My cousin, Carlton, sent me an article today by Norma White titled  You Want Change?  Try These Ideas.  Some of you might have seen the article, as it was written back in October, primarily as a response to the Presidential candidates change platforms.  As I read through White’s list, I realized that while I agreed with some of her suggestions for change, others of them were faulty and inaccurate.  Norma’s list is provided below, along with my comments.   For Norma’s original column, CLICK HERE. .  

 Thirteen Ideas for Change

1. Limit Congress from serving more than two terms. That is all that presidents are allowed.   I agree but Hmmm…I guess we could also say isn’t this supposed to be the purpose of elections; if folks ain’t doing the job we want we need to vote them out. (or change the Constitution and add term limits for Congress and we know this ain’t going to happen…sigh.)
2. Stop Congress from voting for their own raises.–Yep this was written into the Constitution…and probably will not be changed…but if we don’t like the job our Congress person is doing…we can always try and vote them out.
3. Stop paying for lawmakers’ high-priced insurance premiums. After all, they are only part-time employees. They might pass some law changes on the insurance companies, if they had to find one.–Good idea and I hate that it’s part of their pay/benefits package.
4. Stop paying lawmakers their full salary after serving just one term, or at retirement. We need to get rid of that pension plan; they’ve let other companies get rid of theirs. You were lucky to get 40 to 50 percent of your salary after working somewhere for 35 years, but they get 100 percent.–Agree; but lawmakers have to serve more than one term to get their full salary.
5.  Make Congress pay into the Social Security system. They make laws for it. If they spent some of their own money, they might be interested in making it solvent.–.Congress doesn’t pay into the SS system and nor do they receive any benefits from it.  However, they do have a special plan/fund that they collect from.  Now I do agree that that plan should be revamped and they should pay into the SS system and receive the same type of compensation that many of us will receive when we retire…which is not barely enough to live on without a part-time job, or a 401 plan and a pension.  Oh yeah and that ‘special plan’ we the taxpayer’s do pay for it.
6. Have a computer program that cross checks Social Security numbers with fingerprints to stop fraud on many fronts. –I don’t think this will work because a Social Security number cannot be used as a form of ID.
7.  Stop bailing out mortgage companies and banks that give loans to people who cannot afford them.  False…those are not the companies being bailed out; banks/mortgage companies are not being bailed out because they gave loans to people who could not afford them.   The  package passed by Congress is to “bail-out” banks that issued bonds backed by mortgages that they believed to be good and to “bail-out” companies that insured these bonds.
8. Stop companies from paying CEOs and other executives outrageous salaries and bonuses while doing away with workers’ pensions.–Hmmm…unless companies are owned by the government, rather than  publicly held, I don’t think we have any say in how much CEOs/executives make.
9. Stop all unnecessary spending so we will have the money for our nation’s security, and to help needy and elderly Americans.–Okay but a lot of folks consider spending to help the needy (ie medicaid, food stamps, education, healthcare) and elderly Americans to be unnecessary including, it sounds like Norma.
10.  Stop permitting anyone to have a photo with their face covered on driver’s licenses. –Hmmm ???  I believe the law was changed and you can’t get a driver’s license if your face is covered.
11. Stop handing out aid to illegal aliens. If we did, then Medicaid and the food stamp program would have enough money to aid the aged and the poor.–Where is the data to support this argument?  I work for a government entity and the last time I checked if you were an illegal alien you couldn’t receive benefits; now if you have kids in America then yes you can receive aid for dependent children (because born in America makes you a citizen).  Sorry, but you can’t say you’re not going to help out dependent children, well you can say it but that doesn’t make it so, who are citizens (change the Constitution if you don’t like it) just because there mother is an illegal alien…who is probably illegally cleaning your home while you pay her under the table.   I wonder if Ms. White is aware that some illegal immigrants do pay social security taxes…worth billions of dollars…sort of a surplus/windfall for the government as these individuals will never be able to collect these monies unless they become citizens…and then I wonder if it’s only the money earned after they become a citizen.  SOURCE
12. Secure our borders; –okay but we need to secure all of them including the Northern borders and just where exactly is this money going to come from to do this?  stop allowing babies born to illegal aliens in the United States automatic U.S. citizenship.–Okay but we need to change the Constitution in order to do this.
13. Stop the abuse of our benevolent welfare system. We feed children free meals three times a day until they are 17. Churches give away good, clean clothes. Companies buy and donate school supplies. Emergency rooms provide health care at taxpayer expense and the food stamp program is buying food at home. What are parents doing for their children?–Okay, so we should let kids go hungry like a third-world country; we should dictate what churches do…what happened to separation of church and state; who are any of us to dictate what a company does with their money…maybe if we’re a majority shareholder we can…but 99% of us are not; so ER should turn their backs on folks needing medical attention…just let them die in ER?; is White aware that the food stamp program helps those in NEED AND THE ELDERLY…the very folks she said we should help earlier? 

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Related Posts

• Thursday Thirteen, Things to Do in the Month of October
• Thursday Thirteen, I Miss Summer So Much!
• Thirteen Topics That Are Off-Limit
• Thirteen Things That Made Me Go Hmmmm Today
• Thursday Thirteen, Home Alone