As you may have heard, members of the online progressive community - including many Kossaks! - have been working together to collectively and democratically craft a Netroots Platform. Now we're rolling out what we've created and asking what you think. Ferris Valyn's diary from earlier today is serving as the 'Mothership' as the planks are individually posted.
Without further ado, here's the Economy plank:
It is our fundamental belief that the American economy should be an economy that is democratically managed for the benefit of all the American people, not for the pursuit of corporate, government, or global power. We have seen in recent years that when government abdicates its responsibility to regulate the economy, chaos ensues and the working class suffers as a result. We believe in free enterprise and we support the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people, but we believe that such enterprise flourishes only when the economy is responsibly managed by government on behalf of the people...
In light of this fundamental belief, we propose the following steps to lift our economy out of its current recession:
- Recognizing that our budget deficit contributes to the devaluation of the dollar and thus to inflation, we call for responsible budgeting by our government. Government can and should pay for programs as it goes without accounting or political trickery; we cannot continue to fund programs with deficit spending.
- To work toward a balanced budget and ensure that needed programs do not suffer.
- To refocus our military budget to pay down the National Debt, fund the inevitable Social Security issue, and/or scientific exploration and education.
- Like our budget deficit, our trade deficit contributes to the devaluation of the dollar and inflation. We therefore call for a renegotiation of all free trade agreements, especially the North American and Central American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA and CAFTA). All trade agreements should be sensitive to both domestic and foreign economic needs, to the rights of workers here and abroad.
- The current home mortgage and banking crises have occurred because government failed to adequately regulate the banking system. We call for a more efficient, streamlined form of regulation for financial institutions, investor rights, and financial product and commodities trading, and to ensure no one single institution is too integrated to fail at the taxpayer's expense.
- To encourage competition and prevent any government-backed institution from becoming too large to fail at taxpayers' expense, we call for a government-engineered break-up of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
- We encourage and empower the GAO other regulators to ensure each government agency is running, efficiently and transparently. Specifically, we empower the Government Accounting Standards Board to enforce government financial accounting and reporting.
- To ensure a strong economy, government must work to curtail corporate crime and impropriety. Among the many steps that must be taken to curtail corporate crime, we call for an end to loopholes that allow corporations to move to offshore tax havens and avoid their taxes; for better regulation of the pension system to ensure retirement security; and for a ban on government contracting to corporate criminals.
- We believe in the fundamental principle that much should be expected from those to whom much has been given, and we have seen in recent years that the "trickle-down" theory of economics in which it is argued that tax cuts to the wealthy will trickle down for the benefit of all is a false theory.
- We recognize that our energy and education policies are integral to a bright economic future for America. We call for an energy policy based on renewable resources to lower costs for Americans and create new jobs. We further call for an educational policy that deemphasizes standardized testing and that is sensitive to inequities experienced by underprivileged and minority students.
- We respect the role of working women in our economy, and we call for economic policy that recognizes the vital role these women play. We call for the ratification of a federal Equal Rights Amendment to ensure, among other things, that women are given equal pay for equal work.
- We recognize the contribution made to our economy by undocumented workers, and we reject policies that force them into hidden slave-labor. We call for humane immigration policies that make it easier for those of other lands to pursue the American dream, as many of our own ancestors did. We call for legal normalization of undocumented workers' status and a path to citizenship for those who have contributed to our prosperity.
These steps are vital to creating a people-powered economy, but they are the means to an end and not an end unto themselves. The ultimate goal of our economic policy must be to create an economy that works for all Americans, and government should pursue any policy that would work toward that end, no matter how bold or innovative. Boldness and innovation have helped to turn us into an economic superpower, and only that same boldness and innovation will preserve our economic standing for future generations.
(This was created by 28 people using MixedInk's collaborative writing tool.)
What do you think?!?!?
You can go to the Netroots Platform site for the Economy plank and click 'browse' to check out some of the alternate versions submitted and see how this text was developed.
If you decide to recommend this diary, please also go back to the the mothership diary, and recommend it as well.
For those of you who want a little more reading:
Thursday's Kickoff Diary
The General Principle's Plank
The Civil Rights Plank
The Food & Agriculture Plank
The Education Plank
The Electoral Reform Plank
The Science & Technology Plank
Energy & Environment Plank
If you want to read the entire platform and see how it was made, you can click here. (And here's the press release about the process.)
For more on the DNC platform I recommend Something the Dog Said's dairy discussing the preamble of the Democratic Party Platform, Know Your Platform! Or There Will Be Wedggies For All!
Last but not least, controversy lovers should be sure check out the discussion on myDD and Openleft...