Government must work to restore public’s confidence
By Kirk Hancock, columnist La Grange News

The elections are behind us. It is time to get something done. I fear that we cannot go two more years allowing our problems to fester and grow. A recent Rasmussen poll found that a plurality of Americans believe our best days (as a nation) have come and gone. Many Americans are becoming disillusioned with our federal government. That was evidenced in the recent election with the rise of the Tea Party and the Republican advances in Congress. I am deeply concerned that this disillusionment will metastasize and the American people will begin to be convinced that the government cannot work.

The federal government needs to demonstrate it can tackle the big problems, not all of them but at least a few of them. We must put hyper-partisanship aside and reach a compromise on big issues. The government needs a win to stem the negative tide of perception.

I see two chronic issues that are of great national importance and could be solved. A successful resolution of these problems could set the stage to solve the more complex problems we are facing.

The first is immigration. It is a purely political issue. By that, I mean the solution is not dictated by cruel economics, unlike Social Security, which I will address later. The issue is pretty simple. We have 15 million to 20 million illegal immigrants in the country. Both parties are guilty of this problem - from Reagan to Obama. We looked the other way while they came into the country in huge numbers and became an integral part of our economy, culture and society. There are consequences for this and we must face them. I think a real solution, would look a lot like this:

1. Get control of the border - build a fence a mile high if you have too. There is no rational argument that would allow unrestricted flow of illegals into any country. Period.

2. Allow the illegals already here to stay. They are not going anywhere. There is no way in the world we are going to deport 12-plus-million people. We let them in when we turned a blind eye to the problem so we have to deal with it.

3. Now that the illegals are here, establish a modified green card system (let’s call it a blue card) which would allow them to work in the United States. Each illegal would be required to have a background check. If they have a criminal record, deport them. If not, allow them to work in the United States. This will integrate them into the economy and society. It would not allow them to vote.

4. Now for the tricky one - the path to citizenship. This is pure politics. Most of the current illegal citizens do not want citizenship. They just want the opportunity to work hard and provide for their families, here and back home. I would propose that any blue card holding immigrant could apply for citizenship after a specified number of years. The caveat is they have to be approved just like the legal immigrants. We already have quotas and requirements for traditional paths to citizenship.

The extremists on both sides would give something but in the end we would have secure borders and bring the illegal immigrants out of the shadow economy. This is not hard; both sides just have to give a little.

Now for Social Security, another huge issue we are facing. This problem is the opposite of the immigration problem. It is governed by cold hard economics. Social Security is relatively simple - there are just a few variables, age of retirement, tax rate, income taxed and growth in benefits.

A simple solution would look a lot like this. Increase the age of retirement by three years in a phased approach for all people younger than 40. For those younger than 40, increase retirement age one year. For those younger than 30, increase the retirement age by two years, and younger than 20, increase it three years. We are living longer, and it is unrealistic to have a retirement system fund 20 plus years of retirement.

When Social Security was founded, the average life expectancy was close to 65 years and there were 10-plus workers paying in to support each retiree. Life expectancy in now approaching 80, and there are only 3.3 workers supporting each retiree. This cannot last. The answer is not hard to figure out; just no one likes the answer. That does not change the answer though.

These are tough decisions but they are not hard. Health care is hard. Iran is hard. The budget deficit is hard. We need to fix what we can. Not just because the problem needs addressing, but more importantly because we must re-ignite the confidence of the American people that our government can work. Without that confidence, our best days will be behind us.