Leave Us Alone

Every tax is a pay cut. Every tax cut is a pay raise.
Citizens for Limited Taxation

My notes on
Leave Us Alone, by Grover Norquist

Government policies are focused on maintaining political power over an enslaved class of the neediest people, destroying generations of Americans by enforced dependence. We should focus on freeing people from government ownership. The Leave Us Alone coalition and the Takings coalition are like cobras and mongeese. The various parts of the Takings coalition are really competing parasites. If we refuse to send them even more of our tax dollars, they will gnaw on each other. All parasites do some damage to their host. There is no part of the Takings coalition that produces wealth. In 1974, Congress created the Individual Retirement Account for those who did not have any other retirement mechanism. This started the concept of share ownership by the masses. Share ownership changes one's politics. The accumulation of wealth tends to make you conservative. The one thing Americans know about Republicans, having been told this for sixty years by the Democrats and ther press, is that Republicans will do anything to get stock market prices up. They will pollute the earth, pillage the Third World and kill baby seals. And voters felt very bad about the baby seals, but they voted for the party committed to increasing stock prices. There is no Democrat proposal that will increase the value of your retirement wealth in your IRA or 401(K), and they have hundreds of proposals that will tax, regulate, and litigate them downward in value. The creation of IRA's created a mass-based investor class. Labor unions benefit from a string of laws that give them special benefits and powers. They are exempt from anti-trust laws, and in most states, even though they are a corporation, they are exempt from corporate laws on fiduciary responsibility to their members. They do not have to ask workers to join the union voluntarily in the twenty-eight states that have no right to work laws. Union membership is compulsory. Don't join the union. Don't pay your dues. Lose your job. Unions are exempt from federal prosecution under the Hobbes Act for acts of violence if the purpose of the violence is to promote unionism. Yes, you read that correctly. If the union activists burn down your business, murder you or non-union workers, it is not a federal crime. You can, of course, ask the unionized local police in your city to look into it. Utah passed legislation prohibiting the use of dues paid by public employees for political purposes altogether. Under the law, public employee unions need to raise their political money separately, and without help from public employers. http://www.unionfacts.com http://www.nplc.org The two friends of the postwar Republican Party in Lousiana were the obstetrician and the mortician. You cannot count on people to change. You can, however, count on them to die. The Grim Reaper is nonpartisan. Since Roe V. Wade legalized abortions in the fifty states, there have been over forty million abortions. Liberal democrats are more likely to have abortions than conservative Republicans. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. -- Mao Tse-tung NRA membership: $750 lifetime The European model is the Takings Coalition's goal. A dependent static society that votes to keep in power the dispensers of government favors. The nest is warm and comfortable and not demanding. And it looks scary out there. The number of Americans receiving welfare payments through the old AFDC program grew from 3 million in 1960 to 8.5 million in 1970 and 10.5 million in 1980 and 11.5 million in 1990. Medicaid begun in 1965, was at first providing taxpayer-subsidized health care to five-hundred thousand low-income (widows and orphans) Americans. This jumped to 17.3 million by 1970, 21.6 million in 1980; 36.3 million in 1995; 44.5 million in 2000; and 54.6 million in 2004. Food stamps began in 1939, subsidizing 4.3 million Americans in 1970, 21 million in 1980; 20 million in 1990; 17.2 million in 2000; and 25.5 million in 2006. In an average month in 2008, 28.4 million Americans received food stamps, and about half were younger than age 18. The average monthly benefit per household totaled $222. The compassion of a society is not measured by how many people are on welfare, but by how few need welfare. In 2000, there were 209,128,094 Americans over the age of 18 and therefore eligible to vote. Of those,159,076,685 registered to vote and 106,913,005 voted. In 2002, 70 percent of eligible voters registered and 37 percent voted. In 2004, 77 percent of eligible voters registered and 122,286,610 or 72 percent of registered voters actually voted. Back in 2000, Massachusetts voters voted to disenfranchise felons, meaning that they could not longer vote. It did not matter whether they were in prison or not. Most of these felons are Massachusetts residents and those inprisoned in Massachusetts certainly are, even