The Aquarian Agrarian: state government

Showing posts with label state government. Show all posts

Sunday, April 20, 2014

12 Ways to Bail Out the States

Written on February 20th, 2011

according to statistics from the New York Times Budget Puzzle

44 states and the District of Columbia need $125 billion. If we implemented any single one of the following options, we could bail them out.

1. Pull out of Afghanistan immediately

2. Pull out of Iraq immediately, reduce the size of the military, and eliminate other defense spending such as weapons programs, nuclear, space, Navy, Air Force, waste, fraud, abuse, etc.

3. Cut most Energy Department funding and all Department of Education funding besides Pell grants

4. Cut all foreign aid, sell federal buildings, eliminate earmarks, NASA, FCC, Office of Personnel Management, National Science Foundation, EPA, CPB, and National Endowment for the Arts, and reduce government travel budget, etc.

5. Abolish the Department of Housing and Urban Development, make $27 billion in cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, make $24 billion in cuts to the Department of Homeland Security, cut all discretionary Social Security spending, reduce Social Security benefits for high-income individuals, and make small cuts to the judicial branch

6. Abolish four Department of Agriculture services, eliminate farm subsidies, cut $11 billion from the Department of the Interior, make drastic cuts to federal public-sector employment and pay, make small cuts to the Department of Labor, and find $20 billion in additional cuts

7. Reduce spending on items 1 through 6 by 16.7% each

8. De-fund Amtrak and make other cuts to the Department of Transportation, and impose a millionaire’s tax and a 5% national sales tax

9. Eliminate many corporate and individual tax loopholes, make small cuts to the Departments of Justice and Commerce, and eliminate the Government Printing Office

10. Jack up the estate tax and investment taxes to Clinton-era levels and raise payroll taxes on some incomes above $106,000 (although I wouldn't propose we do this)

11. Let the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone (although I wouldn't propose we do this)

12. Make 3.25% across-the-board cuts to all federal spending items

For more entries on budgets, finance, debt, and the bailouts, please visit:

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/12/proletarian-radical-agorist-economics.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/proposed-us-federal-government-budget.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/spencer-stuart-recruited-executives-for.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/viewing-legislation-through-economic.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/2011-new-york-times-budget-puzzle.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/economic-policy-for-2012-us-house.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/response-to-campaign-for-liberty.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/federal-spending.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/debt-and-federal-budget.html

For more entries on states' rights, the Tenth Amendment, and other states' issues, please visit:

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/02/secession-petition-signatures-as-of.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-tenth-amendment.html

Viewing Legislation Through the Economic Lens

Written November 19th, 2010

We must view all political issues as inherently economic in nature. Besides asking if a bill is constitutional, we must also ask how we will fund it and whether the methods and means by which we fund it are also constitutional. Besides requiring all future bills to cite in them the specific clauses which explicitly grant the congress the authority to pass such laws, I would support a federal balanced-budget amendment, which would prevent deficits and debt increases, requiring the government to either cut spending, raise taxes, borrow more, and / or print more money (the latter only as a last resort, however!).

In that all political issues are inherently economic in nature, we must view government itself through the lens of economics. Government apparati are little other than contract-enforcement agencies; organizations which provide us security and justice for a fee, obligated to hold up their end of the bargain. The federal government behaves as a corporation that desires to become a monopoly. It sees states, local communities, and private security firms, and offers them legitimacy if only they will consent to take orders from, and become integrated into, the overarching, monolithic centralized power.

The federal government is not at the top of the power structure. The people are. Just as the states can take back the powers which they have vested in the federal government, the people can take back the powers which they have vested in the state governments, and therefore the people can compel the states and congress to reclaim for they the people the powers which states and the congress have vested in the executive branch and in the president, especially those powers illegitimately and wrongfully appropriated to those who hold such positions.