Last week, CNN and MSN reported that the Obama Administration wants to do Immigration Reform by the end of the year.
The idea of Obama taking this on is rather amusing. Healthcare Reform AND Immigration Reform in the same year?? What two subjects are more controversial? If Immigration Reform is next (presumably after Bank Reform), then Obama has got balls of steel.
I could not find out exactly what he wants to do, or even what his ideas might be.
That's why, while waiting, I wrote up an Immigration Reform of my own. Keep in mind that immigration is not a bad thing. The United States does not have a self-sustaining population. Future growth will come from immigrants, and the U.S. will need population growth and a thriving economy in order to compete with China and India for setting the world's agenda in the future.
Keeping all of that in mind, here is Joey Hornbuckle's Immigration Reform:
1. Create effective gateways for immigrant college students to become American citizens
2. Double number of foreign college students in the United States (from 1 million to 2 million)
3. Double number of visa workers in America (from 700,000 to 1,400,000) and create more effective process for them to become naturalized
4. Create system for 500,000 Mexicans to become American citizens (over 1,000,000 Mexicans illegally immigrated in 2007)(the choosing process should be based off academic success)
5. Mandate that all immigrants go to free ESL classes for at least three months and pass a standard English test (this will create jobs for ESL teachers)
6. Require that immigrants are sponsored by a University, corporation, church, any kind of religious institution, or a non-profit organization or friend or family member. (A sponsor helps the immigrant become adjusted to a new country)
7. Build a secure wall between America and Mexico (make it a stimulus project--it will create jobs in the construction industry)
8. Grant amnesty to the illegal immigrants in the nation (this will grow our GDP by $2 trillion)
Comments? Questions? Criticism?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Final Thoughts on Health Care Reform
Now that Health Care Reform has finally been passed, I am wreathing in curiosity for what the Obama Administration will solve next.
Will it be immigration reform? Bank Reform? A fix to the No Child Left Behind Act? Will they save Social Security?
I wonder if they feel confused. Obama and the Democrats were voted in by people who wanted to see them create and enforce common sense solutions. That's what they did. They developed a health care overhaul with bipartisan ideas and yet half the country doesn't like it and about a third is now in a state of paranoid fear that the nation will fall apart.
They think this new health care system is dangerous and might swell up like Medicare and Social Security did. I can't blame them for being worried.
However, their fears are not subject to reality. This system will not increase government spending by an extraordinary amount. It will cost the United States Government about $150 billion a year. Next year's budget is expected to be approximately $3,700 billion. This means it will increase government spending by 4%.
Even the worst case scenario--health care growing from 17% to 25% of our economy--would only increase government spending by 2% as a result of Obama's Health Care plan.
Still, healthcare is not solved and the health care debate is not over. Medicare will need saving again one day and if we face a further shortage of doctors, the effects of supply and demand will cause their pay to skyrocket, and the costs of healthcare will go with it.
But for the time being, the Obama Healthcare Bill is a success. It removes $60 billion of waste and fraud from Medicare and Medicaid annually and it brings down the cost of healthcare, according to the Congressional Budget Office, by 13-19%. It creates healthcare exchanges that promotes capitalistic competition, enforces many common sense rules, and subsidizes (helps pay for) health insurance for people who have difficulty affording it. It does not affect small businesses, except for the law allowing small businesses to pool health insurance to bring costs down.
This bill will lower costs, so people can spend their money to grow other parts of the economy. And this bill saves the last capitalist health care system on the planet. I think that's what's important.
Will it be immigration reform? Bank Reform? A fix to the No Child Left Behind Act? Will they save Social Security?
I wonder if they feel confused. Obama and the Democrats were voted in by people who wanted to see them create and enforce common sense solutions. That's what they did. They developed a health care overhaul with bipartisan ideas and yet half the country doesn't like it and about a third is now in a state of paranoid fear that the nation will fall apart.
They think this new health care system is dangerous and might swell up like Medicare and Social Security did. I can't blame them for being worried.
However, their fears are not subject to reality. This system will not increase government spending by an extraordinary amount. It will cost the United States Government about $150 billion a year. Next year's budget is expected to be approximately $3,700 billion. This means it will increase government spending by 4%.
Even the worst case scenario--health care growing from 17% to 25% of our economy--would only increase government spending by 2% as a result of Obama's Health Care plan.
