Whatever you think of President Trump’s accomplishments in the first nine months of his second term, you have to agree that they are significant, and that he can be a strong force for change.
But he will soon be a lame duck, unable to run again. And he will then be on the path to Elder Statesman status, while others maneuver either to extend or to undo his legacy.
I’d therefore like to give President Trump a personal challenge.
Mr. President,
Please shift your focus from righting recent wrongs–some large, some small–and instead commit to fix the Really Big Problems which could eventually bring our nation down—problems which everyone else has been afraid to tackle, and which only you can solve. And make it clear that for you to do so will require a solid Republican majority in both houses of Congress after the Midterms next year.
If you have the courage to make this shift, to go for the truly Big Fabulous Fixes, you could both win the Midterms and, more importantly to you, secure your place as one of our greatest Presidents ever.
Here are my five initial suggestions for the Big Fixes:
Stop Deficit Spending in Peacetime and Reduce the National Debt. In order to do so, everyone agrees that we must reduce the government’s
automatic spending and entitlements, which make up the largest part of each year’s Budget.
We’ve proven that no elected official will vote to kill his or her local subsidies. But everyone should be able to vote for an across-the-board reduction in spending, shared equally by every citizen and every business. Everyone. Let’s try the following as a first cut for a path forward.
Next year, and then in each year thereafter, all managers in all non-military government departments at all levels will make do with three percent less funds. And the next year, another three percent less. And the next. For five years and fifteen percent, while the economy grows and our terrible Debt to GDP Ratio reduces.
Managers are supposed to be skilled and intelligent. We pay them to manage. So they should do so, and figure out how to do what really has to be done in their area with less funds. No one size will fit all–that’s management. Perhaps cut back some unnecessary programs (petition Congress if authority is needed to do so), or let some people go, reduce bonuses, or reduce overhead. We don’t need to tell the managers—they can figure out how best to slightly downsize their budgets.
What is the reduction to be based on: this year’s budget, or actual expenditures to date? Next year’s reduction should be calculated from this year’s budget, and if all of the funds have not been spent this year, the manager can keep those funds and use them next year. No reason to rush to spend before the year ends, as usually happens. Better to encourage thrift and good stewardship.
On entitlements, every person and company who receives any direct payments or subsidies from the Government (Social Security, Farm Subsidies, Ethanol Subsidies,
Corporate Tax Credits, Medicare, Childcare, Food Stamps, etc.) will receive two percent less next year. And so on for the next five years to a total of ten percent less, five years from now. We will all share in the process of reducing the bloated spending that we have helped create. And we’ll have time to make choices of how to implement this small reduction in our own personal and corporate lives. The sum of all these small reductions will be big numbers, while providing enough time during which to adjust for the changes.
Going further, we should look into closing whole unnecessary departments—like Education—and entire ineffective programs, like Green Subsidies and The War on Drugs.
We should also address the future unfunded $78 trillion commitment to later generations by making small changes to the contractual details, like delaying Social Security payments for a year or two for those who are now forty or younger.
If we can end deficit spending and start reducing our national debt, investors will not demand ever higher interest rates to hold that debt, which will reduce our interest cost, now over $1 trillion a year, thereby creating a virtuous cycle, and even further reducing spending.
How hard will this be to do? The concept is logical, will be evenly implemented across all ideological programs, and verifiable. We just need your leadership and courage to tackle it.
Income Tax Reform. Instead of the incredibly complex current tax code, let’s make collecting federal taxes very simple. Every taxpayer will add up all that he or she has made from any and every source—wages, commissions, tips, stock sales, real estate, long term, short term, gambling, everything—deduct a fixed amount for the size of the family, and then pay a set percentage of that income as tax. The tax form will be the size of a postcard. All income will be treated the same. No deductions for mortgage payments, gifts, etc. Just, “How much did you take in?” Pretty simple.
As a starting point, based on earlier studies, let’s have an individual exemption of $25,000, a married couple exemption of $60,000, and another $10,000 exemption for each dependent child and for each person for whom the taxpayer is the primary care giver. Then pay 18% tax on all income above those deductions.
A married couple with two children earning $100,000 would have an $80,000 exemption and pay $3,600 in tax, meaning an effective tax rate of only 3.6% on their income. If they earned $200,000, they would pay $21,600, for a tax rate of 10.8%. At $1 million, they would pay $165,600, for a tax rate of 16.6%. And so on.
These figures are first stabs at workable values. Smarter folks can improve them, but a marginal rate in the range of about 18% should work.
And to be fair to all, for the first three years, each taxpayer will be able to calculate his or her taxes by both the old and the new methods, and pay the lesser of the two. That will allow all of us to understand and transition to the new, simpler system over a period of time, thereby eliminating any possible jolts.
By the way, we will thereby also save much of the IRS’ annual budget of about $18 billion, and move about 90,000 smart people to the productive side of the economy.
Immigration Reform. Now that the borders are finally secure, thanks to you and your team, after four years of mayhem, this Big Fix will require some
ideological compromise, but the result will be a transparent, merit-based and understandable path to eventual citizenship for those who follow the rules, along with similar transparent programs for temporary residency for seasonal work, studying in the U.S., research, and selected high-demand technical employment.
Deportation of criminals and those who arrived here illegally over the past few years will continue, but Dreamers will finally be granted a clear path to obtaining full citizenship as well.
Defense. We can’t fight the next war with antiquated weapons, systems and strategies which we used to fight previous wars. U.S. “Peace Through Strength” has kept the world’s violence relatively contained since 1945. Not perfectly, and with some mistakes. But we need to continue in that role as the Fortress of Democracy against the Autocratic regimes in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, who want to expand their elimination of all individual freedoms across the world.
Others know best exactly which systems, ships and weapons need to be tested, built and deployed. Opportunities now exist for newer, smaller, high-tech companies which are not part of the huge, historic Military-Industrial Complex. For these purposes you just need to make clear that The Big Fix includes moving next-generation Defense priorities to the top of the funding list.
National Service. I’m not in favor of a Draft which feeds men only into the military, but I am very much in favor of National Service for all young adults at some point between the age of 18 and 25.
Besides military service, one could work in the Peace Corps, Teach for America, hospitals, caring for the elderly, and/or new paid programs that could include conservation, food banks, community clean-up, etc.
One could choose to do her or his service right out of high school, or wait until after earning a degree, or after learning a trade. But sometime before age 24 every American has to sign up for at least eighteen months of service.
We all live in “bubbles” of various sizes and shapes, and there’s no better way to break those bubbles than to serve others in some cause that is larger than oneself.
When I served in the Navy over fifty years ago, we took young black men from Harlem and young white men from the South and put them together in divisions on the ship in which they worked, ate and slept together, 24/7. They had to learn not only how to get along, but how to work well together, even excel, to get their important assigned responsibilities done, and to keep all 400 of us safe. It worked, and everyone benefitted. There are too few opportunities available like that today, and we need them.
So, President Trump, I challenge you to pull back from personal retributions and fixing issues that others with less ability than you can tackle, but which now fill your time. Instead, like you’ve already done with Securing the Border and Middle East Peace, focus in your last three years on these and perhaps other Big Fabulous Fixes that will truly set our country on the path to fiscal and physical security, as well as secure your place in history.
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