Looking Ahead.....The First 100 Days

No, I'm not getting ahead of myself.  I'm an Obama supporter, but I'm not talking about his (or even Hillary's) first 100 days..............but OURS.  

After eight long years of darkness.  After fear and division, facilitated by a craven White House and Republican Congress, have torn our nation asunder.  After torture.  After indefinite detentions, without habeas corpus.  After warrantless spying.  After Katrina.  After the politicization of our Justice Department.  After tax cuts for those who didn't need them, nor asked for them.  After a seemingly endless occupation of Iraq.  After signing statements.  After a thousand compassionless vetos.  After Executive orders designed not to strengthen America, but only to strengthen The current president and the Republican party.  After stubborn refusal to regulate sub-prime lenders, and worse, to encourage the practice.  Even after an ineffectual Democratic Congress...............

What


do

we


do


first?

First 100 days.  You have one first priority.  What one thing, above all others, starts America off on the road to healing, on the road to justice, on the road to wisdom, on the road to REAL security, on the road to a robust economy, and on the road away from a unitary executive, on the road away from torture, on the road away from fear and division, and political trickery...........

What is it?

You have one.

Make your case.

I will give you no poll, because I don't just want votes from poll-watching sheep.  I want substantial comments from leaders.  The leaders that someone like Obama can make out of each and every one of us.

What say y'all?   Time for US to shine................

•  Have at it, people

  don't be shy.

  Power to the people - John Lennon

  by AlyoshaKaramazov on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:02:25 AM PDT

•  All Power to the People

  --The Black Panthers

  by converse on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:04:58 AM PDT

  •  

       .................................................  - The Pink Panther

    by AlyoshaKaramazov on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:14:44 AM PDT

•  Sack Petraeus immediately.

  He is an obstacle towards extricating ourselves from Iraq. He has shown himself to be nothing more than a political lackey of George W. Bush.

  by Dartagnan on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:05:00 AM PDT

•  Constitutional amendment package

  to drive a stake through the heart of the "unitary executive". Probably won't play well in Sheboygan, but hey, you asked.

  by dallasdave on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:09:44 AM PDT

•  Arrest Bush, Cheney, Rice, Mukasey, etc

  by Jon Meltzer on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:13:34 AM PDT

•  Guaranteed Minimum Income

  Replace the standard deductions on the income tax form with a fully refundable tax credit.  Instead of subtracting the deduction from your gross income and then applying your tax rate, you apply your tax rate to your gross income and then subtract the tax credit.

  This way, every individual who files taxes will be guaranteed at least $5000 a year, whether they can find a job or not.  It provides a safety net of income for the poor, without the need to target demographics or include a means test.  There's no preferential treatment to any economic class, and it gives people, especially poor people, greater freedom to make economic choices, so it won't spark disagreement from right-leaning libertarians.

  And speaking of greater economic freedom, it also gives people the freedom to choose not to work, thereby reducing the labor supply and raising wages, making work more attractive and more fulfilling.

  I'm not even going to get into the other economic benefits, but those would be profound as well.

  by Nellebracht on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:25:01 AM PDT

  •  in other words, a "flat-tax-credit" ?

    Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

    Your idea, or is there more literature on this somewhere?

    by AlyoshaKaramazov on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:27:55 AM PDT

    •  There's lots of other literature out there

      Some "Guaranteed Minimum Income" ideas are very similar to mine.  Back in the 70's, Milton Friedman was pushing a negative income tax that would have been very similar to this.  His problem was that he wanted it to completely replace our current tax structure.  It envisioned a 50% tax on all earned income and capital gains together with a (really rather high, for the time) subsidy of either $10,000 or $20,000 to every taxpayer.

      As for a link, this one's good: usbig.net.  That's where I got the idea to use a fully refundable tax credit instead of a means-tested subsidy or grant that's reduced as one's income goes up.

      In the end, I don't care how it's done.  The important thing is to divorce labor from ability to consume.  This divorce has already been attained for the wealthy, as their money (ability to consume) comes more from capital gains than wages.  But for the vast majority of us, we have no choice but to find some demeaning job in order to have some sort of lifestyle.  That's wage slavery, and it distorts the free market and places huge drags on our ability to modernize and reform markets.

      by Nellebracht on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:42:16 AM PDT

  •  Oh and by the way

    Good diary, I was thinking of posting something very similar to this myself.  2008's shaping up to be a wave election like 1934, and just as there was no way of predicting the New Deal before that election, there's no way of predicting what new (and hopefully just as great) programs we'll be able to put in place.

    by Nellebracht on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:29:17 AM PDT

    •  thanks

      others seem to disagree.  Not getting much attention.

      So, thanks so much for your time and input.

      Hopefully one of the front-pagers will post something to this effect soon.

      by AlyoshaKaramazov on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:42:03 AM PDT

      •  It might be too soon

        We're still figuring out who the nominee is gonna be, so a lot of this might come off as a bit premature.  I don't think so, but that might be why others aren't participating.  

        One of us should try this again once we know who the nominee is gonna be.

        by Nellebracht on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:58:02 AM PDT

      •  You should retitle your Diary

        "What should president Obama do in his first 100 days?"

        Then you'll get about 250 comments.

        by Dartagnan on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 11:06:17 AM PDT

•  It's not about the first 100 days...

  It's really about the 77 days between the election and the inauguration.

  In those 11 weeks, President-Elect Obama will have to...

  (a) Pick his cabinet
  (b) Identify a prioritization of his legislative agenda
  (c) Push for congressional consensus to enact that legislation through lobbying congressmen and direct appeals to the public
  (d) Decide what to do with the detritus of the last 8 years:  who gets prosecuted?  what hearings or whitepapers need to be started?  
  (e) Develop a coherent strategy for Iraq disengagement which minimizes regional destabilization

  by jeroly on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:41:22 AM PDT

  •  sooooooooooooooooooooooo...........

    with respect to that, who does he pick for his cabinet?

    What should his legislative priorities be?

    I ain't letting you off that easy

    ;-)

    by AlyoshaKaramazov on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:43:48 AM PDT

    •  We need to shut down Guantanamo

      That will immediately show the international community that change is in the air.

      by Dartagnan on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:47:14 AM PDT

      •  that's my vote too.

        then on to reversing the Executive Orders.

        and getting an AG on the cleaning up of the Justice Dept.

        by AlyoshaKaramazov on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 11:13:48 AM PDT