Alot of your guys seem pretty smart. What changes would you like to see in the political area and/or Government in general? How do you think they could be accomplished and what would be the results. 1. Alot of people believe the rich should be taxed more. Simply heaving a bigger tax on them . . will it truly cure all or would they simply find better ways to hide their money outside of the U.S.? Would it truly hurt business. . . if so how? Will business seriously move out of the country because they making 2 million a year instead of 2.5 million? Maybe it is time WE THE PEOPLE look for solutions. Rocket River
Why should rich people be taxed more? I think everyone should be taxed the same, and inheritances should be taxed through the roof. I have no clue how that would work in practice, but the goal is that people should be taxed the same for money they earn, and the hoarding of money should be discouraged.
flat tax (not really a political change) more local/state control term limits- if it's good enough for the executive branch...
"Cash out" Social Security. In other words, everyone who has paid in but not received benefits yet gets refunded the entirety tax free. Anyone who's currently on it gets paid the difference between what they've put in and what they've received (so if they paid in $20k, and have received $10k in disbursements, they'd get a lump sum payout of the remaining $10k tax free). Anyone who has received MORE than they put in (this group should be the smallest), gets nothing. In the interest of not dumping them on the street, maybe allow them to continue to receive benefits for a period of time based on their age versus the average american life span. If they're younger than the average, they get benefits until they reach it. If they're over, they get benefits until they pass on. After that, everyone is on their own. Sure, we end up printing money, but we're doing that anyway, and if we're going to print it, we may as well use it to get rid of long term huge liabilities. Realistically, I don't think this will ever happen as it makes too much sense. Instead it will blow up and go insolvent and no one gets anything.
-Flat tax (From the Rich Aren't Stupid thread ) -Term limits for senators and congressmen -Severely limit corporate/lobbyist control -Stop carte-blanche, unilateral support of Israel -Drastic cuts in the defense budget -Campaign finance reform -Switching to the Metric system -Much tougher anti-immigration laws against illegals -National electric grid Most importantly, massive extra funding to make our education system the best on Earth.
- End discrimination based on sexual orientation - Raise taxes on those making more than $100,000/year - Remove tax free status of religious organizations - Increase defense spending in Pacific Theater - Decrease defense spending in European Theater - Increase power of SEC
Until the wealth disparity issue is resolved nothing else matters. IMO it is THE crux of just about every problem we face. Too much money in too few hands and inflation rising faster than wages. This is why the middle class is shrinking, why divorce rates, drug abuse, child abuse, domestic violence, stress, obesity, etc. are all higher. We are working more and more, more and more two working parent households with latchkey kids who can't match the purchasing power of a one parent household of the 50's and 60's. Sigh in the meantime this is what I would do. -Drastically cut back millitary spending -Socialized healthcare where you choose your own plan provider. We're all in one 300 million people pool, but you can choose your plan among BCBS or Aetna or whoever. Take the cost off of employers and make people buy their own insurance. However you must buy insurance. Now that that cost is gone enact a tax on payroll instead of the Medicare tax. This would be to cover those on Medicaid, those that just couldn't afford insurance period. Medicare, Tricare, CHAMPVA these are all gone. COBRA is no longer needed because you don't lose your insurance when you change jobs. This will save cost for the government. -Drastically reduce foreign aid -Invest heavily in infrastructure and green energy for the grid. There should be no roofs without solar panels. Invest heavily in the Tesla technology for cars and solar panels for cars. The use of gasoline should be a thing of the past. -Increase taxes for those making over $200k a year -Public advertising for prescription drugs would be illegal -mar1juana would be legal and heavily taxed -You can get married to whoever the hell you want to -Strict interest rate limits on loans. Fees for overdrafts, checking accounts etc. would be at a nationwide set level of $5. Give people the option for loans directly from the government. Also banks cannot rearrange charges from largest to smallest in your account. -Make it illegal to discriminate based on credit score for hiring purposes. -All companies with over 5 employees must have an opt out 401k with some match. You can borrow from your 401k interest free but you CANNOT cash it out before 55. I would also seriously look into profit caps on large companies and the elimination of dividends. Instead of dividends pay your employees more, lower the price of your products, or hire more people. Have to think about that one more....
