Since "stimulus plan" is the phrase of the day. I thought I would offer my own. As I said shortly after the election, Conservatives must jettison the social issues at the federal level and get back to the basics of economic growth and fiscal discipline.

1: Stimulus could more efficiently be gotten to the people by an immediate temporary freeze on federal income tax withholding out of payroll checks rather than printing money, which is inflationary. If Obama really believes in stimulating from the bottom up, this is the most cost-effective way to do it without printing and borrowing money. The deficit would increase over time through lower tax revenues. The end result would be the same and probably cost hundreds of billions less.

2: The economy could be immediately be stimulated by halving the corporate tax rate and eliminating corporate taxes on manufaturing altogether. Such action would result in immediate foreign investment, create private sector jobs and reduce the trade deficit. Unless a serious effort is made to restore the country's manufacturing base, the economy will never again grow at a strong enough rate to make any significant dent in future deficits. Manufacturing means foreign money coming in. Economic growth in a service-based economy is a house of cards. That should be clear to everyone by now. There should be a coordinated effort to recreate the "Buy American" mantra of the 70's. American products must be branded as a better quality, slightly higher priced alternative to Chinese junk products. Restoring Amercan manufacturing would also create jobs in the raw materials sector.

3: Oil drilling / energy exploration and increased energy sales on the world market also gets money coming in, reduces American dollars flowing out and would create tens of thousands of new jobs. There is enough credible information out there that there that the man-made global warming hysteria needs to be put to bed for good. "Green jobs" created under this false prophesy simply means jobs lost elsewhere in the energy sector. American energy production should be packaged and sold to the world as "we can do it better, faster, cleaner and more efficiently than anyone".

4: As opposed to Obama's infrastructure plan, the federal government and the states should embark on an immediate buy-back of all toll roads, bridges and ports sold to foreign entities. We cannot continue to sell our infrastructure piecemeal to foreign entities for short term book balancing while ignoring the longterm economic impact of billions upon billions of American dollars leaking out of the country. Legislation needs to be passed that publicly owned property belongs to the people and cannot be sold off by greedy politicans who didn't own it in the first place.

5: Institute an immediate federal government spending and hiring freeze and commit to a 2% per year, across the board, spending reduction, including all entitlement programs. This would result in a total of an 8% federal budget reduction over 4 years. Encourage states to do the same. Set a target date of 1/1/10 to end all taxpayer funded services to illegal aliens. Immediately cut off all federal funding to states that employ sanctuary city policies. Immediately pass legislation to end the practice of borrowing against the Social Security fund as a means of budgeting. Institute a plan to restore SS ans Medicare solvency through repayment of current IOUs.

The bottom line is that the country cannot support itself on a service-based / entitlement model. Unless we get back to producing things and stop the hemmoraging of US dollars out of the country, we will never recover as a super power. American pride has been reduced to zero through a corrupted political system, a corrupted media and a corrupted educational system. Instead of looking out for our neighbors and our country, everyone is simply out to get theirs, regardless of the consequences and regardless of where it came from. This mentality can be seen from the halls of Congress, to the highest corporate boardrooms, to the welfare mother pumping out fatherless kids for increased benefits, and it has created a national cynicism that destroys the very fabric of our republic. Its like watching a huge, national version of Charlie and the Chocolate factory, where all the greedy, brattish little kids meet their fate one by one by way of their own gluttony. JFK had it right, ask not what your country can do for you.....blah, blah, blah...... whether that means paying your debts, living within your means or sacraficing a few pecent off your bottom line by deciding not to move your business offshore so your fellow citizens can earn a living. The most cogent statement I heard out of Bush's mouth in the 8 years he was President was a simple line he uttered during his innauguration. "I'm asking all of you to be citizens". How true. We either hang together or we hang separately.

These are all consesrvative-based ideas. We can either continue to split the nation red vs. blue by arguing social trivialities or we can come together on common sense economic principles for all of our sorry sakes. Time is short!