It appears that Brian Dubie’s 10 point “plan” is not so much a plan but a series of talking points.
A summary of the sort of “plan” we’re discussing:
The plan is:
1. Hold spending to affordable levels
Apparently this includes refusing to use stimulus money in the way it’s intended.
2. Provide tax relief for families and employers
Except that employers tell us specifically that they’d rather pay more taxes than pay for health care:
3. Laser focus on job creation
See above. If businesses didn’t have to worry about health care, they’d have more resources to grow and create jobs.
4. Market Vermont’s strengths
Such as running an ad which claims that “Vermont ranks 47th best state for business.” Way to market us.
5. Streamline permitting and regulation
Sidenote: “Streamlining” regulation is why the whole country is scared of buying eggs today.
6. Lower health care costs
By making it more difficult for people to sue doctors for malpractice. Personally, when I was misdiagnosed to the degree that it caused me kidney failure, I think having the option to sue was a reasonable one.
7. Steady leadership for long-term challenges
I’ve worked in corporate America. I know “quality” speak when I hear it. It’s like doing Mad Libs at an Amway convention: “John chose to collaterize his long-term strategic assets to best compliment his portfolio futures.”
8. Build next-generation business infrastructure
Dubie’s been Lt. Governor for quite some time now. Has he done anything in order to promote these goals?
9. Strengthen education and training
See the video at the beginning.
10. Power up our energy future
Awesome slogan!
I particularly liked this one:
His Ten Point Plan demands a measure of certainty for businesses.
One feature has the State pay reasonable compensation if it fails to deliver in 45 days.
Why stop at businesses? This could be more inclusive.
Let’s extend this performance guarantee and measure of certainty down to all the stake holders in state licenses and permitting.
Hunting and fishing license permit fees could be returned, if after a given amount of time (say 45 days) the permittee hasn’t gotten their deer, turkey, bag limit of ducks and/or stringer of fish. Vermont can supply a level of certainty as Dubie suggests, one buck and/or a stringer of fish in 45 days or you fee is cheerfully returned.
See Dubie’s plan PDF http://briandubie.com/images/u…
I just can’t wait until republicans strip even MORE safeguards from our industries! After all, it’s been more than a hundred years since it was legal to sell rat sausage containing the ground up remains of the poor unfortunate workers who fell into the vats. How can another Upton Sinclair arise from the unwashed masses with all these darned regulations in place?
Surely we can out-compete China on SOMETHING.
Oilmageddon, contaminated eggs, listeria in luncheon meats, deadly hemorrhagic E. Coli 0157:H7 in hamburger… those are just the warm-up acts! Remember, we’re competing with China, now! Where are our poisoned pet foods and baby formulas? Why can’t our largest dam be threatened by a floating 150,000 sq ft wall of garbage? Come on, folks, they’re beating us hands down on poor air quality!
It’s refreshing to hear that Dubie want’s to make VT #1.
… too bad we’re unlikely to enjoy the category in which he wants us to excel.
Right, by cutting budgets and making districts combine into an unwieldy and geographically time-wasting entity over which the towns providing the budgets have no control.
Uh-huh. Yeah, that’s the ticket! (not)
Clearly Orwellian Truespeak.
NanuqFC
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
I respond to the Opinion of James Douglas published on Sept. 1 : A responsible use of federal money. The $13 trillion dollars in debt is a misleading concept when money gets into circulation only as debt. Indicative of the scam that has been perpetrated on a public who has been taught and molded to think of money as a tangible item, money is only accounting. All of our money is fiat, backed only by faith. We live under an accounting system that benefits the banks . This includes creating money through an accounting entry as both a liability and an asset, and not creating the interest that is expected. Therefore, we are perpetually caught in a game of musical money chairs. Bolstered by a deliberate shift from Common Law to the Uniform Commercial Code, the banking industry at its most concentrated level has rewarded greed and harmed the natural ecosystem of our Earth. I will not get into the history of the Federal Reserve, the IRS, the corporate USA, the practices of corporate banking that have been hidden etc., instead I will merely describe what we must do before they take everything.
We must build a complete foundation that addresses the need to fund the way of life we want, and reduce the inequities that have developed over the past century as banking interests took over our future. I will describe 2 of the 4 corners of the foundation we need in this brief essay; I will begin by asking you this:
Where does money come from ? From the Banks of course. What happens when money used in Vermont comes from banks that are owned out-of state ? Our wealth is sent there in the form of interest and fees. What happens when the Banks are owned and operated by the people of Vermont ? The things that Vermonters want to see happen, will happen. Interest from the loans are returned to benefit everyone in Vermont. The interest rate is decided by people of Vermont. There is profit and it goes to Vermont.
What bank am I proposing? Not one, but two separate types of banks. A single Bank of Vermont and Common Good Banks for each community. The power of money is given directly to Vermonters through Common Good Banks in a more meaningful way than credit unions. Modeled after a successful Bank of North Dakota that has been in existence since 1919, the Bank of Vermont I propose is run by appointed, hired and elected people of this State. North Dakota , with pop 600,000, is the ONLY state to have job and income growth through this recession. North Dakota has protected itself from the recession because it created its own “mini-federal reserve”. We must create the same economic environment for Vermont. Simply, we should NOT be sending value to financiers who live glamorously elsewhere. We should not pressure major banks to lend to Vermont. The 4 billion Deb Markowitz describes in our treasury should be protected in our own State Bank, and we should make loans for the things we want to do here in Vermont; the interest returning for the benefit of our future.
We cannot move forward effectively to do the things we know we should do without concurrently reclaiming the monetary system so that it benefits the people. Today our daily efforts benefit pathologically greedy people who sit at the pinnacle of financial helms elsewhere as we repay loans to out-of-state owned banks, or act on bonds owned out-of-state. Let us focus on the methods we have at our disposal to make a system that benefits our people and our future.
Here in Vermont we care about the balance between Nature and human activity, good numbers of us take great joy, care and pride to honor nature in every way imaginable. This is the path of the future, where complexity is not always more interesting than simplicity.
I am running for Governor because I want to do these things before it is too late. I have not enough room here to describe very important supporting actions we must take to cope with the problems of minimum wage, entitlement, criminalization, and how to best care for our collective good health.