Early Patriot Plan

Glenn Beck has been bragging that he has “A Plan” for 2010 and the next 100 years. His plan is for the “Refounding” (Beck’s words not mine) of policies and principles and he envisions a “battlefield”.

The Tea Party influenced by Glenn Beck wants to take our government back to the good old days of 1776. This is the time of the original Patriots that Glenn Beck and the Tea Party members emulate. Their goal is to kick out the bums, create their own brand of government and to reduce the deficit. They speak about minimizing government by dismantling all “socialist” services provided by the government. This would include the elimination of Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, public roads and public water and sewer, just to name a few. You can read the Tea Party Pledge here with the translation of this pledge here.

What the members of the Tea Party don’t want to admit is that Glenn Beck’s real “Plan” is to line his pockets with their money by staging conventions with seminars throughout 2010, none of which will be free, and by selling his new book, “The Plan”. Yes, the “Plan” is for Glenn Beck to buy fancier cars and move into bigger houses all paid for by his followers at their expense.

There can be another “Plan” which would reduce the deficit without removing the taxpayer funded services. This “Plan” would be closer to how our government operated at the time following the “Revolution” and would include:

• Members of Congress, the Supreme Court Justices, and the President’s Cabinet paying for:
  • their own transportation to their districts,
  • the cost of attendance at events, meetings, conferences etc…,
  • their own lodging,
  • their own stamps and any other form of communication costs.

Since these benefits were not available at the birth of our nation, this other “Plan” includes reductions in these benefits by:

• Privatizing taxpayer paid government pensions,
• Requiring members of Congress, the Supreme Court Justices and the President’s Cabinet to pay for their own health insurance.
• Requiring members of Congress, the Supreme Court Justices, and the President’s Cabinet be paid the minimum wage. The House in particular spends much of its time passing silly resolutions and not doing the people’s work so they certainly don’t deserve to make more money than someone working at a fast food chain.

Oddly, I have not heard any member in Congress mention the above “Plan” as a means of deficit reduction. The Republicans have included dismantling Social Security and Medicare in their deficit reduction plan and there is no mention of dismantling their taxpayer paid benefits. If the Republicans and other members of Congress are serious about decreasing the deficit by reducing entitlements, let them start by eliminating their taxpayer paid benefits first before dismantling the social safety nets paid for by taxes that benefit Americans.