And that's where I disagree with you, people should be free to make their own choices. The government, or people like you, should not be so invasive of their right to privacy as to demand that people not drink, smoke, fornicate or make gluttons of themselves. No more than they should have the right to hold any one up at the barrel of a gun and demand that they have their mistakes corrected at the expense of the rest of the population.

Two wrongs do not make a right. It is not right that they cost the nation billions, but if the system was pure free-enterprise then they would pay for the costs themselves (or not.) Yes, there is always going to be seepage, but that is an inevitable risk any society faces. It is the free rider problem. Giving the free-riders benefits doesn't solve the problem, it just encourage more free-riding.

Why should those people work, government is going to subsidize their rent, their food, and now their medical care.

Reform would be best applied in education, which suffers from having a Gordian Knot tied around it by the teachers' unions, bureaucratic paper-work and an unwillingess to really allow competition to determine what the best course of action to take is.

Binding all the states to the federal government is a mistake, we have 50 different states and they should all be free to try their solutions out and learn from one another. The state that solves the problem most effectively will find its solution copied by the others (or should, rather.)

This way, instead of limiting ourselves to the slow plodding thoughts of a few individuals in one government, we have a synergy of thoughts driving fifty different governments in attempts to find the best course of action.

The United States under the current system will better resemble the Titanic, one puncture and the entire nation will sink. Better to be like a fleet of vessels, where if one flounders the others can step in to save it by being there to help the survivors.

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

I drink, smoke, fornicate, and everything else. I have not said that anyone should not be free to make their own choices. But that does not mean there should not be incentives to be healthy.

The free rider problems is in the private market too. The private companies decide that they want to screw the system and put the bulk of the heavy lifting on the companies doing the job right. This is why we have so many people without insurance or under the government programs now.

You know that I am all for educational reform. The unions were a great help when we didn't have employee rights and helped us to prosper as a nation, but now they are outdated and need to go to the places in the world that can use their help.

I am all for a 20 year cycle of states power to federal power. That way none of them become too comfortable with the power that ultimately sinks it.

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“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” -Einstein

No need to grant any of the states power over the others. Just get the Federal Government out of the way, reduce its size, give the income taxes collected to the states and let them determine how they will use those funds on their citizens.

Of course, there is some room for the Federal Government, defense, but even that should be true to the word, defense, not aggression. While I disagree with Obama's rush to end our wars in the Middle East, I do have to agree that we should withdraw, but only after the job is done. While it is one thing to attempt to be a leader of the world, it is entirely another to allow ourself to become the bully of the world.

Rome we are not, nor should we aspire to be Rome.

Nor should we aspire to be the Democracies of Ancient Greece...

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

No I did not mean one state has power over another. Just that once the State starts to build up steam with its own power over the people, deciding things like we don't want you to won a gun, you need to pay 30% taxes ect. The Federal Government should switch into power and start to get the system back into balance.

That way the States and the Federal governments would never have too much time to take hold and go crazy with their power.

In fact a good measurement system on peoples rights or something with voting would be good to help the country decide when they need to switch over.

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“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” -Einstein

ummm, let the feds take over the states programs after they have been proven to work? Isn't that like jumping out of the frying pan and into the Fire?

The state in which I live is actually doing very well. If we were to let the fed take control I have no doubt we would be in the same situations as Michigan and California.

Hanimal you have way way too much faith in the federal government, you MUST be under 25 years old and just have not had enough adult real life experience with it yet to know how wrong government usually is.

Ringo Star once said "Everything government touches turns to crap".

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Nope you are wrong on all accounts (except ringo), especially with not paying attention to anything that I had said.

The system as it is now is mostly the Fed's control. If you would actually read and try to comprehend it, you would see that we were talking about the states being more in control over themselves, but like I had said, eventually states will try to gain too much power and that is a good point to have the Federal government come in and reign them back in for a while (like where we should be now with taking the Feds power back and placing it to the states), once the Fed starts to overstep then the State gets back the main power. And all completely theoretical.

But as you have not been told how this would work and is an newly formed idea that took me all of 20 minutes to think about, I would not expect you to understand it.

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“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” -Einstein

I was just saying that if you've ever watched the libertarian convention, there are like 20 lesbians, and a freaky looking guy in a clowns wig on, and a couple other idealistic folks... They just seem fringe, but then so does the constitution party. I'm impressed that you even know about the constitution party, because any 3rd party is promptly ignored by the national media.

Bob Barr had a good message about constitutional issues, and freedom from an authoritarian government, but the L party just didn't seem to fit him. I wish some disenfranchised Republicans like Barr would run as republicans, separating themselves from Bush, and every other poser in washington.

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"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so." - Thomas Jefferson my grow

The fringe parties cater to the fringes... not that they don't have some good ideas, but some of their ideas are well out there on the fringe where no rational human being could support them.

Though, I don't know why it surprises you that I know of the Constitution Party, I actually did a considerable amount of research before the last election and was debating a LP or CP vote, or writing in Ron Paul (I should have done that) instead of voting for McCain.

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

One way or the other these programs are going to end.
We can end them gracefully,
or we can let them collapse,
and drag our whole country with them.