Marathon Bombing, Suspect #2

After the capture of Suspect #2 in the Boston Marathon bombing incident, many people were appalled that the suspect, an American citizen, was given his Miranda rights.  Of course we read him his rights.  We are a nation of laws and believe in the rule of law.  If we lose sight of this, we are no better than those who intend to harm us.  A couple of "radicalized Islamists", the surviving participant an American citizen, practiced their religious belief here in America and committed an atrocity upon innocent Americans. Why? Because they don't agree with our Politics. I don't agree with our politics either, but you sure as hell don't see me or any other Christians, Jews, Hindus or LDS members acting out this way in the name of their chosen religion do you? 

Here is the issue for me,   I believe the American citizen committing this act of violence still has rights and one of them is to have miranda invoked. I believe in the rule of law and I believe in the freedoms we (used to) have in America.  I believe we have the right to speak up in opposition but not act out in a violent manner.

I'm against the US government policy of Nation Building (ie..intruding). I am against the government sending Billions of dollars in "aid" every year to middle eastern and other countries which is wasted, has little oversight and never reaches those intended. I am opposed to our government selling arms across the globe to whatever faction happens to be the flavor of the month only to find out that the winds have changed a year later and we have supplied people who wage Jihad against us. I am adamantly opposed to the US invasion of ANY sovereign nation (ie...Iraq and soon Syria). I advocate that we cut back our military presence around the world and both the size and footprint of our standing armies to the absolute minimum. We do not need to and should not be policemen to the world. And I am completely opposed to the concept of using drones to kill anyone the president deems appropriate.

But that being said, we, not Iran, Iraq or any other middle eastern country, were attacked here in America by muslim fundamentalists who teach and preach jihad, murder of infidels and the use of Sharia Law in America. I do not accept this as a reasonable religious tenet and I will continue to speak out against it. For any muslim supporters, if this offends your sense of morality, well, you have the right to state your case, but understand, I have not found any arguments the least bit persuasive because the arguments forgo the single major difference between Christians and Islamists, Christians are not teaching children from an early age to HATE and execute those who disagree with them. Would that it were different and it's great that only a small percentage of the Islamic world advocates Jihad, but that percentage has placed a target on the backs of Americans TODAY, not 50, 100, 200 or 500 years ago, they are plotting against us TODAY and it only takes a small percentage to end up killing you or me or other Americans who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Better to be prepared than dead as far as I'm concerned.

The Debt and Deficit Problem -- A Solution

Here are my suggestions on how we can solve the debt and deficit problem in a realistic manner:


1) No automatic increases in the Federal budget.  Instead an across the board decrease in each agency budget at a rate of 2% per year for 10 years. 

2) Real and simple tax reform which forces fairness for everyone -- EITHER a flat tax of 17% of all income above 22K with a surcharge of 5% on income above 500K to be used to fund Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

3)   OR a truly modern alternative to all income taxes.  Eliminate the income tax altogether and replace it with the Automatic Payment Transaction Tax at a rate of 1% collected 1/2 from each side of the transaction at the time and place of the transaction distributed 40% to the locality, 40% to the State and 20% to the Fed.

4)  Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) fixed at 15%.

5) Flat corporate tax rate of 15% on all income after the first 2MM, 

6)  Eliminate the "death Tax".

7) Balanced budget amendment with a cap on spending at the historic level of 18% of  GDP.

8)  Legislative term limits of 5 terms for House members and 2 terms for Senators

9) Campaign finance reform limiting contributions to only registered voters at federally limited amounts, once before the primaries and once after the primaries.  

In my mind, this is a good starting point to achieving a balanced budget, eliminate the deficit and decrease the national debt with an added bonus of a thriving economy and a much more responsible government.