The speech I wish the next Republican President would give...

Good evening citizen of the United States. Let me first say thank you for allowing me into your homes tonight. I truly believe that what I am about to share with you will benefit all Americans and the country and will be an important step in getting our country back on the right coarse for all citizens of this great land.

As citizens of these United States, we all have suffered under the burden of a farce, a fallacy, a Ponzi scheme of enormous size that has negatively impacted our economy for generations. This crime that has been perpetuated against us is known as the Social Security System. I am here to tell you that this crime will end. You will no longer be forced to contribute to a bankrupt and corrupt system that promises too much and delivers too little. If today's social security system were run by private businesses, the executives of those companies would be in jail! Why should this be permitted to continue simply because it is done to you by your Government instead of by a private company?

Despite what you may have heard and will likely hear starting tomorrow, the Social Security fund is broken and broke! There is NO money in it. It is true that at least for today and the near future, contributions to the Social Security fund exceed the monies paid out to recipients but and this is a big but, there is no money in the fund because your Government has been spending it for years to fund other programs. As dollars go into the fund, the Government takes them out and puts in I.O.U.s instead. Now if you trust your Government to be there tomorrow [and the day after] those I.O.U.s are nearly as good a cash BUT it is not cash and it is money that the Government will have to pay back, not at our leisure but when the demand for payments exceeds the amount coming in. This will likely mean deep cuts to other programs and / or tax increases and / or means testing to those that are and will collect Social Security. Again, over promised and under delivered. In addition, with the Government controlling this program, we tell you how much you have to put in, how long you have to wait to start receiving payments, and how those funds are managed. You are not children, you are adults. This is your money and you should own and control it.

My plan for the shuttering of the Social Security System is as follows:

First off, if you work and contribute to Social Security, December 31st of this year will be the last day that any FICA taxes are removed from your paycheck. Come January 1st of next year, those payroll funds are yours to keep. Your employer will also no longer have to match your FICA taxes after December 31st as well.

There are basically 4 groups of people in regard to Social Security; these groups are a) those already receiving payments (or will receive payments by January 1st of next year), b) those that are fully vested in Social Security but do not yet receive payments, c) those that are not yet fully vested but have made contributions, and d) those that have made no contributions yet (and won't have by December 31st of this year).

Let me allay any fears group (a) might have, if you currently receive Social Security payments, those payments will continue! Your payments will NOT stop. We made a commitment to you and the Government will keep that commitment. For you, nothing will change. Your schedule of benefits and payments will continue uninterrupted.

For those in group (d), those that have never been assessed any FICA taxes, if you still have not made any FICA contributions as of December 31st, nothing will change. You will not ever be forced to pay anything into the Social Security System. You will never be forced to contribute money into an underfunded, under performing system. I strongly encourage you to open an IRA account, if you don't already have one and start contributing money to it today. We will be making adjustments to the IRA rules to make it easier to contribute and to allow you to contribute much more. More details on these enhanced IRA rules will be coming in the weeks ahead.

To those in group (c), those that have paid FICA taxes but are not yet vested. You will not ever receive any Social Security payments. You are not vested in the system and will not ever be. It is strongly recommended that you start an IRA account as soon as possible if you don't already have one and start contributing to that account. As I stated earlier the rules for IRA accounts will be expanded giving you more freedom and options. If you already have an IRA, you are already setup for what I am about to tell you. If you do not have one, it is strongly recommended that you open one before the end of this year. Shortly after the new year, the Government will credit your IRA account with the sum of all of your FICA tax payments as well as those made on your behalf by your employer(s). Next year all FICA tax payments made by you or for you will be yours, in your IRA to own and manage. The Government should never have been taxing your wages at the point of a gun and making poor investment choices with your money. I apologize.

To those in group (b), those that are fully vested but have not yet started receiving payments (come January 1st), you have a choice to make. You can elect to be treated as part of group (c) or group (a). You can elect to have all of your [up to December 31st] FICA taxes as well as those of your employer(s) deposited in an IRA account of your choosing or you can elect to receive Social Security payments based on your December 31st (of this year) payment schedule. We will honor either decision you make.

We understand that there are some individuals that do not fall into any of these groups, we will be making a phone number and web site link available for you and anyone else that has questions about these changes, where you can get more information. In addition we will be posting the text of this speech, the details of the plan, and any additional updates or releases to a web site where everyone can access this for your self.

As soon as I am finish [if not already] you will hear from people that will tell you this is a bad plan and a bad idea. That I am wrong about the system being insolvent and that shutting it down is too hard, too complicate, and there is not enough time to make this all happen by year end.

To them I say no. You are the one that is wrong. You are the one that is insisting that we continue with a program that was designed and implemented wrong from the very start and that this very program when managed by individuals and companies, those people are arrested and charged with crimes. It ends now. We will honor our commitments to those that are already in the system and we have a plan for the orderly shutting down of this system and we will do it.

Others will say that we can not afford to do this. That we can not afford to pay back all of the FICA taxes collected to all those currently involved in the system. That the system will collapse under the weight of no new funds coming in. To them I say, you are partially correct. That is exactly why the Social Security system is also called a Ponzi scheme and that it is illegal when not done by the Government. We are already carrying the liabilities for repayment. The fund is already full of I.O.U.s. We will just be more honest in how that liability is carried on the Government ledger.

A partial privatization (15% of contributions) was suggested by a prior administration. It was misconscrewed and lied about in the press and by ideologs. We are now that much farther down the road to a Social Security collapse. Continuing down that road will only lead to harsh, rushed changes. This solution ends the problem once and for all and puts control of retirement back where is belongs, with individuals and with families. You are adults and the Government is not and should not be acting as your parent forcing you into an immoral system. Again, this ends now.

