come back to finish 12 years of public education, at any age if they behave and perform.
Nov 30, 2009 - 3:56 pm 57. John:Hey, Look at what went on at the White House! how can we expect to secure the borders when we can’t secure the President!
Nov 30, 2009 - 4:03 pm 58. Dr. T:I agree with frankns (#14). I’m a pathologist who has taught residents, medical students, graduate students, and college students. However, there’s not a public high school in the country where I am qualified to teach a health class. The idiocy of this policy is evident to most, but local and state politicians are too cowed by the teachers’ unions to change hiring criteria.
I disagree about the UN. We should throw them out of NYC and then withdraw. The UN is a detriment to world peace, and we should not be a part of that.
Nov 30, 2009 - 4:21 pm 59. PaulM:The first thing let’s do is get the United Nations out of the United States. Far Africa would be ideal; the farthest away and the most remote location would be ideal. The simplification of the Internal Revenue Code is also of high priority. It is made for politicians to use as a vehicle to create vast dependencies, i.e. exemptions and tax credits for favored groups to whom in turn the politician can go for political and financial support. And, yes by all means, let’s get rid of the practice of naming freeways, buildings, anything built with public (federal or state) funds in honor of some public official unless he (she) has been out of office for at least fifty years. There isn’t a freeway in California that doesn’t have some section named after a public official, most of whom have never distinguished themselves in any way whatsoever except to raise taxes.
Nov 30, 2009 - 4:51 pm 60. Lewis Bateman:A great essay with great policy suggestions, some of which are also applicable to California as well as the Federal government. Hanson for Governor of California to clean up that mess first and then for President.
But I’d support him for president too. Lew
Nov 30, 2009 - 5:02 pm 61. Kate:to #50. Poor Citizen:
The National Institute of Health operates to serve itself, to promote itself, to offer the same “Science” that we have seen at CRU. When funding comes from one source – that source gets the science it deserves. No cures for disease are seriously being worked on. Solving a problem would mean “no more funding.”
Nov 30, 2009 - 7:50 pm 62. Eric:Excellent post! Please write more posts like this with concrete suggestions about how America can move forward. I welcome your trenchant critiques of the current administration and look forward to reading more of them in the future; however, as you so poignantly wrote, it is easier to harp than it is to govern. Even if criticizing the current administration and party in power is sufficient to bring about electoral change (and I am not certain that it is), the benefit of such change will be marginal if it is not accompanied by pragmatic ideas for achieving meaningful improvements in our economy, government and society.
Nov 30, 2009 - 11:32 pm 63. Cindy Sue Causey:Kewl.. Forwarding along to @2gov (website)..
~
Dec 1, 2009 - 4:48 am 64. Ron Kean:41. jb
I’m not happy with the Scottish government but I would no more take it out on the lowly distiller than boycott Budweiser because I dislike the current American administration.
I’ll vote for Laphroaig and Glenlivet out on the town but Usher’s Green Stripe at home after work…just to take the edge off.
And always with water. Not too much.
Dec 1, 2009 - 6:48 am 65. Marc Malone:#41 jb – Actually, the Chinese make very good beer. I especially like Tsingtao. Of course, the quality is declining because of increased pollution. The water’s not clean.
There is a huge market for beer worldwide. This could become one of our greatest exports, because we have more pristine water sources than most other countries. If only we didn’t make pisswater instead. God, but I hate the large, commercial, American beers!
Dec 1, 2009 - 9:55 am 66. Barry:Your points are well taken. However, I would like to suggest two additional ones.
First, Terminate all new federally funded non-defense research programs. Allow existing contracts to run out but do not renew any non-defense related programs. Return the savings to the taxpayers. Allow the private sector to fund deserving projects.
Dec 1, 2009 - 11:10 am 67. JMD:Second, Dissolve the Department of Energy. Return the national labs to nuclear research that is weapon related. Terminate all other programs. Return the savings to the taxpayers. Allow the private sector to fund deserving projects.
The intrusion of the large amount of federal funding in R&D has distorted and debased science. The present AGW hysteria is a prime example.
I agree with you on all of this. I am especially sensitive to the race-based affirmative action. Once in my sneior year of high school, a teacher of mine wanted to share a minority scholarship opportunity with the class. Out of the dozen or so kids in the class, everyone qualified for it except for me and one other white male student. I think everyone in the class was fairly equal in terms of social and economic status and ability. If we want to get past racism, we need to end racist policies. We should focus on someone’s merit and need instead.
