A Plan for Us All!

A Growth plan for America!

To say that we have a total lack of leadership in Congress and the President is an understatement. We have seen a swift and direct consequence of this, bickering (Brinksmanship) by the downgrade of our coveted AAA rating and declines in the stock market. I absolutely believe we have a crisis in our deficits and debt reduction, but more importantly we have no plan for Growth. Even FDR, a welfare socialist had a plan for growth to get us out of the depression. He built highways and national parks among others to provide jobs.

What are we doing today to combat a no growth recovery? Nothing!!! There isn’t a plan for growth, only that committees are being formed to decide how to cut spending from the self-serving debt ceiling bill that showed the world that our leaders have no idea how to fix this economy.

What would I do?

First we obviously have to tackle spending/deficit problem in Washington. By the tone of this article you can probably tell that I am a conservative, however what I am not, is self-serving. I am willing to make concessions to move us as a whole toward recovery. We need a balanced approach of tax increases and spending cuts. Let’s start with our largest problem, entitlements! We just can’t afford to pay what we have promised. The forecast costs of Medicare/Medicaid in the decades to come, alone will bankrupt us. I haven’t spoken to a person under the age of 35 that believes they will receive what they have paid into Social security. These need to be reduced dramatically, look what the rest of the world; especially Europe which has been forced to do; austerity plans. (Greece, Italy, Spain, etc.) We have to be naive if we think we won’t have to do the same thing — .I know what you are saying, “We are America, we are the strongest economy in the world, we will never have to do that, we will never see riots in the streets”. Historically, we have just printed our way out of these problems; well the world is losing confidence in our abilities. The AAA cut is the proverbial “shot across the bow”.

The Tea party’s pack to never have any increases in tax revenue is a commendable move forward, but extreme. I thank them for stopping the never-ending spending we have seen from the Obama administration; at least they drew attention to the problem that would have been otherwise looked over. They drew us the biblical “line in the sand”. However, a democracy needs compromise and there is a demand for quality tax reform. The most important thing to consider when making any changes to taxes is to know without a doubt the consequences of such actions. Will these increases cause US companies to move jobs overseas? Hire less? Extremely benefit one group over another? My thoughts to tax reform are to make an even playing field for all. I would first remove any special deductions we grant to the oil companies or any industry that receives them. Why do they deserve them? (Maybe because they have bought some congress members?) I would force the states to tax online purchases, let’s even the playing field for brick and motor companies. I would make sure all tax loop holes are closed and everyone pays what they owe. Legalize and tax online gambling — we all do it anyway, let’s make some money off the house for once. Let’s reform illegal immigrants, anyone without a criminal background that is already here in the US, let them apply for citizenship. They can finally contribute to the economy instead of stealing from it. They will pay taxes and the industries that they dominate would see a rise in wages. Maybe an American can once again raise a family as a gardener.

OK that is the first step, controlling our deficits, but it will not balance our budget or restore confidence alone. The most important part of this plan is to create growth, jobs which in turn will lead to higher tax revenues. Let’s tackle this problem at its core! My belief is the largest problem in this country is the lack of jobs and wage growth. Companies won’t hire new workers if their business isn’t growing, worse yet if it’s slowing they lay off workers. If we create jobs, people have more money to drive this consumer economy, buy houses to reduce the huge inventory, which will lead to a rise in housing prices and the backbone of this country; the banks — will finally see their portfolio of crap loans rise. Simply, if people have jobs, they have more money, they spend more money and the whole economy rises.

So do we do we create jobs? Well I promise you all the crap packages passed by our government won’t do the trick. For example, Cash for clunkers, releasing oil from our strategic reserves, etc. Have all been temporary and have no return on capital. Thinking about it, we spend Billions to boast a certain sector for a short period of time and once it’s over the sector returns its previous state and our deficit is higher. Maybe someone has done this for votes, election is next year, remember??? (Self-serving at its best)

Taking page out of FDR’s book, I would revamp one of our most important infrastructures, our energy transportation! I would change every car/truck/boat to burn natural gas instead of gasoline. Change every gas station to accommodate the new technology. Build new pipelines to expand our enormous wealth of domestic natural gas! Pretty much, exchange the entire counties thirst for foreign expensive oil to cheap domestic natural gas.

Send a voucher to every registered automobile, truck and boat owner, to bring their vehicles in for the change. Send vouchers to every gas station for the same reason. Start construction on the necessary natural gas pipelines, etc, etc etc. The amount of work and the time to complete that is needed would be daunting! But that is exactly what we need. This could create jobs and wealth for an entire generation.

The jobs that would be created from such a drastic overhaul would be in the millions. Yes, I know there would be job losses from the oil sector, however if they are real capitalists they will adapt to the new environment. AND Yes, I know this would cost a ton, but the benefits are truly limitless — for example, millions of jobs, a cleaner energy product and a domestic natural resource. Plus our dependence on foreign oil, dependence on countries that don’t like us would evaporate. We would control our own destiny once again. The need for wars in the Middle East would disappear. How much money would we save just from that alone? The costs would be huge, but the return will be so much larger. Please make an investment in our future!

I know there are many details that must be highlighted to begin but use this as foundation to build upon. I promise you just the belief that we have a plan will restore the confidence that has been lost in our great economy, our great country.

May GOD bless us and grant us prosperity.

C. Georgopoulos, Florida. An independent option trader and small business entrepreneur.

P.S. We need to stop the self-serving Congress — set term limits for Congress!


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