It's Time for 'We the People' to Act

   It's Time for 'We the People' to Act

Several years ago, a group of Americans banded together and formed the Tea Party.  I don't believe I need to go into what the Tea Party stands for or their affect on American politics.  In a short period, the Tea Party has played a profound part of American politics within only a few years.  I applaud the Tea Party for their ability to develop such a large voice within the political community in such an abbreviated time.

Now it's time for others to do the same thing, but follow a different path.  I believe there are millions of Americans that want this great country of ours to move forward, without the extremism that besets the other major political parties.  I believe we can establish a community of Americans that seek a common ground with all concerned and push forward with an agenda that provides fair and balanced approaches to the problems of today.

I am not trying to start a new political party; one that selects their own candidates for election, tries to persuade voters through "facts" that are skewed and uses fictional scare tactics on the public to garner votes.

I am trying to gather enough Americans that want to work together and find sensible and common ground solutions to the vast differences that are holding back the United States from moving forward.

The Tea Party started this exact same way and their approach to gathering strength and size was remarkable.  It told me that the majority of Americans want more choices, the majority of Americans want progress in solving our national problems and the majority of Americans are tired of how Washington works.  This tiredness allows engaged Americans to present new ideas, procedures and opportunities to the millions of Americans that feel our national problems are beyond our ability to affect change.

My proposal is to establish a "common ground initiative" for Americans to review and determine if our new thoughts, ideas and opportunities make more sense than what our political leaders are willing to do for our country.

For example, I believe most Americans want term limits, and a Federal, state and local pension system that is equal to what is offered to the millions of American military members that have served our country.  No more of these pension plans that profit politicians for doing nothing while in elected offices.

Everyone is screaming about the deficit and raising taxes on the richest of Americans.  We must see through all the rubbish being thrown at the public and determine what is the expected result...are we trying to raise taxes on wealthy Americans out of spite because they make more than 98% of us, or do we want to actually reduce the deficit?

Raising taxes sounds politically savvy, but if you allow deductions to continue, the revenue raised through increased taxes slips through our fingers like trying to hold water in our hands...can't be done.  We need to find a common ground for this problem and develop a solution that the majority of American believe is fair, balanced and a real fix to a specific problem.

Perhaps a workable solution would be to have a "sliding" scale on tax deductions.  If you make more than $500,000, you are allowed a smaller percentage of deductions than a person making only $40,000 per year.  I'm positive that Americans could find a way that helps to resolve this problem, reduce the deficit and be considered fair for all concerned.

Everyone is screaming about the need to cut entitlements and I agree with this philosophy, but there are ways to work on this problem without making major changes that will scare millions of Americans.

Forgive me for being blunt, but I think raising the age for retirement for Social Security benefits should be raised.  Currently, we can claim "early" retirement at 62, or scheduled retirement at 65 and if we put off retirement to 67 or even 70, a person can receive over 100% of their anticipated benefit check.  This doesn't make fiscal sense for the country.

If there must be an "early" retirement age, raise it to 64, then have scheduled retirement at 67 and there should not be any procedure to provide more than 100% of your retirement benefit.  This simple move would save hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 20 years...isn't this what we are trying to achieve?

Over the years, there has been discussion of having a "means" testing method in order to determine whether or not, wealthier Americans should receive Social Security upon retirement.

The argument that if someone pays into Social Security, they are entitled to receive Social Security...hogwash.  When Social Security was devised, it was meant to be a "safety net" for those Americans that needed assistance to survive daily life and associated costs.  Does anyone really believe that a retiree that is receiving over $250,000 a year from other income really needs that Social Security check?

As for those people receiving a Social Security Disability Income (SSDI), we need to reform several aspects of that payment.  Many people receiving SSDI are drug addicts, which infuriates the general American public. 

Instead of being angry, let's have these identified individuals  be drug tested on a recurring basis to ensure our money isn't paying for drug habits.  If someone tests positive for drugs, their SSDI is cancelled for a minimum of 6 months and they must pass a series of drug tests before re-instatement to the SSDI program.

As for those who receive SSDI for medical and other physical reasons, a simple reassessment every 2 years should provide a method to assure us that receipt of SSDI for these individuals is warranted.  In the spirit of full disclosure, this would affect my own family members, but I believe it is necessary, fair and would save more money than it would cost.

Over time, the money spent on SSDI would be reduced significantly.  There are those people that will worry about these drug addicts being homeless, without any way of support, and to those people I would say...come up with a better method to combat drug usage and addiction.

Of course, there are dozens of other entitlements that must be reviewed and reconsidered in order to bring down our dependence upon government entitlements.  What is necessary is to remember that there are millions of Americans that use these entitlements in order to survive on a daily basis. 

I do not believe I have all the answers or even understand the questions, but there has to be a sensible start to changing the way we operate as a country and government.  What we have in Washington is broken and won't be fixed unless 'We the People' act.

Of course, I believe we can make significant strides towards a working government by throwing out all elected officials that have been in office for 10 years or more.

I'm looking for ideas, thoughts, comments and suggestions on how we can begin to organize as a nationwide group and work to save our country from politicians.