Wish list for an upcoming Democratic Congress

[Charlotte_native]

Of the many things I hope the upcoming Congress will deal with: paper trails for all electronic voting machines. This should be good for both parties, I can't understand why it has ever been opposed, and could help restore citizen confidence that their vote will be counted. It would go a long way to "fix" the concerns people have about fixed elections. I have a lot more, but will start with that one...

[monsoon]

1. Get us out of Iraq

2. Do something to make health care affordable to those who don't get it from an employer

3. Create real alternative energy plan

4. Deal with the illegals

5. Provide more funding for mass transit

[suburban george3]

6. Stop the "bleeding" of American jobs overseas.

7. Open investigations into Wal-Mart for labor and business practices.

8. Get costs down on prescription drugs.

9. Deal with GLOBAL WARMING and environmental issues.

[bmorescottamanda]

Keep gas prices down.

[Charlotte_native]

[*]Create real alternative energy plan

Though all are extremely important, this is another that seems to get ignored. Relieving ourselves of depending on foreign oil would completely change our current problems with the middle east. I can't think of a better way to really "support our troops" than to end the need for them to fight over there. Without oil money, the middle east would not have the ability to potentially threaten the rest of the world and to purchase weapons. Obviously it wouldn't make them irrelevant, but it certainly would change the dynamic.

Reducing pollution, emissions would also be a massive benefit and preparing for a time when oil isn't so abundant is simply good common sense.

[runawayjim]

how about prevent "non-issues" from becoming issues? i'm thinking along the lines of gay marriage, abortion, etc... anything that has to do with moral issues rather than government issues.

and how about a bill allowing for stem cell research?

[tamias6]

1. End the Iraq War on a positive note.

2. Restore America's industrial base so we don't have to depend on places like Communist China for manufactured goods.

3. Affordable Health Care

4. Break up Wal-Mart into baby Wallys (companies far smaller and more benigne have been nailed with Monopoly charges and dealt with. Why shouldn't Wal-Mart?)

5. Fix the Nation's school systems. How can the US hope to compete in the information age with schools are failing to give children a good education?

6. Seek alternative energy so we don't have to brown nose OPEC and deal with their stupid price hikes.

7. Deal with the Border and all the illegals flooding into the US by A) Putting padlocks on Bussineses that hire illegals and tossing the offending employers in the slammer to serve a long sentence with out the chance of perol. B) Toss said illegals back to where they came from. and C) There would be more than just a measily chainlink fence along the boarder. The Boarder would be guarded by the soilders that came home from Iraq. After all that is what a millitary is suppose to do. That is to defend the nation. That means protecting the borders.

[JDC]

1. Impeach Bush and Cheney.

2. Get out of Iraq. We weren't invited in the first place.

3. New energy policy.

4. Repeal that law Bush signed recently that did away with habeaus corpus.

5. And, addressing runawayjim's above comment, why not round up all the "non-issues" (the moral garbage) and re-define government as a body that operates autonomously from religion. I know they tried to separate the two in the beginning, but it seems it didn't stick.

We may also want to have the Bush twins spayed. It would be a shame for people with his genes to continue procreating.

[Gusterfell]

1. Impeach Bush and Cheney.

[MidTenn1]

Also..

1. Protect internet nuetrality (prevent the corporations (republicans!) from controlling all content and access)

2. Bust up the broadcast monopolies (where it seems like six fat, white guys own 80% of the USA's radio stations) and return the airwaves to the people.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

My wish list:

- Don't raise taxes. They don't need to be cut right now, but raising them would provoke catastrophe. Cutting fat is better than bringing more money in.

- End welfare to corporations, cut subsidies to oil companies especially

- Cut farm subsidies

- Don't allow use of federal program by illegals

- Less Regulation

- Ban the death penalty

- Disband the selective service

- Respect the sovereignty of other nations

- End faith based initiatives

- End the 'war on drugs'

- Allow taxation of churches (would be tremendous)

- Certainly, kill the alternative minimum tax. I believe some democrat has proposed that.

- Disband the department of homeland security, put it back to how it was before with a cleaner chain of command.

[runawayjim]

legalize marijuana for recreational use.

[Charlotteman]

1. World class health care paid for every US citizen.

2. Free college education for every American who is able to maintain a C average.

3. Minimum wage $10 for ANY JOB period.

4. Investigate Bush et.al to the fullest extent of the law.

5. Exit Iraq in a sane manner.

6. Legalize all drugs, prostitution, gambling, porno for people over 18. Abolish the DEA, and vice squads.

7. Include homosexuals in the federal list of protected peoples against discrimination.

8. Legal gay marriage.

9. Tax churches.

10.Totally abolish inheritance taxes. No income tax for people making less than $30,000 a year.

[bmorescottamanda]

legalize marijuana for recreational use.

