My Solution

I have a simple solution. Let me make sure we first agree on some facts. The Republicans and the Tea Party hate taxes, they hate government (Grover Norquist once famously said that he wanted to drown the government in his bath tub), they want government out of their hair and they love their liberties. Any arguments so far? No... okay well here is what I suggest.

Here is a link to a past post called secession. The gist of it is that red states take more from the federal government than they pay in. The information simply shows that the blue states are givers and the red states are takers. So far the blue states have been patient and willing to give. If you are going to hold the government hostage than as constituents of red states you have the right to be free of that government.

The solution as I see it, is that we allow each state to vote on constitutional amendments outlining the following steps

1. The residents of any state that votes for the amendments gets a phaseout on federal taxes. 33% cut this year, 66% the next down to 0%. No federal taxes.

2. The federal government stops spending federal dollars in those states based on a phaseout 33% less this year, 66% less next year.. you get the point 

3. No Obamacare, no medicare, no medicaid, no social security nothing after three years. The states Any current red state resident has to wait nine years before they can get residency in a state that did not vote for the amendment.(To keep some states from having to take in all the "takers" from the other states) 

4. No EPA, FDA, FAA, etc... after three years. After all private companies are better in the minds of republicans they can tax their own residents and pay them. 

5. The federal government will simply bill the states that opt out of taxes proportionally based on population for defense and border patrol costs which the states can pay from their own budgets. 

Republicans specially tea party members should be jumping at this idea. It gives them everything they want total and complete freedom from the "government and taxes." 

( Yes what is above is silly, but the House of Republicans(certainly does not seem representative to me)  tried over 40 times to kill a bill that has already passed and is now law, which the Supreme Court upheld. When none of that worked they forced a government shut down, and now are threatening the country with default... and I seem silly???)  [***2016 addition, and now the Republican Party's front runner is Donald Trump, and I seem silly???***]

Some Stats

Saw something that made me wonder. It is pretty clear what side of the aisle I tend to lean on. Rather than write a long blog about what I believe etc... I thought it might be interesting to just throw out some statistics

Top Income Tax Rates (adjusting for inflation)

1965 70% on any income over $1.42 Million
2011 38% on any income over $388,000

Unemployment Rate
1970 - 4%
2013 - 7%

Poverty Rate

1965 - 15%
2013 - 15%

Top 1 % (Wealth)

1970 - 24%
2013 - 40%

Reducing taxes creates jobs which should in turn decrease poverty. Heard that one before? Obviously this is simplifying it but it would seem to me the rich have gotten richer. The poor... well they are still poor. Jobs well we have fewer of those oh and they pay less in real dollars than in the past. Oh and tax brackets haven't dropped for everyone in real dollars people in the 70's who made over $388,000 would have probably paid 38 % on that income but as they made far over that amount they paid a higher percentage. The only change is the really rich don't pay like they used to. The current distribution is more like feudal times where a few lords make most of the money and own everything... It's not corporations its the 1% that owns 50% of the shares of those corporations.