Empowerment For Changes

[mkemse]

If You Were A Politician In The Unites States And Where Empowered For 30 To Make Any Changes In The United States To Better Things What Would You Change?

[_ID_]

- Tax breaks needs overhauled. The rich get many and the poor get few. The reason it happened this way is easy to understand, but it should still be changed.
- Should change funding for education.
- Should change funding for medicine.
- Should change funding for military as well as how it's utilized.
- Should change requirements of politicians and how much they are required to participate once elected.
- Should make the requirements for approving a law based less on the conservative values of the religious right and more about what is right for all it affects.
- Should remove laws that promote race segregation, racial profiling, racial statistical collection for the sake of collecting.
- Should change the funding of infrastructure to support progressive development of new technology that helps the environment rather than promoting funding that relies on fossil fuels.


That's just a starting point.

[Warbaby1943]

Throw out all the laws and start over.

[Thorne]

I've always kind of liked Heinlein's proposal (from "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"):
Require a 67% majority vote of the legislature to PASS a law, under the assumption that any proposal which cannot satisfy at least 2/3's of the people is not a good law; then allow a law to be repealed with only a 34% minority, for the same reason.

Also, since EVERY law has to go to the President for signature, allow a "Line Item Veto" to limit the number or "add ons" which lawmakers sneak into otherwise important legislation to force it through. And make it more difficult for those legislators to put those extras into place.

Eliminate the Income Tax: replace it with a national sales tax. There would have to be some provision for compensating the poor, based upon income, but those are details.

Penalize those US Companies which export jobs overseas. And customize the taxes on imported goods for the country they're being imported from. A "tit-for-tat" scheme would work best: if you raise the duties on American products exported to your country, we'll do the same with products imported from yours.

Lots of other things along the same lines. Wishful thinking, I know. Comes from being an honest man, I guess.

[Euryleia]

Came up with 25 off the top of my head:

1) Come up with a plan for the phased withdrawal from Iraq
2) Come up with a rebuilding plan for Afghanistan that includes safety for women and children, sortof a Mitchell Plan for the Middle East
3) Revamp the armed forces to be able to respond with peacekeeping operations.
4) Pay our outstanding dues to the United Nations
5) Fund the vacination and prevention programs of the World Health Organization.
6) Pass the Equal Rights Ammendment
7) Pass the Hate Crimes Bill with gender identity included
8) Follow the Kyoto accords and mandate reductions of pollution and greenhouse gasses.
9) Go beyond that to clean the water and air for all citizens
10) Increase the use of alternative fuels
11) Eliminate income tax and institute a national sales tax on all things but groceries. Luxury and import items will have the highest tax.
12) Impose inheritance tax on all property over $2 million with rebates on land that is kept undeveloped to encourage farming and green space.
13) Eliminate all corporate welfare but especially any incentives that have jobs going out of the country
14) Eliminate the Electoral College and winner take all state votes. One national, popular vote for the national leader.
15) Revalute the system for assigning representatives to the house to ensure that urban areas are fairly represented. Stop the geremanding
16) Reduction of class sizes for K-12 classes. This will require
17) Renovating and building schools
18) Grants for students to become teachers with credit toward student loans for each year the person remains a teacher
19) Creation of technichal schools for those students who don't want to pursue the academic side of pursuits.
20) Pass incentives for pharmecutical companies to invest in anti-biotics and other non-glamor drugs
21) And on the subject of health care, making it universal
22) Offer incentives for hospitals/doctors to provide preventive care
23) Repair the aging infrastructure ie bridges and roadway and floodwater works
24) Create a new Work Projects Administration to offer work to youth, non-violent offenders, etc to work on number 23 above.
25)Finally, instituting a stupid moron law that those dinks who get themselves in trouble by ignoring warnings signs (like flash flood area) or do the runnaway bride thing, have to pay for the cost of their rescue.

[Sir_Russell]

Find a way to install common sense in the government

[Thorne]

Find a way to install common sense in the government

I think that's called an oxymoron: mutually contradictory terms.

[mkemse]

I think that's called an oxymoron: mutually contradictory terms.


I agree 100% that it is called an Oxymoron, and the Central Intelligence Agency Is a Contraditions in Terms as well

[DowntownAmber]

Simple I would have a 30 day morritorium on making ANY NEW laws or rules. Give us a break. I would lay off 50% of the government work force to add resources to the private sector and invest social security somewhere besides the government!

Further more Everybody pays too much tax...the "rich" get breaks because they pay the most...and I never EVER got a job from a poor guy!

In case you didn't notice I'm a shameless capitalist!

By -J-Go

[ThisYouWillDo]

Ask if England wanted its colonies back ...

(only joking)

[Thorne]

Ask if England wanted its colonies back ...

(only joking)

I'm sure they would want the colonies back, as long as they didn't come with all those damned colonists!

