Increased minimum wage, 35 hour work week. Increased productivity should lead to increased leisure not cutting staff and raising profits.
US companies that off-shore manufacturing and customer service are required to obey US labor and environmental laws. If such higher wages would destabilize the local economy companies can make up the difference with foreign humanitarian aid to the country in question.
Foreign companies that export to the US will also be required to uphold US labor and environmental laws or be slapped with high tariffs.
Greatly reduce the presence and use of troops overseas to saves lives, money, and reduce foreign resentment.
Greatly reduce foreign aid because the government can’t afford it.
Focus on building up the infrastructure of the nation, which along with the obvious benefit of better infrastructure, provides more jobs.
Strengthen education through various measures including more funding, more of an emphasis on critical thinking, higher paid teachers, less focusing on standardized tests, and have more flexibility in terms of moving kids to different classes due to their learning style, achievement level, and propensity to distract from learning.
Make immigration easier so many more people become legal, but also be a little more selective and target intelligence. Also enforce the border, which will be more plausible with the troops within the country rather than throughout the world.
Stop the war on drugs as it is a waste of money and does no favors to the inner cities.
Create heavy penalties for corporations that export jobs. Create incentives for corporations to hire more workers rather than increase the hours of existing workers, so more jobs will be created and they won’t suck so hard. And guys like Romney who make money by breaking up corporations and firing people en masse? Jail time!
With sufficient public pressure, Congress might increase funding for U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (La Migra) and add a lot more personnel. But, we’re never going to use the Army for border patrol/immigration control, not unless we go into a cold war or something with Mexico. We obviously don’t need the Army for border patrol so long as the ICE border patrolmen are working every day and usually not getting killed.
It also occurs to me that when you start using soldiers as cops of any kind, they might turn out to be more easily bribeable than cops (never having been previously exposed to the temptation).
That is because the people who prophesize the Second Coming of Christ to a specific date do so in contradiction of the Biblical statement that no one but the Father knows the day and the hour.