:24:
Now that's a fucking loaded question. But, here are my thoughts on the matter, and in no particular order.
Abolish the U.S. Tax Code and move to a FairTax system, which is a consumption tax on retail goods. With such a system, you're basically eliminating almost all of the tax loopholes that people use all the time, putting more money into the hands of the consumer.
Good idea so long as we don't let them make it a value-added tax. The Brits have that, where the tax is calculated into the price. It's too easy to forget how much of a kickback the gov't is getting, and too easy for the gov't to raise the tax rate without much hoopla.
Mandate a balanced budget. If American citizens are expected to live within their means, then the government should be expected and required to do so as well. Cut wasteful spending and eliminate the earmarks.
Yup yup! I'd cut out omnibus bills as well.
Shift Social Security from a mandated government program to a privatized one. Allow people to use the money for their retirement in the way that they choose, whether it be IRA's, 401K, stocks, bonds, what have you. I shouldn't have a portion of my paycheck taken from me in order to pay money to someone else, because when the time comes for me to be eligible to receive that same money, it isn't going to be there. Social Security is a wholly insolvent system that the government has used (ie: the Clinton administration) to fund projects and claim budget "surpluses". It's a Ponzi scheme, nothing more, and it's about to topple anyway.
SS is a ponzi scheme of the first order and needs to go. We have welfare for those who can't support themselves.
Abolish Medicare completely, and put the power into the hands of the states where it belongs
AMEN!
Health care is not something that is delegated to the United States government by the Constitution. Therefore it is, by definition, a State's Rights issue. States have MediCaid, and MediCare should not exist as far as I'm concerned.
This can probably be said for over half the federal gov't. Imagine how small the Washington bureaucracy would be if it only did what was delegated to it.
Bring the troops home. Now, this is something of a rallying cry you hear all the time, but I'm not just speaking of those in Afghanistan and Iraq, I'm talking about all of them, or at least a vast majority. We have 27 bases in Germany alone, overkill much? I realize that these were strategic bases after WWII and during the height of the Cold War, but enough is enough. Reduce the number of bases we have overseas by at least 75%, leaving only strategically advantageous bases in operation, and close down everything else. There are tons of military bases in the United States that were closed down during the Clinton administration, if need be, they could be re-opened or existing bases expanded.
I agree, except we should not have any bases on foreign soil. I think that the powers-that-were looked at the Cold War military and realized that it had become one of America's biggest jobs programs. Trimming it down to the size it should be would be painful, and politicians who create pain usually don't get re-elected. I believe that's why it remains as large as it is.
Non-interventionism. The United States should no be the world's police force, plain and simple. Stop spending money sending our military here there and everywhere. It isn't as bad now (with Iraq and Afghanistan the exceptions) as it has been, but it needs to stop. Take care of our own country and let the rest of the world take care of themselves. Get involved only when absolutely necessary, and if/when we do get involved, actually declare a state of war for once.
Absolutely. We would throw fits if another country moved in and established a military installation on American soil, restricting access to only that country's military and local citizens it hires to work there. Yet we think we have the right to do exactly that in countries all over the world.
Restructure the military. The military is currently set up to flat out overwhelm any other force in conventional combat. Unfortunately, in the 21st century, conventional warfare has gone out the window. We need to shift away from massive troop movements to smaller strike forces designed for the type of war we see today, not the type of war we saw during the 20th century. This involves not only troops, but development of new technology, to make things more efficient. I'm by no means a military strategist, but this is common sense I think.
If we did as you suggest in the previous 2 paragraphs, this would be a given.
Stop making it so damn hard to run a business in this country. With taxes, regulations, requirements, more taxes, fees, and everything else, it's incredibly hard to start a business in this country. At least to start a business and make it last. Here in California, it's doubly bad, because of all of the ridiculous hoops you have to jump through out here. Give companies incentive to stay around and not shift overseas... and no, I'm not talking about government handouts, contracts, or credits... I'm just talking about giving them a reason to stay, by making it easier to start and manage a business.
Larger established businesses pay politicians to set up these onerous regulations. It helps keep competition to a minimum .... hardly the American Way, is it?
Eliminate the Federal Reserve. I could probably go on and on about this, but I'll simply refer you to Ron Paul's book,
End The Fed. Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the dollar has inflated to ridiculous levels. What $1 would buy in 1913, it would take ~$21 to purchase in 2010, that's a 2100% increase. The fact that one organization has such power over not only the U.S. Economy, but the World's as well, is wholly frightening to me.
Did I write this post in my sleep and forget about it? 
Tying the Dollar back to gold or some other hard currency would force Congress to be fiscally responsible. That's why they fight it so hard.
Term limits. It's time to see some term limits in Congress. I'm sick and tired of seeing career politicians. Seriously, the people in the House and Senate that have been there for 30+ years just disgust me. Because they don't really care about their constituents (well, I'm willing to bet most of them anyway), they simply care about getting reelected every 2 or 6 years. This is why we see so many damn earmarks in my opinion. They create these special pet projects and get them added onto bills in order to please their constituents enough to get themselves reelected.
Many actually see it as their job to bring in as much revenue as possible, then scoop out as much as they can & send it to their states. It really is disgusting. From Each as much as we can squeeze from ya, To Each in proportion to his political contribution.
Reduce the size of government. It's shameful that the government's idea of creating new jobs seems to oftentimes simply mean create more government jobs, which simply perpetuates the problem of not having enough money to pay for everything. Promote privatization, entrepreneurship, and let the private sector create jobs. We should be making government smaller, not larger.
This would be a natural result of following your earlier suggestion.
I've ranted and raved for way too long now at this point, :24: But honestly what it really comes down to is fiscal responsibility. We *have* to stop spending more than we bring in, and if that means cutting projects, then cut the damn projects. The era of big government simply has to end, because it is totally and completely unsustainable.