One thing that will truly hurt Houston and businesses is Proposition 1. This will hurt Houston in two ways...Businesses will not be able to hire more employees due to it and charities and churches will no longer be able to help as many of our poorest. Not to mention schools will be laying off teachers.
Every eligible person voting. If past midterms are any indication, only about 40% of eligible voters will vote this year. That means about 21% will end up picking the winners. If more people voted, politicians would have to be more responsive to, you know, more people instead of the interest groups and base constituencies that drive politics today.
My local paper (and I mean very local, a neighborhood rag) had a great 3-page spread on our candidates for our rep to the city's board of supervisors. The four candidates each had to answer, in their own words, in print, 15 specific policy questions. It was amazing. You could sit there and read their answer and decide who made the most sense. (One dude kept repeating himself within the same sentence. It was hilarious. "For safety, I think increasing our neighborhood patrols would increase safety." Over and over again, answer after answer he did this. Probably killed his chances, I hope.) In my ideal political world, you would only pieces like this in campaigns, along with televised debates, printed campaign literature, and websites. Televised ads and web ads would be forbidden. In my view, they really cripple a thoughtful political process. 30 seconds is no way to view a candidate.
Get rid of lobbyists and campaign donations by interest groups. Give every candidate a finite, set amount of money to use for elections 2 term limit for congressman so we don't have career politicians Drastically cut military spending and stop trying to squeeze out social programs who take up a tiny percentage of the budget Actually hold our politicians accountable for their excessive spending (both parties) Repeal the Patriot Act
Less federal government, more state government flat tax rate except for anyone who makes more than a million pays 5% more more judges to improve our judicial system new ways to fund our school systems (other than property tax) earmarks less commerce clause bs more transparency as promised by obama hold our politicians more accountable for scandals and lies, can someone remind these people that they are in government strictly to represent their constituents, not to sign onto billions of dollars of earmarks which their voters never agreed to. vital infrastructure repaired, especially the electric grid more border crossings and more police to patrol the areas that don't have crossings - i honestly don't care that these people come to look for work in the us, things are bad in mexico. however, i don't believe they should be taken advantage of, they should be paid minimum wage like everyone else because it is ethically right, find other ways to lower the prices, but don't sell out a desperate mexican trying to provide for his impoverished family in mexico back the border crossings, instead of having an obscene amount of police to border hundreds of miles of border, we could have more checkpoints that people can cross, in a global economy we have to accept workers from other countries, especially if our american companies are going to exploit asian workers abroad. i think a toll tax of $1 at every border crossing would help pay for some of this as an estimated 4 million or more immigrants pass over illegally, plus the millions who pass through legally to and fro the us and mexico. these are just a few things off the top of my head
some 'truth in advertising' and/or 'good taste' guidelines a la factcheck.org to penalize the blatantly biased soundbites put out by candidates. Let's keep (start to have) the discourse civil. A corporation would never get away with the deliberate distortions political parties regularly trot out. It's too hard to distinguish the satire from the genuine.
totally forgot about this, we basically have legalized bribing in the us with lobbyists and every man/woman should be allowed to run for office without having to backup millions of dollars to do so. i agree with cutting military spending to a point, i think it should still be a decently high priority, but i would like to see the us fix its own problems before trying to fix the world, something that i have always believed america should be active in, promoting democracy and ending tyranny, but we have gotten too motivated by our own benefits and have ignored places like darfur, ethiopia, congo, etc.
less of this two party crap and the bickering that goes on with it.. Just seems like our political systems comes down to Democrats blaming the Republicans for everything that is wrong and Republicans just blaming Democrats for everything that is wrong Democrats are all Idiots.. and Republicans are all evil gay hating bigots.
