The Single Page Stimulus Plan

Strange, I lie awake at night worrying about people's jobs and wondering about provisions of a trillion dollar stimulus package. But I don't think I'm the only one, I note that twitter conversation is dominated by the topic.

And people are amazingly resourceful. Some great sites have cropped up that allow a microscope to be placed on the Trillion Dollar Economic Stimulus. And on further review as Governor Romney suggests, it's really a Government Stimulus plan. 

So here is an alternative stimulus plan in less than one page that I think has purpose, is clear, and could provide...well, economic stimulus.

Part one: Reenact Glass-Steagall's separation of banks and financial institutions. CDOs * fractional banking = fraud squared. Our financials system has been doing alright with just plain old fractional banking fraud. Why did we need to put the fraud on steroids?

Part two: Extreme tax incentives for manufacturing in the United States. Plain and simple, America needs to keep the know-how to make stuff. America needs jobs where people just make stuff. America needs to regain the chain of production from raw materials, to steel, to cars. We've read all the blather about a services economy. Let the rest of the world manufacture while we consume it and produce some kind of service. Whatever. Some people just like to make stuff for a living and we may just miss that at some point in the near future when our currency is completely destroyed and all we know how to do is talk about making stuff.

Part three: Extreme tax incentives for those corporations that formulate under new rules of corporate governance. I've written on this before. But it's obvious that nobody really owns our corporations anymore. Tell me again, who behaves as the owner of GM? Is it the CEO that makes money and bonuses whether GM makes or loses money? Is it the CEO who has a Golden Parachute that sets him up for life after failing? Is he going to act as an owner? Is it the UAW? The UAW that preys on GM like a vulture picking over the dead corpse until nothing is left? Is it the shareholder that can "squat" on GM property and leave at the first sign of trouble?  Right now, the only people with ownership incentive of GM are the non-union workers who are innovating and producing the great ideas at GM. These employees truly want GM to succeed. They want thier GM job to last for the next 25 years. And they need a corporate voting right as a check against executives that don't have the incentives to care.

Part four: Incentives for renewable energy. This one has to be carefully incented to be market driven however or we will get more corn/ethanol outcomes. But this one is obvious. Cheap energy is ultimate economic freedom. Cheap energy is the real engine of economic growth. Nothing is more helpful to the poor than cheap energy. Because cheap energy means cheaper food and cheaper housing and cheaper anything else.

OK maybe the one page stimulus plan is naive and obviously it needs more detail. But is it less naive than the trillion dollar plan? Is anyone comfortable with a plan that will take years to implement let alone understand? And why is it not possible to break up the bill into smaller more focused and understandable chunks. Some portions such as tax cuts can be immediately implemented and passed first while other portions can take more time to be passed since they take more time to implement.

We know why that can't be done of course. The First Principle of Porking is the Omnibus Bill.

We ask our politicians, is your pork worth more than the American Dollar Standard?  Do we really want to trade the American Dollar as the world currency for your pork?  

Please President Obama, put America first.  Prioritize a set of bills.  Put away the Porking Principle. Begin with the most immediate impact bills, and pass singularly focused bills each debated on their own merits.