On Mon, 18 Jun 2018 11:24:58 -0700, El Castor
Post by El CastorPost by mgOn Sun, 2 Aug 2015 07:52:19 -0700 (PDT), Werner
Post by Wernerhttps://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/
Almost 3 years have past since that post and it looks like things have
got worse, not better. I'm beginning to wonder if most people actually
like corrupt government. Will everyone who hates corrupt government
stick their head out the window on July 30th, at 10 pm and say, "I'm
mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore".
So, besides bitching and moaning, what is your solution, MG? A peoples
revolution? Certainly worked well in Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea,
Cambodia, East Germany, Poland, USSR, etc. Oh, but next time we will
get it right -- sure we will.
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the
baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own
interest."
... Adam Smith
I don't think there is a solution other than educating the public and
continuing to elect non-establishment candidates like Donald Trump and
I'm not even sure that would work. Some of the things on my solutions
wish list, though, would be:
1. Eliminate all income-tax funded retirement benefits for all
politicians, for life, including health care benefits and secret
service protection, if applicable, for any politician, or their
spouse, who makes more than 10 times more in any year, adjusted for
inflation, than they made before they became politicians.
2. Make the income tax system more progressive. Eliminate the Reagan
and Clinton taxes on Social Security and eliminate the automatic
deduction of taxes for tips for waitresses. Reinstate income averaging
and the deduction for consumer loans. Make all medical bills
deductible. Add about 5 tax brackets in the income range between a few
hundred thousand and hundreds of millions of dollars.
3. Eliminate the cap on Social Security and increase the
employer/employee contribution amount to insure that the program can
repay promised benefits after the trust fund is depleted. Don't make
any social engineering, or income transfer types of changes to the
program.
4. Replace the money that Obama took from Medicare and eliminate
Obamacare and the taxes and fees levied to pay for it and establish a
national healthcare system based on Medicare for all. Remove all
artificial limitations, or quotas, on the number of doctors and allow
anyone who wants to be a doctor, and is qualified to be a doctor,
become a doctor. Make it illegal for doctors to become "entrepreneurs"
by investing in medical equipment and then arranging for patient tests
on their equipment. Make any sort of a kick-back arrangement by
medical professionals illegal.
5. Require a formal declaration of war before taking military action
against another country and require strict compliance with the UN
Charter. Modify the constitution, if necessary to limit a president's
power to make war without the formal consent of Congress. Make it
illegal to do in the U.S. what we hanged Nazis at Nuremberg for doing.
6. George Bush "unsigned" the International Criminal Court (ICC) war
crimes treaty. Amend the law/constitution to require that the US
belongs to the ICC and/or make it difficult to withdraw.
7. Completely rescind Bill Clinton's Financial Services Modernization
Act.
8. Completely rescind Bill Clinton's Telecommunications Act which
allowed giant media corporations to increase their monopoly power and
break up the large media conglomerates. Require all news media to
clearly differentiate between editorial content and news and label
editorial material appropriately.
9. Eliminate the loopholes, including super delegates that allow
political parties to engage in fraudulent practices.
10. Implement a referendum system for the federal government similar
to the California system.
11. Implement a nonpartisan blanket primary for the federal government
similar to the California system.
12. Implement laws that encourage employers to give a fair share of
productivity gains to employees.
13. Expand the CBO, beginning with Bill Clinton's NAFTA agreement, to
include the responsibility of examining our trade practices and
agreements every few years to make sure that other countries aren't
cheating and to make sure we are competing on a level playing field
and provide a public report.
14. Make fast-track trade agreements illegal (or unconstitutional).
15. Expand the CBO to include the responsibility of examining U.S.
sanctions against other countries to determine how many innocent
civilians are dying or being injured as a result of the sanctions and
provide a public report.
16. Expand the CBO to monitor all the government intelligence agencies
to insure that they are obeying all relevant laws that they are being
truthful and that the executive branch is not wrongfully misleading
the public.
17. Eliminate corruption. Expand the CBO to provide periodic reports
to congress and the public and provide recommendations on how to
eliminate corruption and/or the perception of corruption
18. Create a new law that doesn't permit any tax cuts, except in a
national emergency, when the US is producing deficits beyond a certain
limit, e.g.: 25% of GDP. Automatically rescind all tax cuts going back
50 years when deficits exceed 50% of GDP. Automatically cut military
spending (in peace time) if deficits exceed 75% of GDP.
19. Rescind all immigration laws created after 1964 and return to the
laws in force before 1965. Reduce immigration to 50,000 emigrants per
year until the population reaches a sustainable level. Allow temporary
worker visas for farm workers only, or employers who have a truly
critical labor shortage and critical national defense purposes.
Shortages to be certified by the Congressional Budget Office.
20. Send the anchor baby law to SCOTUS for formal interpretation. If
necessary modify the constitution to exclude illegal immigrants.
21. Eliminate the federal school loan program and replace it with a
cost sharing program with the states and require that tuition charges
in public school be at a reasonable low level in order for the states
to qualify. At Utah Valley University (UVU), for instance, tuition is
$2271 per semester, plus $364 for fees.
22. Implement term limits.