I have been mulling this over in my head for some time and have finally decided to write it out. Everything I read and hear tells me the same thing. What has been done so far to "fix" the economy is only a temporary band-aid, nothing is actually fixed.
For one, jobs are still hard to come by. We also have a large number of foreclosures, and home prices falling. Banks are still being unreasonably stingy with loaning money under traditional arrangements. The bailed-out banks are being allowed to falsify their accounts to make themselves seem like they are making money when they are not. And the number of infrastructure projects being completed is far and in between.
Generally speaking, government has been getting involved in the wrong way in just about everything. Government's job in the economy is to set policy and regulations to protect the American public from being taken advantage of through the making of stupid, uninformed decisions. But instead of doing that, government removed policy and regulations and now things the solution is to print money and give it to the same institutions that were involved in creating the crisis. This is practically the definition of insanity.
Then we have the desire to provide universal health care. As usual, there is a misunderstanding of what universal heath care should include. Not to mention a delusional idea about how much it is going to cost and how far it should reach. In this post, I will cover the general outline of what should have been done from start to finish. Understand those words. General outline.
To start, the bail-out money should never have been given out so quickly and with so few restrictions and conditions. First, I personally would have re-instituted all of the banking and lending regulations that were dropped bank in the Clinton administration and instituted a temporary freeze, a moratorium, on all foreclosures and non-traditional mortgage origination for any bank or lender claiming to need assistance. In the mean time, the home owners would still be responsible for getting payed up either through selling their home, modifying their loan, or catching up on payments. It would be essentially creating some breathing room. Hm, did I just save people from loosing their homes? I guess I did. How long? Not very, but at least they are going to have the opportunity to figure out a solution in the mean time. Oh yeah, I also fixed the hemorrhage that started the mess.
Next would be to put together a department of accountants and economists to do an actual audit of the banks to determine what their fiscal health is and what investment instruments budgetary items they have been burning money on. After all, would the IRS allow a tax payer to do their own audit? Seriously!?! Hm, did I just create a few government jobs there? I guess I did. How many? I don't know, a few hundred or thousand for a few months? Anyway, moving on.
After the health of the bank has been determined, the department would design a custom plan to correct each banks fiscal ailments. The plan would contain a number of options including budget cuts, asset liquidation, and salary re-negotiations. At this point, I would also institute a regulation the demands that executive pay be tied to performance. Now the entire plan wouldn't be forced on the bank. But, if they want bail-out assistance, then they should be willing to comply with enough to be deserving of assistance. Other wise, you must not really be "too big to fail." And, yes, I know this will probably cost jobs. But at least it will be a step in the right direction.
Next, would be to something that I thought was suppose to have been done but have yet to find. Please, point it out to me if you know where it is. There should be a government website that lists all the infrastructure projects and pet projects that the Congressmen and Senators want to get done. This website would provide all the necessary information related to the project that contractors would be able to analyze in order to bid on so that they can be selected to do the project. In each of the projects, the key to obtaining and holding on to the contract would be the number of jobs the contractor would be able to create. These jobs would have to be filled by citizens and documented aliens.
In order to guarantee that this key point was fulfilled, the government would have a department of rotating document verification clerks that would go around to each of the contract companies and verify the citizenship and residency documentation for each employee. Hm, how many jobs created there? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? But what about the border countries that have immigration issues? Wouldn't the majority of the possible workers be disqualified? This sounds like a perfect opportunity for a citizenship amnesty drive. Get these individual documented and put to work.
This could also be used as a means to guarantee the flow of money from the government bail-out to the banks into the economy. As the banks are being supplied enough money to make them solvent, the winning contractors would be contractually obligated to open a line of credit with one of the bailed-out banks for the purpose of equipment, supplies and wages. To confirm this is done properly, the Government would also have a department of rotating clerks to reconcile the contractors books with the line of credit to make sure it is only being used for such items. Wow, I just keep creating more jobs!
Now, on to universal health care. What should it include? Well for starters, it is not the government's job to baby sit each citizen. It is the government's job to protect the health of the general population. To me, the things that should be universal are vaccinations, triage, emergency care, and annual physicals. Anything past that should be covered by an individuals own insurance. Doing so forces a person to understand that they are responsible for their own well being. But, in order for a person to be able to do that, the government does need to put some regulations in place for the insurance industry.
For one, a citizen should never be denied coverage for any preexisting condition, especially one that is genetic. Other than that, I am quite clueless. However, a panel of doctors, economists, accountants, and statisticians should be able to figure out the most reasonable guidelines for determining insurance coverage. Wow, even more jobs created! I'm on a roll. That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it.
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