What 3 major things would you change, if you could, about America ?

[KurtNYC]

You are like JFK in 1960, you have the bully pulpit and popular support -- you can set the agenda, champion your causes and challenge this country to do better...

What are 3 things you would change?

[ananda]

1. Hmm

1. Bring Fairness in Media back.
2. Break up telecom monopolies.
3. Revoke Citizens United.

[raccoon]

2. National Health Plan. Progressive taxation like in the 1950's.

MUCH less money on the MIC!

[ag_dude]

10. That 1950s thing is a myth

...fed by the lack of understanding of the entire tax code in place at that time.

The federal income tax reciepts would drop as a percentage of GDP if we switched to the entire tax structure that was in place in the 1950s.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Please enlighten us. Why would tax receipts drop?

[EOTE]

16. And just how would you explain that?

The widely discredited Laffer Curve? The tax code was far more progressive back then (that is an undisputed fact). The very wealthy have been having it far too easy for far too long. If they went back to paying their fair share, the government would have far more money coming in. Hell, even letting the Bush tax codes expire would bring in tons of revenue.

[joeglow3]

39. Taxes paid is a function of TWO numbers - tax rate AND taxable income

In 1950, there were deductions up your, mine and everyone else's ass. You could have millions in income and show zero in taxable income. Multiple that by a 90% tax rate and guess what your tax rate on your overall income is. Many of those deductions went away when the tax code was re-written in 1986, resulting in tax rates going down.

[EOTE]

42. So you're saying that per-capita, government income from taxes was lower then than it is now?

Adjusted for inflation, of course. I find that rather hard to believe, especially considering how incredibly easy the wealthy have it now in terms of taxes.

[joeglow3]

45. I am guessing it is much closer to the 35% we have today than 90%

Honestly, I am not disagreeing with the sentiment. Just the tax CPA in me hates it when people use misinformation about my speciality.

[EOTE]

47. People can make millions TODAY and still pay nothing in taxes due to deductions.

But the top tax rate in the 50s was substantially higher than it is now. I find it hard to believe that the top 1% had it so much better then than they do now, especially with Bush's tax cuts in effect.

[joeglow3]

54. What is your basis for that claim?

As a tax CPA who spent 10 years in Big 4 firms doing high income tax returns, I never once saw that.

[EOTE]

55. Here you go:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/09/buffett-rule-rorschach-7-000-millionaires-paid-no-income-taxes-in-2011/245469/

[joeglow3]

63. That article summed up my expectations perfectly

The most are getting their income from tax exempt bonds. Have you ever entered the market for a tax exempt bond? They pay less that a taxable bond...by about the tax rate. Thus, they ARE taking a hit against their income to the tune of the income tax rate. Difference is that instead of paying the taxes to the Federal government who will redistribute it, they are paying it directly to a municipality through lower interest expense for said local government. Guess what those fund are almost always used for - infrastructure investment (leading to working class jobs). I have said it before and will say it again - people need to do REAL investigation before getting angry about something and forming an opinion. There are LOTS of people who will prey on people's laziness to get them to support their cause.

Again, I am not disagreeing with your general sentiment. I just hate it when people rely on half-truths, misleading information and/or flat out lies to further their cause.

[EOTE]

65. The article does not say that at all.

It says that some of those thousands paid no income tax due to tax tricks and some of them due to investments. It doesn't provide anything close to a breakdown. So if millionaires are able to pay no taxes today due to tricks, just as they were able to in the 50s, I'd like to start with a fairly higher top rate and then go about closing the loopholes that prevent that allows so many millionaires to pay no income tax. I feel the country needs both a more progressive tax structure as well as a closing of the many loopholes.

[joeglow3]

66. So, you prefer inefficiency so you can "feel better"

Our local governments still do not have enough money for infrastructure, even with all the money they are able to get through the federal government's subsidization of their bonds. Your decision is to do away with that, have the Federal government collect the additional taxes, incur all the added administrative costs and then distribute 50 cents on the dollar back to the local governments for infrastructure and local job creation. Essentially, you just created a worse job market so you can feel better. Again, people need to do more research than read a single article.

