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THE TIME HAS COME FOR A NEW POLITICAL PARADIGM

Economic Policy

(Addressing jobs, business expansion, debt management, the money supply, etc.)

(NOTE: virtually every other policy recommendation has an economic impact within the context of this platform)

1. Expose private sector solutions that do not require Government intervention
   • Educate people about how they can deploy their “dollar” votes in our Capitalistic system to reshape corporate behavior. For example:
     • Use shareholder pressure to narrow the compensation gap between between workers and senior executives in publicly-traded companies
     • Use buying behavior to establish market demand that influences change in products and services
   • Educate people on the principles of behavioral economics so that they can use this knowledge to help lessen market volatility
2. Require the Federal Government to reduce its controllable expenditures
   • Implement the recommendations of the General Accounting Office’s report number GAO-11-318SP (Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue) that was released on March 1, 2011 and GAO-12-342 SP (2012 Annual Report: Opportunities to Reduce Duplication, Overlap and Fragmentation, Achieve Savings, and Enhance Revenue) that was issued on February 28, 2012 – both of which have been largely ignored by the Administration
     • Explore additional opportunities to consolidate Departments and Agencies
     • Eliminate redundant regulations
     • Eliminate conflicting regulations
   • Place an immediate freeze on all non-critical hiring (including contract workers)
     • Orchestrate a reduction in forces through managed attrition and performance evaluations
   • Place an immediate freeze on all travel
     • Exception: Legislators returning to their States or Districts (however, no foreign junkets, etc.)
     • Exception: Travel that clearly requires a physical presence in a different location (such as a site survey) for purposes that clearly are not related to a political campaign
   • Place an immediate freeze on bonuses for all Federal managerial personnel
   • Mandate a 20% reduction in the operating budgets of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches (as would be done in the private sector to establish fiscal stability)
3. Audit all Federal Departments, Agencies and programs for compliance with the constraints imposed by Article I Section 8 of the Constitution; specifically:
   • “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence (sic) and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States”(emphasis added)
     • Departments, Agencies and programs that do not “provide for the common Defence (sic) and general Welfare of the United States” (i.e., those that relate more specifically to special interests) will be subject to phased elimination
     • Responsibility for special interests will be returned to the the People and / or the States as prescribed by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, respectively
4. Lock in rational definitions and related calculations for GDP, the rate of inflation and deflation, unemployment, etc.
   • Eliminate the political game of changing definitions to mask or skew results
     • This will permit the establishment of firm baselines and the accurate reporting of trends
5. Index the Federal Budget to a percentage of GDP(historically in the range of 15% to 17%)
   • Require the Federal Government to operate within that cap including a requirement to allocate a certain percentage of the budget to retire debt each year (possibly weighted by population change)
   • Require Congress to reserve a contingency fund, within the Federal Budget, of a defined percentage to address emergency scenarios
     • At the end of each fiscal year, the residual balance of such contingency fund shall be used to retire debt
6. Job Growth: Redeploy 14,000 unused Federal buildings to stimulate economic expansion and job growth
   • Make such facilities available rent free(to create more operating capital) for the following tenants:
     • Entrepreneurial start-ups (for a period of five years or until they achieved two consecutive years of profitability) to foster job growth
     • Charitable organizations (with 501(c)3 status) to foster job growth and to increase the private sector’s ability to address special interests in lieu of Government intervention
     • Community Colleges and Trade Schools that teach marketable job skills to foster job growth
   • Require all such tenants to pay for any associated leasehold improvements, utilities and insurance
   • Require all such tenants to certify that they will not directly or indirectly lobby Federal officials or contribute to any political campaign (or PAC) during their tenancies
7. Job Creation within the public sector
   • Provide public sector jobs and / or training opportunities for all current recipients of Government assistance who are of able mind and body … or discontinue such assistance
     • Break the cycle of dependence, restore hope, and reinforce pride
     • Leverage this available pool of talent to supplement Federal staffing at little to no incremental cost
     • Leverage the previously mentioned training centers to provide free job-skill training to participants, in addition to or in lieu of work assignments, to foster the development of marketable skills
   • Repair, maintain and update infrastructure
     • Prioritize and implement repair, maintenance and updates of road, rail and airport infrastructures on a basis of their impact on safety and commerce
   • Military base construction and / or expansion
     • Build and / or expand military bases on the northern and southern borders of the United States
   • Health care facility maintenance
     • Reduce morbidity and mortality caused by health care-associated illness (e.g., CDF, MRSA, VRE, etc.) by providing public sector employees to supplement the sanitary maintenance of health care facilities
8. Job Growth: Provide an immediate tax incentive to businesses that create new jobs in the U.S.
   • Provide businesses with a tax credit equal to a 10% reduction in their current tax rate for every 10% increase in U.S.-based jobs they create year-over-year (comparing prior fiscal year-end to current fiscal year-end)
9. Reduce Unemployment: Provide an immediate tax incentive to businesses that hire individuals who are currently receiving unemployment compensation
   • Provide a tax credit for hiring individuals, who are receiving unemployment compensation, equal to the lesser of one year’s unemployment compensation or the remainder of such individuals’ unemployment compensation coverage
     • This provides a positive incentive for hiring currently unemployed candidates while allowing the businesses the freedom to choose other candidates (rather than imposing a punitive fine for not hiring currently unemployed candidates as the current Administration has recommended)
10. Economic Expansion: Share declassified, taxpayer-funded, Intellectual Property (IP) with the private sector
    • Use of such IP to manufacture and / or improve products within the United States would:
      • Create jobs within the United States
      • Accelerate time-to-market
      • Reduce R&D costs and allow any associated capital to be redeployed
      • Improve U.S. product quality
      • Potentially reduce product costs (or increase distributable profits)
    • Cost of utilizing the IP for U.S. companies:
      • No cost for the use of such IP within the United States
      • A licensing fee for the use of such IP to manufacture overseas
    • Cost of utilizing the IP for foreign corporations:
      • A licensing fee for the use of such IP to manufacture within the United States
      • A premium licensing fee for the use of such IP to manufacture overseas
    • Provide an ad hoc, fee-based consulting service to companies that request assistance with identifying application-specific IP within the database (creating a new source of revenue for the Federal Government)
      • Foreign corporations would be required to pay a premium fee for such service
11. Replace the 70,000+ page tax code with an equitable Flat Tax
    • Establish a uniform corporate tax rate based upon the average of the lowest quartile of the G20 countries to firmly establish our Nation’s global competitiveness
      • Eliminate all current corporate tax credits and evaluate permitted deductions for appropriateness
    • Calculate a uniform income tax rate for individuals by working backwards from the Indexed Federal Budget (see #5 above) and subtracting corporate tax revenues
      • Treat all income equally, whether it is actively or passively derived
    • Permit individual taxpayers to receive a tax credit for:
      • Poverty level income for a family of the same size (to preclude placing a tax burden on the poor)
      • All documented charitable contributions (because they reduce the need for possible Government spending)
12. Audit the Federal Reserve
    • Establish effective protection against the ability of the Federal Reserve to unilaterally manipulate the economy of the United States
      • Audit loans made by the Federal Reserve
13. Audit the mission and impact of critical economic legislation to determine whether it should stand, be revised, or be repealed
    • Revisit the efficacy of:
      • The repeal of Glass-Steagall
      • The passage of The Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act (Sarbanes-Oxley)
      • The passage of The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP)
      • The passage of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan (Stimulus)
      • The passage of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Health Care Reform)
      • The passage of The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank)

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