We need creative solutions not tag lines like, "JUST SAY NO".
Climate Change Solution:
I have a great Climate Change fix. Clime-works, a company that makes direct carbon capture filters, imagine if we put them together with a company like Honeywell that makes home A/C filters, we could make every home in the country and the world with an A/C unit, a direct C02 capture filtering station. The Government could supply tax breaks for the filters for the first few years until we pull enough C02 out of the atmosphere to keep us from the brink. You would just change the filters as directed and throw them in the trash, trash gets taken to the land fill and the Carbon gets put back into the ground where it came from. Sounds pretty simple, but I think it could work!
It's Billions of filters capturing C02 all day every day all over the world. #MakeAmericaCoolAgain!
Pro Life Idea: To everyone that is Pro Life , I would like to remind you that Roe vs Wade (safe and legal access to abortion) does not infringe on your personal right to life. It does stop you from infringing on others your personal beliefs, and infringing on their personal rights as Americans living in a free country. How many of you are Pro Gun and like to hunt, isn't all life sacred? You can't have it both ways, besides where will it end? Will life end up starting at inception? Will we start outlawing women from saying no sex, just cause some guy envisioned having a baby with her? A woman saying no would be guilty of murdering some guys possible child, how crazy is that?
40 years ago the thought of life beginning at conception was just as crazy, so I might not be wrong?
Roe vs Wade is simply a Freedom for a woman to exercise or NOT, it is her choice and right in a
Free Country. The law of the land is already personally Pro Life if a woman chooses, as is her right.
Also, for those of you who think that by the Government funding Planned Parenthood, your tax dollars are being spent on abortions, you must have never had one, or taken someone to have one.
They are Safe and Legal, but NEVER FREE! Everyone pays at every clinic, it is never paid for by your tax dollar...
Student Loan Debt Idea:
Why are we allowing companies to profit off of our children? Think about it, we passed child labor laws to protect our youth from exploitation from businesses. But now we let Big Banks and Lenders profit off of them from never ending outrageous interest and dept. At the very least Students should get the same rates that Big Banks get from the Fed, interest rates close to zero % on their loans!
That is the only way we will at least stop the Profiteering off of our Students.
How to pay for free Collage without raising taxes on the middle class?
The most comprehensive solution is to tax Big Corporations and take that money put in in funds available to students that are majoring in that field . Tech giants pay to teach their next generation of employees , Oil and Gas giants pay to educate their next engineers , Solar and Wind companies fund the next generation of techs and installers , Movie and Music industry will pay to create the next artists , The Auto industry will pay for the next car makers and so on and so on....
Students would get to pick between educations that are paid for and will be viable and educations in industries that have no money to pay for the next generation.
Minimum Wage Idea: Raising the minimum wage is not the sole solution, as so many of us that have not had a raise in ten years or more know, lack of yearly raises is the real problem. Until we make yearly raises mandatory, we will have to keep raising the minimum wage consistently .
I propose $0.50 mandatory minimum yearly raise for everyone making under $20.00 an hour.
That way you don't end up with 20 year employees making $12.00 an hour.
Job Idea: Everyone hates getting Jury Duty, and for some who do have a job, a trial that lasts more than one or two days can put that very job in jeopardy. My idea is to have all long term unemployed Californians that have at least a High School Diploma or GED and who's unemployment benefits have run out, to become part of a permanent standing jury pool making minimum wage. In all of California over a ten year period (1999 to 2009) 8,310,205 Californians were summoned for Jury Duty. That is alot of jobs being offered to people that don't want or need them? This may not help everyone, but I think it would be immediate financial help to those that need it most. It would also help fill in the large gap in their current resume and give them back some much needed self esteem. This would also encourage more citizens to register to vote, as most people I've met tell me they do not register because they don't want Jury Duty .
