Spending
Spending is out of control. We cannot afford it today, and our children and grandchildren certainly cannot afford it tomorrow.
The current federal budget is the equivalent of a family earning $60,000 a year, but spending $100,000 a year while they already owe $350,000! And to make it worse, there is a bill collector looking for their house with another bill (Medicare and Social Security) for $1.7million. The average taxpaying citizen owes $134,000 of federal debt.
I was taught that when you want to get out of a hole, the first thing you do is to stop digging. I believe that you only buy things you can afford.
Taxes
The tax system must be flatter and fairer for the taxpayer, and not allow the special interests and lobbyists to each have their own line in the tax code.
President Kennedy had it right when he maintained tax rates needed to be set at a rate that encouraged work and its subsequent reward. He understood that increased revenues to the government result from an expanding tax base and economic growth.
If government want to increase taxes on gasoline, alcohol and cigarettes to discourage their use, why in the world would it want to increase taxes on work?
We don’t have too few taxes; we have too much spending.
Healthcare
Consumer choice and responsibility, price transparency, equal tax treatment of the employed and self employed, in combination with Health Savings Accounts, are more cost effective for the patient and providers. Many of these principles have kept the health care costs in my own business flat for the last 5 years.
Medicare is already broken, with high levels of fraud, claim denial, and decreasing provider base. The taxpayers cannot afford another massive, inefficient, government-run program.
The American College of Cardiology, with which Dr. Rob Steele is a fellow, has been a leader in taking necessary steps to improve the care provided by its members to their patients. The use of strict credentialing criteria for providers, disease-specific practice guidelines, appropriateness criteria for test ordering and utilization, procedure registries, and continuous quality assurance have had tremendous benefits.
Accountability
Members of Congress must live under the laws they pass. They have exempted themselves from Social Security, Medicare, and the proposed government run health care program. The government does not abide by the laws any normal business must, including accounting practices and employment rules of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Medicare and Social Security are run identically to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme – the one that put him in jail for the rest of his life. Federal employees should not have salary or benefits any better than the average private employee.
