Liberty Maven

“You can’t get corporate jets. You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas, or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.” – Barack Obama, February 2009

by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

Originally published at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6466.html

Apparently Obama’s advice does not apply to flying in 700 of the Social Security Administration’s 62,000+ employees to a resort in Phoenix, spending $700,000 in taxpayer money in the process as ABC reported here. The SSA claims that due to threats of bodily harm received, the event was necessary in order to reduce stress rather than videoconferencing or a meeting. While I certainly do not condone threats, one might wonder why these threats have been received in the first place.

Perhaps it is because Social Security payments have been slashed in half by the fudging of the inflation numbers by the government as I explained here? No, probably not.  (photo)

The Truth

The truth is, our government has little idea what it is doing. Collectively, they appear to have gone insane with the Banker Bailout of 2008, the Obama Stimulus Plan, Cap and Trade, and Obamacare bills. All of these proposals are prime examples of USSR-like socialistic central planning. What does our other fearless leader have to say?

“We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation. Now, people when I say that look at me and say, What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.” – Vice President Joe Biden, July 2009

Obviously, spending will not cure a problem caused by overspending.  The Republicans are no better my Republican Congressman (whom I am running against in the 2010 election) was just explaining to me the other day how the big problem with the stimulus plan is that its not stimulating the economy fast enough. Read “READ THE BILLS – An Open Letter to Congressman Dent from Jake Towne.”  His idea of speeding the stimulus up was to build more military vehicles and ship them to Iraq.  This is economic lunacy as I explained in detail here “Why Obama’s Stimulus Plan Will Fail… and a Better Alternative.”

The truth is, our elected Republican and Democratic representatives are taking us on what F.A. Hayek called “The Road to Serfdom” in 1944. Take a look at this comic strip from back then and try to tell me it’s not exactly what is occurring in the United States today.

Social Security and the Welfare State –  What to Do?

I certainly do not have a miracle solution, but the first step is that we must have a rational national debate. We must recognize that the unfunded liabilities for Medicaid and Social Security together total about $100 TRILLION dollars as Richard Fisher of the Dallas FED explained in 2008. The system is completely insolvent. The upcoming baby boomer demographic change will be crushing, and we as a nation need to prepare, not hear more political pandering or stall tactics.

My initial ideas are to make the system voluntary, so that the young can escape paying for the debts of the elderly. This is also critical to avoid a class war, where the elderly vote to force the younger to continue paying into the insolvent system democracy at its worst. Next, those who are retired need to be taken care of the government stole their purchasing power while they were working to pay for the health care of THEIR elders, and so it needs to be returned in full.

For those in middle-age or nearing retirement age, they also should have the freedom to leave the system if they chose, but likely will need to settle for a phase-out plan based solely on their age, to give them time to prepare. There is a price to be paid for failing to raise the issue previously, and electing incompetent officials year after year and hopefully this price can be made as small as possible.

For the younger generation, they would lose what has been paid in, but many realistically never expected to receive back their funds anyways. In return, they would be freed of paying for the system, and would receive 6.3% back as a pay raise, and could also speak with their employers to add the other 6.3% the employer was paying to the SSA to their base salary. This 12.3% raise would also act as a real economic stimulus plan.

Of course, the above will not happen overnight and Americans will have to answer many other questions such as:

Do we really want to keep shelling out $1 Trillion a year for the Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan Wars?

How do we stave off a collapse in our currency, the dollar?

What I am not content to do is continue to have my country ruined by the Dems and Reps in charge. I will continue to research this issue but if you have any comments or ideas, please leave them below or at TowneForCongress.com, a citizen-empowered website created by the Raging Debate team for my congressional campaign. It’s time we take our country back!

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Jake Towne is running for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 15th District in the 2010 election as a citizen unaffiliated with any political parties.  Jake also writes at www.LibertyMaven.com and www.CampaignForLiberty.com.  A master campaign presentation for internet viewing is available. [Reach the Author Here!]

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Summary of Articles and Bibliography for Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution (7/2/2009)