Top 5 Actions I Believe Will Save the US Economy/Government Budget

I want to start by noting this is all in my own opinion, and what I think would be the best course of action for the Government and other agencies to implement in order to preserve our economy and ensure our nation thrives toward the future. The way things are at this moment, as we are all painfully aware, our economy is in the drain. There are things we can do to help, that is for sure, but our government needs to really take the reigns to create the big changes we require. I believe if we fought for the changes we need, it is plausible. Out of the 27 Amendments to our great constitution, 7 of them became law set-in-stone in less than a year. This was all because of the pressure of the people (us) pushing our congressmen(or women) for the changes. Anything is possible.

Change 1. I propose we lower congressional pay. The 2011 pay for rank-and-file of congressional and senate members is around $174,000 per year- and it increases almost every year. Now, I understand the importance of Congress and our Senate, but 174,000 and rising is just not realistic when we have millions of citizens in our country working a thousand times harder for barely a quarter of that! Even if congress were to lower their pay to 150,000 a year, between them all it would mean millions back into our government budget. Between the 541 members of senate and congress, that's almost 13million dollars back into our pool. But that estimate is incorrect. Why? It doesn't take into account the leadership of congress. Here are the average salaries of leadership within the house and senate:

Senate Leadership
Majority Party Leader - $193,400
Minority Party Leader - $193,400

House Leadership
Speaker of the house - $223,500
Majority Leader - $193,400
Minority Leader - $193,400

My second thought for change, less foreign aid! Why in any reasoning, should MY tax dollars go to help some other country? I pay my taxes to improve MY country, and help support MY countrymen. I can understand sending a few workers and possibly some soldiers overseas to help in time of a disaster, but we have our own problems we need to eradicate before we start worrying about everyone else's problems. In 2010 Alone 28.305 Billion US Dollars were given out in foreign aid programs, a large chunk of such to countries that aren't in development and don't necessarily need out help. One for instance being Israel, and a large bit of that money given to Israel yearly is used on military endeavors or development. In fact, in 2010 3.175 Billion US Dollars were given to Israel alone. So I ask this, Why is MY money going to fund foreign nations and not our own?

My third Idea. This is where things start to get a bit more controversial....

Consent to submit to random drug urinalysis, upon receiving any form of government aid, grant or program. If you do not have enough money to buy food for yourself and your children, then you don't have enough to buy drugs. Simply put. Opposition will argue that this is a violation of privacy. I don't see it as such. If the government can give you money to live on, you can take the extra effort and not do any illegal substances. I've done time in the military, and I've had to involuntarily submit to urinalysis before, why can't citizens on government funding do so as well? And while we're at let's require them to provide proof of searching for a job, while receiving unemployment benefits. There are way too many people in the world coasting on government programs while the government does nothing to push them off of the programs and make them support their own selves. I believe raising standards and requirements to sustain your status on government programs would deter freeloading and encourage people to work toward bettering themselves, while the people who really need it can still get the help required.

Fourth. Lower taxes for lower-income persons, and raise taxes for higher-income persons. A possible, and even more simple solution would be to create more tax brackets above the already standing 373,650 cut-off. There are a lot of people in the US that have too much money for their own good, and too many more that barely even make enough to survive. The government should be more like robin hood in this case. The tax breaks for the lower classes would allow them the chance to have more money to spend on living, and even improve their earning potential, placing them in a higher tax bracket- meaning what? More money for the government in the long run.

Lastly, Credit. Banks are creating one hell of a problem with their ability to "create" money out of nothing. While trillions of dollars are transferred from taxpayer money to "financial elites" in "bailout" payments, it is literally siphoning thousands from the average household per year. I understand the need for an occasional loan, I really do. But between super-elevated interest rates and the bank heads walking out with trillions of profit yearly, the consumers are the ones losing out. The bank's credit system is one of the driving forces creating inflation, and devalues the money already possessed by the public. Inflation occurs when the money already owned by citizens loses its value as purchasing power decreases. Two excerpts:

“The purpose of this booklet is to describe the basic process of money creation in a ‘fractional reserve’ banking system…The actual process of money creation takes place primarily in banks.” “[Banks] do not really pay out loans from the money they receive as deposits. If they did this, no additional money would be created. What they do when they make loans is to accept promissory notes in exchange for credits to the borrower’ transaction accounts. Loans (assets) and deposits (liabilities) both rise by [the amount of the "loan"]." -The federal reserve bank's publication "Modern Money Mechanics" (Source:LA Examiner)

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