What it was for school choice in Georgia. A good start to be sure, but there is work to be done. Thursday, the House passed HB 881, a bill that would create a state-level alternate authorize for charter school, by an overwhelming 120-48 count. This was a bipartisan effort and the debate really underscored the desire of legislators to do the right thing on one hand, and some to fully entrench the power of school boards and educrats on the other.

Change is needed and that is the bottom line. I won’t bore you with statistics, but in Georgia, public education generally sucks. Even where schools do measure up to standards, the bar is so incredibly low that many high school grads cannot compete against other American kids, let alone those from abroad. Unfortunately, reform is 15 years from implementation by many accounts. Charter schools are a viable, proven alternative to traditional public schools. Critics call for more funding, better teachers, but at what cost and when? Why should we sacrifice a generation of children to the alter of the bureaucrat? Charter schools are an interim solution, one that can sustain us until we can get meaningful reforms. To reject them if qualified betrays not only the taxpayers that are supposedly represented, but it betrays our children who deserve better than to be educated based on where they live.

Choice is needed. Charter schools are public school choice. Isn’t it odd that the same liberals that call for us to come in line with the rest of the world on issues of defense, trade, and the global income redistribution scheme that is global warming but ignore the rest of the world on issues of education, healthcare and taxation?

Regarding healthcare, liberals the government to control access to plans and heavily regulate medicine, pharma, and insurance. However, the British, who have had a heavily socialized system of healthcare for half a century are beginning to seek privatization of services. The same goes for the Canadians, who routinely come to the US and pay out of pockets for life-saving services that may take weeks to be administered at their neighborhood hospital.

As for taxation, we are nearly the only Western nation left that has a graduated income tax and our liberal friends are calling for a steeper graduation. Obviously 1% of the population paying over 35% of taxes just isn’t enough. The most other nations have a flat tax that is truly equal. And by the way, a graduated income tax is tenant #2 of the Communist Manifesto.

Finally, we come to education. Go take a look at Sweden, my conformist liberal friends. The Swedes are in the early years of implementing a fully private education system. It is vouchers for everybody and their achievement, along with their neighbors the Fins, is among the highest in the industrialized world. Oh yeah, “free” public education, tenant # 10 of the Communist Manifesto. You won’t find that little fact at a campaign rally, will you?

Choice breeds excellence. Choice breeds innovation. Choice breeds achievement. Take a look at public schools before charter schools entering the market and after. Look at the postal service in the post-UPS world. Compare the USSR and US during the Cold War.

In Georgia, we have a chance to better the lives of our children and make this state a better place to live by giving parents more options in education. Don’t stop this progress. Be part of the solution, not the problem. For once, be anti-establishment on an issue. Support public school choice. Support HB 881.

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Tonight I had the opportunity to watch the State of the Union; which outlines Bush’s final plans for America in the coming year. As the President’s final months come to pass, he is also trying to set some of his legislation chiseled in stone. Of course I am referring to his tax cuts that he introduced in 2001 and 2003. Here is just someone’s opinion on what the tax cuts could do if they are implemented in the tax code for good.

“If Congress makes the tax cuts permanent, the major economic benefits begin in 2011. For example,

Total employment will rise by 1,087,000 jobs per year, on average;
Annual GDP will be over $111 billion higher, after inflation;
Personal savings will grow by $163 billion per year, on average, after inflation; and
After-tax household income will grow by an annual average of $274 billion per year, after inflation.”

Am I true believer of the tax cuts that the Bush administration has put into place over the past eight years? Take a wild guess? No, of course I don’t. Do I believe in lowering taxes? Hell yes I do, but the administration is still going about it the wrong way. I’ve said this over and over now, but the mainstream media still won’t cover the real long-term damages that these tax cuts will have on America without cutting spending. How does the government really expect to purchase all this fancy military equipment without increasing taxes? I am not in favor in cutting military budgets, by any means. I would love to see an increase in domestic military spending and a large decrease in international spending though. It’s like the game of ‘Risk.” It’s much easier defending your boarders than to have your armies spread out all over the map. The Bush administration needs to cut their credit card in half and burn it.

