-Abolish the EC
-Expand the number of seats in House of Representatives to around 800 (while reducing overall salary) and thus creating smaller districts. Also add a 100 or so seats apportioned proportionally to ensure results like last year do not recur where the party that should have won more votes did not gain a majority
-Increase House terms to three years
-Reform Senate so that it is largely a house that can review and delay legislation
-Institute a line item veto for the President
-Repeal term limits for the President
-To ensure that Congressmen don’t engage in pork barrel spending, remove decisions on spending appropriation to a nonpartisan commission of economists, demographers, and so on who will determine where spending will go based on income, population, and so forth
-Continue aggressively implementing Obamacare, if it fails to appreciably rein in costs a decade after full implementation, move towards a single-payer system using France as a model
-Remove the payroll tax cap on Social Security
-Devise a “retirement age formula” for Social Security and Medicare that depending on health, type of job, employment status etc. allows one to retire at an age range of say 60 to 70.
-Means-test Social Security and Medicare
-Raise the minimum wage to nine dollars an hour and tie the minimum wage to inflation
-Institute guaranteed maternity leave along with guaranteed vacation time of at least a month
-Restrict loopholes and deduction in tax code to a set cash amount
-Raise estate taxes back to levels in the '90s, keep the income tax the same (or raise it a bit depending on various factors), institute a Carbon Tax and possibly VAT. Cut corporate taxes and work to eliminate them eventually.
-Institute a combined infrastructure-alternative energy bill. Provisions will include repairing currently outdated infrastructure, building an extensive national high speed-rail system, expanding Amtrak services, subsidies to major metropolitan areas for expanding mass transit systems, building dozens of nuclear power plants, and increasing funding for alternative energy research.
-Increase funding for the space program with set dates to return to the Moon, establish a lunar base, and land on Mars
-Eliminate farm subsidies
-End the War on Drugs, legalizing marijuana and most other soft drugs while decriminalizing most hard drugs with a few exceptions such as bath salts. Encourage states to reduce drinking age to 18.
-Immigration reform involving a path to citizenship for most current illegals, increased border security, and revise immigrant quotas. Country-based quotas are to be abolished and granting of visas to be determined by income, education level, job, and skills.
-Continue aggressively pursuing free trade pacts
-Create universal preschool education while expanding the number of daycare programs so that all mothers can afford it
-Reform the education system by abolishing summer vacations and instead putting in school vacations throughout the year. Also establish a minimum national curriculum
-Expand funding for vocational education and create a Richard Nixon scholarship program giving a full ride to college for the top five or ten percent of students with middle class or lower income
-Repeal DOMA and leave gay marriage to the states
-Promote voluntary eugenics by offering subsidies for sterilization for parents identified as carrying hereditary diseases or disabilities
-Pass a federal amendment banning abortion unless the mother’s life is threatened or in cases of rape and incest
-Leave death penalty to the states but encourage them to restrict it to those convicted of multiple killings. Meanwhile this would enable us to abolish multiple appeals before carrying out a death sentence
-Institute mandatory sterilization for sex criminals
-Institute universal background checks and increased punishments for straw purchases but no other gun control measures
-Promote Western culture and identity by increasing funding for PBS and NPR (for God’s sake, can’t we have more original programming rather than half of it being British imports?) along with the fine arts and humanities while cutting off funding for degenerate art
-Create a Department of Science and a Department of Culture
-Cut areas of military spending especially missile defence programmes and conventional forces
-Identify Russia and China as primary strategic threats and work to isolate them by strengthening our alliances in Europe and East Asia until they democratize.
-Pursue a treaty of alliance with India and institute a Marshall Plan for that country
-Work to completely eliminate the current regimes of the following countries: Iran, Sudan, North Korea, Syria, Saudi Arabia. While we won’t go to war against them, isolate them as much possible, aid opposition forces, engage in cyberwarfare and a few discreet assassinations etc.
-Continue the policy of drone warfare against Islamist reactionaries in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere
-End the embargo and establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and improve relations with Venezuela while weaning them off the Iranians.
-Create a mega-free trade zone called the “Union of the West” incorporating all First-World democracies (so NAFTA zone + EU + Korea/Japan/Singapore + Australia/NZ + Argentina/Chile/Uruguay) and with India and other poorer democracies as associate members. Aim to create a common currency, defence pact, and political union.
Well, those proposals are all over the map, everyone should find something they like in that list.
But this one I find a bit bizarre (well, OK, I find some others bizarre too):
“Pursue a treaty of alliance with India and institute a Marshall Plan for that country”
The US needs to give aid to India so it can rebuild its economy and industrial/commerica/technological sectors?? Say What???