if it is against their will. Elections are not determined by those who vote, but by those who count the votes. -- Joseph Stalin Motor voter laws imposed fraud-friendly rules on the states by requiring driver's license bureaus to register anyoone applying for licenses, to offer mail-in registration with no identification needed, and to forbid government workers to challenge new registrants while making it difficult to purge deadwood voters (those who have died or moved away). There are two ways to get rich in America. One is to buy something from the government and the other is to sell something to the government. Money paid to receive monopoly profits resulting from government action -- tariffs, regulation on entry to the industry, or government purchases of goods and services -- are simply bribes. A tariff is a scale of taxes on imports, designed to protect the domestic producer against the greed of his consumer -- Ambrose Bierce The retail industry sold $2.6 trillion worth of goods in 2006. They suffer losses due to shoplifting and employee theft of $41.6 billion or 1.6 percent of sales. They respond to such losses by spending $10 billion to combat theft. The retail industry, like most industries, takes theft seriously. They spoend a great deal of money to minimize the loss of income and wealth to their shareholders, consumers and employees. But how to react when the guy walking out of the store with their money is the government? The federal government takes 35 percent of their profits in federal corporate income taxes. Right off the top. The same government requires every business to fork over 6.2 percent of every employee's salary to pay the costs of Social Security. (That is on top of the 6.2 percent they take directly from the employee.) The state government wets its beak with a state corporate income tax and a state sales tax. Local governments hit them with property taxes. And yet, retailers and other businesses spend much less time and money fighting "slippage" caused by the cost of government then they do shoplifters. The shoplifters walk away with less. And when the shoplifters walk out of a store they cease to annoy the shareholders of the business. On the other hand, politicians take their money and then enact protectioinist tariffs and regulations that raise the cost of everything retailers sell. Every business in America with the possible exception of trial lawyers and casinos, is investing too little in politics compared to the costs of government imposed on them. (And for the casinoes and trial lawyers, they are usually not spending to stop being looted but to maintain regional monopolies and for trial lawyers, the ability to violate others freedom of contract.) For years political observers have wondered why the Senate and the House operated so differently. Fire breathing bomb throwers of either party who began in the house move up (or over) to the Senate and behave like neutered bulls. Why? While the House plays team ball, the Senate rules do not give a great power to a simplle majority. The Senate is every man for himself. Many senators believe they could or should be President. This appears odd, as Presidents have come largely from the ranks of governors. The Leave Us Alone Coalition has one great advantage over the left. Its policies, when enacted into law, attract citizens. People want to live in low tax, small government, tough on crime states that do not hand over theirs citizens lives and paychecks to the trial lawyers, the labor union bosses, and City Hall. This is not an assertion. It is observable, quantifiable fact. Good policy is good politics. The power to tax is the power to destroy. -- John Marshall Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1904 (Income tax established in 1913) If you send it, they will spend it. Please don't feed the government. In politics, taxation is the the most important thing, it is the only thing. It is the cutting edge of the state, its point of contact with its citizens, its means of control, punishment applied or withheld. Everything changes except Death and Taxes. The Sixteeth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified in 1913. The federal income tax began at 1 percent on net personal incomes above $3,000. There was a 6 percent surtax on incomes above $500,000. All tax increases should be voted on by the citizens or a 2/3 or 3/4 vote be required by the legislature. No one's life is a complete waste. Some serve well as bad examples. Tax Reform: The First Principle Tax income one time Today, the federal government taxes your paycheck when you earn a dollar. It takes out 10,15,25,28,33,or 35 percent depending on your income. Then, if you save what is left of your dollar and invest it in a company, the government taxes the companys' income through the corporate income tax. When the company pays a dividend to you, the government steps in and taxes that dividend income again. And if the value of the stock goes up over time, the