People need to understand that I am not in favor of increasing taxes. I truly believe that raising them will inevitably throw us into a depression, but we must lower our spending habits to save our nation’s future. My first idea that the government could implement that could save them a lot of money, while also cutting taxes for all Americans, is lowering government spending in the private sector.

There are many government programs that tax every single business, but only benefit a few. Here is just an example that helps one industry, but damages another. If the government gives a 10 billion dollar grant to an oil company for global expansion, this will inevitably hurt the alternative oil industry. What happened to the invincible hand of economics that we’ve preached about in econ classes for so many years? Here’s a quick definition - “Smith claims that, in a free market, an individual pursuing his own self-interest tends to also promote the good of his community as a whole through a principle that he called “the invisible hand”. He argued that each individual maximizing revenue for himself maximizes the total revenue of society as a whole, as this is identical with the sum total of individual revenues.”

The other factor here is that every single business will have to pay for some of this “free” grant money. A small business owner in Georgia that makes doo-dads will not see a return in this situation. All they will see is a tax hike in their quarterly payment. Imagine this scenario but a 100 times larger. Government spending has corrupted our nation and truly damaged our economic future. We need to let business fuel themselves and add the real sense of an American meritocracy. In a perfect environment a large business would loan a company the 10 billion dollars and expect some kind of return. That is the true sense of American investing. Business investing in business for the betterment of both parties.

Can we really get out of this hole we’ve dug by implementing tax cuts and still allow rampid spending? Something needs to change… What do you think? What do other people think?

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Now that the Fed cut the rates again, what do you really think will happen? Is this short-term vaccination going to bring a long-term disease? I would have to say YES! Can we seriously keep on prolonging the real issue any longer? Our nation is in over 9 trillion dollars in debt and people still think that a 150 billion dollar tax check will end up fixing our economy. This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. With interest rates going even lower, our debt increasing everyday and our national budget is still out of control, yet the government still wants to give out money…. How is this fiscally able to happen without kicking our country in the a$$ in the future?

What type of package do you think the federal government should implement without stubbing the toe of the American economy? I really haven’t seen anything that jumps out at me. There really isn’t any long-term plan that seems to be important enough to really cover. The stock market is not only going down because of the consumer credit market. It’s also going down because investors are taking a lot of money out of American companies and investing it abroad. They are scared that the 9 trillion dollars will end up killing the American economy in the long run.

Instead of trying to increase the dollars value and decrease our debt, analyst want us to reduce rates so low that we end up in the same situation we were in five years ago -an artificial housing boom that ends up hurting our country even more. It’s pretty amazing to me that no presidential candidate wants to talk about our national debt because everyone is so consumed about our short-term economy, the war and healthcare. We won’t even have a country if we do not correct the wrongs of the past.

Here’s my idea  

-Slash international spending

-Slash domestic spending

-Lower taxes for all Americans

-Reform our current tax system to increase domestic investments

-Remove the capital gains tax (increases investment activity)

-Increase Federal spending on education (if there’s any type of government spending I believe in, education is the way to go.)

-Cut the corporate tax code to increase business activity in America

-Reform Social Security and Medicare

 
What do you think?

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This is the first in a series I am calling “Politics in Action”, where news stories are dissected and political motives and consequences are revealed. This is the first post of two today (the other I wrote two days ago but haven’t posted yet).

Today, we take a look at Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s plan to eliminate all property taxes in the state, everything from real estate property taxes to ad valorum taxes on auto registration. To make up for the nearly 8.5 billion in revenue, the state sales tax of 4% would be expanded to include all goods and services with only four exemptions. Sounds great, right? Tax reform is finally coming!

Wrong…

My first of three criticisms and concerns…this is not really tax reform! It is simply shifting the source of income. True tax reform is cutting taxes, which in turn requires the reduction of spending. This plan is just moving the revenue stream from one source to another. Richardson needs a tax hook to hang his gobernatory hat on for 2010. While he may in fact care about increasing property tax burdens, this is the simple and most political way to do it. It gives no power back to the people.

In fact, it keeps power from the people. I have the same issue with the GREAT Plan as I do S-CHIP. It’s not that I don’t think the plans are good ideas, they just are not lied out correctly. With S-CHIP, my main objection is that it takes money from the people and returns it to the states with a multitude of strings attached. That is reduction of local control at its finest. The GREAT Plan does essentially the same thing. Instead of tax money being used locally being collected locally, the state collects the cash, then reallocates it, most likely with strings attached, handcuffing local officials. Again, this is local control, and thus your control, seized for political gain.