-Increase House terms to 4 years, reducing the ability for insane regional candidates to get elected, and tying legislative political power to the presidency, thereby making it more likely that the president and the House are of the same party and can actually pass laws instead of this bullshit stonewalling
-Single-payer universal health care
-Strict gun control
-Abortion is health care, and the government pays for it. Remove all local and state legislation that puts the fetus ahead of any living mother
-Gay marriage legal throughout the US, extend federal protected class to LGBT
-Religious organizations are now not tax exempt OR make it a felony to use or have any religious influence in politics. If you cite your god for support of a bill, its automatically disqualified
-Increase minimum wage. In fact, tie it proportionately to corporate and CEO profits for larger businesses
-Automatically unionize workers in every major industry, work on doing so with smaller and specialized industries and jobs. Workers now are a tiny fraction of the workforce, that needs to change
-Decrease military spending by at least a quarter. Eliminate many big projects like extra fighter jets, submarines, ships, etc. We don’t need that stuff. We’re not getting invaded by China or Mars anytime soon
-Increase welfare spending, tie that to unemployment and the number of people living at or below the poverty line
-Reform drug laws and allow recreational use for many substances. Lower penalties for possession and use of harder drugs. Spend resources going after the dealers and those who are violent like smugglers
-Raise estate taxes
-Increase spending on stopping or mitigating global warming. Realize that the goal is to save the fucking planet, not turn a profit, so green energy and jobs should be funded without an eye towards the bottom line. It would be nice if they are sustainable, but if it makes the planet better and more survivable, then its objectively worth doing even if it costs the taxpayers. Future taxpayers will thank us when we’re not all drowning
-Immigration reform. Amnesty is a good thing, allow people who break the law to come into this country be citizens after a short (couple of years) of good behavior and paying back taxes. It doesn’t matter where you are born, as long as you are a regular tax-paying citizen. If you think about it, babies born to Americans have basically the same “drain” on resources as undocumented immigrants. Its a race thing, people think foreigners would be less loyal to American values, but fuck American values, values change over time and neither I nor anyone else has a monopoly on keeping values the way they are
-Free daycare for all
-Like the national curriculum idea. No more letting states like Texas take off minimize Cesar Chavez or Kansas teaching that evolution and creationism, sorry, Intelligent Design, are on equal footing. In fact, all curriculum must have a non-religious, scientific backing
-Reform prisons to focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment
-Reduce work week to 35 hours, give all workers in any and every industry mandatory 2 weeks of vacation time a year and at least 2 weeks of paid sick time a year
All campaign contributions and campaign spending to be henceforth illegal, in the hard-prison-time sense. Every candidate for office to get an equal allotment of free TV time and newspaper space; no other campaigning to be permitted if it costs money. It will be a stated principle of the law in this area that it is a felony for anyone, including candidates themselves, even to attempt to influence the outcome of any public election by spending money.
Single-member districting to be replaced by proportional representation in elections to the House of Reps and to all state legislatures, county commissions, city councils, school boards, and all other elected multimember policymaking bodies.
The Senate to be abolished, all its powers and functions devolved on the House.
To the extent representative districting survives, all district lines to be drawn by an independent nonpartisan commission, Canadian-style.
For all elections to single offices, instant-runoff voting and ballot fusion to be employed.
The goal of this party is to make government, and therefore itself as a political party, obsolete.
Direct vote by the electorate on house and senate bills by 10 years hence (elected politicians’ roles will be the proposing of legislature and participating in debate on the merits thereof).
Rolling 10 year and 30 year plans updated every five years for increasing citizen responsibility and participation, shifting initiative and authority to local, making all processes more egaliatarian in ways sought and/or supported by the electorate
Elimination of all victimless crimes from the books in 5 years
Long term incarceration replaced by some combo of community service and intensive supervision probation, or capital punishment, and reduction of prison population to 1/100th in 20 years
Global planning for world government patterned on bicameral representative government in conjunction with localization of authority, global citizen responsibility initiative.
I recall starting a thread a year ago to debate the subject, trying to start with an open mind, but not really coming down in favor (this was at a time when there were several “scientific-racialists” threads running in GD and in the Pit) . . . More casually, I’m always for voluntary eugenics in the Darwin Awards sense and you might be recalling some remark of that kind . . .
I’m merely describing a system that works perfectly well in France. Broadcasters already have to meet all kinds of licensing-conditions like free EBS time, no reason they can’t be made to stretch to a bit of free campaign-ad time. If not, let the taxpayers cover it – it wouldn’t “blow up the budget” – the total amount of air time purchased would be much less than under our present system, and all to the good.
How would a candidate get the word out about their take on the issues? Weekly things held on TV or in the paper that are mandated? Essentially, it looks like you’re outlawing campaigning and/or raising campaign funds.