government will politely ask for its cut. This is called a "capital gain" and is subject to a capital gains tax. Save your dollar in the bank and the government will take a percentage of the interest the bank pays you. And if you are foolish enough to die, the government takes as much as half of all your life savings. This is the death tax. When you die, your kids get to count up everything you own: bank accounts, your house, land, and the gold in your teeth, and Uncle Sam takes as much as half. This is serial taxation. Tax Reform: The Second Principle Tax income at one rate. Tax Reform: The Third Principle Create Constitutional protections against taxes creeping back upward. The Seven Steps to Tax Reform 1. Abolish the death tax The left recoils in horror at equating discrimination by the state on economic grounds wiith discrimination on the basis of race or religion. 2. Expand IRAs/401(k)s and Enact Universal Savings Accounts Step two in moving to a tax code that taxes consumed income one time at one rate is creating a universal IRA - to set all savings free from taxation. Consolidate the existing hodgepodge of tax free savings account with lifetime and retirement savings account (LSAs, RSAs). An retirement savings account (RSA) would allow every American to put aside $5,000 of after-tax income each year toward retirement. Earnings on the $5,000 would accumulate tax-free. A lifetime savings account (LSA) allows every American to set aside $5,000 in after-tax income each year to accumulate until needed for housing, education, health care, or whatever. At present, the federal and state governments guarantee to pay for health and retirement if you show up old and impoverished even if this is through your own bad decisions. Given this political reality, it is an acceptable compromise to "require" citizens to save for these future needs so they do not end up at the government's doorstep demanding that their grasshopper behaviour be financed by additional taxes on the ants. 3. Abolish the Capital Gains and Dividend Tax 4. Expensing Replace the complicated system of long depreciation schedules for business investments and replace it with immediate expensing of all investments. 5. Abolish the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) 6. Make taxes territorial. If you are an American in France and you pay taxes to France, you should not have to pay US taaxes. 7. Enable a flat consumed income tax. This requires eliminating the Sixteenth Amendment. States should offer "Tax Me More" accounts. This allows citizens who agree with the left that the government can spend their money better than they can to put up or shutup. If the government can best spend your money, why would you only pay the amount that a stingy Republlican governor and state legislature require. Why not tax me more and spend more? Avoid taxing those that cannot vote. The clients of hotels and car rental agencies can safely be taxed since they do not votem locally. Thus their pockets can safely be picked. No taxing sales on the internet. Reduce the corporate income taxrate. No collaboration with foreign tax collectors. Do not tax capital gains on mutual funds until the gains are real. Abolish the capital gains tax on inflation. Tariffs are taxes. Cut the 35 percent tax rate on corporate capital gains. Politicians prefer to take all existing spending as given, add this year's new programs, and simply send taxpayers a bill for the total. If they are not allowed to raise taxes, they have to examine previous decisions, prioritize various spending programs and make decisions about which program to reduce, end or reform. There is a stark choice; govern and make real decisions or simply raise taxes. Understandably, most politicians prefer door number two. Taxpayers do not just shoulder the cost of federal taxes. They pay state and local taxes and the cost of regulations imposed by all levels of government. Reducing the deficit is a code word to raise taxes. It is the spending, not the deficit. The evil of deficits is caused by low taxes. We are still on the railroad tracks heading toward a spending crack-up driven by runaway entitlement spending and the inevitable aging of the American population. Democrats need to spend time in spending rehab. The Five Great Reforms The bulk of the federal budgets consists of 1. pensions (including Social Security), 2. health care (Medicaid, Medicare), 3. education These three categories spend two thirds of all government monies. For fiscal year 2005 Retirement Health Care Education Total Spending ($Billions) 862.3 780.6 730.7 2373.6 % of Total Govt Spending 22.1% 20.0% 18.7% 60.9% % Of GDP 6.9% 6.3% 5.9% 19.1% Reform One: Make all pensions individually owned and portable There is no Social Security savings. All monies paid come from the general fund of the federal budget. Social security forces young Americans to put money into a program that promises a 1 percent rate of return and prevents them from investing those