Win in 2006 and beyond with "The Fair Deal"

[Vox_Reason]

Here's something I've been kicking around since this morning; in no particular order; please edit as you wish.

1. The American Security Act: Our ports must be fully protected, and all agencies concerned with immigration and border patrol must be adequately funded, staffed, and equipped. The National Guard may not be sent abroad. Family and medical benefits for military families, and armor and munitions for troops, must be maintained at levels 15% greater than requirements at all times.

2. The Energy Independence Act: America must focus on conservation and technology development efforts with the same intensity as was seen during the Apollo era to achieve independence from foreign oil as a matter of national security and environmental stewardship.

3. The Affordable Health Care Act: Medicare must be expanded to cover all Americans under an affordable, single-payer, universal health care system. The system will be designed to contain costs, stimulate discovery, and reward innovation as a result of profit-sharing by local entities who invest in drug discovery and development.

4. The Fair Share Tax Act: Tax rates must be progressively graduated based on a sliding income scale with no exemptions. Congress must focus on eliminating the budget deficit and balancing the budget. Corporate reporting and accounting must be held to a new standard of transparency.

5. The 21st Century Education Act: Through education and research grants, the government must support the development of new technologies intended to improve the quality of life for all Americans, to provide desirable jobs, and to support the protection and sustainability of their environment and resources. Beyond the drive to replace petroleum, efforts must include advances in genetic therapies and disease eradication.

6. The Ethics in Government Act: Corporate lobbyists must be in no position to write or influence government policy. Conflict-of-interest rules must be strengthened and strictly enforced for people appointed to head major government agencies like the FDA, EPA, etc.

7. The American Privacy Act: The unconstitutional aspects of the Patriot Act must be repealed. Americans have the right to maintain their privacy and their identity. Penalties for identity theft and electronic fraud must be strengthened and enforced.

8. The Election Reform Act: Electronic voting machines must have an auditable paper trail, voting machine manufacturers must make their source code available to states using their equipment, and voting machines must be equally distributed proportional to population.

9. The Media Reform Act: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 must be repealed, media ownership must again be regulated, and the Fairness Doctrine must be re-instituted.

10. The Economic Justice Act: We must achieve a basic standard of living for all Americans by increasing availability of affordable housing, ending chronic hunger, and expanding job-training opportunities that are designed for the current job market.

[annabanana]

1. sounds pretty good to me..

At the very least we ought to be able to throw it at those bozo's who say "they have no plan,, blah blah"

[Conservativesux]

7. I'm on board with plans like this too!

Well done.

[KingFlorez]

2. Social Security protection

You should add protection for the Social Security trust fund.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Why do you hate America?

I mean love. I said "Love" didn't I?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. C-I-L-L my landlord.

:thumbsup:

[The Revolution]

5. Sounds pretty good

I think we definatly need some kind of "big idea" or list like this, and then we need to use it to aggresively go after every single republican seat up for grabs in '06.

[ginnyinWI]

6. needs more international policy

Like strategies for working with other countries on things like global warming, famines, plagues, terrorism, nuclear disarmament and peace-keeping. Dems need to be strong on foreign as well as domestic policies.

[liberalpragmatist]

8. Wasn't Truman's agenda called the Fair Deal?

We could revive if, but then it might look like we're living in the past. Maybe call it the Next Deal? (Might be too close to New Deal for comfort though).

[wli]

9. sounds like a platform to me

Odds are the media will never cover it.

[applegrove]

10. I agree with it all except don't just focus on the diebold machines.

Focus on all sorts of election racketeering like fluffling polls to make others overconfident, vetting some people and not others (legit felon vetting or not) and make these things highly illegal all across the country.

It is not just diebold that is the problem. You need to identify the generic problem and pass laws against any sort of game playing. In five years it could be Iris scans on your home computer.

There are 500 ways to toy with an election (probably 400 new ones in the last few decades). The fair election act should cover all sorts of tricks.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. My only quibble with your list is I see media reform as issue Number 1

I would also echo the poster above who asks for more foreign policy statements.

[annabanana]

12. kickin in the am............eom

[kentuck]

13. I think we need the "Real Deal"...

Obviously, this Administration has been operating in a fantasy world. We need to get back to reality.

[ClassWarrior]

14. Those sound great - values based. But maybe we need to include "fair"...

...in all the Acts. The Fair Media Act, the Economic Fairness Act, etc. Hammer 'em over the head with it over and over and over again. Fair... fair... FAIR!!

NGU.