What I Want From Ron Paul In 2012: SPECIFICS

[Sola_Fide]

I don't want Ron to speak in generalities like he did in 2008. Generalities were fine in 2008 because there had to be a grand philosophical case against the idea of imperialism. I get that. 2012 is different.

What I want from Ron are SPECIFIC plans that detail how we are to get to smaller government.

-Don't just say "we need to come home", explain the exact number of bases we need to close in the exact number of countries and the exact amount of money that can save, and your exact plan to use the funds that we save in domestic affairs or a return to taxpayers. Put a NUMBER on the amount of troops you want to take out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the exact amount of money that will save.

-Don't just say "End the Fed", lay out an EXACT plan that would allow competing currencies and explain how that will save our purchasing power in the real world.

-"Don't just say "lower taxes", come out with a specific plan with a specific rate. Be it flat tax, fair tax, whatever. Be specific so people can talk about it.

-Don't just say "lower spending", be specific with what agencies and departments we should cut first.



Part of Rand's effectiveness in Kentucky was how exact and specific he was:



Rand was specific, exact...he went point by point. This was extremely effective. Sometimes even putting a specific plan into the public conversation is half the battle. This is what Ron Paul 2012 needs in my opinion.

 

[teacherone]

+ rep

this is important-- to be taken seriously you have to let stats roll off you tongue.

 

[eduardo89]

Thats a really good point and something I've thought of too. If he cant give specifics his ideas seem to abstract and unrealistic. It's an argument I've had with a lot of people I talk to about Ron. They like what they hear, but they just see it as rhetoric which has no way of being implemented and that makes Ron see like an unviable candidate. I wish he'd come out with a written platform with not just his ideas, but with plans, like Rand did with his budget cuts.

 

[Sola_Fide]

Yeah! It would be great to see Ron putting out REAL WORLD, SPECIFIC policy initiatives a month or two after he announces.

Put out a positive plan. Tell us what you want to do in a specific plan that we can debate.

Get the numbers out there in the realm of public conversation, like Rand is doing.

 

[eduardo89]

Yeah! It would be great to see Ron putting out REAL WORLD, SPECIFIC policy initiatives a month or two after he announces.

Get the numbers out there in the realm of public conversation, like Rand is doing.

Yeah a sort of "This is what I'd cut, this is how much, this is how"

 

[prmd142]

+1776 for this thread... someone needs to send a link to this thread to Ron Paul!

viva la liberty!

 

[TheTyke]

I very much agree! Give us a plan - the first steps anyhow.

Ron may have been trying this out with his "opt out of government" plan he floated at CPAC, but to be honest it still seemed a bit vague and took some figuring out. Hopefully they are trying things and will refine them in the final campaign?

This touches on a wider point even, that I'd been wondering. How do we find a simple, saleable way to broach the subject of competing currencies? When reviewers say he wants a gold standard, he doesn't correct them... just says the gold standard is better, leading many to believe that's what he's after. Even as one who had seriously followed Ron, it took me a while to determine his solution to the Fed. We need an appealing soundbyte, a catchy phrase, and a bill to go with it. (I mean this paragraph mostly for the movement in general - not the presidential campaign necessarily.)

 

[IDefendThePlatform]

A plan that gives a specific year for the phase out of social security would be awesome. Then older workers can see that they will be 'grandfathered in' and their ss checks won't ever be affected. Others can be told "The average 35 year old will save $70,000 over his career in ss tax. Invested at 5% that will result in a $200,000 nest egg at retirement" or whatever the numbers are.

 

[LibertyEagle]

Man, do I agree. No more of the "we could do" x or y. Specifics are needed. Concrete plans need to be developed and shown to the American public.

 

[LibertyEagle]

A plan that gives a specific year for the phase out of social security would be awesome. Then older workers can see that they will be 'grandfathered in' and their ss checks won't ever be affected. Others can be told "The average 35 year old will save $70,000 over his career in ss tax. Invested at 5% that will result in a $200,000 nest egg at retirement" or whatever the numbers are.

