Last night I posted this diary re-capping the progressive economic wishlist proposed by Richard Eskow in this article on the Huffington Post. I asked if this was a plan that a majority of Kossacks could get behind; my thinking is that if we can inspire Kossacks to fight for a plan, we could move some goalposts a bit and have a really good time in the process. The plan got a whopping 86% "Yes, strongly" for supporting the plan. The diary was well received and many people indicated a desire to continue moving such a plan forward. Below my ideas on how we can do that.
I) To recap, here are the key paragraphs from Eskow's article:
Where's the progressive vision for 2021? Where's the dream people can seize upon and make their own? Where's the ideal that can energize activists? Where's the extreme position from which the Democrats can be "bargained down" so that they, too, can only get 20% more than they asked for when the negotiations began? If they're not going to do it, we have to do it for them.
Here's a start: First increase Social Security retirement benefits by 15%, across the board, by lifting the payroll tax cap and imposing a financial transactions tax. Second, increase income taxes on a sliding scale that goes up to 60% for the highest earners in the country. (It's been as high as 90% during periods of our greatest prosperity.) Third, add $500 billion to our stimulus spending over the next two years, and keep adding it until unemployment is down to 4%. Fourth, immediately add a public option, "Medicare For All" plan that's voluntarily available to Americans of all age brackets.
Have fun. Add your own visions. Dream. Then demand your dream. It's working for the Tea Party, and it can work for you.
I listed them out as items like so:
1) Increase SS retirement benefits by 15%
2) Lift the SS payroll tax cap
3) Imposing a financial transactions tax
4) Increase income taxes on a sliding scale that goes up to 60% for the highest earners
5) Add $500 billion in stimulus spending over the next two years or until unemployment is below 4%
6) Create a "Medicare for All" plan
II) Some valid criticism:
- One commenter made the very valid point IMHO that "there is a compelling argument that this would convert SS from its current form as insurance into entitlement, and thus make it more susceptible to attack from the GOP as 'welfare'." I suggested we put the cap at the first $250K of income, and the commenter replied he thought this seemed like a reasonable idea.
- Some commenters made the possibly valid point that up to 60% feels wrong. I can see the point even if I think that after you make what you need for a comfortable life the rest is pretty much meaningless. Let's consider moving the income taxes maximum rate to 50%.
- Some commenters said that 4% unemployment is going to be very difficult to get to and that 5% is a pretty traditional leftist-economic goal. I don't know what to think. Let's put it at 4.5% and see what sticks.
- A few folks said we need to either tax capital gains at a sliding scale, or tax all capital gains at 15% for people making a million a less annual income and 30% for everyone making more than that. I don't know enough about capital gains and taxes on them to know which is the right approach. It's my understanding all capital gains are taxed at something like 17%? Some kind of reform does seem necessary. More research is needed but I think we should add an item to address this in some fashion.
- Some commenters said that we need to get rid of the word "stimulus" and replace it with the actual programs, like high-speed rail, infrastructure, what have you. I'm thinking that's a good idea but confess ignorance on what the stimulus actually bought us, besides road projects. Folks who know more than me please suggest what we should use instead.
- Some folks mentioned bringing back the WPA and specifically hiring unemployed people. I think this is brilliant and I think we should add it to the plan.
- Lots of people said we need to cut the military budget, to varying degrees. I think we need to add this as a new point, but I also think an all-at-once cut to 25% would shock the economy, so let's say we cut it by 5% a year for five years.
III) This makes the revised list:
1) Increase SS retirement benefits by 15%
2) Lift the SS payroll tax cap up to $250K income.
3) Imposing a financial transactions tax
4) Increase income taxes on a sliding scale that goes up to 50% for the highest earners and extends the ranges for the incomes below $100K.
5) Add $500 billion in spending for High-Speed Rail, Infrastructure, Bridges, Dams, etc, over the next two years or until unemployment is below 4.5%
6) Create a "Medicare for All" plan
7) Reduce military spending by 5% a year for five years.
8) Reform tax policy for capital gains.
9) Start up a new WPA and hire unemployed folks to do things that help our communities.
I think it's important we keep it short, and that we have a plan we can reduce to three or four points. Obviously this is going to take a little massaging. I want to say one of the points is "tax the rich", which wouldn't do so well in certain circles but may be more popular than the serious folks would like to admit. The other points might be "get unemployed folks working", and "invest in our economy".
IV) So where to next?
Folks suggested an action group, so I've started one: The 99 Percenters Economic Plan. If you want to be a part of this group, send a message to me pronto.
This is actually weird timing as I'm about to go on vacation on Wednesday and will be gone for a week. I didn't expect the diary to be that popular and certainly didn't expect it to get so many energetic comments, or I'd have saved it til after I came back. Is someone will to join as a blog admin and help administer this thing for a week?
There's a few things I think we need to do. This is all IMHO opinion of course but just to start the conversation and negotiations:
- Discuss how far we want to push the goalposts. I've taken the proposals down a notch from what they were originally and added a few points. What do you all think?
- Nail down the numbers. I'm not an economist but I would think most of these proposals have been studied and have some numbers we can attach to them. I'm thinking we can start either a public wiki or a public Google doc to open-source the numbers for the proposals.
- Agree on a strategy. I'm not an old-time organizer so I'm just going by what I've read, but the suggestions so far have been: letters to the editor, talking to your friends and neighbors, letter campaigns to congressfolks. I think we should organize local Meet-ups and some sort of direct actions. Actions folks can take part in are so important in keeping people excited.
- Set up a regular conference call for the admins. It's important to make real contact with the people you're working with. Communication is a lot faster and clearer on the phone, IMHO, but a conference call is a bit of a pain in the kiester to set up.
- Set up an online project. I think we'll need a project management tool. I've used Basecamp and it's great, but it runs $49/mo. Have people successfully managed online projects with anything cheaper? Does anyone know how Energize America organized themselves as a working group?
I can respond over the next hour or so then intermittently for the rest of the day. A big thank you to everyone who recommended the previous diary and posted such great comments.