Oh, and you are right, I did forget about those who, after all limitations on the deductibility of medical costs, still incurred enough medical costs to wipe out all their income (meaning they incurred medical costs WELL IN EXCESS of their income). Again, we are talking about a fraction of a fraction here and I am not too concered with those whose tax planning means getting sick as shit to the tune of needing to spend in excess of a million dollars in medical care.

[EOTE]

67. No, not at all. You're twisting my words.

I don't think that local investments should be discouraged at all. I think that top tax rates should be raised so that MORE money can go to the federal and local governments.

You had originally asked for proof that there are millionaires NOW who are paying nothing in terms of income taxes, you seemed incredulous at the claim. I then provided that information and you said that the link only confirmed what you believed. I'm sorry, I don't buy that, you implied that that really doesn't happen in this day and age. Because there were those both then and now who game the system to get off of paying their fair share, I believe that both the top rates should be increased and extended to higher income levels AND we need to remove loopholes to prevent the wealthy from paying their fair share. Nothing I have suggested will cut down on funding for infrastructure in the least. It would provide far more money toward infrastructure. I never once suggested that deductions should be removed for infrastructure investments.

[joeglow3]

68. Fair enough

I was aware of the rare types of cases, but was thinking you were saying there was wholesale abuse similar to what we say 30-40 years ago (leading to the creation of the AMT).

I agree tax rates need to increase (especially inheritance tax).

[FrodosPet]

40. 1950s, WITHOUT the loopholes?

Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I kept hearing about tax shelters and how many millionaires never paid taxes because of them.

So would we have a 91% top margin that actually means someone making a million $ a year only takes home $99,000?

[EOTE]

44. Couple of issues.

First off, we're talking about a top tax rate, so only income above that rate would be taxed at that rate. So your example of 99k take home of 1,000,000 would only apply if that tax rate started at 0$, which it wouldn't. Secondly, if we were to adopt such a tax code (bloody unlikely in today's day and age), it would most likely kick in at somewhere around a billion, so that would mean that a hypothetical earner would bring home 90 million of every billion he/she made after the cutoff point.

[SoutherDem]

3. If you mean as a leader of the country who could get what I wanted without challenge?

1. Single payer health care for all
2. Fair campaign rules where corporations are not people.
3. Regulations which protects the poor rather than the rich.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. I would push for the Great Society

minus the Vietnam War.

[Marrah_G]

5. single payor, emphasis on research and science, reducing the need for oil, coal and natural gas

[4th law of robotics]

6. Fix the tax system

work to eliminate deficit spending.

Commit to increasing our budget for education and research every year by more than simply inflation/population size.

[swayne]

7. Three Big ones IMHO

1. Racists (eliminating the drag this continues to be on this society) the Limbaugh, the Hannitys, the Coulters etc...

2. Taxes (make sure the rich pays their stated rate instead of a half or third of it)

3. HealthCare for All

[hifiguy]

8. Serious, well-funded antitrust actions

against the telecoms, banksters, pharma and insurance companies. Smash them to atoms with the unenforced laws that are still on the books.

Amend the Constitution to state that Constitutional rights extend only to human beings, not legal fictions like corporations.

Single payer national health care.

[surrealAmerican]

12. I totally agree with your first and third choices.

Corporations would have far less power if they were not allowed to take over their markets.

My middle choice would be a means to insure fair, verifiable elections without disenfranchising people.

[jwirr]

36. I'm with you. This is a hard question because there is so many issues to address.

[NNN0LHI]

9. Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush The Idiot would never have been elected

[IndyPragmatist123]

11. Only 3 things?

1. I would increase involvement and influence in politics at the local and state levels. I would strive for a political system like Switzerland, where the executive is rotated between regional leaders. This would allow for more reactive and responsible politics. People in New York and California can have strong democratic policies, while South Carolina can have their right-wing policies.

2. I would eliminate all private financing of elections. Everyone running for office should be on an equal playing field. If candidates feel they need to raise more money, thats fine. However, they have to split that with ALL candidates on the ballot.