dollars in real investments that have consistently returned 7 percent. This program make young people poorer. It turns gold into lead. There are some 14.1 million state and local employees and 6.9 million retirees receiving pensions from taxpayers. Reform Two: Make Health Insurance Individually Owned and Control Costs Through Competion Medicare was enacted in 1965 was was oeriginally estimated to cost just $26 billion in 2003. The actual cost was actually ten times higher, coming in at $274 billion. In 2006, Medicare cost taxpayers $374 billion. While the $12 trillion unfunded liability of Social Security over the next 75 years sounds like a lot, and it is, it's dwarfed by the Medicare unfunded liability of $61 trillion. Permanent reform requires moving from a pay-as-you-go system to a fully-funded individually controlled system where you save each year into a health savings account that will accumulate enough money to buy an annuity to pay for your health insurance from retirement to death. Our abusive medical malpractice system adds $124 billion to the cost of healthcare. Reform Three: Give Parents Real Choice in Education Our education system is a monopoly bureaucracy subject to labor union rules. The public school industry responds with horror the idea of parental choice. They suggest that any voucher or scholarship plan would result in an exodus of students from their schools to private schools. If the government school monopoly believed they were putting out a quality product, they would welcome school choice. Everybody would want to go to their school. Opponents of school choice clearly understand that they are producing a shoddy product that empowered parents and students would flee. Parents with a $10,000 voucher will be empowered. When they enter a school, they will be treated like someone walking into an automobile showroom. You are a customer with cash. They want your business. Reform Four: Competive Outsourcing There should be no monopolies by the government outside of running the miltary and arresting and punishing criminalss. There is no reason that government workers should collect trash in cities, cut grass in the parks or serve food in cafeterias or state houses. If the job appears in the yellow pages, it is inherently private sector. There is no reason the US Postal Service should have a monopolyu on delivering mail. If you want to start a first class mail delivery service in your hometown or nationwide, why should the police arrest you? Reform Five: Transparency

My notes on Leave Us Alone, by Grover Norquist
Government policies are focused on maintaining political power over an enslaved class of the neediest people, destroying generations of Americans by enforced dependence. We should focus on freeing people from government ownership. The Leave Us Alone coalition and the Takings coalition are like cobras and mongeese. The various parts of the Takings coalition are really competing parasites. If we refuse to send them even more of our tax dollars, they will gnaw on each other. All parasites do some damage to their host. There is no part of the Takings coalition that produces wealth. In 1974, Congress created the Individual Retirement Account for those who did not have any other retirement mechanism. This started the concept of share ownership by the masses. Share ownership changes one's politics. The accumulation of wealth tends to make you conservative. The one thing Americans know about Republicans, having been told this for sixty years by the Democrats and ther press, is that Republicans will do anything to get stock market prices up. They will pollute the earth, pillage the Third World and kill baby seals. And voters felt very bad about the baby seals, but they voted for the party committed to increasing stock prices. There is no Democrat proposal that will increase the value of your retirement wealth in your IRA or 401(K), and they have hundreds of proposals that will tax, regulate, and litigate them downward in value. The creation of IRA's created a mass-based investor class. Labor unions benefit from a string of laws that give them special benefits and powers. They are exempt from anti-trust laws, and in most states, even though they are a corporation, they are exempt from corporate laws on fiduciary responsibility to their members. They do not have to ask workers to join the union voluntarily in the twenty-eight states that have no right to work laws. Union membership is compulsory. Don't join the union. Don't pay your dues. Lose your job. Unions are exempt from federal prosecution under the Hobbes Act for acts of violence if the purpose of the violence is to promote unionism. Yes, you read that correctly. If the union activists burn down your business, murder you or non-union workers, it is not a federal crime. You can, of course, ask the unionized local police in your city to look into it. Utah passed legislation prohibiting the use of dues paid by public employees for political purposes altogether. Under the law, public employee unions need to raise their political money separately, and without help from public employers. http://www.unionfacts.com http://www.nplc.org The two friends of the postwar Republican Party in Lousiana were the obstetrician and the mortician. You cannot count on people to change. You can, however, count on them to die. The Grim Reaper is nonpartisan. Since Roe V. Wade legalized abortions in the fifty states, there have been over forty million abortions. Liberal democrats are more likely to have abortions than conservative Republicans. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. -- Mao Tse-tung NRA membership: $750 lifetime The European model is the Takings Coalition's goal. A dependent static society that votes to keep in power the dispensers of government favors. The nest is warm and comfortable and not demanding. And it looks scary out there. The number of Americans receiving welfare payments through the old AFDC program grew from 3 million in 1960 to 8.5 million in 1970 and 10.5 million in 1980 and 11.5 million in 1990. Medicaid begun in 1965, was at first providing taxpayer-subsidized health care to five-hundred thousand low-income (widows and orphans) Americans. This jumped to 17.3 million by 1970, 21.6 million in 1980; 36.3 million in 1995; 44.5 million in 2000; and 54.6 million in 2004. Food stamps began in 1939, subsidizing 4.3 million Americans in 1970, 21 million in 1980; 20 million in 1990; 17.2 million in 2000; and 25.5 million in 2006. In an average month in 2008, 28.4 million Americans received food stamps, and about half were younger than age 18. The average monthly benefit per household totaled $222. The compassion of a society is not measured by how many people are on welfare, but by how few need welfare. In 2000, there were 209,128,094 Americans over the age of 18 and therefore eligible to vote. Of those,159,076,685 registered to vote and 106,913,005 voted. In 2002, 70 percent of eligible voters registered and 37 percent voted. In 2004, 77 percent of eligible voters registered and 122,286,610 or 72 percent of registered voters actually voted. Back in 2000, Massachusetts voters voted to disenfranchise felons, meaning that they could not longer vote. It did not matter whether they were in prison or not. Most of these felons are Massachusetts residents and those inprisoned in Massachusetts certainly are, even if it is against their will. Elections are not determined by those who vote, but by those who count the votes. -- Joseph Stalin Motor voter laws imposed fraud-friendly rules on the states by requiring driver's license bureaus to register anyoone applying for licenses, to offer mail-in registration with no identification needed, and to forbid government workers to challenge new registrants while making it difficult to purge deadwood voters (those who have died or moved away). There are two ways to get rich in America. One is to buy something from the government and the other is to sell something to the government. Money paid to receive monopoly profits resulting from government action -- tariffs, regulation on entry to the industry, or government purchases of goods and services -- are simply bribes. A tariff is a scale of taxes on imports, designed to protect the domestic producer against the greed of his consumer -- Ambrose Bierce The retail industry sold $2.6 trillion worth of goods in 2006. They suffer losses due to shoplifting and employee theft of $41.6 billion or 1.6 percent of sales. They respond to such losses by spending $10 billion to combat theft. The retail industry, like most industries, takes theft seriously. They spoend a great deal of money to minimize the loss of income and wealth to their shareholders, consumers and employees. But how to react when the guy walking out of the store with their money is the government? The federal government takes 35 percent of their profits in federal corporate income taxes. Right off the top. The same government requires every business to fork over 6.2 percent of every employee's salary to pay the costs of Social Security. (That is on top of the 6.2 percent they take directly from the employee.) The state government wets its beak with a state corporate income tax and a state sales tax. Local governments hit them with property taxes. And yet, retailers and other businesses spend much less time and money fighting "slippage" caused by the cost of government then they do shoplifters. The shoplifters walk away with less. And when the shoplifters walk out of a store they cease to annoy the shareholders of the business. On the other hand, politicians take their money and then enact protectioinist tariffs and regulations that raise the cost of everything retailers sell. Every business in America with the possible exception of trial lawyers and casinos, is investing too little in politics compared to the costs of government imposed on them. (And for the casinoes and trial lawyers, they are usually