What Do You Want the Next American President to Do About Your Money?

Lately quite a few people have been asking me about my opinion on the political candidates and who I would vote for. I give a different answer everytime because I am not an American citizen and therefore I don’t have the right vote. Sometimes I jokingly say, “I hail to Beijing!”. Though in reality, the actions of the American government really affect me a lot more than those of the Chinese government since I am a permanent resident of the United States. I don’t particularly like politics in America because a lot of it is a bizarre popularity contest. (e.g. Hillary wins New Hampshire because she got emotional? What?) However, I am pretty clear about what I want the next president to do with my money. Here is my wishlist from the sidelines of the current electoral circus:

1. Get Rid of Social Security Taxes (At Least for Those Who Won’t Benefit) — Social Security Tax is the tax that irks me the most because I know as it is I will never benefit from it. It’s a system that lets older generations spend the money of the younger generations and everyone knows it is not really sustainable. I hope the next president actually does something about this because the past presidents always talk about Social Security reform and never take action. I am all for abolishing the system all together or changing the system into some kind of enforced retirement saving so that the person who paid the tax actually gets the money back in the end (the entire amount plus investment gains). If the government really wants a cut they can make sure the money all go into treasury bonds, but in the end the person who paid the money in the first place gets the money for retirement. I think that is the only fair thing to do.

2. Cut Down Spending — I think the government really spends our money on a lot of useless stuff or just mindlessly overpays for goods and services. I heard on the radio a few months ago that a company exploited the government’s billing system and billed the Defense Department millions of dollars for a few screws. Of course the company in this story committed fraud and was discovered, but how many of these cases are out there in other contracts? The government needs to be lean and frugal with their spending and actually examine their purchase orders one by one. My previous company’s CEO took frugality to the max and made sure every purchase was first researched on a shopping comparison engine, and then he signs the purchase order. The government can also cut down on inefficient personnel. It seems like a government job is so stable that people never worry about being fired. Well, maybe some slackers should be fired and government services as a whole may improve. I am just proposing a couple ways the government can cut down on spending without cutting services.

3. Simplify the Tax System but Don’t Raise the Taxes — I don’t really mind that the tax system is tiered or that we have to pay income taxes, but I don’t like how ridiculously complicated the system is. I have written previously about the AMT and the marriage penalty and I think all these weird exceptions should be ironed out and simplified. It is not easy, but something has to be done. Also, it’s very likely that a lot of the Bush Tax Cuts will expire in 2010 if the next president isn’t supportive of the tax cuts, and I think a sudden change back to higher taxes would be hard to swallow for a lot of Americans. It would be best if the next president just kept the tax cuts where they are.

4. Fix the Way the Consumer Price Index is Measured — I have also written about this before. Basically the government really never reports the true inflation we face everyday. I hope they would at least include the actual costs of things in the measurement of inflation instead of the substitute costs. Anyway, this is a hairy issue that affects a lot of people that I never hear about from the presidential candidates. If we have a more accurate CPI we can have fairer raises and better prepare for our future through savings and investments.

5. Encourage the Nation to Save — As long as I have lived here we are encouraged to spend because consumer spending is what keeps our economy going. What if there are just a few changes that encourage people to save? For example, raise the Roth IRA contribution limit, or eliminate federal taxes on treasury bond interest income? What if we had a president that advocated that frugality is the path to the American Dream? How would American change? How would the world change?

Anyway, there are a lot of other issues I care about, but what I say doesn’t matter because I am not a citizen. I hope something good comes out of the new presidential regime and I hope voters examine what the candidates wish to do instead of being in love with their personalities. Good luck America, and feel free to say what you want to see happen here!

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