Finally, there are constitutional issues. One of the great things about Georgia and the South in general is the decentralized (at least in theory) nature of state government. We have a thing in Georgia called home rule. There is a section of the Constitution of Georgia that explicitly keeps the State government out of the affairs of localities. One of the realms that the state is not allowed to enter is that of local taxation. Richardson will need a constitutional amendment to enact the GREAT Plan. That is the only great thing about it.

Instead, I suggest a voter reliant restriction on local spending. The thing about property taxes that makes them unique is that they are the only taxes that are tied directly to spending. So, as spending increases, taxes increase, simple as that. Well, the reason that property taxes continue to increase year after year is that, since 1995 nationally, local spending has increase 98%, while inflationary prices have risen at only 20+%. Local spending is out of control, that’s the bottom line. Let’s put the voters in control of spending. In 1983, of all state, Massachusetts enacted Proposition 2.5. This stipulates that if local spending is to increase by more than 2.5% in a given year, the increase must be put before the voters. This is a cool plan because it makes the local politicians and boards directly responsible for spending and puts the voters in charge.

So, to the Speaker, instead of simply shifting the burden for easy political gains, think of proposing actual tax reform by putting the voters back in charge of local spending. It will be good for you politically and good for Georgians.

Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson

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In a presentation before the [Georgia] Governor’s Education Finance Task Force, former UGA president and current chairman of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, Dr. Charles B. Knapp spoke passionately about the dire state of public education in Georgia and the nation as a whole. According to Dr. Knapp, American public education “is a train wreck that has already occurred”. If clean-up of this mess does not begin immediately, the consequence will be not only the continued loss of jobs overseas, but also as a long-term decline in the American standard of living.

The data supporting the view that American public schools are failing is a wake-up call. Since the 1970s, there has been almost no growth in the percentage of American adults in the workforce with a high school diploma. Meanwhile, other nations have caught and exceeded our levels of workers with secondary school diplomas, resulting in a decline of competitiveness of the American worker. Moreover, the education received does not seem to be doing the job of adequately preparing students for post-secondary study. Longitudinal studies cited by the Commission show that of 100 students beginning 9^th grade, only 68 will graduate high school on-time. Of these students, 40 will enroll directly in college and a mere 18 will graduate with an Associates or Bachelors degree within six years. Additionally, the cost of educating students over the past 30 years has risen with no appreciable increase in common benchmark test scores, such as 4^th grade reading scores. Something must be done.

While the Commission has proposed robust reforms for the national K-12 system that they would like to see actualized by 2021, in the interim the onus is on states and localities to produce the type of workforce that will best be able to adapt to an ever changing global environment. One way that Georgia can do this is to adopt charter school legislation that would provide parents with school choices that best fit the needs of their child while at the same time pushing schools to excel. Two options were recently presented before the Joint Charter Schools Subcommittee, H.B. 469 and H.B. 881.

H.B. 469, proposed by Rep. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth), would create a system by which charter schools can be authorized from multiple sources, not just local Boards of Education. Included in the list of proposed authorizers are any local elected body (city, county, etc.), a public university, or the State Board of Education. The goal here is to create a free-market environment in which educational needs can be met in a way that encourages excellence in all public schools, charter and non-charter, through competition. Additionally, H.B. 469 would allow all state and 90% of local education monies to follow an enrolled child. Another proposal, H.B. 881, presented by Rep. Jan Jones (R-Alpharetta), would create the Georgia Charter School Commission, a central body that all charter schools are accountable to. Aside from having regulatory roles, the proposed Commission would also be able to authorize charter schools without local Board of Education approval, allowing for the proliferation of charter schools in districts where local board members may be less-than-friendly to the idea. Additionally, 90% of all funds will follow the child should they enroll in a charter school.

 The efficacy of charters schools is undeniable. Graduation rates are higher by 8-12%, more schools meet federal standards, and parents are able to target the needs of their children better while not having to resort to expensive private education. In the absence of comprehensive systemic changes, encouraging educational excellence through competition is the best way to get American education back on track. Legislation that encourages the creation of charter schools is a step in the right direction.