[snoogit]

On the government:

1. Pass a balanced Federal Budget law.

2. Pass a federal election reform bill that closes the Abramoff loopholes.

3. End the congressional page program.

On social issues:

1. Pass a higher minimum wage law.

2. Bring back universal health care, make it more like a Medicare part A system for all.

3. Get rid of faith-based initiatives.

4. Rewrite the No Child Left Behind law to make it clearer, and more enforceable.

On corporate responsibility:

1. Break up the media conglomerates, and telco giants.

2. Begin rolling back archaic censorship laws, replace with a new system, or don't replace at all.

3. Bring back the FIOS push of the early 1990's and actually hold the Telco's accountable for it, or face a mandated breakup of your company.

4. Give massive incentives to companies that put 80% or more of their R&D & infrastructure funding into alternative energy sources. This would include companies like auto manufacturers, energy providers, energy suppliers, etc.

[runawayjim]

2. Free college education for every American who is able to maintain a C average.

3. Minimum wage $10 for ANY JOB period.

7. Include homosexuals in the federal list of protected peoples against discrimination.

9. Tax churches.

10.Totally abolish inheritance taxes. No income tax for people making less than $30,000 a year.

[suburban george3]

9. Tax churches.

[runawayjim]

I think a rule should exist that churches should not be taxed unless they can be proven of endorsing political candidates in elections. A church that encourages or even demands that its congregation must vote for certain candidates should be taxed for, let's say a 10 year period.

I don't have a problem with churches being tax-free otherwise.

[Snowguy716]

There is some tricky ground though: What about something like abortion. Is it endorsing a candidate when your church is against abortion and you tell them to vote against abortion?

[runawayjim]

There is some tricky ground though: What about something like abortion. Is it endorsing a candidate when your church is against abortion and you tell them to vote against abortion?

[lammius]

I find that's the problem with a lot of churches. They do too much telling people what to think. But I guess some people need that.

[Gusterfell]

technically you are not holding christian values if you are not pro-life.

[runawayjim]

Opposing abortion is not a Christian value. Jesus Christ never mentioned abortion, and the only two mentions of it in the Bible are both pro-abortion.

If a church wants to say abortion is wrong, that's fine. If they tell their congregants to vote a particular way on it or any other issue, they are indirectly endorsing candidates with those views, and should lose their tax-exempt status.

[Gusterfell]

i'm pro-life, but i don't think abortion should be illegal. i'm also against the death penalty, but i think that certain other crimes should be decriminalized.

[Snowguy716]

Embracing values as a church is what a church basically is. If they want to promote those values, that is their choice. The government has no right to tax them just as the church has no right to endorse candidates. If the church endorses candidates and the government taxes them, then they have the right to continue to endorse candidates.

The government is and should never be a regulatory force for churches and vice versa.. it is one of the very foundations of our country.

That said: My wish list for a Democratic congress:

1) Raise the minimum wage in steps to $7.20/hr. and tie it to inflation.

2) Make Medicare available to all children and students under 25 and reform Part D so that the government can negotiate cheaper prices with drug companies. Encourage insurance companies to cut overhead costs by offering incentives to those that do.

3) Boost spending substantially for roads/transit/infrastructure funding. Our infrastructure is aging and is based on outdated technology. We need to re-vamp our railways.. it is no surprise that the most efficient and most up-to-date rail corridor is owned by the government, the Northeast Corridor. We also need to work on our highways.

4) Take Social Security off budget and study the effects of an aging population on it. Implement, slowly, a pay-as-you-go system in which each generation pays for its own retirement through the current Social Security system: NO PRIVATIZATION. The well-being of America's seniors should not be placed in the hands of private firms.

5) Fully fund all federal education programs. This includes Title IX--Special education and No Child Left Behind.

6) Pay-as-you-go for budgeting. Get rid of earmarks or have pre-determined amounts for earmark funding that elected officials must argue a case for. Funding should be available for individual states/districts, as long as its appropriation is better regulated so we're not wasting.

7) Find a way to fix Iraq and get out. I believe it is now too late to flood the country with troops to win. We're on a slow path to losing and we need to a multi-faceted, multi-lateral approach to getting out of Iraq in a timely manner. More resources should be focused on Afghanistan so we can help to stabilize the country and get out of there too. The UN is integral in longer-term peace keeping missions there.

8) Pay for most of this by rolling back tax cuts on the rich and raising taxes if need be. Insuring America's youth through Medicare would be expensive (though young people are pretty low cost in general), but with a much lower overhead than private insurance companies, we will save money in the long run.

Of course most of these things won't happen.. but that's why this is a wish list.

Also:

9) Large funding increases and incentives for altnerative energy that is renewable. There are so many new technologies out there, including turning algae into oil, hydrogen, wind power, solar power, ethanol. Restore the integrity of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, work on making our National Parks less people infested and more natural, work on protecting endagered species, and take a common sense approach to gun control...