My Plan to Save the Economy & Create Jobs via Unspent Stimulus $$$

First of all, let me start off by saying that I believe in a small federal government with firm regulations in place allowing for the free market to operate within a “broad box” with distinct borders. That being said, we are in sad state of affairs right now, with nobody in Washington steering us in the right direction. So below, I have outlined a temporary plan in order to get this ship back on course and let the free market & the private sector take over from there.

Bulk Government Buying Plan

The Government(via use of unspent stimulus money) agrees to buy X number of products(in bulk) from Industry A @ wholesale/discounted price, by way of a contract as long as participating companies in Industry A agree to hire Y number of employees. The number of products purchased from each company in Industry A would be proportionate to their market share.

Once the contract is agreed to and signed the Government would begin to setup/lease warehouses, retail outlets, stores, etc… to sell the items for a predetermined profit(to be agreed upon between all contracted parties, as not to undercut Industry A by a substantial amount). The profits would be used to sustain the operating costs of running these warehouses, stores, etc… Financing would also be a form of profit for higher priced products such as cars.

Under this plan, jobs would be created in both the private sector, as well as creating Government jobs. Additionally, this would increase sales among the private sector, in turn boosting GDP, thus helping to sustain our economy. Obviously, this would have to be a temporary plan and only a certain amount of product could be purchased by the Government, as to not run private sector retailers out of business. See auto manufacturer example below:

Government enters into a 12-month contract with American Auto Manufacturers. Government agrees to buy $3 Billion dollars worth of vehicles at a 25% discount. Let’s say, for simplification purposes, Chevrolet holds 50% of the market, Ford holds 33% of the market and Chrysler owns 12% of the market. The Government would buy $1.5B worth of vehicles from Chevrolet, $990M from Ford and $360M from Chrysler. In turn, those companies agree to proportionately hire more employees – a certain percentage of the $ they received from the government would go directly to new salaries, say 10% - 15%, creating thousands of jobs for the private sector. The Government would also need to hire employees to run its operations, warehouses, dealerships, etc… The Government in turns, sells the purchased vehicles at a 10-15% markup, which would still be 10% less than what the private sector would be selling at. Again, the supply would have to be more limited than the private sector in order to a) drive demand and b)to not directly compete with the private sector. In other words, while the supply wouldn’t be as little as a local police auction, it certainly could not have the same volume as private sector dealerships.

The numbers, percentages & details would be left to experts, far smarter than I, but this is basically a similar principle to buying Mortgage Back Securities, with two distinct differences: A) Mortgage Backed Securities(as a whole) was buying a bad product, whereas these products are of quality B) This Plan creates jobs in both the private sector & government. This is only a temporary plan and I would hope that if this were to make it to Congress, that they would give the majority of the power to the private sector, in the case where the government tries to overstep its bounds. This plan would be used proportionately across all American Industries, according to their GDP percentages – referring to the money that is left over from stimulus – let’s say $500B. And this may not be the perfect solution, but maybe, just maybe it will get someone in Washington to devise a similar plan or at ANY type of plan at this point.

Chapter 2... 4/28/09 - Defining my ideal "Middle Party"

So here's my ideal Middle Party:

- Strong belief in Capitalism
- Belief in State Government, with Federal Regulation in necessary industries(everything in moderation)
- Strong Military with an open mind and ear to the outside world, but with a "world police" presence. If the US doesn't lead the way, nobody else will do it. It doesn't mean that we impose our beliefs of society on others, just protect other countries from evil.
- I believe our Country was founded on Deism, but I am personally a Christian. Don't need to push Christianity on others, but there needs to be some central abstract form of religion present, and Deism is fairly abstract. Overall, let people believe what they want to believe and don't combine Church and State like Islam is doing all over the rest of the world.
- Pro-Life, with some exceptions - like rape, child or mother endangerment and perhaps some other circumstances. Nothing is black & white, there is always some gray.
- Believe in helping the poor & the people who don't have a voice, but only believe in helping those who help themselves, not the people who take advantage of welfare type programs.
- Limited government spending.
- Lobbying with strict guidelines on gifts, donations, etc... Unrestricted lobbying has led to lots and lots of corruption.
- 2, 4-year term limits for Congress, which will help eliminate career politicians, which equals politicians who know how to work the system.
- Having the people vote on Congressional compensation, not Congress
- Overall giving the power back to the people. Too much power has gone to the government, which is what the founders of this Nation warned against.
- Strong Federal Security, if that means sacrificing my liberty a little so that 3,000+ Americans don't die, then so be it.
- Civil Unions for homosexuals, which would give them the same rights/benefits that current married couples have. I just don't agree with calling it marriage.
- Believe in flat tax rates.
- Believe in a 3 or 4 party system, whichever is more equal and fair, unlike the current two party system - Again our forefathers warned against.
- Believe in less dependence on foreign oil, but in keeping with utilizing our own oil, nuclear power plants, and other newer, greener technologies.

That's just the basics, but to me it sounds like a great alternative to what's currently out there.

Chapter 1...4/27/09

This is me blogging...I am you. We are complacent.

I am a dissatisfied American voter. I am Middle America - sick and tired of the see-saw that takes place in this country every 4 to 8 years. Weeeee this is fun, up and down, back and forth. But what's more than that is that our system is seriously flawed. Whether we want to admit it or not, our Congress, our Government is corrupt. And the scary thing is, that is not an extremist opinion - that is the truth. And it's not one side or the other...it's BOTH. Republicans and Democrats. Can we please pull our country back towards the middle, where the majority of us prefer to be. Doesn't this make the most sense? Compromise? It's the most key ingredient in a successful marriage, which are hard to come by these days. I wonder why? Could it be because our country is leading by example? So why isn't there a middle party or a prominent third party? Because the money isn't there. Because the money follows agenda and greed is what runs our country.

Why can't we just have a capitalist society where the successful are rewarded; where industries are justly regulated; where our morals and principals remain in tact; where Congress has term limits so they can't line their pockets with lobbyists' money? Are there really checks and balances in place? If so, who checks Congress? It's sure as hell not the President.

Anyway, this is me in a nutshell and I know this post was all over the place, but my plan is to breakdown our flawed system one topic at a time and to hopefully share in a common voice of true change and revamping of our system. Enough with complacency.