Likewise, it has always annoyed me whenever I see public works named after politicians. How vain are these people? (Don’t tell me; I really don’t want to know.) It also annoys me when I see places (notably stadiums) named after corporations (the Verizon Wireless Arena, and so forth). But at least they used their own money to put their name on the building. I suppose modesty is a lost virtue in our age.
Dec 1, 2009 - 1:53 pm 68. Gylippus:A partial Christmas wish list : 1 – Significantly increase the size of the US military, including the heavy divisions. Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum. 2 – Commit to maintaining US primacy in space, including manned space exploration. 3 – Destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. 4 – Create something like the Roman office of “Censor”, a one time, short term (1 year?) official empowered to audit any federal office without notice. 5 Abandon the UN altogether.
Dec 1, 2009 - 4:53 pm 69. Oscar the Grump:I received this in a recent Email. I just thought I’d pass it on. Please enjoy!
THIS IS YOUR PRESIDENT
FORWARD TO ALL YOU CAN
Everyone of voting age should read these two books.. Don’t buy them, get them from the library before they are removed from the shelves.
From Dreams of My Father: ‘I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.’
From Dreams of My Father : ‘I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race.’
From Dreams of My Father: ‘There was something about her that made me wary, a little too sure of herself, maybe and white.
From Dreams of My Father: ‘It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.’
From Dreams of My Father: ‘I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself: the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.’
And FINALLY, and most scary!
From Audacity of Hope: ‘I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.’
Dec 1, 2009 - 6:28 pm 70. David Sheedy:Just as from your recent NR piece, Doc H (not to be confused with Doc Halladay – writing from Toronto), constructive solutions, and levers to shift the behaviours and results in line with what caused the eventual greatness of the USA. It’s the compoundig effect that’s lost through the shrill or bellowing ignorance of “me now” attitudes, the bullhorn at the fingertips of so many. That being the keyboard and $40 per month for intenet service.
I wonder how much this voice of reason initiated by such refreshing thoughtfulness, that can only be expressed by one with decades of intellectual pursuit and practical training, distilled through experience, application, and a lot of writing, is heard?
Some of this is resonating in my opinion (or hope). And some will be heard by the desparate who have failed or been failed. It’s not often we learn the easy way, but hopefully there will be a catalyst with minimal consequences to shift the debate to take up constructive solutions and act on them.
Dec 2, 2009 - 1:46 am 71. David Sheedy:Great to read so many solid follow on comments! Maybe the pendulum that had swung to the irrational is settling back to the sensible.
Dec 2, 2009 - 2:04 am 72. Jack Marcotte:Essential vdh
One more to add. Put to bed the global warming farce.
The use of CO2 as a “bad” guy in the “global warming lie” was a give away that it was not science but politics of the left and was a move by the socialist/communist left to use the PC, AA ignorance of US citizens. This AA, PC ignorance allows the cynical creation of the global warming idea to create methods of control over the US economy. This is being accomplished by the ignorant, communist/socialist elite of the world using dumb tools like Algore that is just now beginning to unravel.
The global warming farce of course is supported by the “Elite” of American Universities who are good at milking the federal funds. And who for the most part are not scientists but politically motivated AA, PC, educated. Most of the US MSM think they are enlightened “scientists” instead they are ignorant psychotics.
Examples of this PC, AA ignorance are like the BHO’s and a whole generation that really know little about anything due to AA, and PC that now occupies most of their education.
They are dumbed down and jacked up psychology, and have developed into perfect Alligator mouths and butterfly asses.
The politically motivated ignorant scientist looking for “cash” following the idiots and lead goats like Algore who did not understand that the “picking of CO2″ would eventually be their downfall.
The CO2 “life cycle” is very understood in real science and there is no doubt that CO2 levels would/could have been much higher in primitive America going back just to the days of the buffalo than they are now.
Historical facts can easily lead to this conclusion. For example
Take the great plains area, the prairie’s, from the gulf of Mexico to the interior of Canada. The prairie grasses evolved with fire. They need fire to even develop and grow as needed for many well understood reasons.
Don’t look to Harvard idiots for this kind of knowledge look to a K-State, agronomist with a BS degree born in Kansas.
At any one time there would have been prairie fires that could easily have covered areas the size of Kansas with a single fire burn. Started by lightening and a demonstration of the wonder of nature, where nothing goes to waste.
