And the Beat Goes On

I watched the Arizona GOP Debate last night.  Actually, I watched about the first 20 min. The GOP is still engaged in the circular firing squad.  If the GOP wants their candidate to win in November, they need to come up with some serious solutions to the problems that Americans are concerned about.

I currently do not have a horse in the presidential race. The candidate I would like to support would be pushing answers for:

1.    Unemployment.  We need some out of the box thinking on how to bring good jobs back to this country. 

2.    Energy.  Our current energy policy stinks.  We need a policy that promotes energy independence with as small an environmental footprint as possible.

3.    Immigration.  We need to come up with a comprehensive reform of our immigration laws.  This should be coupled with rigid enforcement and effective border security.

4.    Foreign Policy.  We need to stop interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries.  We should only take action when their actions affect Americans directly.  Otherwise, it is their business.

5.    Education.  The cost of education is out of control.  The Federal Governments role in education should be to ensure that the states are providing good K-12 education.  Funding should be collected and distributed at the state and local level. 

6.    Federal Spending.  Federal spending is out of control.  A massive overhaul of federal spending is needed.  No department or agency should be immune.  This includes defense.  Our military is way too big for the job of defending this country.  It is an invitation to politicians to engage in foreign wars that we should have no stake in.

This gives the next administration a full slate of things to do, if they choose.  Right now, I don’t hear any candidate offering ideas on addressing these issues.  This does not bode well for the future.

A Solution to the Public Pension Problem

The finances of the public pension systems in California (and other states) are a problem.  There is a way to clean up the mess.

Discontinue the public pension systems and move all public employees to a 401k plan.

It would work like this: at a specified date (I’ll use January 1, 2013 as an example) all public employees would stop participating in the public pension plans.  The expected benefits would be frozen at that point.  The assets would remain in the plan and the participants would be able to draw on them as scheduled. 

On January 1 2013, all public employees would be able to participate in a 401k plan.  Under that plan they could contribute up to 10% of their before tax pay to the plan.  If they leave public service, they can roll the assets of their plan over to another employer’s 401k or into and Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

Those employees that choose to not participate do not have to. The can setup their own IRAs separately.

This is the path that the private sector has been following for a couple of decades.

The state employees would begin to pay Social Security taxes as CALPERS participants do not currently participate in SS.

As the public workforce ages, the number of participants will decline through attrition until CALPERS is no more.

This would clear up the problem and put the public sector more in line with the private sector.

Prop 8 Still Unconstitutional

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204136404577209183209519256.html

A three judge panel from the Ninth circuit has ruled that Proposition 8 violates the equal protection clause and is unconstitutional.

The proponents of Prop 8 must now decide if they will appeal to the full ninth circuit or directly to the US Supreme Court.

The ruling should be no surprise as the liberal leaning 9^th circuit  was fully expected to rule against the measure.  The question now, is which path will the proponents of Prop 8 follow? 

Will they ask for review by the full 9^th circuit, or petition directly to the US Supreme Court?

My own personal advice, go for the Supreme Court.  The odds are the full 9^th circuit will not overturn the ruling.