Political Problems in the U.S. - TheSolution.org?

**MEfree** · November 6, 2013

As I said in Erik's 3 things to improve Politics thread, to improve something, you must identify the root PROBLEM.

TheSolution.org identifies our root political problem-

POWER is more important than results ! (Politicians can get away with this because most of us are in the dark as to what is truly going on) Do you agree? What do you think the root problem is? What is the solution?

The Solution- Have Limits and Transparency by Capping and Prioritizing the Budget

The Right will be happy to see the size of government limited (and shrink over time assuming that the economy continues to grow faster than inflation)

The Left will be happy to see Social Justice increase over time as we get better and better at prioritizing social spending (by allocating resources to those that need and benefit from it most rather than serving special interests).

We have a Representative Deomocracy, so if this makes sense to you, sign the petition at TheSolution.org , pass this on to your representative s, share with friends and vote for those supporting what you believe in.

***iacas*** · November 6, 2013

TheSolution.org identifies our root political problem-

Where?

He simply says (paraphrasing) "the root problem is government incentives." He never explains them. He never explains why they're the "root problem." He never does anything except state that "this is what it is."

Then he talks for the remainder of the time about the "solution."

The solution as presented above is weak. Politicians likely believe they're already capping and prioritizing.

Weak.

**MEfree** · November 6, 2013

Where?

He simply says (paraphrasing) "the root problem is government incentives." He never explains them. He never explains why they're the "root problem." He never does anything except state that "this is what it is."

Then he talks for the remainder of the time about the "solution."

The solution as presented above is weak. Politicians likely believe they're already capping and prioritizing.

Weak.

I think some of your criticism is fair, but I still like the basic ideas-

1. Most Politicians are more concerned with having Power rather than achieving results

2. (Implied) By having more transparency in the Prioritization process, the voters will be better able to keep an eye on what is going on and better support Politicians that are working towards results the people want to see rather than taking care of special interests.

3. (I think on the site video, not the embedded video here) Moving the prioritization process away from congress (to the states for social spending) will allow us to test different ways of doing things (and make the process more local/closer to the end recipients)

Did you watch both the embedded video and the one on the site? Too much time spent with too few actual details to be sure, but the general framework makes sense to me.

He should probably produce a video that gets right to the broad strokes and then focuses more on details such as

1. What would help improve transparency

2. How Improved transparency would lead to more involvement by the voters (AKA, It is hard to be involved and give your input when you don't know what is going on)

3.. How exactly to better incentive congress to:

a. Make things more transparent

b. Be willing to put the prioritization process for each part of the budget into the hands of those who know how to prioritize best (i.e. the Defense Department for Defense spending)

As far as #1 goes, I think having congress propose and vote on an easy to read budget that simply listed each category and who would be in charge of prioritizing the spending for each category would help transparency greatly. i.e. Defense $__________ (DOD) Prior to doing this each of the "prioritizers" would submit their budget request and details (which should be made public whenever possible). One reason that many people stay in the dark is that bills, etc are much more complicated than they need to be. (So complicated, in fact, that I doubt very few congressman actually read everything they vote on). Having details is ok, but if few actually read the details, then what is the point?

For #3, I think it takes grass root support of the idea and involvement from the public in terms of voting for those willing to implement these ideas.

Congress may think they already cap and prioritize, and to an extent they might, to my knowledge, we don't have any official caps on total expenditures. I think is idea is to set a cap today that only grows by a fixed amount each year (with the idea being that as the economy grows faster than inflation, the total size of the Federal government shrinks over time).

Hopefully, others who like this basic framework will come up with their own suggestions.

**MEfree** · November 6, 2013

Just found this on their site-

75% Say Congress Should Publish a PRIORITIZED Budget

And 63% Say a Prioritized Budget Would Help Them
Accept Cuts to Their FAVORITE Government Programs

DENVER, April 23, 2013 –TheSolution.org conducted a poll of 2,844 Americans to see if publishing a prioritized budget would help people accept cuts to their favorite government programs.

“ The response to questions 1 and 2 reveal the enormous challenge politicians face when trying to make government spending fiscally sustainable .” said Rick Raddatz, founder of TheSolution.org, “The good news is that the response to questions 3, 4 and 5 offer new hope.”

YES NO

1) Do you support a balanced budget amendment (BBA)? 75% 25%

2) Would you support a BBA even if it meant significant cuts 29% 71%
to entitlement programs?

3) Should Congress be required to publish a prioritized budget? 75% 25%

4) If Congress published a prioritized budget, would 63% 27%
you be more willing to accept cuts in your favorite
government programs?

5) Would you be more willing to support a BBA if 77% 23%
Congress published a prioritized budget?

“Publishing a prioritized budget – especially in the area of social spending – might sound impossible.” said Raddatz, “To make it easier, Congress could divide the social-spending budget among the fifty states and require the states to prioritize their portion. We call this solution, cap-and-prioritize. Oregon already does this with Medicaid, so it can be done.”

Complete poll details, with full internals, are available at http://THESOLUTION.org/media

THESOLUTION.org is a bipartisan political movement whose mission is to fix the perverse incentives that are built into government.

**dfreuter415** · November 7, 2013

Not only does the average American want a balanced budget amendment, but according to Gallup, 75% would like to see term limits, as well. This is what I have advocated for a number of years to help solve some of our problems. Because of the political BS in Washington, the current legislators feel that they only have to pay homage to the special interest groups that give them the big bucks, instead of the American people. Our Congress, for the most part, is clueless on how to solve the major problems in our country.

**newtogolf** · November 7, 2013

Just found this on their site-

75% Say Congress Should Publish a PRIORITIZED Budget
And 63% Say a Prioritized Budget Would Help Them
Accept Cuts to Their FAVORITE Government Programs

DENVER, April 23, 2013 –TheSolution.org conducted a poll of 2,844 Americans to see if publishing a prioritized budget would help people accept cuts to their favorite government programs.
“The response to questions 1 and 2 reveal the enormous challenge politicians face when trying to make government spending fiscally sustainable.” said Rick Raddatz, founder of TheSolution.org, “The good news is that the response to questions 3, 4 and 5 offer new hope.”
                                                                                                        YES             NO
[if !supportLists]1)      [endif]Do you support a balanced budget amendment (BBA)?               75%           25%
[if !supportLists]2)      [endif]Would you support a BBA even if it meant significant cuts          29%           71%
to entitlement programs?
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[if !supportLists]4)      [endif]If Congress published a prioritized budget, would                        63%           27%
you be more willing to accept cuts in your favorite
government programs?
[if !supportLists]5)      [endif]Would you be more willing to support a BBA if                            77%           23%
Congress published a prioritized budget?
“Publishing a prioritized budget – especially in the area of social spending – might sound impossible.” said Raddatz, “To make it easier, Congress could divide the social-spending budget among the fifty states and require the states to prioritize their portion. We call this solution, cap-and-prioritize. Oregon already does this with Medicaid, so it can be done.”
Complete poll details, with full internals, are available at http://THESOLUTION.org/media
THESOLUTION.org is a bipartisan political movement whose mission is to fix the perverse incentives that are built into government.

Seems most people didn't understand the questions. 71% don't want a BBA if it means their entitlement programs get cut. I don't care if the budget is published or not, those that get Obama phones or free healthcare aren't going to vote to give them up.

I've seen the budget, most politicians don't understand it, the average citizen won't either. It will come down to their political parties telling them how much is allocated on military and how much is allocated to entitlements which is information that is available today if you want to find it.

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