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I hoping everyone got to see the debate that happened on CNBC yesterday. I thought it was a pretty good debate involving some important issues. Healthcare, social security, federal spending and taxes were the center of attention and I honestly feel like this was the first debate that you can start picking your potential GOP candidate.

Federal spending is the cornerstone to all of the issues that the presidential hopefuls debated about. As you all should know, federal spending has been off the charts. Yet, taxes have not increased, but DECREASED over the past eight years. Can someone please tell me how you can pay for a war and still offer tax cuts? Pretty much you can’t do that (unless you want to be in debt forever!).

This is one issue that most presidential candidates do not want to talk about other than Ron Paul (Please watch this video! It pretty much explains everything). It really does suck that Ron Paul is voted the most important presidential candidate online and in polls, yet the mainstream media doesn’t want to give him any air time. Extremely sad. He is the only candidate that wants to bring America back to what it used to be and, more importantly, what it always should be.

I just think it’s amazing how no one really wants to talk about the deficit and pretend like it’s non-existing issue (Ron Paul excluded and a lil’ McCain too). Cutting taxes and participating in a war is an oxymoron. You can’t double dip unless the government is getting the tax revenue to fund the war. One of my anti-war friends thinks that there should be an Iraq War Tax to wake up Americans. Pretty good idea… Our faux-Republican government has lost their touch and everyone can see that now. Limited government? Gone. Federal spending down? I don’t think so. Cutting taxes? Well, yeah that’s happening. We need a full scale enema. We need the Reagan times to come and shine again.

I am hearing a lot of discussion about reforming the tax code; which I am also in total favor for. BUT… it still doesn’t change our current situation. The only way we can get ourselves out of this mess is by either INCREASING taxes or DECREASING federal spending. I know everyone gets really scared when you hear tax hike, but our system will end up failing horribly at some point. And that “some point” will inevitably be in my lifetime. The math does not make sense people. Our economy couldn’t handle the credit crunch. What makes you think our federal government can? Instead of worrying about cutting taxes, start demanding federal spending cuts.

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Here’s an email I received from a friend. What do you think about this? Truth or lies?

If you don’t understand the Democrats’ version of tax refunds, maybe this will help: 50,000 people go to a baseball game, but the game was rained out.

A refund was then due. The team was about to mail refunds…Then, a group of Congressional Democrats came along…

Their recommendation: send out all the ticket refunds based on the Democrat National Committee’s interpretation of fairness.

Originally the refunds were to be paid based on the price each person had paid for the tickets. Unfortunately that meant most of the refund money would be going to the ticket holders that had purchased the most expensive tickets.

This, according to the DNC, would be totally unfair. A decision was then made to pay out the refunds in the following manner:

People in the $10 seats will get back $15. After all, they have less money to spend on tickets to begin with. Call it an “Earned Income Ticket Credit.” (People “earn” it by having few skills, poor work habits, and low ambition, thus keeping them at entry-level wages.)

People in the $25 seats will get back $25, because it “seems fair.”

People in the $50 seats will get back $1, because they already make a lot of money and don’t need a refund. (After all, if they can afford A $50 ticket, they must not be paying enough taxes.)

People in the $75 luxury box seats will each have to pay an extra, additional$25. (Because it’s the “Right Thing ToDo.”)

People walking past the stadium that couldn’t afford to buy a ticket for the game each will get a $10 refund, even though they didn’t pay anything. (They need the most help.)

Now, do you understand? If not, contact Representative

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Previous editions: Reforming the Government, Change In Politics#3, Change In Politics#2, Change In Politics#1

With the new Congress in power, what types of new legislation would you like to see happen? I know you can think of a ton of things you would personally like to see, but what are your main ones that would benefit a lot of people? Here’s my forth and last proposed change that I would like to see happen with the new government in power.

The last proposed change I would like to see is more active involvement at a domestic level instead of a global one. We invest way too much money in other nations; while we have huge domestic problems knocking at our door. We should plan a proper evacuation from Iraq and worry more about our country. That’s what we really need right now. We need our citizens to love each other once again (like the time around September 11th). There’s a huge division in our country and we need some Dr. Philin’/therapy. We need to discuss our weaknesses and problems and correct them accordingly.

