Despite President Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner’s state of denial, Standard and Poors gave our country a much needed wake-up call with their recent downgrade. The left are out with their scripted talking points calling the downgrade a “tea party downgrade”. In reality the much maligned tea party has been trying to put us on the right path but the Democrats were not interested. Obama even called for a “clean” bill to increase the debt ceiling just months ago. That probably would have resulted in downgrades from all of the major rating agencies.

The lame debt ceiling bill that was passed does not “cut” a dime in current spending. What it does is reduce a small amount of growth in future budgets over a 10 year period. The dirty little secret is that our future budgets have about a nine percent (9%) increase per year built in. If you were maxed out on your credit limit and were spending twice as much as you earn, what would you do?  Would you spend only 5% more on your next vacation than you spent this year rather than 9% more? The answer is common sense but politicians are not being honest about spending. They choose to demagogue rather than seek solutions. To make matters worse the mainstream media help with the deceit with their complacency.

In addition to a debt crisis our economy is in a recession. Unemployment is over 9% and there is nothing happening to change this. Businesses are not going to expand and hire as long as there is an administration that is hostile to growth. What we need is a comprehensive plan that helps restore our economy to what it once was and structurally reforms our government’s spending. This necessarily means that entitlements need to be addressed. Here is a framework called REFORM to accomplish this:

 Reform the budgeting process.

1. Eliminate the baseline budget system which begins the process with built in increases. Replace that with a zero based approach that requires departments to justify spending each year.
2. Cap spending at a percentage of GDP.
3. Restore fiscal integrity to Medicare and Social Security programs.
4. Repeal Obama Care

 Evaluate need of all agencies. Appoint a task force of business and efficiency experts to evaluate all government agencies and recommend elimination of agencies and consolidations. Their task would be to reduce discretionary spending from current levels by 33%. No politicians or former politicians would be appointed to the task force. Congress would have to vote on the recommendations without amendments.

Formulate an energy policy to make us energy independent

    Encourage new nuclear plants. Streamline the permit process.

1. Open up ANWAR for drilling.
2.  Encourage new nuclear plants. Streamline the permit process.
3. Re-open the Gulf for drilling.
4. Include natural gas and coal in comprehensive energy plan.

 Overhaul the tax system 

1. Reduce corporate rate from 35% to 28%.
2. Eliminate the Repatriation Tax. Companies have billions of dollars overseas that would be taxed at 35% if they were to bring cash home to invest. This is insane.
3. Reduce the top personal income tax rate.
4. Eliminate the Earned Income tax credit
5. Eliminate agenda driven tax credits such as credits for electric cars, solar heat, ethanol, etc.
6. Simplify the tax code.
7. Eliminate the alternate minimum tax.
8. Make these changes permanent.  

 Reduce the Regulatory burden that stifle growth. There has been a proliferation of regulations since Obama got in office. The overreach of our government bureaucracies has gotten out of hand over the last several decades. This causes uncertainty and outsourcing of jobs to more business friendly governments.  

1. Put a moratorium on all new regulations for one year
2. Repeal Dodd-Frank Bill
3. Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley
4. Review agenda driven regulations and evaluate need for each regulation

 Mandatory balanced budgets – Pass a balance budget amendment that requires spending cuts to balance the budget. No automatic tax increases.

 This may seem like an impossible task but the liberal experiment that we have experienced for 50 years has broken the bank. Even European countries have realized it. It may be too late for some of them. We still have some time but cannot afford to stay on Obama’s agenda. The power to do this is in the voters hands. We need to throw out the Democrats and Republicans who do not embrace these ideals. Reject promises of pork spending in your district. Reject excuses and the blaming of others.  Vote for candidates who will pledge to carry out these REFORMS and hold them accountable. We have seen in the tea party candidates that swept into office that this is possible. We should demand it.