We the People say, "Enough"

There is one simple way to put America back on a secure base of fundamentals and positive values. There is one sure way to communicate to every hard working, taxpaying American that this country is going to be a place of opportunity for every citizen who will go to school, complete their education, work hard, obey the law and not expect any form of special treatment, be it legal protection or job protection or high government pension payments and other benefits. What is that way you ask?

Start repaying the debt of the United States.

TheFundamentals has proposed a simple plan for the national government to accomplish this objective.

Reduce “entitlement” payments by 5%

Reduce all federal employment by 10%

Reduce all other federal spending by 15%

Start repaying the federal debt. First objective: 5% reduction in 18 months

Why is it important to start repaying the federal debt? There is no single action that the United States can take to demonstrate its commitment to fiscal responsibility and financial soundness that would have anywhere near the impact to the hard working, taxpaying citizens of this country and our trading partners and economic competitors around the world than the signal that the debt of the United States is not going to keep rising. It is going to decline.

Why is it important to start repaying the federal debt? It can only be accomplished by a total shared program of sacrifice and frugality. It cannot be done by a few reductions here and there. It requires that we the people say we have had enough of massive spending; had enough of massive government employment; had enough of massive rules and regulations and involvement in everyday life’s activities and had enough of special groups getting special benefits and special favors and ridiculous paychecks and benefits and pensions.

Why is it important to start repaying the federal debt? There are limits to what any person, any community, any country can do. We cannot dominate the world with our checkbook. We cannot cure every ill, remove every despot, fix everyone’s broken infrastructure or save every group of embattled people anywhere around the globe. What we can do is set an example of hard work and sacrifice and frugality. We can set that example as has been done by this country through its fairness, its charity and its competitiveness.

How tough will it be? Fair question. To some it is scary. How can we reduce social security payments by 5%? How can we reduce federal employment by 200,000 jobs? How can we eliminate defined benefit pension programs and replace them with defined contribution programs? How can we reduce non employment spending by 15%? Well, these changes, these reductions are exactly what have occurred in the private sector over the last 30 months. And, they can happen in the public sector also. The United States needs to take its medicine. We have lived for way too long on the credit card; on other people’s money. We need to retrench for 18 months and accomplish these attainable objectives.

Why is it important to start repaying the federal debt? Too many states in this country have grown accustomed to feeding at the federal teat. The states must stand on their own financially. Their cities must stand on their own financially. Some states and cities have limited their addiction to the federal teat. To them the adjustment will be minimal. To the others the adjustment is way overdue. It is tearing the fiber, the values, the foundations of this country apart to see special deals for bribes, corruption and vote buying from very weak public officials. In the past this activity would be prosecuted. Today it is business as usual. Yesterday, the people of one state said, “Enough.” Tomorrow the people of many states will say, “Enough.” The problem is that the politicians, bureaucrats and special interests are very weak and bloated and will do their best to make some small moves to placate the people and then will slip back into their promiscuous ways. The best immediate discipline We the People have is to force them to repay the debt. Then we have to find new public officials who will adopt, embrace, support and live by TheFundamentals.

Last. Isn’t it wonderful to be an American? How can one not be proud of the people of Massachusetts? They led us in fighting tyranny and government oppression 234 year ago and they just fired the second shot heard 'round the world.

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard 'round the world."

RWEmerson