It is long but interesting, so I am going to post the entire thing. From the WSJ on May 21st.

While Congress will have a partisan debate over the federal budget this week, there is a growing, bipartisan consensus about the greatest threat to our nation’s long-term economic prosperity: the explosion of entitlement spending. Unfortunately, Washington is not planning to address that problem this week, or any time soon. By doing nothing, we are shackling our future with unsustainable debt and taxes.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the rest of government will consume nearly 40% of the economy by the time my three young children reach my age (38). This will require more than doubling the average tax burden of the past 40 years just to keep the government afloat. Continuing down this path will eventually strangle our economy.

To meet this challenge and secure our fiscal future, I’m introducing a comprehensive legislative plan called “A Roadmap for America’s Future.” Here are its components:

- Health Insurance. The bill provides universal access to affordable health insurance, by shifting the ownership of health coverage from the government and employers to individuals. It provides a refundable tax credit – $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families – to purchase coverage. Individuals will be able to buy insurance offered by any provider in any state – not just the one where they live – and carry it with them if they move or change jobs.

This will encourage, and enable, people to shop for the coverage best suited to their needs and financial circumstances. Insurance companies will also have an incentive to diversify coverage at competitive prices. The active participation of individuals and families in a national, competitive market will restrain health-care costs.

The plan also establishes transparency in health-care price and quality data, so this critical information is readily available before someone needs health services. It also encourages the adoption of health information technology.

- Medicaid and Medicare. The bill modernizes Medicaid by giving states maximum flexibility to tailor their Medicaid programs to the specific needs of their populations. It also allows Medicaid recipients to avail themselves of the health-coverage options open to everyone else through the tax-credit option.

The bill secures the existing Medicare program for those over 55 – so Americans can receive the benefits they planned for throughout most of their working lives. Those 55 and younger will, when they retire, receive an annual payment of up to $9,500 to purchase health coverage – either from a list of Medicare-certified plans, or any plan in the individual market, in any state.

The payment is adjusted for inflation and based on income, with low-income individuals receiving greater support and a funded medical savings account.

- Social Security. Workers under 55 will have the option of investing over one-third of their current Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts. These personal accounts are likely to grow faster than the traditional benefit. They are also the property of the individual, and are thus fully inheritable. The bill includes a guarantee that no one’s total Social Security benefits from the personal accounts will be less than if he had chosen to say in the current system.

Combined with a more realistic plan for growth in Social Security benefits, and an eventual increase in the retirement age, the Social Security program can thus become sustainable for the long term.

- Tax Reform. The current federal tax code is complex, burdensome and discourages economic growth. It cannot be fixed with incremental changes; it needs a complete overhaul.

To accomplish this goal, the bill first of all offers individuals a choice of how to pay their taxes – either through the existing law, or through a simplified code with a tax return that fits on a postcard, just two rates and virtually no special tax deductions, credits or exclusions (except the health-care tax credit). Taxpayers themselves choose which code serves them better.

The rates in the simplified code are 10% on income up to $100,000 for joint filers ($50,000 for single filers); and 25% on taxable income above these amounts. There is also a generous standard deduction and personal exemption totaling $39,000 for a family of four. The alternative minimum tax is eliminated. And to promote long-term investment in economic growth, taxes on capital gains, dividends and estates are also eliminated.

On the business side, the bill gets rid of our uncompetitive corporate tax – currently the second highest in the industrialized world – and replaces it with a business consumption tax of 8.5%, which is half the average industrialized world rate.

The roadmap I’m offering is a real plan, with real proposals, real numbers to back them, and real legislation to implement it. Based on the analysis of government actuaries, it is projected to make Social Security and Medicare permanently solvent, lift the growing debt burden on future generations, and hold Federal taxes to 18.5% of GDP.

Many will disagree with this approach. But it is my sincere hope that it will spur Congress to move beyond simply rehashing the problem – to the politically difficult, but critical task of debating, and implementing actual solutions.

It seems that Al Franken is in hot water over a 2000 appearance in Playboy Magazine. No, he wasn’t the centerfold (that really would make you go blind). He wrote a very tasteless article that appeared in the magazine.

On Thursday, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., called the sexually explicit article offensive and potentially damaging to Franken and other Democratic candidates in Minnesota.

