Re-Engineering the Social Safety Net - Part Two

This is a VERY LONG article.

The following is a compilation of several short pieces I wrote a few years ago. I believe the information and the questions raised fit perfectly for

the proposed State of Long Island

I believe that the best way to take care of “poor” people and in fact the best way to meet the needs of all people is at the most local level possible. Personally, I think that the government programs of the New Deal, New Frontier, Great Society, etc are all huge bureaucratic boondoggles that do not help those truly in need and end up benefiting those who can game the system. I would like to see a program developed whereby community groups, service groups, advocacy groups, faith-based groups and other groups of people would take over the care of people. You could refer to this as the replacement of government charity with private charity. All of the programs of the New Deal, New Frontier and Great Society could be phased out over a period of say ten years as the above mentioned local groups took over. There is one caveat. There are currently some very large bureaucratic non-profits and not-for-profits such as FEGS and Goodwill that do a truly TERRIBLE job of helping people. They are actually worse than the government, if such a thing were possible. There needs to be serious accountability and transparency built into these programs. Some corporations doing business under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code are nothing more than mechanisms to pay handsome salaries to founders and executives.

Limiting government worries some people not because they dislike BIG
Government; but because they don't want big business, big religion, big military - or little lynch mobs. The issue is not size but coercion.

Power cannot be banished. It can only be concentrated or spread around. That's what we're for, precluding a big government or big anything by empowering individuals and small groups of individuals with full rights and responsibilities.
Reduce/shrink the following at all levels (federal, state, municipal, local districts, etc) of government, corporations and other BIG INSTITUTIONS:



• Spending

• Taxes

• Assessments

• Fees

• Programs

• Debt

• Assets

• Liabilities

• Size

• Scope

• Power

• Laws

• Rules

• Regulations

• Policies

• Procedures

• Bureaucracy

• Monopoly or virtual monopoly powers



According to Newt Gingrich’s organization American Solutions there are:

300,000,000 people

511,000 elected officials including

3,300 county governments

17,000 elected school boards

14,000 state legislators

50 Governors

435 federal US Representatives

100 federal US Senators.

Not included in the above list are the following:

There are layers of government that are generated by each of the entities on Gingrich’s list.

Statistical details about the Executive Branch of the US Federal Government.

Statistical details about the Judicial Branch of government at the US Federal and State levels.

Local boards, agencies, neighborhood councils and other government agencies

Non-profit and Not-for-Profit Corporations

Public-Private Partnerships

Increase involvement of the proposed State of Long Island in finding 21st Century solutions to specific problems that the current methods of government are attempting to solve. I would like to see us create lists of problems and solutions for all areas of government that could and should be reduced or shrunken.
I think that we are entering a New Frontier where it is possible to totally re-invent government. I’d like to see us look at all of the big, unwieldy government programs that have been created since Franklin Roosevelt.

• What problems was each program attempting to solve?

• How can we transform each those government programs of the New Deal and Great Society into methodology over ideology oriented solutions so that we can:

Engage this New Frontier and create a New Deal for a truly Great Society

I think that the BIGGER problem is that we as a society DO NOT know how to attempt to solve problems without the involvement of government at some level; thus we have a plethora of rules, regulations, programs, policies ad nausea with very little in the way of results. As a Whig, I would like for us to look at these programs, rules, regulations, etc and propose methodology over ideology oriented solutions to the problems. Then we can go to candidates and say, we want them to back solutions to problem while simultaneously voting to reduce the size, scope, spending, etc of government.

Another serious problem is that the two party duopoly creates these programs while at the same time whipping up passions on the “left” and “right” side of the so-called political spectrum. The link below shows that these programs, once passed have so many goodies for so many people that they grow like weeds and become so popular that it seems impossible to amend or repeal any portion of these programs.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35085.html

I hope that we will take a serious look at the issues and come up with some solutions.

I find this professor and the websites below to be interesting parts of a BIGGER discussion. She might be one of the experts for us to contact.



Mildred E. Warner

Dept. of City and Regional Planning

Sibley Hall, Cornell University

Ithaca, NY 14853

(Phone) 607- 255-6818, (Fax) 607-255-1971

E-mail: mew15@cornell.edu



http://government.cce.cornell.edu/



http://economicdevelopment.cce.cornell.edu/



What are your thoughts?

Re-engineering the Social Safety Net

I've had experiences with attempting to use the social saftety net set up by our nanny government and their various corporate partners. IT IS A MESS!! Not only is it a mess, but it is a very expensive mess that costs the taxpayers of Long Island a lot of money. As a State, I believe Long Island could do some significant re-engineering of our participation in these programs that would result in saving tax dollars and delivering higher quality services to those in need. Many of the "needy" are people with severe emotional and psychological issues, others are addicted to drugs, alcohol and other substances. We need to care for these people as best as we can, as humanely as we can and do it efficiently and effectively. I'll post more on this at a later time.

A More Perfect Union

Larry Sabato, a real expert in the US Constitution has not only written a book, but also has an interactive website. I believe one of the advantages of Long Island Statehood would be the ability to craft a 21st Century State Constitution.

Here is the link to Professor Sabato's site:

A More Perfect Constitution by Larry J. Sabato



http://www.amoreperfectconstitution.com/a_more_perfect_constitution.htm

Advantages of Statehood - Part 1

I will be making many posts concerning the advantages of Statehood.  One of the most important is the ability of the State of Long Island to re-invent or re-engineer what a state government would look like in the 21st century. The problem with the USA is that all 50 states are based on models from 200 years ago and more. They just don't work and they are almost impossible to change. California has gone berserk with its initiative process. It has produced more gridlock and more nonsense.

There are some promiment people working on the concept of re-inventing government; including such people as Al Gore and Andrew Cuomo. Additionally there are many academics investigating this issue. I would hope we could attract such people to our cause.

I believe creating a 21st century State Constitution for the State of Long Island would allow us to embed such features as Instant Runoff Voting and Proportional Representation into our government. We could also create a context where County Sherriffs, elected by the people would have some real power to stop the encroachment of the central government into local affairs.

While we could not eliminate "corporate personhood," we could create viable State Constitutional restrictions which would pass US Constitutional muster.

Another idea I have is to completely re-engineer our social safety net at the State level. I'll post more on that later.

Long Island 51st State on Facebook

Here is a link to the Facebook page that others have started. I hope that people will visit both sites and pass information on to your friends.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=523705058#!/pages/Long-Island-51st-State/118269414880715?ref=ts

Welcome to the State of Long Island

I'm just one of many people who advocate a new State of Long Island. I propose that Kings County (Brooklyn) and Queens in New York City join Nassau and Suffolk counties to create a compact, distinct 51st State. There are a number of advantages, which I will write about on these pages.I hope that others will contribute their ideas and follow this blog as well. It would be really cool if this blog went viral. I'd like to see this develop as a functional blog with many leaders. I will remove anything that is comical, profane, innane, inflamatory or just plain stupid. It is important that this movement become a serious effort before we promote the comedians. When Jon Stewart invites me to appear on the Daily Show, maybe I'll change my stance. Hopefully you get the idea.

If you haven't already checked out the Long Island 51st State Facebook page, I suggest you do so. It is administrated by other people; which is cool because this movement will hopefully be decentralized as much as possible.