I know celebrities love to say they travel the globe helping starving children, but what about OUR country’s starving children? I’ve always believed that you cannot help someone else, when you are currently in a depressive state. I would love to see our Congress slash funds in international relations and increase our domestic budget. This would allow our taxes to be the same or even decrease them permanently. Take care of our own citizen before we try to take care of others. Leave the globe for the United Nations. There has to be at least ONE reason why we have them?!?

What do you think??

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Is generation Y designed to fail financially speaking? Every single day you read more and more about how younger people¹ are investing less and spending more. How can this cycle be broken and allow them to eventually see financial prosperity? Here are the two biggest ways that people can eventually be extremely wealthy. Education and action. Ground breaking? No. Simplistic? Maybe. I know it seems much more complex than that, but it really isn’t that hard to change a bad behavior.

Financial education has been overlooked in school because kids are too busy dissecting frogs and learning how to calculate the area of a rhombus². That’s right, a rhombus. Are parents to blame or should we push the blame to the schools? I think both parties should be held somewhat accountable for the lack of financial education in the school system. The reason why I would blame the parents is because they are the ultimate authority in what their kids are taught in schools. They have voting power and could demand the school board to introduce a financial education class. The school system is guilty for not changing its curriculum in 50 years. The only class that changes every five to ten years is history class. All the other courses are redundant and do not fit the world’s current standards.

*eFIPO’s Rule* If you desire change, promote change. If you have kids going through elementary school and want them to learn about personal finance, participate on your PTA.

Learning and not applying what I’ve learned is something I do on a daily basis. I’ve been taught how to calculate the maximum speed of a falling object, but you don’t see me dropping things of my roof for fun. I apply important aspects to my life to gain leverage over my competition³. I think learning how to invest is much easier than actually throwing your hard earned money into investing. This is a fear you must get over so you can be a financially independent one day.

So many of my friends get paid twice as much as me, but they are in four to five times the amount of debt than I am. Am I special or something? No. According to my mother I am, but realistically I’m normal. I’mve just disciplined myself to not spend all my money on depreciating assets. For example: A friend of mine is in debt about $25,000 and realizes that she has a problem. Last week she won $200 in a poker game, and instead of applying it to her debt, she bought a new diamond necklace. I know you, the reader, would never do this, but I have countless stories about personal friends of mine that have an opportunity to get out debt, but end up in more debt after it’s all said and done.

*eFIPO’s Rule* Invest in appreciating assets, and use the cash flow from those assets to purchase stagnant or depreciating assets.

¹College students, 18-35 age groups.
²Parallelogram. I know that doesn’t help much sorry.
³Other young adults in my situation. College graduates and young professionals.

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I’m hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Christmas is always a great time to show some people how much you appreciate them with a gift that requires some deep thinking. This year my father and mother or “Santa” purchased me “Why We Want You to be Rich“audio CD by Donald J. Trump, Robert T. Kiyosaki. Even though there were many mixed reviews about this book (mostly negative) there’s a ton of great information in the book. First thing that I loved about it was the topic of financial education. Financial education should be taught at every school in America. It amazes me that someone can learn how to become a doctor and still not know how to balance a check book.

Second thing I liked about the book is its controversial topic of social security and Medicare. Because both of these authors are so popular they can spread an unpopular message and make it a hot topic. I like the fact that they think “gimmies” are the reason why America is failing. Right now, I’m reading the book Atlas Shrugged; which revolves around the notion that socialized programs makes people lazy and unsuccessful. I’m a total believer in reforming our social programs in the U.S. because they are designed to motivate laziness.

Third topic that I liked about the book was fact it wasn’t an investment book. When I originally read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I was kind of disappointed that it didn’t really teach me how to become rich. All it taught me is to think outside the box and not to become a corporate robot. All of Robert T. Kiyosaki books are educational and motivational references. They are not “how to become rich” books, but more on the lines of “what knowledge do rich people have”books. The line that they hammered in my head throughout the audio book is “You can give a man a fish and he eats for a day. You can teach him how to fish, and he’ll not go hungry the rest of his life.”

So instead of just reading all the negative reviews about the book, decide for yourself and either buy the book or audio CD’s. In my eyes it was an interesting book.

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