@Frostbite
I realize you are from the state that elects things such as Timmy Walz and that Bozo Ellison. You've fallen far from the glory days of HHH, so I will keep it to your grade level.
1. A Balanced Tax system- first of all, it would need to be determined on what is going to be taxed: Income and or expenditures. The tax code is thousands of pages and every one of them was written with intent to cause someone else to pay the tax. Both parties support this convoluted tax system because their donors want various parts of it. The only Balanced tax is a flat tax on income and if a welfare system is wanted having the tax start at a negative number (which was Milton Friedman's idea) would solve both the tax and the welfare problem. No Democrat supports that.
Improve healthcare- healthcare is fine with the exception that the govt has promoted/ subsidized/allowed unhealthy habits. What you are saying is that you want CHEAPER healthcare. the biggest jump in healthcare costs resulted from ObamaCare. Other costs result from the consolidation of services. You no longer see private practice doctors. Why? Because ambulance chasing attorneys and their ridiculous judgments have required doctors to have malpractice insurance. So now doctors are employees of large hospital corporations that have layers of bureaucracy causing increased costs.
Social Security- As set-up the system was an income tax that funded an account that paid a retirement benefit. Eligibility was at age 65 and the average life expectancy at the time was 72. So the idea was you paid in from about age 20 - 65, 45 years and you got a benefit for 7 years. Funds accrued because a lot more was initially being paid than being drawn. Other govt agencies "borrowed" these funds with the promise to repay with interest. However, the debt became part of the national debt. With inflation and longer lives, the original plan is going bankrupt. the Democrats propose to "save" it by printing more money to offset the debt. If you know anything about economics, you know this leads directly to inflation- which is the same as a tax.
Tariffs- Have three functions- They produce income for the government because you are right, it is effectively a sales tax. Secondly, they increase the price of foreign goods relative to domestic goods- so the tariff "protects" local industry. Third- the tariff is used to offset a tariff placed on US goods by foreign countries. This is the main reason for Pres Trump's tariffs. He is trying to get other countries to remove or lower their tariff/quotas against US goods to open their markets. In so doing crops from Minnesota would have a larger market and the higher price from increased demand.
Anything else that you've heard on the Prairie Home Companion that you think is counter to what the Republicans are trying to do?
www.bbc.com
