Cut: Obamacare

President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act looks hardly affordable. The Congressional Budget Office reported that the first ten years Obamacare existed would cost $940 billion or almost $1 trillion to tax payers. Don’t forget about the already appropriated $701 billion for Social Security, and $793 billion for Medicare & Medicaid yearly. Of course any spending not covered by taxes will be added to our $14.7 trillion debt. When initially typing that, I had to edit the amount of zeroes on account of losing track! Seriously though, have you ever actually looked at those numbers?! Washington needs a scolding. Congress is like an undeserving kid who already broke his Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and now wants an Obamacare because that’s the hip thing in these days.

The last thing we need is more government spending in this uncertain economy. Companies like Apple sat on coffers of as much as $85 billion dollars while Republicans and Democrats squabbled over a false crisis of the debt ceiling, which had been routinely passed 87 times since World War II. Government needs to get its act together, cooperate and foster a semblance of progress in Washington: Calm the politics, grow the markets.

Reform: Government Oversight on the Finance Sector

Who receives credit and why should it be fundamentally reassessed by banks. This would usher in responsible spending habits by consumers. I am a college student with limited income and have had a few loans, yet I receive offers for 0.0% APR financed credit cards bi-weekly. Plus, think about the array of department stores consumers can walk into that peddle discounts for signing onto their customer card.

CardHub.com stated the average amount of money owed per person on revolving credit accounts, like credit cards or fixed payment accounts, like auto loans, is $16,649. This accounts for an overall consumer credit card debt of $826.7 billion in fiscal year 2010. The highest debts sampled were in the Pacific U.S. at $20,175 per person and New England at $19,352 per person. The East South Central U.S. still had a proportionally high average debt of $13,001 in credit card debt. Louisiana has a per capita income of $22,535.

The practice of banks preying on consumers leads to an unstable economy and unsustainable growth within it. Government needs to right its wrongs from the Clinton Administration days of mass bank deregulation and get back to responsible oversight.

Strengthen: Education

Why do we trust Washington with education spending and setting standards for our youth? Setting unified standards in education for a diverse country of three hundred million people is preposterous!

What needs to be done first is federal oversight in education must be limited when related to standards of excellence and achievement in the classroom by students. There are fifty states, three hundred million people and one education standard? President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, while a great idea in principle, in practice, created a class system in education. School districts that failed to meet standards lost funding for extra programs such as band or chorus. Conversely, school districts that could afford to do without federal money because of rich tax bases opted out of NCLB grade and test requirements for fear of losing absolutely nothing. Do not cut funding based on federal requirements.

Let the States decide what is best for their own citizenry. If Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants to teach intelligent design down in the great State of Texas, he can go on doin’ that, ya’ll. I don’t remember I.D. on the ACT or SAT, but that’s neither here nor there. The culture of Texas is its own just like Illinois or Louisiana or New England. Who are we to impress what children should learn in their classrooms? Exactly.