Here is an idea to solve our economic crises.

Posted on August 15, 2009
Filed Under General |

Since this website is aimed at family and friends, I am going to get back up on my soapbox and state what I would do to stop this craziness.

War:

The 2009 US military budget is going to come in around $651.2 billion. This is over eight times larger than the military budget of China (see the graph to the left that compares the 2006 US military budget to the military budgets of other developed nations). (http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm) This does not even consider the additional money spent on Homeland Security or support for retired military personnel. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States) I am sorry, enough is enough. As most of my friends know I was very much against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have yet to catch Osama bin Laden for his supposed involvement with the 9/11 attacks having already spent $1 trillion trying. Yet here we are eight years later spending $200 billion per year to fight wars that should have ended years ago. We are now in the process of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It is time to declare victory and bring our troops home.

“A rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight,” is an old Irish saying both my grandfather and father passed along to me. Endless wars do nothing but kill young men filled with a strong sense of national pride and put money into the pockets of the rich. (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/08/no-wonder-poker-game-is-ending.html) Though I am happy to see young men and women filled with national pride willing to sacrifice for the good of the country, I have a real problem with wasting them on such foolishness as unprovoked wars in the Middle East. The time has come to pin some medals on chests, bring home the troops and have a parade.

Health Care:

The $200 Billion per year spent on Mid-East wars would support one heck-of-a-lot of free health care clinics. I would take this military savings and reinvest it into a new health care bill giving everyone under 18 years of age, 100% free health care provided primarily by these clinics. Though not a total health care plan, it certainly goes a long way and does not cost the taxpayer one additional red penny. I would also give free ride government scholarships to any medical student willing to sign a contract to work for 10 years (at full pay) for these clinics upon graduation from medical school.

America spends $700 billion per year on unnecessary medical tests. (http://www.wellsphere.com/healthcare-industry-policy-article/u-s-spends-700-billion-on-unnecessary-medical-tests/471840) The time has come to stop this litigation treadmill we have our doctors and hospitals running on with no end in sight. Granted, if a doctor injures someone due to negligence or incompetence, he/she should be held accountable for it. But how about setting up a set of disciplines and fines to be applied to these individuals and a mandatory ombudsman process to follow for resolution of these issues instead of jumping into court each time a lawyer smells money. As a society we think nothing about relieving large pharmaceutical companies from litigation  from poisoning us with bad anti-viral drugs (www.dailymail.co.uk) while we unthinkingly spend billions on wasted medical procedures mostly due to the costs involved with the bad application of law. Injuries suffered by people due to poor medical practices should be paid and supported through the doctor’s medical practice insurance and not through the added cost of $700 billion per year in unnecessary medical test expenses.

Oil:

Regardless of what state the economy is in, the fact is we are running out of oil plain and simple. (http://peakoil.com/) It is not truly the fact we will actually run out of oil, it is only that it will become more and more expensive at time goes on. The time to get off this roller coaster is upon us. Electric car and battery technology has developed to the point where it is viable. The problem is, the US does not have the electrical capacity or infrastructure currently to support such a switch over to electric motor cars from internal combustion engine motor cars. So if you want to pump up the economy, get us off oil dependency while making dramatic improvements in air and water quality worldwide, here is how to do it.

First, I would start with a tax break of a 100% first year write-off for any electric or energy company who invests in the creation of geothermal electricity generation. This is known technology that is viable and available today. Second, I would set up a “Make Work” program similar to President Eisenhower’s Federal Highway plan to upgrade the entire US electrical grid system. Third, I would require our electric company monopolies to lock in rates for anyone owning a 100% electric vehicle at the lowest KWH pricing. I would then give the electric companies full tax write-offs for any costs involved in this plan to offset their losses. Fourth, I would start a second “Make Work” program to set up a full, continent wide, high-speed rail system under Amtrak. It would make Amtrak profitable again and give all American’s an alternative and cheap method of high speed, long distance travel. Currently, the US is one of the few industrialized nations that do not have such a system. I would support the power for such systems from guess where, those geothermal electric generation facilities I was building across the nation.

Stimulus:

Last but not least, how do we put our economy on the path to recovery? Clearly, I am a big fan of “Make Work” programs. From my perspective, you can only have an economic recovery if you put money into the pockets of the workingman. You cannot do this with handouts or “stimulus checks.” You have to give everyone jobs. Geothermal generators going up all over the country, a major reinvestment in the electric systems infrastructure, installation of a high speed electric rail system to every major US city and the conversion to all electric vehicles from gasoline powered ones over the next 10 years would be quite a bit of stimulus I think. The trick to solving all of this is to stop wasting money and lives on wars. So, this is what I would do to stop all this craziness, but I guess I am just a poor old farm boy thinking out loud again. Thanks for the use of the soapbox.

Clayton

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