Job Idea II: We need to turn the Unemployment Agency into an Employment Agency. As we all know people tend to follow the line of least resistance, both the unemployed and employers. If we had a division that arranged job interviews for persons receiving unemployment benefits as part of their benefits package, and those agents had to meet with the unemployed after those interviews to discuss what went wrong and try to instruct on what to do better the next time. I also think employers would be more likely to hire someone if they were required to have to explain their decision not to hire that person, to a agent of the Government. We need to put America back to work, this may not do it, but it wouldn't hurt to try it.
Medicare for All Idea: Medicare is a social insurance program funded by (FICA), payroll tax contributions and by (SECA). It is a "Single Payer" health care system for Citizens 65 and older. Most people making $45,000. a year pay about $600. a year into the program. If we tripled that pay in to $1800. a year, and got to keep the $150. to $650. a month we now pay for private for profit insurance that would be an average savings of $1800. a year using $300. a month as a base. It could be offered to everyone as soon as they start working and contributing. Some sources say a Single Payer System would save taxpayers $380 billion annually.
Tax Idea: I have my own NO LOOP HOLE INCOME TAX PLAN that I think is fair and will work: 10% to $50,000.00, 20% to a $100,000.00, 30% to $500,000.00, 40% to a $1,000,000.00, 50% to a $1,000,000,000.00 and 60% above that. As for Capital Gains, my plan would allow for three Tax Free Gains of your choice, all gains after that would be taxed at the above rate. The same rates should apply to corporate taxes.
Preventing Housing Bubbles Idea: I have an solution for the foreclosure problems that are causing Americans to lose their homes. I would do away with Adjustable Rate and Interest Only Mortgage Loans, I see them as detrimental to achieving " The American Dream " of home ownership. All loans should be fixed rate, anything else is just legal loan sharking.
Rebuilding America Idea: As for our crumbling infrastructure, I would open interest earning savings accounts for every road, bridge, etc. Put a portion of all tax dollars into each account and let it add up until the road or bridge needed to be repaved or rebuilt. That way, we would not need to raise taxes or sell bond measures to keep our infrastructure from falling apart.
Stop Public Institutions Budget Crisis Idea: Public Schools, Police and Fire Departments budgets are for the most part, use them, or lose them type of funding. They find themselves cutting to make the funding last the whole year, but at the end, over spending just to use up what is left so that the budget is not cut the next year. This is how we get small police forces driving $50,000. Hummers and buying $10,000. voice stress test machines, that is just a wasteful use of Tax Dollars. I think it would be better for Public Institutions not have to spend every penny so that they get the same amount the next year. Lets have interest earning savings accounts set up for the years when the Government (has to cut the budget). Then, instead of having to lay off workers, each institution could dip into the savings accounts, to keep everybody working , to not have to raise tuition fees and not have to cut back on necessary public services.
Stop Gas Price Gouging Idea: Make everyone that buys oil stock or oil futures, have to take physical possession of that oil. I think that would keep the speculators from inflating the price of a barrel of crude to historic rates. That would only be the first part of my two part plan, the second would be to take the $1.3 trillion in subsidies that we give the oil companies a year and open (Government Gas Stations) selling gas at a fixed price of $2.50 a gallon. Oil companies would just have to compete with that price, settling for great profits instead of "Record Profits". With gas at $3.57 a gallon the oil companies in 2011 made $137 billion in profits, I think they could survive on a fraction of that number. This is the only way we are ever going to see $2.50 a gallon gas again on any long term basis. In every other industry, the more you buy the better price you get. Americans have to buy the most gas, we should at least get to enjoy the best prices.
Stop School Bullying Idea: I can only tell you how my friends and I tried and sucessfully stopped the bullies in our school. We were the tough crowd(into girls,cars,bikes & fighting), so when we witnessed anyone being bullied, we would step in and stop it. But we would also incorporate the bullied kid into our circle of friends. This would do three things, first- they were never messed with anymore because we had their back, second- all of a sudden they had a group of friends(sometimes for the very first time), third- and most suprising was that our circle, thanks in a big part to hanging out with new, smart and diverse kids, all of us became smarter and more well rounded young adults. So I Challenge all the popular and tough kids in school to use their status to stop bullying whenever they see it. I promise all of you, it will be one of the best things you ever do.
