Dream Legislation

[RainDog]

this really doesn't belong in gd-p imo b/c this isn't about one candidate or another... and it takes place in fantasyland USA, not realityville, unfortunately. maybe others disagree? this is a sitting around the bar changing the world topic, and yeah, I'll have a Duvel. The beer you can chew.

Sooooo - what would be your dream legislation? I'm sure there are many things I wouldn't even know to think about.

here's my for starters-

legalize both hemp and marijuana. contrary to what this might sound like, I'm not a stoner, old-school hippie or any thing else of the sort, but I really do think both would create new economies for the U.S. (oil, plastics, food, medicine and more)

progressive tax structure

universal single-payer health care

mass transit infrastructure project to include city-level light rail and biodiesel-powered interstate rail.

or does this belong somewhere else?

[unpossibles]

1. along with yours I'd also like to add a law which

makes it impossible to ever try to pass a law which discriminates against people or prevents equal rights.

Basically so that the next time we have a "gay agenda" or whatever, to circumvent bigots from legislating their ignorance.

[TZ]

2. take all the Iraq war funding..

And invest it in cancer/stem cell research....:)

[crimsonblue]

3. hmm... mine would be more of a Dream Bill of Rights

We are in bad need of a modern bill of rights to amend to the Constitution. Here they are:

1. Teleco's must provide indiscriminatory internet access without filtering, network limitations, and restricted access. The bandwidth the custmer signs up for must be available for use for the entire month, with no overage charges for exceeded certain download or upload limits.

2. A person will be free from government intrusion into their homes. The government may not regulate the drugs a person consumes in their homes, nor the communications they particapte in.

3. Personal marijuana consumption and culivation not for profit shall be legal, and the government may not impose restrictions on the personal public consumption thereof. All drugs shall be legalized, and shall be taxed accordingly so that the supply level is decreased from current levels. For example, heroin will be taxed at $50,000 per gram, cocaine shall be taxed at $20,000 per gram (non-medical or scientific uses), and marijuana shall be taxed at $50 an ounce. The money obtained from drug taxation shall be used to provide health services for Americans.

4. The government is specifically forbidden from domestic espionage on Americans. All centralized databases on law abiding Americans are to be hereby terminated, and the Government is forbidden from receiving or using data collected from outside agencies or countries. FISA will be eradicated, and a warrant shall be required for any and all searches anywhere in the country.

5. Discrimination, of ANY kind, shall be against the law. All job applications must be gender, race, and orientation blind. All persons shall have the right to marry one other person, and receive all of the benefits that go with it. Tax breaks shall be rewarded to couples that remain married for 15 years, 25 years, and 50 years.

6. The office of Independent Council shall be restored, with 2 independent watchdog groups monitoring all investigations.

7. Police brutality shall be a class 1 felony, punishable by 10-15 years in jail.

8. Tasers shall be forbidden anywhere in the USA.

9. Washington DC shall be given full voting and Congressional rights, and its budget shall be removed from federal government perview. The district shall receive an escrow account from the Federal government in which to place initial monetary assets.

10. Military spending shall be restricted to no more than spending on healthcare and education combined. The Federal Government will be required to decrease the national drop out rate to no more than the unemployment rate.

11. New independent inquires on trust and monopoly busting shall be required every five years by the SEC.

12. Companies that outsource more than 25% of their workforce or infrastructure shall pay taxes at the highest rate, and this rate shall increase 1% for every quarter that they remain above the threshold.

13. All faith based initiatives or organizations that receive federal monies shall have their tax free status revoked, and they shall pay at the highest tax bracket.

14. Any president and vice president that declares unilateral war on another country shall be removed from office within 15 days. The secret service shall be required to arrest the Pres against his/her will if necessary.



ok this got a bit dumb, but i just woke up, so back off!! :P

[khashka]

4. OK mine

1. Legalization of most (not all) illegal drugs. As an old druggie I know that most of it is not as bad as they tell you - two of the worst are cigs and alcohol and they're legal.

2. Gay marriage and polyamorous marriage and other options - why should the gov define your rights and responsibilities by whom you love?

3. Universal single-payer healthcare

4. Progressive tax structure - but that includes sales tax, because for the poor or the just getting by it's a higher percentage of their income.

Khash.