When lightening struck if it hit built up dry grasses that needed a burn it burned. If it hit green new grasses that had been previously burned and now rejuvenated it did not burn.
The same would be true for our forests. They evolved with fire. Fire kept the parasitic bugs down and put minerals back into the soil and CO2 back into the air to be used by the plants as needed.
Natures Combustion, better known today as Nasty dirty combustion produces CO2 and water. Fire then was and is the primary recycling mechanism of nature. “Combustion” When the Prairies burned the CO2 went into the air, the minerals in the grasses went efficiently back into the soil to build the most productive land in the world.
The CO2 released provided the essential plant food taken in by the grasses and trees. The same cycle was true for the Trees.
The CO2 of course was also absorbed by the oceans and used by plant algae in the oceans. The plants using CO2 as food then created oxygen, O2. CO2 also went into solution in the oceans and eventually ended up as the building blocks of coral reefs and now limestone now covers a good part of the world. An indication of just how much “CO2″ exists in the world in reserve and how excess CO2 is stored.
Without this CO2 cycle nothing would exist on earth. Algore wants to use his ignorance, the ignorance of the PC, AA BS artists generated by our Union lead subversive school systems to destroy America and if carried to its logical end by getting rid of CO2 would destroy the world.
So much for the “smart” guys. The US and its current world of the BHO’s is being lead by idiots and BS artists including and especially BHO. A community organizer who can only show people how to grab theirs legally or illegally. You cannot build or revive a nation on this kind of fluff.
Nothing has been earned it has been given and this is what we get for AA and PC.
Dec 2, 2009 - 6:50 am 73. Marc Malone:#56 Jack be Nimble – Ridiculous suggestions.
1) This would only expand the IRS bureaucracy. It wouldn’t help the economy. It just changes whence come the taxes. Everything would cost more, and the corporations would make less sales and profits. It’s left-pocket/right-pocket thinking. Cutting the corporate rates would increase productivity AND increase the tax revenues, without increasing our costs of living.
Forget the pollution. Our emissions are now a small fraction of what they once were. We have reached the point of diminishing returns. Weenie “green cars” do not sell well. Give me a muscle car any day. More car sales means more jobs and a vibrant economy. “Green” means a diminished economy, every time.
2) Do you want your 15-yr-old daughter going to school with loser 25-yr-old men? Really?
#67 JMD – Clearly, you and the other white male were the minority in that class. That would ahve been a good thing to point out.
Putting their names on stadiums is not vanity. It’s advertising. Signs are all over. The announcers are required to say those names whenever they mention the stadium.
Stadiums cannot afford to not sell the naming rights, because stadium revenues apply to one’s ability to pay players above the salary cap. The salary cap = salary cap + stadium revenues. Better stadium revenues means a better team (theoretically).
Dec 2, 2009 - 8:16 am 74. myth buster:MA degrees wouldn’t change the status quo nearly as much as MS and MSE degrees would. School districts could take a page out of the military’s playbook. Free education or a signing bonus sufficient to pay off your student loans in exchange for five years service. That will get a lot of people with math, science and engineering degrees to spend a few years teaching before going into industry, thereby greatly increasing the quality of education while limiting costs in the long run.
Dec 2, 2009 - 8:19 am 75. myth buster:52. You fail nuclear physics forever. The ecosystem around Chernobyl is just fine. Besides that, breaching a nuclear reactor would be extremely difficult if you were trying to, and is for all intents and purposes impossible to cause by accident.
Dec 2, 2009 - 8:35 am 76. myth buster:67. I’m pretty sure race/gender/cultural scholarships are privately endowed. People are free to do as they will with their own money, including establishing scholarships and prizes that only some people are allowed to apply for.
Dec 2, 2009 - 8:38 am 77. arthur:1. use fed money to help create jobs.
2. expand university educational possibilities, with a one year service requirement for all people age 19-26. service can be in a number of areas, including the military but not limited too that area, environmental cleanup, helping elderly, parks, hospital help, teaching, daycare, whatever is needed. in exchange, for each year of service the person earns grants toward two years of state or community college tuition, and some sort of health coverage. people over the age could enroll as well.
3. the Afghanistan plan as laid out by Obama.
4. lower taxes on people making less than 200,000 raise on those making over 200,000.
Dec 3, 2009 - 4:38 pm