Thank you and good night.

Are they serious?

This is from the US Surgeon General's web site. Are they serious? Do they actually think, based on their actions, inactions, reactions and miss-steps of this past week, that ANYONE anywhere would take anything they say on the subject of how contagious Ebola is as true and accurate information?

• You can't catch it on the bus.
• You can catch it on the bus.
• Its OK to travel by air with a fever (less than 101) after treating Ebola patent.
• No she should not have traveled by air.
• BUT restricting flight from countries with Ebola is "off the table".

Lord, they have NO CLUE what they are saying and what they are doing. We have an Infectious Diseases CZAR but no one has seen or heard from her (other than to know that she managed to funnel a LOT of money to her husband's company). The CDC did not have the money to prepare for this (their MAIN job) but did have plenty of money to study why lesbians get fat and plenty of money for studies on the disease of guns. It is clowns from the top to the bottom!

Update: Dems are now trying to say that there would be money for Ebola but the Repubs cut funding. FALSE! First off, Congress allocated CDC more money than Obama asked for AND the "cash strapped" CDC did manage to find some funds for the following "critical to their basic mission" items:

• it dumped $106 million into a swanky visitors' center in Atlanta, even though it already had one
• it bought $10 million worth of furniture for its lavish new headquarters
• spent $1.7 million to advise Hollywood on medical plots
• a $702,558 grant for the study of the impact of televisions and gas generators on villages in Vietnam
• $175,587 to the University of Kentucky to study the impact of cocaine on the sex drive of Japanese quail
• $55,382 to study hookah smoking in Jordan
• $592,527 to study why chimpanzees throw objects
• a $509,840 grant from NIH to pay for a study that will send text messages in “gay lingo” to meth-heads

Yep, not ENOUGH money! We MUST increase their budget! What a JOKE!

Weird Government: EPA Employees Told to Stop Pooping in the Hallway

EPA Employees Told to Stop Pooping in the Hallway

You read that right! A Deputy Regional Administrator was forced to send an email to EPA employees of Region 8 in Denver, Colo. warning them that defecating in the hallways was a health and safety issue and that it needed to stop immediately.

NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

The documents, provided earlier this summer to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, include a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance.

So, Snowden is a traitor and should not be trusted but he exposed government corruption that we "the people" would not have known about any other way as the people that were supposed to be watching the people with this power, were lied to. What a shock! I wonder how soon those that broke the law will be brought to justice. I won't hold my breath.

P.S. I wonder if this still counts as one of those "phony scandals".

When I grow up...

An idea who's time has come?

I do not generally like constitutional amendments at either the state or Federal level. I feel that the original documents are "generally" fine and most adjustments should be by law and not by amendment. Most states make it too easy to get amendments on the ballot.

If you don't like what your politicians are doing, elect new ones verses muddling up the Constitution. On the other hand, I believe I am in favor of this specific type of amendment. It does not try to address any specific social or situational ill (like not liking pig farms to name but one example) but instead is geared toward enabling a more representative check on federal powers. Anything that tries to control the beast will always get a second look from me. As the author points out, this is not an absolute limit either, congress is free to re-submit and re-vote the specific law that was overturned by the states. An open-ended check, what is not to like unless you are a member of Congress?

It's all about the diplomas

Really? It is all about the diplomas?




Peter Orzag, the head of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has explained the differences in pay by saying that public employees have more diplomas.

However, in my opinion if the government we are getting is the result of all these diplomas, I would like high-school drop outs to run Congress.

Ain't that the truth! Most of the government workers I have direct experience with are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, diplomas or not. There is some innovation but the cost of that innovation is much higher than in the private sector. Additionally, most of the government workers are bureaucrats following the rule book. To what end are higher level diplomas?

Actual comparisons of education levels between public sector and private sector dispute that statement so try again...

It used to be that public sector pay lagged that of the private sector because you traded money for security. It was and still is very difficult to loose a government job compared to losing a private sector job. The salary discrepancies have been removed and so now you have "tenured" government employees that make on par or more than the private sector, have great benefits and can't be fired easily. The best of all worlds. The big dirty little secret is the pension obligations that are unsustainable at both the Federal and local government levels that will result in either massive tax increases and/or cuts in other current/future services to pay for retirement benefits.

Now this sounds like an outstanding idea!

Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives, and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.

Now this sounds like an outstanding idea and that is one of the reasons it will never happen. The last thing that the power brokers in Washington want is to have to accept what they want the rest of us do put up with.

UPS vs. FEDEX

As is the point of the video, a government large enough to tell your competitors or neighbours what to do is also large enough to tell you what to do. Do you really want a government that managed to come up with a monstrosity like the IRS controlling all aspects of your life?

Coming soon to a National Healthcare plan near you!

The most shocking thing was not the lying. Nor even the incompetence. It was our total lack of surprise at the turn of events, since after 15 years suffering from the failings of the National Health Service we are prepared for almost any ineptitude.

The simple truth is that the larger the bureaucracy, the less responsive it is to individual customers and their unique circumstances. Don't forget the government can't run what they have now in an efficient and productive manner and you want to give them your health care too?

The more centralized, the more standardized. If you do not fit into the standard form, forget you. Regardless of if your specific needs are way outside the box or just a hair. If the policy says for issue A, do B, too bad for you if B does not work. Bureaucrats are not generally knows for their free thinking ways and flexibility.

Just remember, you wanted change. Well had your fill yet?

Ronald Reagan used to joke that the nine most terrifying words in the English language were "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."