We want LBJ !!!

[guru_5685]

Why is it that the national party is not able to generate a platform that deals with concrete domestic issues? Why do we let the republican party dictate to us what our platform will be? Instead of trying to beat them on their own platform, why dont we make them respond to ours?

Here is my platform for 2006 and 2008...please I request honest and critical feedback...(These are in order of precedence)

1. National Healthcare
2. Welfare Reform
3. Energy Plan that protects America and encourages domestic production
4. Veterans Benefit Reform (this means increasing them)
5. Tax plan that discourages outsourcing and encourages domestic production
6. EPA Refrom to encourage domestic manufacturing
7. Military Reform to encourage enrollment

[zippy890]

1. windfall profits tax on oil companies

please add to list

[Jed Dilligan]

2. Welfare reform???????????

What's left to reform after the last time we "reformed" it?

[central scrutinizer]

4. Re-form it

As in rebuild or re-weave the safety net

[mucifer]

3. LBJ was great. Except for that little bitty WAR he was involved with lying

about and sending thousands needlessly to their deaths. But, he did have an amazing domestic policy.

Your ideas above are great. The only problem is that these days our dems have sold out to special interest groups.Unfortunately, Nixon would be a left wing radical compared with many of our dems today.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. You can have LBJ, or anyone like him. Arguably one of the most...

...corrupt American politicians ever, and if ANY of the stories connecting him to the JFK assassination are true, he is actually much worse than corrupt.

You want LBJ? Fine. He's yours.

[Greyhound]

11. And why do they always come from there? n/t

[GrumpyGreg]

6. EPA reform-----could you clarify that please.

Domestic manufacturing is dead in the water IMHO.

[guru_5685]

7. EPA reform

The time has come to make some sacrifices in the environmental sector in order to stimulate manufacturing growth. And before you crucify me on this, I already know this will be a tough sell. We have to give our blue collar sector a chance to survive because the opportunity in this country is shrinking more and more everyday... At some point we have to think about our people or the land we are protecting is useless...

[GrumpyGreg]

9. I agree that it will be a tough sell----I don't want the "sweat shop"

disgusting working conditions of the early 20th century back.

Unions were the answer then but with most manufacturing outsourced we are sunk.

I do not see large scale manufacturing coming back to the USA in the forseeable future.

Ten years ago we were told we were becoming a service economy,not a manufacturing economy,and now those service jobs are being outsourced also.

Relaxing EPA standards would do nothing except spoil the environment,what's left of it.

[PaganPreacher]

8. Don't we already HAVE LBJ?

Rich Texan; preferential military service; committed hundreds of thousands of American troops to a third world country without a declaration of war; in bed with defense contractors.

Is that what you really want?

How about this?:

COOPERATING WITH REPUBLICANS
"A basic part of Johnson's strategy as Democratic leader in the Senate was cooperation with the Republican president. The senator looked upon the presidency as the one office capable of providing national leadership in the American system; and so, instead of trying to be a "prime minister" himself, he encouraged Eisenhower to act. Believing that no president could be cut down without hurting the office and the country, Johnson counseled his colleagues against large-scale attack on Eisenhower."

TAX REDUCTION AND DEFICIT SPENDING
"With Johnson in the White House, Congress behaved in domestic affairs as it had not done since Franklin Roosevelt's first term. In 1964 it passed the Tax Reduction Act, which reflected the economic theory that at times the federal government must spend more than it takes in in order to stimulate economic growth."
(excerpted from "Encyclopedia Americana", http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0224340-00&templatename=/article/article.html)

The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.

[xchrom]

10. there's also this part.

Domestic Affairs. Since the spring of 1964, Johnson had talked of building a "Great Society," and he had organized a series of "task forces" to help give concrete meaning to this concept. With their help, by January 1965, he was armed with a series of messages and drafts of bills.

The first sessions of the 89th Congress passed into law a variety of proposals, some of which had been bottled up for years. Medicare, a system of health insurance for the elderly under the Social Security program, was established. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed illiteracy tests and removed other obstacles that tended to prevent blacks from exercising their right to vote. Two new federal departmentsHousing and Urban Development, and Transportationwere set up. Federal aid to primary and secondary schools increased substantially. Responding to Johnson's call for an "unconditional war on poverty," the Congress enacted legislation liberalizing unemployment compensation, expanding the food stamp program, and enlarging opportunities for youth employment. No session of Congress since 1935 had matched this one in attacks upon social and economic problems.