3. (I have no idea how this would be realistically accomplished) I would eliminate the idea of "American exceptionalism." I feel like a lot of people don't care enough about policy because they think "we are America, we will be okay. We are special." This is why so many people are fine with our massive debt, because they think that America is different from Greece, Ireland or Japan. We need to realize that we can fall from grace if we don't enact more common sense policy.

I could go on and on, but I think these would be very important to helping get our country back on path.

[femmocrat]

13. Mine.... if I could:

1. Fully fund public education instead of the war machine and restore respect for public schools and their employees.

2. Single-payer health care for all. It would really un-clog the employment situation because many people cannot leave their jobs because of health care benefits. Think of all the younger workers who could find jobs if the baby-boomers could retire!

3. Mandatory spay/neuter laws and increased availability of affordable veterinary services.

[Arugula Latte]

15. Initiate public financing of campaigns, universal healthcare, kill the military industrial complex

Oh, and in my fantasy, religion just peters out and goes away completely.

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. I vote for your plan. :^) (But I would go further with the election reforms.)

[Arugula Latte]

26. I would too, but I guess I was trying to summarize.

Also -- I'd reinstate the measures that kept the media somewhat "fair."

[GreenPartyVoter]

28. Indeed! All good stuff. I do wish we had a top 5, because we didn't get a shot at

cleaning up wall street, or "universal education." (Or cleaner greener energy. Man, I think we need a top 100!)

[deaniac21]

29. You said peters out.

[Arugula Latte]

30. Nice post, Beavis.

[deaniac21]

62. Uh, huh huh huh...

[FarCenter]

17. Eliminate state governments, eliminate the US Senate, replace the Pres with a Prime Minister.

[4th law of robotics]

22. Be sure to build your death star first,

before you sweep away the last remnants of the old republic.

[Auggie]

18. Single payer, alternative energies, constitutional amendment banning corporate personhood

[Honeycombe8]

51. Ditto ditto ditto. nt

[HughBeaumont]

19. Progressive tax system, universal health care, serious defunding of the Pentasewer.

Put money in the hands of people who spend it, not people who collect it like miniatures. You're not taking a billion dollars with you when you die.

It's absolutely ridiculous that this nation is chock full of fuckers who think health is a privilege and not a Human RIGHT. GROW up.

No more billion-dollar toys for the War Machine that does nothing but serve as a corporate police force that attacks sovereign nations for no reason whatsoever.

[Motown_Johnny]

31. +1

I may have phrased things a little differently but I agree with your priorities.

[RC]

20. My three are:

1 Revoke Citizen United.

2 Outlaw the election fraud enabling electronic voting machines

3 Single Payer, Universal Health Care

4 Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act

5 Sane drug laws

6 Let the bu$h tax cuts expire

7 Stop our wars of aggression

8 Go after the Military Industrial Complex


So I can't count. My list is really much longer than this.

[demosincebirth]

21. Get rid of the extreme rignt and the extreme left. Make them irrelevant.

[TBF]

33. The left already is irrelevent - as evidenced by the deportations

courtesy of Palmer and McCarthy.

Besides the 2-party system already weakens anyone on either end.

[demosincebirth]

46. R-wingers are at their peak now. On this board, far lefties are pretty abundant

[TBF]

50. Define "far leftie" -

I can count the serious leftists on my 2 hands.

[demosincebirth]

56. Oposite of "far right" maybe?

[TBF]

57. lol - ok thanks. Now I know you have no idea. nt

[HopeHoops]

24. Outsourcing, corporate "personhood", and the military industrial complex.

[Initech]

25. 1. Three words: equal rights amendment

2. Break up media monopolies

3. Establish a legal living wage, end corporate outsourcing, close tax loopholes, and bring manufacturing back to America.

[hahahareally]

27. First would be COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY in the Federal Government

second would be fairer election/campaign laws

third would be to legalize marijuana

[TBF]

32. Nationalize Banks, Health Care, and the Energy Industry

nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

34. Change it's government to a multi-party parliamentary democracy.

Or, even better, a Demarchy.