[RainDog]

18. payroll taxes

I also think we should have a high threshold for payroll taxes. employers have to match withholdings, which is a real burden on small bizzes - and cuts the number of employees some can/will hire. not so for big bizzes. if there were a threshold at which point payroll taxes were withheld, that would be good, imo. also need to repeal the fica tax ceiling. I've never understood why fica isn't withheld after whatever the limit is now. the whole purpose of fica is to help older ppl who need it, I thought.

but it seems like there's no reason to withhold income taxes on the first 30k dollars someone makes. imo.

also agree with you about sales tax. a VAT on luxury items would make sense to me, tho.

the big deal about inheritance taxes only mattered to the top 1% of wealth in the U.S. the structure that was set up didn't penalize anyone. if someone is a family farmer, there could be an exception made - if they actually farm the land, not just hold land. this isn't really an issue for waaay too many Americans, tho.

why bother with all the paperwork, etc. for people who don't make enough money for it to make sense to withhold taxes?

[khashka]

25. Yeah payroll taxes

Back in the day when you could do this, my dad claimed 24 dependents. Why give them your money when you could be making interest on it, he'd say, I'll pay what I owe when it's due. I don't think you could get away with that except for a very short time.

Actually, I disagree with you on one thing. Estate taxes and capital gains taxes should concern all Americans. Without them the rest of us are being robbed blind. But I get your point - doesn't directly effect most of us.


But look at the tax structure since the 50's, it's become more and more unfair. Shouldn't the people who benefit most also contribute most?


Khash.

[RainDog]

28. I think we agree on inheritance tax

the previous structure was set up so that 99% of Americans were not impacted. the big repuke push on this issue was a lie - their legislation only benefited the top 1% but they claimed they were helping the middle class.

[khashka]

30. True

And a lot of very rich people spoke out against it. People forget that. Rich doesn't mean evil or bad, just having more money. And quite a few very wealthy people didn't agree with getting rid of the estate tax. In the end it was just to benefit their friends, which is par for the course for Bush Inc.


Khash.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Being ignorant would be made illegal.

You could still live here, I suppose, but you wouldn't be allowed on the Internet, not allowed to write letters to the editor, not allowed to vote, not allowed to have any voice (either spoken or written) in public policy nor even representation, not to be in any media-related job that might end up with you somehow having any kind of public voice, not allowed to drive, not allowed to write books plays pamphlets or anything that might result in anyone beyond yourself knowing your opinion, only allowed to be in public from 1 am to 3 am unless you are going to or coming home from a job, and you must have an anvil chained to your leg so that everyone knows what you are.

[TZ]

6. ....

If that happened the legal citizenship in this country would drop from 300 million to about...100,000 or so at best.....
:rofl:

[RainDog]

7. gee thanks. how am I supposed to go swimming with an anvil on my leg?

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. We'll get you started by throwing you in.

The rest is up to you.

:P

[RainDog]

10. gotta love liberals. always ready with a helping hand.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Yeah, we hate to see people sink without giving them some help first.

:rofl:

[RainDog]

20. just for the record

I would like to note that F. Scott Fitzgerald, the man who wrote what many consider to be the great American novel, was a horrific speller and all around not too worried about grammar. maybe b/c he was sloshed all the time.

Max Perkins, his editor, had to clean up Fitzgerald's work. Perkins had the nit picking parts right but he didn't have the vision.

And what about all those illiterate blues players from way back when?

a lot of the great artists of our culture haven't been the ones editing the Harvard Review.

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. Being illiterate is much different than being ignorant.

Being stupid is better than ignorant.

Ignorant is the lowest level - ignorance is intentional. Stupidity, illiteracy, or just plain not knowing is accidental, and can all be remedied.


Deciding not to know, or deciding not to use the information that one DOES know - that's worthy of derision and ostracism.

[MonkeyFunk]

8. four words:

hang up and drive!

[Deep13]

12. end war

tax the living shit out of war profits

renounce all debt incurred by the illegal presidency of gwbush

use new found liquidity to give health care for every m, w & c in this country.

Also, everyone gets a pony.

[TZ]

14. A pony for everyone?

Deep13 for President!:)

[Deep13]

17. Hey, as long as I am wishing...

...it may as well be for a pony.

[Orsino]

13. Ban corporate lobbying. Break up Big Media. Public financing of elections. n/t

[MonkeyFunk]

16. I'm always curious about people

who think they can just "ban corporate lobbying".

You do realize you'd have to repeal some rather important parts of the Bill of Rights to do that, right?