Good idea, but I sure think it is a mistake to lead the cuts with Social Security and Medicare. Before these are touched, the wars need to be stopped and foreign aid ended. Not to mention ending funding for the education and health care of the illegal aliens in our country. Then, a bevy of unconstitutional federal agencies, such as the Department of Education, should be disbanded and their functions returned to the states where they belong. Oh, and of course, immediately curtailing the free health care for the Congress and all their pretty little freebies.

If the American people saw all this happening, they would be much more understanding of changes to Social Security and Medicare.

 

[Eric21ND]

Precisely what I was thinking.

 

[rnestam]

Specifics on base closers would be "rad"...people always think of troops without body armor in the middle of Iraq when speaking of defense cuts...exact bases and money saved would be deadly...most can't even name 135 countries, never mind defending the fact we have bases there......should be a priority for real.

 

[pacelli]

If Ron wants to win, he'll change his strategy from the last campaign. If he wants to educate, he'll be dealing with generalities. Ron has asked for a lot of "convincing" dollars over the past few months, so this thread is important. He's going to need to be a convincing candidate or his fundraising will dry up.

 

[Matthew Zak]

I hope the ron paul people are paying attention.

 

[specsaregood]

..

 

[eduardo89]

A proposal as conservative (meaning small) as cutting our troop levels in Germany, Japan and South Korea in half would bring home 57,000 troops!! If we include also bringing just half of the rest of our troops in Europe we bring home close to 72,000 men and women!

I highly doubt if he brought up those numbers anyone would see it as a "crazy" proposal, it just doesn't make sense to maintain that many soldiers in countries that can defend themselves!

 

[sailingaway]

We definitely have to have 'next steps'. If he doesn't package them, WE have to from his speeches, and put out a flyer like the old 'he has never voted to raise taxes'. Something like: Ron Paul's plan to turn around the economy....and list steps. Then we can flood them everywhere so they are one of the first things people think of with him and they CAN'T say he's impractical with a straight face.

More, we could create a for cable commercial with them and run them on cable. High Tide runs were really not that expensive, he had just virtually suspended his campaign by the time it came out. If half the money spent on the blimp were spent on something like that, we could at least get his views out there in the less expensive cable markets, and then that would be added to the debate.

 

[kahless]

If Ron cannot do anything else I at least like to see him:

1. In one piece of legislation end not only the mandate, but Obamacare and the entire Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). (except for the CDC).

2. Eliminate the IRS and federal income tax.

If he can do more than that I want him to gut the federal government and elimination of all federal laws and departments not inline with the original Constitution. This means the end of the federal reserve.

Eliminate

- Department of State ($50 billion in savings)
- Department of Education ($47 billion in savings)
- Department of Housing and Urban Development ($48 billion in savings)
- Department of Commerce ($14 billion in savings)
- Department of Labor ($12 billion in savings)
- Department of Treasury, which includes the IRS ($12 billion in savings)
- Department of Health, HHS keep the CDC, eliminate all else. ($8 billion in savings)
- All other miscellaneous agencies ($200 billion in savings)

Reduce

- Department of Defense from $663 billion to $100 billion. DOD used for national defense only. Bases open and closed according to maintaining global national security in the event we are attacked.

Eliminate $2 trillion below in mandatory spending by transitioning all private solutions and privatization except for the disabled. Americans can opt-in or out accordingly with automatic payroll deductions to the private institution of choice.

Transition to be eliminated.

$695 billion – Social Security
$571 billion – Other mandatory programs
$453 billion – Medicare
$290 billion – Medicaid
$164 billion – Interest on National Debt

 

[eduardo89]

$571 billion – Other mandatory programs

What are these other "mandatory" programs?

 

[kahless]

What are these other "mandatory" programs?

I copy and pasted that from the 2010 Federal budget but did not pull the details out of their PDF. Regardless, cut it.

I am not a big fan of the federal government and do not believe much of it should exist.