No, I'm not running for President, but nonetheless it's fun to think about. Here are my recommendations for a better and brighter U.S.A.:
DEMOCRACY:
(1) End corporate rule of our politics by eliminating all forms of private campaign contributions and instituting public financing of campaigns throughout the entire political process. We can take back our government from the special interests for as little as $3 per year per citizen. See this diary for details: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/4/13651/7589
ECONOMY:
(2) Dramatically increase the minimum wage from it's current level to $9.75 per hour so that no person or their family who works hard and plays by the rules has to live in poverty.
(3) Index the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation so that those who work hard and play by the rules in the future don't recieve a pay cut just because the wrong party is power.
(4) Raise the highest marginal tax rate back to what it was prior to Bush's tax cut in 2000.
(5) Reinstate the estate tax, but allow exemptions for family owned businesses and family owned farms up to 5 million dollars.
(6) Eliminate the ceiling on the Social Security payroll tax and and use this new revenue to cut payroll taxes for the middle and lower classes so that the Social Security payroll tax in general becomes less regressive.
(7) Crack down on collusion and monopolies in the Market Place to make sure that markets are truly competitive and small business have at least a fighting chance. Stop rubberstamping every proposed new merger.
(8) Withdraw from all trade agreements such as NAFTA, GATT, and CAFTA, which fail to safeguard labor rights or the environment, and instead encourage a race to the bottom. Refuse to enter into any future "free trade" treaties unless they adequately safeguard labor rights and the environment.
(9) Penalize corporations who avoid taxation through offshore offices by ridding the tax code of this loophole.
(10) End ALL Corporate Welfare.
ENERGY & the ENVIRONMENT:
(11) Create a New initiative called the 2020 initiative, similar in scale to the Manhattan Project or the Race to the Moon to create an efficient alternative fuel source to fossil fuels and nucear energy by 2020. This initiative can succeed by bringing together the best and brightest scientists that this nation (and perhaps the World) has to offer as well as many other persons who would help to carry out this mission. Not only would it help us in our Foreign policy by reducing our supply of oil from terrorist supporting regimes like Saudi Arabia as well as the environment, but this dose of Keynsian economics would help the economy as well.
(12) In the short term, raise CAFE emission standards and provide $750 tax rebates to taxpayers who choose to buy hybrids.
(13) Require pollutors rather than taxpayers to once again fund the the cleanup of toxic waste sites.
HOMELAND SECURITY
(14) In the classic style of FDR who said it best, tell all Americans to stop living in fear and restore our civil liberties. When we give up liberties the terrorists win.
(15) Gradually work towards ending the importation of all oil from nations such as Saudi Arabia that support Terrorists. This goal is a corollary to the 2020 project discussed above.
(16) Bring our troops home from Iraq because the people of Iraq do not want us in their nation, and the war in Iraq is beginning to look eirily similar to Vietnam.
HEALTH CARE
(17) Provide national health care insurance to ALL Americans so that they have health care. National health insurance as opposed to private health insurance would result in lower health care costs for everyone due to the savings that would be achieved in the form of dramatically reduced administrative costs.
INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM
(18) Continue to allow women the right to choose what to do with their own bodies. i.e. keep abortion legal.
(19) Legalize Homosexual Marraige or abolish state sponsored marraige altogether.
EDUCATION
(20) Either fully fund "No Child Left Behind," or abolish it altogether.
(21) If Congress agrees to fully fund "No Child Left Behind," then drastically reform "No Child Left Behind" giving particular creedence to the concerns raised by teachers and other education professionals about the current law, which often requires teachers to teach to the test.
(22) Start treating teachers like the professionals that they are, and stop micromanaging their curriculum.
(23) Don't allow right wing controlled school boards to mandate the teaching of religion in science class.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
(24) End the War on drugs and focus on real criminals. Legalize marihuana, regulate it, and tax the hell out of it; decriminalize other drugs and focus on treatment of those who need help rather than trying to cut the supply (the demand will always be there as long as there is a supply) and perhaps replace criminal laws forbidding possession with civil committment laws that force chronic drug addicts to undergo treatment.
(25) Abolish the death penalty; it is more costly than life imprisonment and study after study shows that it is not a deterrent. Furthermore, we are beginning to look more and more barbaric as a society as more nations come to realize that the death penalty is simply wrong. Turkey is abolishing capital punishment for crying out loud!
What do you think of these recommendations?