[Orsino]

19. Oh, yeah. Money was redefined as speech, wasn't it?

However, it's also against the law to bribe members of Congress. I'd be happy to put an end to that practice.

Get 'em off the calendars of our representatives, and maybe we can get on 'em.

[TZ]

21. You do realize

That there are many many liberal lobbying firms that lobby for causes like environmental groups, women's rights groups etc ..FYI, I do have a relative who is a lobbyist..They aren't ALL corrupt pigs.

[Orsino]

24. I'm even willing to make exceptions for nonprofits.

Yet I have hope that public financing and media divestiture would make nonprofit lobbying less necessary.

C'mon, folks. This is a dream thread. Analyze stuff too much, and you suck all the fun out of it.

[MonkeyFunk]

27. heheh

public financing is another sticky wicket. It's fine to provide it, but again, I don't see how you can constitutionally REQUIRE it.

If I want to pay for a full page ad for a candidate, I'm allowed to. If Mike Bloomberg wants to spend all his money promoting his own run for something, he's allowed to.

[Orsino]

31. This ensures that Mike Bloomberg can always get his front page ad...

...but that yours will be few.

I really don't think a Constitution can confuse money with speech and still ensure equal opportunity. Furthermore, I'd like to see candidates not have to waste time raising money on the campaign trail, and would enjoy being able to gauge how well each manages his/her share.

[MonkeyFunk]

32. But I don't see how you can constitutionally

PREVENT people from spending money to get their message out. And what if it doesn't cost anything? What if a newspaper publisher decides to run for office? His paper - his rules. He can use it to say what he wants.

I understand the desire behind what you're saying, but I just don't understand when people use bumpersticker slogans as political arguments. Like "End Corporate Personhood". A lot of people believe there's some real legal entity called "corporate personhood" that the congress could simply repeal, and everything would be better. It just doesn't work that way.

[Orsino]

33. I still fear for democracy...

...when the rich can buy more speech than we can, and I am particularly frightened to see a DUer advocate for that fundamental inequality. :scared:

I understand where the position comes from, I think, as I share a few libertarian sympathies. The rules should change when you become a monopoly, however, or when you are left as one of the very few voices on what are still jokingly called the public airwaves. The Telecom Act of 1996 completed the work of the earlier discarding of the Fairness Doctrine, leaving us at the mercy of those poor, struggling networks and newspaper empires who were starved of their free speech.

I think you're wasting time arguing against the existence of simple solutions that no one has seriously proposed. Yes, I think that corporate personhood must end, but a repeal certainly isn't a permanent solution. It may require a Constitutional Amendment to make it stick, or Big Money will be back again with their next little rewrite that silences us. Free speech is supposed to guarantee that every individual can be heard, and the mainstream media which the Founders couldn't have foreseen are very, very good at drowning us out. I'd like to see the MSM brought under the control of us and our elected representatives, rather than the other way around.

And once again, this is a Dream Legislation thread in the Lounge. Did you really expect rigor here, rather than bumper sticker slogans? Are you deliberately trying to spoil my fun? :shrug:

[MonkeyFunk]

26. No, that's not what I'm talking about

I'm talking about a couple of rights guaranteed to us. One is the right of association. The other is the right to petition the government.

HOw do you prevent people from forming an association (a corporation) and petitioning the government? And even if you could do that, would it be wise? So Planned Parenthood couldn't lobby for anything? NARAL? Greenpeace?

[IronLionZion]

15. public financing of elections

something to reign in the power of corporations and lobbyists, especially with defense spending.

Communities planned to be more pedestrian friendly and less spread out. The thinking should be "how can we live without cars" at least to get to work/school.

Affordable housing probably in the form of apartments that integrate nicely with public transportation and have parks and libraries nearby.

Fund the arts and sciences goddamnit.

Improve public education and career training programs.

[Shine]

23. I'm interested not so much in specific dream legislation as I am

the Bigger perspective within which this CHANGE occurs. How do we Unite, as a country?

How can we create that "more perfect union" that Obama so eloquently spoke of?

I'm interested in the tone of the conversation, not what is specifically discussed.

Does that make sense? :shrug:

[RainDog]

29. yes

and I don't know how to achieve that with the part of the population that I label as the talibornagains or the ppl I've heard in the last few years who think that Canada is an evil socialist country. those folks will have to find a way to live with the rest of us and I cannot tell you how this can be done.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

34. Marijuana smoking in public...

mandatory.