The Franken campaign and backers of the candidate said the work was merely satire and faulted McCollum for dividing the party.

“As a woman, a mother, a former teacher, and an elected official, I find this material completely unacceptable,” McCollum said of Franken’s piece, published in 2000 under the headline “Porn-O-Rama!”

“I can tell you it’s not playing comfortably in St. Paul, and I can’t imagine this politically radioactive material is doing very well in suburban and rural districts,” McCollum said.

Star Tribune

It appears that the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, as they are called in Minnesohhhhta, are in a massive state of chaos. We’re talking large scale “human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!” to quote Bill Murray.

Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr fired back at McCollum Thursday, saying “it’s unfortunate that she’s trying to create divisions in our party rather than working with other DFLers to take on [Coleman].”

Some Franken supporters took a similar line. “I know that Representative McCollum was a co-chair of Mike Ciresi’s campaign, but at a time when Minnesotans are hurting, it’s extremely disappointing that she would rather destroy party unity than focus on beating Norm Coleman,” said Javier Morillo, president of Service Employees International Union Local 26.

That’s right. Winning is more important than integrity! Now, the Franken camp claims this article was written in satire and that’s fairly obvious considering the article was about having intercourse with sexbots of the future, but plenty of voters will undoubtedly be turned off by the shear contents and explicit thoughts that were transfered from Franken’s brain to his pen.

At one point in the Playboy piece titled “Porn-O-Rama!” Franken called the Internet a “terrific learning tool,” writing that his 12-year-old son was able to use it for a sixth-grade report on bestiality.

I imagine Senator Coleman will be sleeping well tonight.

He said what? Oh! Yes, he did.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is working with American Solutions for Winning the Future to rally up Americans across the country to start pushing Congress to end the bans on domestic drilling in places like ANWR and offshore areas in both bordering oceans.

There is an online petition you can sign to add your voice to the 154,000 people that have already signed in support of the drilling. I have been told before that Congress doesn’t care about online petitions and that they don’t do any good, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. Maybe someone who has recently or currently works on Capitol Hill can comment on that.

The below video features Gingrich talking about the drive. He also reminds everyone to call your representative and Senators and tell them to vote no on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill. It is important that bill not pass! Please do this!

I imagine you have seen this email at some point over the past few years that tells an anecdote as to what the difference is between Republicans and Democrats. I usually get it in my inbox every couple of months. Well, I received it again today, but this time it was modified to specifically include McCain, Hillary, and Obama. I thought the Obama part was funny.

John McCain, Hillary Clinton, And Barrack Obama were walking down a Washington D.C., street when they ran into a homeless man.

John McCain gave the man his business card and told him to come to his office for a job! He then took $20 out of his pocket and gave it to the man!

Hillary was very impressed, so when they came upon another homeless person, she decided to help. She walked over to him and gave him directions to the nearest welfare office. She then reached into McCain’s pocket and took out a 20 dollar bill! She kept $15 for administrative fees and gave the man $5!

When they came upon another homeless person, Obama told him…”to have hope…change is coming…” and gave him nothing!

Now do you understand the difference?

Bob Barr is changing yet another policy position in order to run for President.

Bob Barr’s marriage of convenience to the Libertarian Party gained him the group’s nomination for president and prompted the former Republican congressman to declare he will work to repeal one of his biggest legislative victories, the Defense of Marriage Act.

In his speech accepting the little party’s nomination in Denver last weekend, Barr roundly denounced the law he once championed.

Barr was the sponsor of the 1996 act that (1) says no state is required to give effect to or recognize a same-sex union law of another state, and (2) defines marriage as “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and declares “the word ’spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”

Barr’s reversal marks the repudiation of key conservative “family values” positions he once embraced. He also now favors legalizing “medical marijuana,” and his new party’s platform calls for repeal “of all laws creating ‘crimes’ without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes.” He also opposes the 2001 Patriot Act he originally supported to expand intelligence-gathering powers in fighting terrorism.

Before the convention, Barr declared support for the California Supreme Court’s mid-May decision striking down state laws banning same-sex marriages.

The War on Drugs, The Patriot Act, and now The Defense of Marriage Act. Barr is showing he will change his long held beliefs for political gain.