[mkemse]

send them Rush Limbaugh, we don't need him

[Sir_Russell]

DowntownAmber
a supply sider, your right the wealthy do the hiring. I am okay with that till you realize that they also want education only for the wealthy, that they want to limit a new business persons ability to succeed. An then there is the fact that since the top 2 percent controls about 80% of the money I need to ask how much is enough.

Did you know that when the irs started that only a few percent of the population paid any tax and it was considered a privilege to pay. I agree we pay to much in taxes but where do we cut to cut more taxes for the wealthy. Less health care, less education, I say no to both we need more of both. So how about military madness, we are in a war for no real reason and being told that it may go on for at least 10 more years.

when you consider the economic impact of a tax cut it really isn't in giving it to the wealthy, the folks that spend it are middle and low class people putting it into the economy. Now give tax breaks to those industries that make things that can be sold world wide to balance our trade deficit or we will become just a third world toilet which seems to be what the wealthy want.

[DowntownAmber]

DowntownAmber
a supply sider, your right the wealthy do the hiring. I am okay with that till you realize that they also want education only for the wealthy, that they want to limit a new business persons ability to succeed. An then there is the fact that since the top 2 percent controls about 80% of the money I need to ask how much is enough.

Did you know that when the irs started that only a few percent of the population paid any tax and it was considered a privilege to pay. I agree we pay to much in taxes but where do we cut to cut more taxes for the wealthy. Less health care, less education, I say no to both we need more of both. So how about military madness, we are in a war for no real reason and being told that it may go on for at least 10 more years.

when you consider the economic impact of a tax cut it really isn't in giving it to the wealthy, the folks that spend it are middle and low class people putting it into the economy. Now give tax breaks to those industries that make things that can be sold world wide to balance our trade deficit or we will become just a third world toilet which seems to be what the wealthy want.

I actually wouldn't consider cutting taxes quite yet: let's figure out how to manage what we have resonsibly THEN scale back from there. I would simply draw the line at creating brand new ways to part us all from our paychecks. The point is to slow the tsunami of goverment before it washes us all away, and put a little common sense control back into the private sector.

And yes, I have seen the statistic that 2 percent of the pop. controls 80 percent of the wealth, which also means they control the government that helps them make it and keep it. Taxation is a portion of that, yes, but certainly not the whole (or even the biggest slice) of the pie. Simply, it's easier to buy legislation that gives, as you say, education to only the wealthy and supresses new business. If governement is smaller, there is less of the machine out there to be manipulated. The game becomes simpler, perhaps a but more pure again. The real economic value of across the board tax cuts is negligable as you say, the real success would be in the elimination of the goverment bohemoth we're charging those taxes to support. The lower taxes, heck, just frosting on the cake for those of us who like to spend. ;)

Thank you, as always, Sir Russell for the well thought out post.

[Sir_Russell]

amber,
We agree on a lot I can see that but I see govnerment as a necessary evil. Without it we would be at the total mercy of the new breed of robber barrons. I want tax breaks for industries that employ americans, give them the ability to put the newest technologies to work. Daddy Reagan screw this country by wanting us to become a service society, now I admit that put a lot of toxic byproduct out of the country but also put our worker base into a decline.

Ask any economist worth his salt if we can or any economy can import more then it exports for any great length of time and survive. The answer is no.

Forget taking care of global economy and lets spend Iraq money here building infrastructure, history shows it all ways pays, then training our people and last give the businesses that stay here and make things a huge break. In about 4 years the country will be strong again and the bleeding will stop.

[Warbaby1943]

amber,
We agree on a lot I can see that but I see govnerment as a necessary evil. Without it we would be at the total mercy of the new breed of robber barrons. I want tax breaks for industries that employ americans, give them the ability to put the newest technologies to work. Daddy Reagan screw this country by wanting us to become a service society, now I admit that put a lot of toxic byproduct out of the country but also put our worker base into a decline.

Ask any economist worth his salt if we can or any economy can import more then it exports for any great length of time and survive. The answer is no.

Forget taking care of global economy and lets spend Iraq money here building infrastructure, history shows it all ways pays, then training our people and last give the businesses that stay here and make things a huge break. In about 4 years the country will be strong again and the bleeding will stop.Why is it so easy to see except for those running for office?

[DowntownAmber]

Russell: I agree, you and I could have a long chat over coffee and probably take care of a good portion of the country's ills. Government is indeed a necessary evil, I just prefer my evils to be as small as possible...

And WB, I am CERTAIN the folks in government see this as clearly as we do, they simply benefit more by pretending not to...

[Warbaby1943]

Russell: I agree, you and I could have a long chat over coffee and probably take care of a good portion of the country's ills. Government is indeed a necessary evil, I just prefer my evils to be as small as possible...

And WB, I am CERTAIN the folks in government see this as clearly as we do, they simply benefit more by pretending not to...Not so sure about that. I do get tired of listening to their BS.

[wmrs2]

DownTownAmber you are like Chaney shuten ducks! You shot them down so nicely they don't even recognize they just got shot. I like your avatar. It absorbs the minds of those who think big government can take care of us.