Fixing Social Security Idea: Social Security is a social insurance program funded through dedicated payroll taxes according to the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) with a cap at $118,100. any earnings above that are not taxed at all. The simplest way to secure this program for our future generations is to not cap this program. Everyone should pay in a portion of all of their earnings, as all of us do that make under $118,000. a year. This, combined with going paperless that is already going in effect as described in the AP article below, should save this program forever. Also below is a Reuters story on the state of the Social Security right now.
AP: April 15th: Starting next year, the check will no longer be in the mail for millions of people who receive Social Security and other government benefits. The federal government, which issues 73 million payments a month, is phasing out paper checks for all benefit programs, requiring people to get payments electronically, either through direct deposit or a debit card for those without a bank account. Walt Henderson, director of the Treasury Department's electronic funds transfer division. Henderson said electronic payments are safer and more efficient than paper checks; in 2010, more than 540,000 federal benefit checks were reported lost or stolen. The switch will save the government about $120 million a year. Social Security will save $1 billion over the next decade, according to the Treasury Department. By Stephen Ohlemacher,
Associated Press
CHICAGO (Reuters) May 21st:
"After 2033, even if Congress does nothing, there will still be sufficient assets (from payroll taxes) to pay about 75 percent of benefits. That's not acceptable, but it's still a fact that there will still be substantial assets there," Michael Astrue insisted. Social Security took in $69 billion more than it spent last year, when you include tax receipts and interest on bonds held in the Social Security Trust Fund (SSTF). The SSTF had reserves of $2.7 trillion last year. Social Security's critics love to argue that the SSTF is a myth, but it's not. Although Social Security was designed as a pay-as-you-go program, every penny it receives is credited to the SSTF, which has been building enormous reserves following benefit cuts enacted in 1983. The accelerated SSTF exhaustion date stems from two factors: a 1.6 percent drop in taxable earnings due to the ongoing depressed economy, and a 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment awarded for this year.
"The choice is to either reduce benefits 25 percent, or raise revenues 33 percent to adapt," says Steve Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration. Making reforms sooner rather than later would allow for a more gradual phase-in, giving the public plenty of time to plan and adjust accordingly. I'm in favor of a modest, graduated payroll tax increase. Social Security benefits are modest, averaging $1,230 per month this year.
A gradual increase in payroll taxes over the next decade would eliminate a sizable portion of the imbalance; another approach is to lift or remove entirely the cap on wages subject to payroll taxes, which currently is set at $110,100.
Perhaps that won't be too exhausting an idea for Congress and the media to embrace.
(The writer is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
"After 2033, even if Congress does nothing, there will still be sufficient assets (from payroll taxes) to pay about 75 percent of benefits. That's not acceptable, but it's still a fact that there will still be substantial assets there," Michael Astrue insisted. Social Security took in $69 billion more than it spent last year, when you include tax receipts and interest on bonds held in the Social Security Trust Fund (SSTF). The SSTF had reserves of $2.7 trillion last year. Social Security's critics love to argue that the SSTF is a myth, but it's not. Although Social Security was designed as a pay-as-you-go program, every penny it receives is credited to the SSTF, which has been building enormous reserves following benefit cuts enacted in 1983. The accelerated SSTF exhaustion date stems from two factors: a 1.6 percent drop in taxable earnings due to the ongoing depressed economy, and a 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment awarded for this year.
"The choice is to either reduce benefits 25 percent, or raise revenues 33 percent to adapt," says Steve Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration. Making reforms sooner rather than later would allow for a more gradual phase-in, giving the public plenty of time to plan and adjust accordingly. I'm in favor of a modest, graduated payroll tax increase. Social Security benefits are modest, averaging $1,230 per month this year.
A gradual increase in payroll taxes over the next decade would eliminate a sizable portion of the imbalance; another approach is to lift or remove entirely the cap on wages subject to payroll taxes, which currently is set at $110,100.
Perhaps that won't be too exhausting an idea for Congress and the media to embrace.
(The writer is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)