I've seen a tremendous amount of great content over the last several months on DKos. I've concluded that the best ideas discussed here ARE the answer to how to fix what ails America.
The challenge, IMHO, is not in actually implementing these ideas as much as it is mounting the largest ever grassroots effort in history, to convince a majority of the voting public that we "can" "reboot America".
I agree with Kos; we NEED to elect BETTER Democrats. I believe that we may need to step up and start running OURSELVES against the career political class; if EVERY incumbent establishment DLC-affiliated candidate was primaried by a true progressive, we will inevitably make small but real gains that, one hopes, would snowball over following election cycles. We must allow ourselves to believe we CAN purge the Democratic Party of its corporatist influence. I propose the following as a "template" that grassroots candidates could use in future election cycles, and in the short term, to rally behind as a "Progressive Contract To Reboot America".
Reboot America : The Plan
Requirements:
- We need to elect a supermajority of the house and senate in order to pass legislation needed to make fundamental reforms to the american economy that are veto-proof.
Setting the Stage:
- The U.S. Senate is broken. It must be repaired. End current filibuster process. Graduated filibuster rules starting at 60 votes to invoke cloture followed by re-votes every 24 hours requiring 58, 56, 54, 52, and then simple majority to invoke cloture. End secret holds on legislation and confirmation of nominees for federal posts outright. No holds. All legislation/confirmations scheduled for consideration by the majority leader get an up or down vote. Period.
The key elements to reboot the country:
- The United States must end the practice of compelling its workforce to compete with nations whose standard of living is wildly disproportionate with its own. Middle class jobs shipped overseas where wages are a small fraction of those paid to American workers, where there exist no health care benefits, worker safety regulations, and where the general quality of life is simply unacceptable by American standards, puts the American middle class on a grossly slanted playing field for the benefit of the profits realized by multinational corporations. Without a middle class, there simply will exist no American market for the goods and services these corporations are manufacturing (somewhere else). It is common sense and a long term necessity for both the middle class and the corporate interests, to restore the design, development and manufacture of goods and services to the United States. We must enact legislation that requires multinational corporations to perform at minimum a percent of the design, development, and manufacture of products and services commensurate with the percentage of their worldwide market share belonging to the United States, IN the United States. Companies who do manufacture goods and services in the United States would be protected from unfair competition from imported products made from start to finish in countries with a tiny fraction of the cost. Multinational corporations would still be free to manufacture goods for countries without such protections as they see fit. This is far and away the single most important legislative task that this country must accomplish in order to restore the middle class, and by extension, the long term viability of the economy itself.
- The portion of the national debt owed to China must be repaid in full within 5 years. This removes the power of this large power to punish us economically with our own debt as leverage for levelling the uneven trade imbalance we have (largely accomplished in the above item). We can balance our trade with China and maintain a deeply embedded economic relationship with them as a deterrent to military conflict without putting ourselves in a position of economic weakness.
(If membership and/or commitments to the World Trade Organization run counter to the above two objectives, our membership and/or commitments to the WTO must be withdrawn. Our national sovreignity and right to protect the middle class and standard of living Americans have established must not be undermined by the interests of other nations.)
- Withdraw our military from Iraq and Afghanistan and focus our military on defense of the homeland with one exception: Osama Bin Laden must continue to be hunted until capture using special forces in tandem with an increased price on his head, dead or alive. Raising the stakes and economic incentives for our enemy to turn on each other combined with the reduced hatred of US forces in the wake of withdrawl from occupied lands is a recipe for members of the Taliban/Al Quaeda to flip and lead us to OBL.
- Reset Income Tax rates to 1981 Reagan levels - the top tax rate becomes 50%. Capital Gains over $1 million per year also taxed at 50%. Close all loopholes that allow the wealthiest individuals and corporations to evade taxes by shifting money overseas. Increased tax revenue from this action will be appropriated to deficit elimination followed by paydown of our debt, starting with China.
- Review and nullify or renegotiate where appropriate every line of every contract with a private contractor performing services for the Department of Defense. All wasteful policies and procedures, fraud, and war profiteering abuse must be eliminated.
- Proceeds from the reform of military industrial complex expenditures are to be spent on repairing the national transportation infrastructure.
- The private for-profit health insurance industry must be dismantled in its entirety and replaced with universal single payer healthcare.
- The Federal Reserve must submit to full, complete open-ing of its books to public review and audit. Specifics of what and how the Federal Reserve must be reformed will flow from this process.
- Cap interest rate that any commercial bank or lender can charge on any loan/credit product to 15 percent (retroactively to existing consumer debt). No exceptions including default or penalty rates. Credit Unions are capable of existing and operating profitably under this regulation today, if large commercial banks cannot operate under the same rules then they should not be in the business of lending money.
- Comprehensive legislation establishing economic incentives towards fossil fuel independence including but not limited to electric vehicle technology, establishment of a wind and solar "grid" feeding the existing power grid, and development and deployment of clean,alternative energy production.
- End the failed war on drugs and dismantle/criminalize the prison labor industry. Tax and regulate sales of marijuana in the same style as tax/regulation of alcohol and tobacco. 12 percent of all state and federal prison inmates are incarcerated for marijuana offenses. The money saved from this dramatic drop in the prison population and the taxation of marijuana would drastically reduce drug violence and generate tens of billions of dollars in saved/new revenue which can be used to rescue schools and other educational institutions in need.