not spending to stop being looted but to maintain regional monopolies and for trial lawyers, the ability to violate others freedom of contract.) For years political observers have wondered why the Senate and the House operated so differently. Fire breathing bomb throwers of either party who began in the house move up (or over) to the Senate and behave like neutered bulls. Why? While the House plays team ball, the Senate rules do not give a great power to a simplle majority. The Senate is every man for himself. Many senators believe they could or should be President. This appears odd, as Presidents have come largely from the ranks of governors. The Leave Us Alone Coalition has one great advantage over the left. Its policies, when enacted into law, attract citizens. People want to live in low tax, small government, tough on crime states that do not hand over theirs citizens lives and paychecks to the trial lawyers, the labor union bosses, and City Hall. This is not an assertion. It is observable, quantifiable fact. Good policy is good politics. The power to tax is the power to destroy. -- John Marshall Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1904 (Income tax established in 1913) If you send it, they will spend it. Please don't feed the government. In politics, taxation is the the most important thing, it is the only thing. It is the cutting edge of the state, its point of contact with its citizens, its means of control, punishment applied or withheld. Everything changes except Death and Taxes. The Sixteeth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified in 1913. The federal income tax began at 1 percent on net personal incomes above $3,000. There was a 6 percent surtax on incomes above $500,000. All tax increases should be voted on by the citizens or a 2/3 or 3/4 vote be required by the legislature. No one's life is a complete waste. Some serve well as bad examples. Tax Reform: The First Principle Tax income one time Today, the federal government taxes your paycheck when you earn a dollar. It takes out 10,15,25,28,33,or 35 percent depending on your income. Then, if you save what is left of your dollar and invest it in a company, the government taxes the companys' income through the corporate income tax. When the company pays a dividend to you, the government steps in and taxes that dividend income again. And if the value of the stock goes up over time, the government will politely ask for its cut. This is called a "capital gain" and is subject to a capital gains tax. Save your dollar in the bank and the government will take a percentage of the interest the bank pays you. And if you are foolish enough to die, the government takes as much as half of all your life savings. This is the death tax. When you die, your kids get to count up everything you own: bank accounts, your house, land, and the gold in your teeth, and Uncle Sam takes as much as half. This is serial taxation. Tax Reform: The Second Principle Tax income at one rate. Tax Reform: The Third Principle Create Constitutional protections against taxes creeping back upward. The Seven Steps to Tax Reform 1. Abolish the death tax The left recoils in horror at equating discrimination by the state on economic grounds wiith discrimination on the basis of race or religion. 2. Expand IRAs/401(k)s and Enact Universal Savings Accounts Step two in moving to a tax code that taxes consumed income one time at one rate is creating a universal IRA - to set all savings free from taxation. Consolidate the existing hodgepodge of tax free savings account with lifetime and retirement savings account (LSAs, RSAs). An retirement savings account (RSA) would allow every American to put aside $5,000 of after-tax income each year toward retirement. Earnings on the $5,000 would accumulate tax-free. A lifetime savings account (LSA) allows every American to set aside $5,000 in after-tax income each year to accumulate until needed for housing, education, health care, or whatever. At present, the federal and state governments guarantee to pay for health and retirement if you show up old and impoverished even if this is through your own bad decisions. Given this political reality, it is an acceptable compromise to "require" citizens to save for these future needs so they do not end up at the government's doorstep demanding that their grasshopper behaviour be financed by additional taxes on the ants. 3. Abolish the Capital Gains and Dividend Tax 4. Expensing Replace the complicated system of long depreciation schedules for business investments and replace it with immediate expensing of all investments. 5. Abolish the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) 6. Make taxes territorial. If you are an American in France and you pay taxes to France, you should not have to pay US taaxes. 