In AA World by misteriobanderas some assumptions are made as to just what the world or at least America would look like if, and I do not want to put words in misteriobanderas mouth, I or people like me, Conservatives, designed the country. In his attempt at sarcasm he makes specific mention of Texas as some kind of a blueprint for this AA World Order. I lived in Texas for a short time and that certainly does not make me an expert on the state, however, I wonder how many people are aware that Texas does something that few others (none that I know of but I could be wrong) do, they open, I believe if I remember correctly, every other congress with a review of existing law and the deletion or retraction of those law found to be either out of date (like tethering a horse to a tree after nightfall or something along those lines) or laws that have proven useless or having not done what they were intended to do. Now that’s all I wanted to say about Texas, outside of I think it’s a great idea and I wish all states and especially our Federal Government did the same. I think an early look at many of the social programs we have today that are entrenched into the publics minds as God given rights would not be so difficult to repeal or at the very least fix, alter or reaffirm as they are. Imagine the early numbers on Welfare if today’s are any indication, we stared out with 2.5 million people on the welfare roles when it started with the Great Society, and today we have 3.5 million people on the Welfare roles, a net gain of zero people off the roles after spending nearly $6 trillion dollars over 40 plus years. Perhaps in the first 10 years if those numbers had held it would have been declared a failure and revamped to actually help people… Anyway…

 

I want to take a quick look at what America might look like if AA World were to become a reality.

 

The Federal Government would have an important yet limited role in AA World. Defense, providing for the General Welfare, and providing a level playing field with our world competitors would be essential to their tasks. The Constitution, not the Federal Court would be the law of the land as it was intended to be, with Judges using U.S. Case Law and not international law to determine the framers meanings. They would be a co-equal branch of Government, instead of simply saying that a law was no good it would refer such questionable law back to congress to re-evaluate, change or (and I’m making up my own word here) Constitutionalize the law. Make it so that it passes the test of the Constitution.

 

Social Programs would still be in place, but they would have to work and work on a large scale to continue to be funded. Take Welfare- it would have to show that it was actually helping people move off the gravy train roles and into jobs that could support those it needed to support. No arbitrary numbers but a real reduction in their need. In American today we speak of the Great Society as a winning idea, but it wasn’t. The Welfare roles are just as full today as they were then. After 40 plus years I would expect to see some improvement, otherwise I would say it isn’t working. Same with Social Security, it was designed to help elderly and indigent people who needed help, but in today’s economy and the America over the last 40 plus years you would think that the need for this assistance would have gone down, not up through the roof. But I can tell you this, with a Federal Government that wastes money like ors, the money to cover the promise made to my parent’s generation would be available to pay off our debts by simply cleaning up the system and eliminating that waste. As to those born in or after 1969 (a group I personally belong to) they would be required to continue to pay into the system but they would have the right to control the money by investing it into a mutual fund style investment portfolio taking into consideration the risk of each investor. In addition they would be able to leave that money to their children or grandchildren as they saw fit to do so, thus making it an asset that could benefit many more than just those who paid in. It’s not fair for that money to be absorbed back into the system. This affects Black American more than anyone else. They have a shorter life span and pay in all their life only to die shortly after or even before they start to draw against it. This would give wealth to a generation of Black Americans they have never before had the opportunity to benefit from, helping to curb poverty in that sector.

 

The city streets would all be working as the city governments would still be funded by tax dollars, and this would work because they would no longer be required to pay for things that the private sector could do under local supervision of the government.  We have too much duplication of services and we need to streamline the system by reducing the employee base of government, not the private sector.

 

Infrastructure would be secure because government would have more resources to concentrate on these very real governmental responsibilities. This is one of the constitutionally mandated general welfare issues.

 

Government would be getting out of private sector medical care. Outside of V.A. hospitals which would be fully funded government would no longer provide healthcare insurance to the poor and elderly at tax payer expense. Instead a pool of money would be set aside by businesses and tax credits would be allowed dollar for dollar to incentivise them to participate. This is one of the ways we get people to do the right thing and yet not force participation. Taxes can be and would be used to move America forward and get the government, the only institution on Earth that gets bigger each year regardless of who is sitting in congress or the White House while producing absolutely nothing of value, to stop causing the market to not be beholden to the demands of service.

 

Education would improve for one simple reason; we would get the Feds out of it. The states would be required to take back their constitutional role as education provider. Now this does not mean the end to integrated schools or that Black kids would have to ride on the back of the bus, it means we as states would develop together the standards of graduation and the review of teachers who do not teach. Parents too would be responsibility for the academic and attendance record of their children. This is an issue that the Feds are ill equipped to deal with to begin with. It would strip power from teachers unions who often time protect teacher who are not good with students and do not get the kids engaged in their own academic career, but because of tenure are basically untouchable. I have to perform to keep my job and I have to produce real numbers, teacher should have to do the same. And they will do so if we hold them and the students to higher not lower standards.

 

And to clarify a mis-statement by misteriobandras the average American household earning $40,000.00 per year received over $1800.00 in tax breaks thank to those tax cuts. Hardly the top 1% or wage earners. Do you really want to take those breaks away from them?

 

The environment would be a top priority as we would require clean water, clean air and still have a thriving economic base in manufacturing and production. Nobody wants dirty water and dirty air and that can be accomplished without destroying businesses or forcing green technology down everyone’s throats. Worrying about Global Warming is a nice thing to say but the reality is that this planet has experienced multiple Ice Ages and Green Houses over the millenniums; we are not the cause of this one. Humans create 12000 metric tons of chlorine per year. Mt. Pinatubo produced 180 million tons of chlorine when it erupted, surpassing total world production of the major cause of Global Warming by thousands of times. I do not deny that Global Warming might be happening, I only argue against the cause of it. Mankind did not make this planet, and it is vain to think we can destroy it. There are as many professors and scientist on this side of the argument as there are on the Pro-Human-Cause of Global Warming side of the argument.

 

And unless mistriobanderas has been hiding under a rock, missed the 3-4% growth we have had over the last 12 years and not seen the stock market rise to all time highs, I am wondering what economy he is talking about when he says it is stagnant? Most Americans are doing great, although there are some specific industries, auto for one, that are taking a hit, just as Oil took a hit when the rest of the economy was humming right along in the 90’s. Not all business will grow in a good economy just as not all business loses in a bad economy. I know I’m just an average American but even I get that part of the picture.

 

I’m done. Just wanted to clear the air. Have at it…

 

But what would I know; I’m just an Average American.