Saving the American Economy and our Future

In 2009 I posted a list of suggestions for a sensible and progressive energy policy. The Obama administration has not made any progress in this area and energy is an even bigger drain on our economy. Fossil fuels could be a major stimulus to our economy if the Government and its minions would get their foot off the necks of the Energy companies and work with them to solve problems in a cooperative and amicable way. That just doesn't seem to be the way that the current DC bunch works. They get a thrill out of thrashing the opposition and that seems to be all that matters to them. Now, in the aftermath of the oil spill in the Gulf, we are importing even more oil from Countries that are not friendly, thereby enriching them immensely. There is no alternate energy source that can step in to take the place of fossil fuels, in spite of all the hype. My suggestions in the 2009 post would go a long way toward helping us to immediate economic recovery and intermediate term independence from imports.
Now let's talk about the National Debt crisis. We as a nation own immense tracts of land and huge expanses of public roads. The sale of some of our public lands has become an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY.  We can still have control of the development of the lands that we sell bu we must not let environmentalists keep us from selling the land. It is our future that is at stake. Secondly, it is time to sell some of the interstate highway system. The result would be that the roads would become toll roads. Toll roads are a pain but so are taxes. Many of the roads are not being maintained well and making them private toll roads would solve that problem as well. Wild Life Refuges have grown to be a major portion of the Governments Land Holdings. Many of these should be sold to environmental defense groups to whom these are important projects. These groups are the ones who lobbied for the purchase of the lands to begin with so now they need to step up and repay the treasury for the cost of the land. It's not like this in not being done right now by groups like Ducks Unlimited. We just can't afford to satisfy every small group's desires for assistance anymore.
Now to Taxes. I like use taxes like sales tax and toll roads. It is time to change our tax system. For one thing, it is built on the model of the young employee who receives a regular pay check. That young employee has no ability to duck taxes. Self employed persons, however, duck a lot of taxes. If they are paid in cash or barter, they usually can skim a large amount cash without paying taxes. There are a lot of loopholes that strong lobbys have gotten for their emplo yers. All of this could be made fair again by switching to a use/sales tax. It is time for a Tea Party Revolution on Taxes Some Liberals feel strongly that "Rich" people should pay most of the taxes in America. This is exactly what a national sales tax will accomplish. People with money spend the most money and thus would pay the most taxes. The retiree.living on a meager pension, should not have to worry that regressive property taxes will drive him from his home. A national sales tax can replace all of the regressive and complicated taxes in the current system and be fair, progressive, and effective in paying down the national debt.

THE ELECTRIC CAR

The electric car is here. Zero pollution - right? Now let me see ..... electricity comes from burning Coal, or Natural Gas ..... that means the pollution is in someone else's back yard. Also, electric   cars require large batteries that contain toxic stuff like Lead, Lithium, Zinc..... what happens when these batteries are tossed into the junk pile. Don't tell me about recycling; it's a myth that Americans bother about recycling. We just discard and buy new. What about the ability of the electric grid to deliver enough energy for the additional needs of electric cars. A car will use as much electricity as 4 houses each month. Thus a two car family wil add 8 houses worth of demand to the grid. Things had better go slow because the flexibility is just not there. I wonder if the electric rates go up, and they will.  Will hybrid users then use the gasoline engine to recharge the batteries? If that happens, then electric hybrids will just be inefficient  gasoline powered cars that drag a heavy battery around with them.