7. Enable a flat consumed income tax. This requires eliminating the Sixteenth Amendment. States should offer "Tax Me More" accounts. This allows citizens who agree with the left that the government can spend their money better than they can to put up or shutup. If the government can best spend your money, why would you only pay the amount that a stingy Republlican governor and state legislature require. Why not tax me more and spend more? Avoid taxing those that cannot vote. The clients of hotels and car rental agencies can safely be taxed since they do not votem locally. Thus their pockets can safely be picked. No taxing sales on the internet. Reduce the corporate income taxrate. No collaboration with foreign tax collectors. Do not tax capital gains on mutual funds until the gains are real. Abolish the capital gains tax on inflation. Tariffs are taxes. Cut the 35 percent tax rate on corporate capital gains. Politicians prefer to take all existing spending as given, add this year's new programs, and simply send taxpayers a bill for the total. If they are not allowed to raise taxes, they have to examine previous decisions, prioritize various spending programs and make decisions about which program to reduce, end or reform. There is a stark choice; govern and make real decisions or simply raise taxes. Understandably, most politicians prefer door number two. Taxpayers do not just shoulder the cost of federal taxes. They pay state and local taxes and the cost of regulations imposed by all levels of government. Reducing the deficit is a code word to raise taxes. It is the spending, not the deficit. The evil of deficits is caused by low taxes. We are still on the railroad tracks heading toward a spending crack-up driven by runaway entitlement spending and the inevitable aging of the American population. Democrats need to spend time in spending rehab. The Five Great Reforms The bulk of the federal budgets consists of 1. pensions (including Social Security), 2. health care (Medicaid, Medicare), 3. education These three categories spend two thirds of all government monies. For fiscal year 2005 Retirement Health Care Education Total Spending ($Billions) 862.3 780.6 730.7 2373.6 % of Total Govt Spending 22.1% 20.0% 18.7% 60.9% % Of GDP 6.9% 6.3% 5.9% 19.1% Reform One: Make all pensions individually owned and portable There is no Social Security savings. All monies paid come from the general fund of the federal budget. Social security forces young Americans to put money into a program that promises a 1 percent rate of return and prevents them from investing those dollars in real investments that have consistently returned 7 percent. This program make young people poorer. It turns gold into lead. There are some 14.1 million state and local employees and 6.9 million retirees receiving pensions from taxpayers. Reform Two: Make Health Insurance Individually Owned and Control Costs Through Competion Medicare was enacted in 1965 was was oeriginally estimated to cost just $26 billion in 2003. The actual cost was actually ten times higher, coming in at $274 billion. In 2006, Medicare cost taxpayers $374 billion. While the $12 trillion unfunded liability of Social Security over the next 75 years sounds like a lot, and it is, it's dwarfed by the Medicare unfunded liability of $61 trillion. Permanent reform requires moving from a pay-as-you-go system to a fully-funded individually controlled system where you save each year into a health savings account that will accumulate enough money to buy an annuity to pay for your health insurance from retirement to death. Our abusive medical malpractice system adds $124 billion to the cost of healthcare. Reform Three: Give Parents Real Choice in Education Our education system is a monopoly bureaucracy subject to labor union rules. The public school industry responds with horror the idea of parental choice. They suggest that any voucher or scholarship plan would result in an exodus of students from their schools to private schools. If the government school monopoly believed they were putting out a quality product, they would welcome school choice. Everybody would want to go to their school. Opponents of school choice clearly understand that they are producing a shoddy product that empowered parents and students would flee. Parents with a $10,000 voucher will be empowered. When they enter a school, they will be treated like someone walking into an automobile showroom. You are a customer with cash. They want your business. Reform Four: Competive Outsourcing There should be no monopolies by the government outside of running the miltary and arresting and punishing criminalss. There is no reason that government workers should collect trash in cities, cut grass in the parks or serve food in cafeterias or state houses. If the job appears in the yellow pages, it is inherently private sector. There is no reason the US Postal Service should have a monopolyu on delivering mail. If you want to start a first class mail delivery service in your hometown or nationwide, why should the police arrest you? Reform Five: Transparency

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