Still, healthcare is not solved and the health care debate is not over. Medicare will need saving again one day and if we face a further shortage of doctors, the effects of supply and demand will cause their pay to skyrocket, and the costs of healthcare will go with it.
But for the time being, the Obama Healthcare Bill is a success. It removes $60 billion of waste and fraud from Medicare and Medicaid annually and it brings down the cost of healthcare, according to the Congressional Budget Office, by 13-19%. It creates healthcare exchanges that promotes capitalistic competition, enforces many common sense rules, and subsidizes (helps pay for) health insurance for people who have difficulty affording it. It does not affect small businesses, except for the law allowing small businesses to pool health insurance to bring costs down.
This bill will lower costs, so people can spend their money to grow other parts of the economy. And this bill saves the last capitalist health care system on the planet. I think that's what's important.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Can Obama Handle the Deficit?
Governments with deficits suffer weakening currencies, higher inflation, and increased tax spending to pay for the deficit’s interest. Deficits are BAD, and right now, the United States is falling into debt faster than at any time in history since World War II (in comparison to GDP).
The government will spend $3.75 trillion this year, but will only collect $2.2 trillion in taxes. That leaves a deficit of $1.55 trillion.
I hope Barack Obama has a plan. But just in case, here’s a six-step strategy that would close the deficit and give the United States a surplus in less than four years:
1. Of this $1.55 trillion deficit, about $500 billion stems from lower tax revenue due to a bad economy. $250 billion more comes from increased spending on welfare programs for the unemployed. Then, an additional $150 billion comes from temporary spending under the stimulus package. When the economy turns around, the Congressional Budget Office shows the deficit will be slashed from $1,550 billion to $650 billion.
2. Next, thanks to Obama’s spending freeze on all non-military discretionary funding—and his removal of tax cuts on oil companies and the super-rich—the deficit will shrink by an additional $100 billion, decreasing the $650 billion deficit to $550 billion.
3. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost $150 billion annually, so if Obama ends those wars (which he has promised to do), the deficit will fall from $550 billion to $400 billion.
4. Medicare and Medicaid are wasteful systems, and the Obama administration has vowed to fix this. Reform in Medicare and Medicaid would save $100 billion every year, bringing the deficit from $400 billion to $300 billion.
5. Next, Obama has promised Social Security reform, which would make rich people pay the same flat 6% rate on the pay roll tax as everyone else, adding $200 billion more in revenue. This would save the Social Security System and bring the federal government deficit from $300 billion to $100 billion per year.
6. The final $100 billion can be finished off in several ways: ending the Obama tax cuts, a freeze in military spending, or more growth from a powerful green economy.
As improbable as it may seem, Obama and the Democrats have the incredible opportunity to turn their historical deficits for 2009 and 2010 into surpluses in as soon as 2013 and 2014.
The government will spend $3.75 trillion this year, but will only collect $2.2 trillion in taxes. That leaves a deficit of $1.55 trillion.
I hope Barack Obama has a plan. But just in case, here’s a six-step strategy that would close the deficit and give the United States a surplus in less than four years:
1. Of this $1.55 trillion deficit, about $500 billion stems from lower tax revenue due to a bad economy. $250 billion more comes from increased spending on welfare programs for the unemployed. Then, an additional $150 billion comes from temporary spending under the stimulus package. When the economy turns around, the Congressional Budget Office shows the deficit will be slashed from $1,550 billion to $650 billion.
2. Next, thanks to Obama’s spending freeze on all non-military discretionary funding—and his removal of tax cuts on oil companies and the super-rich—the deficit will shrink by an additional $100 billion, decreasing the $650 billion deficit to $550 billion.
3. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost $150 billion annually, so if Obama ends those wars (which he has promised to do), the deficit will fall from $550 billion to $400 billion.
4. Medicare and Medicaid are wasteful systems, and the Obama administration has vowed to fix this. Reform in Medicare and Medicaid would save $100 billion every year, bringing the deficit from $400 billion to $300 billion.
5. Next, Obama has promised Social Security reform, which would make rich people pay the same flat 6% rate on the pay roll tax as everyone else, adding $200 billion more in revenue. This would save the Social Security System and bring the federal government deficit from $300 billion to $100 billion per year.
6. The final $100 billion can be finished off in several ways: ending the Obama tax cuts, a freeze in military spending, or more growth from a powerful green economy.
As improbable as it may seem, Obama and the Democrats have the incredible opportunity to turn their historical deficits for 2009 and 2010 into surpluses in as soon as 2013 and 2014.
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