Demarchy is a term coined by Australian philosopher John Burnheim to describe a political system without the state or bureaucracies, and based instead on randomly selected groups of decision makers. These groups, sometimes termed "policy juries", "citizens' juries", or "Consensus Conferences", would deliberate and make decisions about public policies in much the same way that juries reach verdicts on criminal cases.

Demarchy attempts to overcome some of the functional problems with conventional representative democracies, which in practice have often been subject to manipulation by special interests and a divide between professional policymakers (politicians and lobbyists) vs. a largely passive, uninvolved and often uninformed electorate. According to Burnheim, random selection of policymakers would make it easier for everyday citizens to meaningfully participate, and harder for special interests to corrupt the process.

More generally, random selection of decision makers is known as sortition. The Athenian democracy made much use of sortition, with nearly all government offices filled by lottery rather than by election.

[Woody Woodpecker]

35. My choices

1) Shut down and remove Department of Defense from Cabinet position, ending ALL wars anywhere in the world that the US is involved in. Homeland Security takes over what is left of DoD and its main job is to defend the U.S. from terrorism. Use the tools
that the Patroit Act granted us. Also modify the PA to remove any DoD's involvement or funds.

2) Legalize, regulate, and grow marijuana and hemp. Hemp is a major cash crop for many states, and revenue would be very easy.

3) Revoke Citizens United, place the 1% under mandatory tax rate of 95% of anything over $2 million until the deficit is gone.

[Iggo]

37. Tax the rich. Feed the poor. Campaign finance reform.

[LanternWaste]

38. Massively increase public transpiration.

Massively increase public transpiration.

A re-birth of Roosevelt's WPA (and, well.. most of his alphabet soup agencies)

72% reduction in military spending.

[Spike89]

41. WPA-style programs!

I'd institutionalize those programs, maybe even to the point of semi-required service to society--sort of a draft. I'd also expand it to include much more than just raw physical labor/grunt work. Virtually every job skill would be available and it would serve as an apprenticeship program, infrastructure and operations department, and emergency job bank. The pay would be at least family-wage, and always open (i.e., get laid off from your private job--grab one of these while you look for another if you want).

I'd totally nationalize medicine.

Not just free K-12 education, I'd pay students to attend college (perhaps deferring their semi-required service). So, when some students leave high school and spend the next 4 years learning a trade/skill in the WPA-like program, others may go to college and get comparable pay, but then put those college skills/knowledge to work for society at a "less-than-going-rate" for 4 years. For instance, a doctor might graduate not only without debt, but with some net worth, but rather than getting big bucks right away, they'd get a living wage for the next four years as a payback to society.

[Taverner]

43. Establish Socialism, Government Health Care and end the drug war

[coalition_unwilling]

48. Assuming I had a Congress that would do my bidding:

1) Universal single-payer healthcare
2) Guaranteed annual income for all citizens and permanent residents
3) Government-funded daycare for children from 0-5

and, if I might,

4) Raise taxes on the wealthy and on capital. Cut taxes on labor
5) Prosecute Bush, Cheney and the entire Junta for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

See why I'm only a tepid supporter of Obama?

[RB TexLa]

49. North American Union

[MicaelS]

78. Really? Why? n/t

[TeamsterDem]

52. Make organizing unions easier (legally), public funding of campaigns, universal health care. nt

[peacefreak]

53. Health care for all

8 year term limits for all--no exceptions
90 day election cycle with NO money from PACS.

[Spider Jerusalem]

58. How major are we talking?

big change: Constitutional convention, replace the presidential system with a parliamentary system. Seats alloted by proportional representation, mandatory voting. Which is probably three, right there, but a lot of stuff would follow from those.

[white_wolf]

59. Interesting question.

For starters I'd abolish capitalism and reform the economy along a syndicalist model. However, within the framework of capitalism, I would do three things while maintaining our current market economy since I assume that's what the OP means.

