The economy could improve even with the current fiat system of money. IF we get the government off the backs of business and industry, starting with the EPA.
We need drilling, pipeline construction, and mining for a start. Good jobs, good paying jobs, and would contribute taxes. Small business needs a break.
We need to rid ourselves of Obamacare. To fix insurance, allow competition across state lines like home and auto insurance, and put tort reforms in place to limit malpractice lawsuit awards.
We probably need to change the current 15% tax on capital gains, and make it in line with income tax. It would increase the tax on the rich slightly, but decrease the tax burden on the taxes paid for retirement income plans like 401-k, IRA's which are tied to capital gains. There should be no inheritance tax.
We can, like Romney said, cut anything out of the federal budget that is not worth borrowing from China to pay for, like foreign aid.
We should eliminate farm subsities. Due to the growth of the worlds population, they are no longer necessary like during the great depression.
Eliminate subsities on any industry, no longer needed.
Cut the Education department out, let it go back to the states.
Cut the energy department out, never needed in the first place.
Cut out subsities to public broadcasting, arts, etc. Not necessary.
Yes, there are a lot of cuts the government can make which are absolutely unnecessary.
Get our country energy independent asap to eliminate 50% of the trade deficit and making our involvement in the Middle East unnecessary.
Make China float their currency or we begin to add tarriffs on their goods. Now this can be tricky, because they have so much of our debt.
I do believe we can cut at least $500 billion without hurting anyone who really needs it. We may have to raise the retirement age for young people gradually to 70. We also can limit the safety net to only the 10-15% poor. Not have 47 million on food stamps. However, once jobs start coming back in energy, manufacturing, and small business, tax revenues go up, and demand for government services go down, so the deficit drops. I also think big banks and investment firms should be broken up with the monopoly laws. That way, there will not be a bank or banking system "to big to fail" and need government bailouts. We might should break up other large industries with monopoly laws to keep them from becoming too big to fail. At one time in the early 1970s, there were some congressmen wanting to break up GM into two companies, Chevrolet and the rest of GM. GM at that time had 70% of the car market, Ford about 15%, with Chrysler about 10%. VW had a nich market with "Beetles". It probably should have happened, that way, today, there might not have been a bailout necessary. I also think big oil companies should be broken up. BP took over Gulf and Amoco. Exxon took over Esso, Sinclair, and a few others. Same with Shell, and others. If we had about 20 or more oil companies, there wouldn't be an oil oligarth. It would be harder for them to get together to control prices or production.
Lots of things can be done to put on brakes and keep us from going over the clift. As things improve, we could then shift back to the gold standard. We could have some constitutional amendments to limit federal spending to a balanced budget, except in extreme emergencies. Also an ammendment to eliminate elected officials retirement benefits and require them to have the same benefits available as the general public. There also needs to be one on term limits for elected officials. I also think the 9 supreme court justices should serve only 9 years, with a new one coming on every year appointed by the pres, and approved by the senate. That way most politics would be limited. With term limits for all, there would be no retirement benefits for them. They could concentrate on what is good for the country, not to be reelected and what is good for them.