What needs to be done: Reinvestment in America

[steelmania75]

With the Occupy Movement slowly gaining momentum day by day, my optimism has increased that the Reagan Era of Economics may finally be nearing an end and a new progressive era will emerge from that. There are many problems facing the nation today, and to address them we need to tackle them one by one. Here are my suggestions.

1. Repeal Citizens United, enact a constitutional amendment stating that corporations are not people, and therefore cannot influence public policy in Washington with their money and lobbyists.

2. Punish the criminals on Wall Street, instate a small, but effective tax on transactions.

3. Raise the top marginal tax rate to the Pre-Reagan level of $70. The top 1% own 40% of the country's wealth, it is time for them to pay their fair share in helping rebuild the country.

4. Put an immediate end to the imperial wars in Iraq and Afganistan, bring our troops home to defend our own borders. Continue defense cuts into programs that are now obsolete and close many military bases around the world, specifically in Europe and Japan. Total defense budget is about $700 billion reported(probably much more), but I suggest cutting it in half to $350 billon.

5. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2009, the nation needs a 5-year investment of at least $2.2 trillion dollars in infrastructure spending. I propose re-instating the Works Progress Administration to hire millions of unemployed workers along with our men and women in uniform to go out and re-build the nation's infrastructure on a budget of $3 trillion over 5 years. This includes clean energy investment, saving roads and bridges, drinking water, and installing an efficient and effective high speed rail system across the country.

6. Save Social Security by removing the cap, allowing money to pour in to bolster its surplus for the next generation.

7. Bring manufacturing jobs back home to America by repealing NAFTA and other free trade agreements that destroy American jobs.

8. Install a Universal Healthcare system by extending Medicare for All.

9. Fix education not only by spending money on new facilities, but by getting teachers who love to teach, want to teach, and know how to teach. Finland, which has arguably the best educational system in the world, yet their kids have the fewest number of class hours in the developed world, highly respects the teaching profession, which is why all teachers must have a Master's degree.

These a just a blue print so far of what I'd like to see done. It may be a bit vague, but I say it's a start.

[PETRUS]

1. How about a wealth tax?

Say 3%-5% of holdings of $30 million dollars or more. That will hit only about 2/100ths of a percent of the population (and won't really dent their holdings, their money is making a better return than that) and will raise over $1 trillion dollars in a decade.

Plus it rounds your list out to ten, and people like their lists in tens!

[bigwillq]

2. Right! Only Herman Cain has heard of a "Top 9" list

:rofl:

#Team10s

[Booster]

3. Excellent. I'd vote for you in a New York minute. However, I

have a feeling the Republicans have this list filed under "Things we will NEVER let pass". Good job.

[DefenseLawyer]

4. Old No. 7

That's by far the most important one on the list, but I have no beef with any of them.

[PETRUS]

5. It is important. Very. And so is currency value.

The Fed & the Treasury have long pursued a "strong dollar" policy. This amounts to a subsidy for imports. The principle beneficiary of a strong dollar is the financial industry. It really doesn't matter that much to most of the rest of us (except when we travel abroad). A slight movement in the value of the dollar is worth millions of manufacturing jobs. The US complains about China's "currency manipulation" but the fact is that their money is pegged to the dollar and they would mostly likely be willing to adjust except Goldman Sachs and Citigroup (et al) wouldn't like the compromises it requires, and they have a big say in the nature of our trade agreements.

[The Genealogist]

6. Sounds good