Our beast of a nation is heaving and exhausted. It is wounded and sickened. The American political situation has clearly reached a state where the system isn’t working. Instead of tackling our biggest cultural and societal problems, like health care or reforming Wall Street, we should instead shift our focus towards achieving things that are simple. We need a restoration of common sense. There are plenty of problems that are popular and relatively easy to accomplish.
Gail Collins, Columnist for the New York Times seems to be advocating for the abolishment of the Senate:
I’m not sure it was all that great to begin with. But even if it was, the old system has outlived its usefulness. It just doesn’t suit the modern world.
The idea of a few senators getting together and working out the big issues of the day in private talks really depends on people never noticing that they’re doing it. In our hyper-communications era, we get to look too close. What we see isn’t wise men and women reaching a reasoned consensus over coffee in the Capitol. It’s Senators Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley yammering on the phone about the health care plan all summer. If the future of our health care system depends on Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley, we cannot be allowed to know about it. Otherwise, the republic will crumble.
DAANG! Before we start abolishing things and retiring all those senators to their respective golf courses and corporate boards, maybe we can start with a few small common-sense steps. The American public wants a return to common sense.We need simple solutions to our problems and we do have them. Stop worrying about fixing these broad issues and lets worry about picking some smaller, less complicated things. Let’s untangle the Gordian Knot.
End Corporate Welfare and Lower the Corporate Tax Rate
We currently have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world. It harms our competetiveness and drives business (and the fat tax income that goes with it) overseas. We need to bring our corporate tax rates more in line with countries like Ireland which saw a boom in foreign investment when thy made similar moves.
The trade off is that we put an end to all corporate welfare. We spend billions in credits and deductions and plain old giveaways to businesses. They want lower taxes? They have got to be willing to take their hand away from the till.
Legalize Marijuana and Tax the Crap out of It
I personally don’t think marijuana should be legalized, not because I think it’s inherently dangerous, it isn’t. But it is a gateway drug and I do worry about an entire segment of the population (40 millions regular pot smokers) basically becoming stoners. As a once multiple time a day pot smoker I can tell you that it robs you of your initiative and prevents most people from getting very much out of life.
That being said the costs associated with mainting our federal prohibition on weed are simply too high. Dea agents seized 3k tons of marijuana plants last year. They should be focusing on coke, meth and dope. Actually fuck, while were at it we may as well legalize blow. It’s definitely not safe but I can’t afford it. So can we get the prices down a bit please?
Seriously though marijuana is the most valuable cash crop in 12 states across the country already. We could create how many thousands of legitimate jobs? Heck we could even become a net exporter of weed. We’ve got a land last time I checked. Maybe we could even get the red Chinese hooked on our stuff only this time to avoid war mellow those fuckers out a bit no??
How big is the economy around marijuana? We won’t know till we try it but 100 billion seems likely by recent estimates.
Some of that should go towards education about the drug in schools and colleges. We have to balance the fine line between legalizing something as a society and advocating for it’s use. Legalization is not advocacy. It is dealing with reality. Something we dot really like to do in America.
Image Source: Margaret Anne Clarke on Flickr
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