1. I would replace our Presidential system with a Parliamentary system of Proportional Representation.

2. All major industries necessary to the common good would be nationalized, ie. healthcare, energy, banks, etc.

3. Dismantle the MIC. All troops would be withdrawn, the majority of our military bases would be closed. In order to prevent further unnecessary wars and to prevent the return of the MIC, I would require that all military action, that takes place outside of the United States, be subject to a national vote by the electorate. No more "police actions" or drone strikes.

[Autumn]

60. Real campaign finance reform, term limits and health care for all. eom

[Comrade_McKenzie]

61. Use my intelligence agency to destroy the GOP and moderate Dems...

Then appoint the most far left people I could find to my administration.

[MicaelS]

64. #1 Repeal Corporate Personhood..

#1 Repeal Corporate Personhood. This puts Corporations firmly under Legislative
control, which is where is should be.

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/political_reform/proposed_constitutional_amendments.html

An Amendment to Preclude Corporations from Claiming Bill of Rights Protections

SECTION 1. The U.S. Constitution protects only the rights of living human beings.

SECTION 2. Corporations and other institutions granted the privilege to exist shall be subordinate to any and all laws enacted by citizens and their elected governments.

SECTION 3. Corporations and other for-profit institutions are prohibited from attempting to influence the outcome of elections, legislation or government policy through the use of aggregate resources or by rewarding or repaying employees or directors to exert such influence.

SECTION 4. Congress shall have power to implement this article by appropriate legislation.

#2 Single Payer National Health Care.

#3 Progressive Income Tax. Streamline Tax Code, and eliminate many deductions.

[Nye Bevan]

70. #2 and #3 are good, but your #1 would allow the police to search the offices

of DemocraticUnderground LLC without giving a reason, and would allow the assets of DemocraticUnderground LLC to be confiscated, without compensation.

[MicaelS]

71. The whole problem with the LLC concept is the Limited Liability part.

If Corporations want the same rights as living beings, then they need to be willing to accept the same responsibilities and risks. That means no more Limited Liability. A Corporation screws up, causes damages, or kills people, then the officers of that Corporations should be on trial for any crime an individual could be tried for, including homicide. They get found guilty, the Corporations assets can be seized just like that of a person. The officers can go to prison or even face the Death Penalty.

[Nye Bevan]

74. Officers going to prison? That already happens.

See Jeff Skilling and Andy Fastow.

Limited Liability means that if you own stock in IBM, you cannot be sued personally for something IBM does.

[libtodeath]

69. In order

1) End capitalism,it is broken and inherently unfair.

2) Confiscate all the wealth that has been stolen by the 1% over the last 30 years and use it to put people to work repairing/rebuilding infrastructure and providing health care to all.

3) Reduce the military to only what is needed to defend our borders instead of trying to be the bully of the world.

[cynatnite]

72. Medicare for all, Medicare for all, Medicare for all. n/t

[ecstatic]

73. Equal, top notch education for all,

healthcare for all, and, if possible, I'd try to mend racial tensions that lead to incidents like the killing of Trayvon Martin.

[Romulox]

75. Still waiting: "They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." nt

[KurtNYC]

76. 1) a comprehensive push for improved quality of life through a combination of

single payer health care, education and arts programs. Goal: Improved quality of life at every income level

2) transition to a planned economy which aligns production with demand, and employs a greater percentage of people in more meaningful jobs. Goal: to have a 35 hours work week at wages that will support a family -- more time off to parent and enjoy this lifetime

3) fund forward looking science in areas of alternative energies, water desalinization and purification, hydroponic and aquaponic food production, cancer prevention and treatment, and taking a pro-active stance in dealing with the effect of climate change

[One_Life_To_Give]

77. To the Moon Alice!

Would have never stopped going. Too infinity and beyond, Second star to the right and straight on till morning. Thunderbirds are go!

Be illegal to manage anything without a complete and total mastery of all the sub-functions. Can't lead a power company unless you can do every job at the powerplant/reactor as well as lineperson etc. Hospitals run by doctors etc.

Too big to fail is to big to exist. Breakup all of the supposed too big to fail companies.