So far I like what I see here. I perceive myself as a moderate, and virtually all the ideas here are moderate.
I want to put in a shout for my number one, an increase in the federal minimum wage of $7.25. About 20 states go by the federal standard, including mine. I live in the richest county in the state, by average income, and we nonetheless have agricultural workers at the minimum wage. Many are undocumented, but far from all.
And a $15 minimum wage seems to consistently poll over that 60 percent mark, especially if somewhat gradual.
You might wonder whether employers with undocumented workers would comply. Well, I talked to someone in management about this last week, because it is possible our state will increase its minimum wage due to the Democrats taking control of the state Senate. Ownership is worried about this – because they feel they would have to comply. So an increase (and indexing for inflation) would be good for our most impoverished neighbors, and also good politics.
I. Protection of the Constitution from inroads by any of the three branches on powers that belong to either of the other two branches (aimed mostly but not exclusively at the executive branch)
II. Accountability of Federal officials when they fail to follow their oaths of office.
III. Protection of voting rights.
IV. Medical reform (not Medicare expansion).
V. Immigration reform.
VI. Protection and strengthening of Social Security.
I only have six, which I think is enough for going on with, and I would be thrilled beyond belief if these were all successfully addressed. What I wanted to say was not always brief, so I blurred the additional parts so you don’t have to read them if you don’t want to.
Expansion of NATO into Belarus (first changing Belarusian sentiments)
Ban leaded avgas
Instant end to war in Iran
Severe legal penalties against pro sports refs that do corrupt/bad officiating
Universal basic income
the 2% wealth tax on the rich proposed by Elizabeth Warren
Reduce the threshold of “rich” down from $400,000/year down to $200,000/year income for tax purposes
Eliminate all tariffs
Raise minimum wage to $10/hour
Increase the amount that health insurance companies must spend out of premiums on benefit payouts from 85% to 90%, while banning them from raising premiums beyond year-2025 levels
Severe crackdown on Medicare fraud
Return corporate income taxes back to the pre-TCJA levels
Is this really an issue that calls for Congressional action? Corrupt officiating is already illegal, and as far as I know, is taken seriously by the leagues and law enforcement.
Create a public option for health insurance and restore the expired ACA subsidies
End the tariffs and idiotic trade wars with allies; reassert Congressional control over these issues
Immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship and funding for courts
Substantially reform immigration enforcement and replace leadership, including investigating leaders and agents accused of wrongdoing and punishing the guilty.
Investigate and hold public hearings for the ICE agents who killed American citizens, Trump allies who benefited from insider trading and other corrupt practices
Housing, housing, housing - we need a major push for YIMBI policies and the construction of affordable housing. The Abundance agenda has a lot of good specific policy proposals there.
Renewable energy - again, we need to apply the Abundance philosophy in order to massively increase the amount of renewable energy projects we are pushing.
Raise the minimum wage
Childcare - the cost of childcare is one of the biggest issues facing American families. We should roll out California’s TK program nationwide and subsidize childcare at younger ages so that families can afford to have children.
