six crazy ideas…..

The federal government fired the CEO of General Motors, a dysfunctional industrial company, put its own hand-picked successor in place, and gutted what used to be the world’s largest industrial company. 

It seems as if this approach has been successful.  General Motors has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and is now profitable.  In the near future, an initial public offering of stock will be made and some of the investment we’ve made into General Motors will be returned.  Ultimately, it looks as though the American public will be made whole on this loan with a considerable profit.

The parallels between General Motors and the federal government are eerily similar.  Both have been run in a dysfunctional manner.  Both have had leadership that doesn’t have a clue what’s going on down line.   

Suppose we took the GM approach to government, the same approach private business  has to do every day, the same approach the government used to trim the fat from General Motors, the same approach it must use if it is going to function going forward.

I would propose that we appoint CEOs for every branch of government and treat our government like a company in Chapter 11, with survival as the goal.  Then, it is up to the CEO of each branch to be creative enough to make the cuts with the least possible damage.   We did it at GM, we can do it here.  This would be step one.

Step two would involve re-evaluating our existing social programs.  We will need to raise the retirement age.  We will need to have a bigger buy in for medicare.

Step three would be recognizing illegal immigrants with work visas, and a roadmap to citizenship.  Instead of chasing them, we should be collecting taxes from them and the fruit of their labor (pun intended).  The reality is we are dependent on them and they use social services, and they are not paying for them.  This has got to change. 

Step four would be the legalization of what are now illegal drugs.  I don’t condone drug use, and I’ve never used them.  But, I am affected by them every day with our drug policies.  Instead of spending the money we spend on enforcement and incarceration, we should spend those funds on rehabilitation and education.  But, most of all, we need to get the incentive of big profits out of them and the ancillary crime associated with it.

And, we would have another tax source that would measure in the tens of billions of dollars.  The richest guy on the block should not be the drug dealer.  In many cities, our policies guarantee just that.

I would combine the branches of the military to one, and close bases that are deemed unnecessary to our defense.   I would not allow politicians who directly benefit by having them in their districts to have any input.  I would appoint a committee of business and military leaders to come up with the solution.  The abandoned bases would then be sold.

I would study services that the government provides and determine whether they could be better operated by private enterprise.   I’m not saying we privatize everything, just things that can be as well or better than the public sector.

I will think of more.