Outlawing raising campaign funds. They ain’t necessary in every democracy. Campaigning remains possible – town-hall meetings, public appearances, televised debates. What matters is it all costs the candidates no money.
Someday, a contrary position will appear as anachronistic as the old British practice of not paying any salary to members of Parliament (which effectively meant only independently wealthy men, or those sponsored by rich patrons, could afford to serve as MPs at all, let alone get elected).
Change filibuster rules to make it much harder to filibuster. Keep it, just make it hard to do.
If possible, find a way to penalize destructive politics (trying to keep the government at a standstill until the next election cycle, etc).
Pass a law making the creation of congressional districts something that is done by an independent, non-partisan group.
Change the funding of politics so that they are funded by public funds and small donors who have matched donations (ie donations of up to $100 are matched 4-1). This would cost a few billion a year at best, but would really clean out politics.
Aside from that, a lot of what the green party or american socialist party stands for.
Like most leftist pipe dreams, this is ill considered. How do you limit the number of candidates entitled to “free” air time? Does the “Insert Absurdity of Your Choice” party get the same consideration as the Democratic Party? If not, how do you fairly make such a decision–without allowing any fund raising?
And you’ve still got a little problem under the “takings clause”. You do remember that from Con Law I, right? Hint: newspapers don’t require broadcast licenses.
So when the State requires that I give up income to serve on a jury (their “fee” doesn’t remotely cover the cost of that time to me), I have a case under the “takings clause”? Do tell, Counselor. I smell a HUGE class-action here…
Any thoughts on my platform? Would you be able to vote for it? A few extra provisions:
-Establish a nonpartisan electoral commission to prevent Gerrymandering.
-Establish the metric system as the official system of measurement in the United States
-Intervene in Syria by enforcing a no fly zone and air strikes but no boots on the ground
-Push for a two-state solution in Israel/Palestine with Israel keeping 1967 border plus all Jerusalem and some settlement blocks. Palestine upon independence shall sign a treaty of non-aggression with Israel
-Proclaim a “Never-Again” Doctrine that the United States shall oppose any instance of genocide or ethnic cleansing and will intervene unilaterally if need be to stop it.
Not everything, but those things related to the OP:
-Expand the number of seats in House of Representatives to around 4000. Nothing but the salary and facilities paid for by the federal government. No pay for staff or travel, except when the military is unable to provide travel. Large congressional facilities will be built in different regions of the country. Most meetings of congress will be through video conferencing.
-Increase the size of the senate with more proportional representation. Perhaps the most populous state is given 10 senators, the smallest 1.
-Repeal term limits for the President
-Limit term of Supreme Court justices. Let’s say 18 years. There would be a member appointed every two years. The senior member will be the CJ, if turned down it continues down the chain by seniority.
-Rework Obamacare to provide government paid low cost emergency care, catastrophic care, and preventive care. Open up competition for health insurance. Allow tax credit for basic health insurance payments. Means tested health insurance assistance. Stronger regulations for health and insurance providers.
-Change the Social Security payroll tax to something much higher with a decreasing rate.
-Provide incentives for people not to take Social Security.
-Provide wage and hiring incentives to companies through the tax system.
-Revamp income tax to eliminate all deductions over time. Incentives are limited to credits and limited based on income.
-Eliminate ‘double tax’ on dividends.
-Institute scheduled removal of all farm subsidies and agricultural price fixing. Greatly increase the size of the DoA and increase their regulatory ability.
-Legalize personal consumption and possession of marijuana. Decriminalize possession of other drugs.
-Immigration reform. Greatly increase immigration across all socio-economic groups. Strict regulation of illegal employment. Simple path to citizenship for current undocumented immigrants.
-Repeal DOMA and get the government out of the marriage business
-Make gun owners civilly and criminally responsible for the use of the guns they own.
-Increase the size of the military concentrating on the lower half of the pay scale. Cut long term highly paid personnel. Create extended military ties out through National Guard and Reserves to state and local first responders.
-Pursue a treaty of alliance with India and institute a Marshall Plan for that country
-End the embargo and establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and improve relations with Venezuela.
I was going to suggest a similar idea of term limits and staggered two year appointments. Every President would have an opportunity to appoint two justices.
Any unexpected open seats due to death or retirements would be filled by a special appointment. The justices named this way would complete the remaining portion of the term of the justice they were replacing.
Justices completing a term would be able to be nominated for another term if the sitting President wished.
As for the Chief Justice, let the members of the court elect a Chief for themselves. Let each Chief serve a two year term. Chiefs could be elected for more than one term but not consecutive ones. This would mean that your Chief Justices would be somebody the other justices felt they could work with.