The treatment of Socio-Economic Issues that follows is guided by the general principles of 'Fair Market Capitalism' as defined below. The term “Free Market Capitalism” has ceased to have meaning when stretched to fit the unparalleled American corporate welfare state.
Principles of Fair Market Capitalism
A Fair Market exists only if there is competition.
o Profits in Capitalism are earned by competition and risk
o Markets that evolve to monopolies must socialized
Fair Market decisions require good market information.
o Product Market: GMO content, Country of Origin. . .
o Labor Market: Free access to and exchange of salary/benefit info.
The producer is responsible up-front for damages intrinsic to their production.
o Social cost taxes on pollution, e.g. Health consequences
o Risk: Undiscovered harms, e.g. Asbestosis, Climate Crisis
To promote the general welfare the government must enforce these principles. For-Profit Healthcare is an example of a Market Fail. America is the only developed country with a For-Profit Healthcare system – and that only since the 1973 HMO Act.
In Issues of Justice the following Principles suggest themselves. That no organization have the right nor the moral dilemma of self-examination and MLK's dictum that Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied. In issues of Social interaction one looks to the Golden Rule.
Job 1: Stopping the Pandemic
It early August 2020. The United States is the epicenter of the global pandemic. And Florida is the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. The March shutdown order brought a large portion of the real economy to a halt, precipitating a stock market, paper economy crash. Other OECD countries sustained the workers and contained the virus. 'Our' government pumped 4 to 5 Trillion dollars into the stock market and neglected to undertake tracking and containment.
If an effective vaccine is not produced and widely employed, the outlook for Jan 20 when a new president if inaugurated, is dismal. Only then can things that ought to have been done in early February be done.
1) Declare a national emergency and invoke the National Defense Procurement Act(?) for PPE, Virus testing, medical equipment production, and other Relevant equipments.
2) Explicitly permit extraction of individualized tracking data from cell phone positioning data limiting use thereof solely to public health purposes in identifying contacts with Covid-19 positives for the duration of the uncontained pandemic.
3) Create HIPA exclusions for Covid-19 to allow personal identification of Covid-19 carriers.
4) Pass M4A.
A STRATEGY FOR CHANGE
We are rushing headlong into the abyss of Global Climate Collapse. The donor-owned Congress, by denial of science, has allowed this problem to fester. And Congress is where we must resolve the problem. This requires that Congress be re-connected to the people – Now! There is no grace period. No 'next' cycle.
That requires a political strategy. The majority of Members of the Congress seated in 2021 will be corporate funded. But they will know that supporting the corporate agenda is no longer sustainable. Enough progressives will have won to make that clear. They will know that the real economy, the wage earners and small businesses - their neighbors' businesses and the former employees thereof, have hit rock bottom. We offer them a path to redemption, and re-election, in 2 Acts.
Tremendous savings.
o Overall costs are reduced by $1 Trillion per year
o A half million medical bankruptcies are reduced to 0
o 48,000 annual deaths by lack of access are reduced to 0
o These are the costs of Corporate Welfare
Far better health outcomes.
o Birth to Death Healthcare. No exclusions for Pre-Existing Conditions.
o Covers Vision, Hearing, Dental, Mental Health, Prescription Drugs.
o No Insurance premiums, deductibles, or co-pays.
o Social Cost Taxes on Tobacco – Reduce Use, Save Lives
o You need medical care? All your doctors are in-plan.
Implement in 1 year
o Because Health Justice Delayed is Justice Denied
o Detailed economic analyses has been published
Displaced Workers: Code Matchers
o There are 3 million medical code matchers at insurance companies and medical facilities, mean salary $30,000/year, ergo $90 Billion. They will be paid full salary for 3 years re-training, e.g. in tuition free public universities/trade schools
Every voter gets a $200 voucher account.
To be donated only to candidates bound to take nothing else
o in their campaign, in their time in office.
o These Straight Arrow Candidates will be so designated on the ballot
There will still be corporate funded candidates.
o $120 Million of Voter Vouchers are in play in every Congressional District
o Connecticut has for 20 years elected solid majorities in their state legislature with far more modest public funding
Why Public Funding?
o It can be done Now. (Amending the Constitution takes longer.)
o This legislation complies with Supreme Court decisions on Public Funding
o Because it is Healthcare for Democracy.
These Acts are best done quickly, early in the term of the new Congress.
Two years out the full benefits of M4A will be evident throughout the population.
Your healthy voters will heartily donate their Voter Vouchers to re-elect you.
Following Nina Turner's Dictum “Soft on the People, Hard on the Issues.” We will Redeem our colleagues.
These 2 Acts Change the System, They constitute a – soft revolution --
Those things that could not be done, can now be done.
Comprehensive Multi-Faceted Plan as proposed by Sen. Sanders
o End fracking on Day 1 by withdrawing exceptions to Clean Air and Water Act negotiated by V.P. Cheney in 2003
Funded so as to build the Real Economy out of Depression into a Sustainable Future.
Amended to include a Revenue Neutral Carbon Tax
o Initial Rate of $200 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, CO2e
o All revenue returned in UBI format
o Existing Free Trade Agreements include adjustments for differential CO2e tax rates. (The otherwise odious Free Trade Agreements do get this right)
Move to Regenerative, Sustainable, and Organic Agriculture - away from BigAg with its toxic pesticides, phosphate mining, and GMOs
Strong EPA regulations for waste / water.
Jobs – Minimum Wage – Union Rights – Social Security
$18/hr. minimum wage. Do It Now! (3 month Price Re-set for Labor Fraction of Cost)
o Fight for 15 started in 2012. That's $18 now.
o For All workers
Peg Min wage to labor productivity index
o Automation increases productivity. Wages must reflect this.
o The American worker is your Customer
Wage Re-set: Opens all union contracts for re-negotiation
o M4A means health insurance price inflation, benefit contraction is gone.
o Contract labor rates defined as multiples of the Min wage to track automatic Min wage increases
o Counter state “Right to Work” laws by negotiated Federal funding of union dues
Expand social security benefits to reflect Wage Re-set.
o Funding: Remove social security contribution cap.
o Treat capital gains as ordinary taxable income.
Paid Vacation – 2 weeks Min.
Paid family and sick leave – 12 weeks Min.
Restore Glass-Stegall Regulation of Banks / Wall Street.
o Too big to fail = too big to exist
Impose Transaction Tax on Stock Trades to Reduce 'House' Take
Impose Wealth Tax
Reverse Tax Cuts
USPS
o Introduce Postal Banking
o Repeal 75 year pension funding requirement
o Recognize cost actors in uniform price mail delivery across America
o Build out high-speed internet across America with USPS uniform pricing.
o Remove the menace to society that Trump appointed to destroy the USPS
Open Primaries with Ranked Choice Voting.
Require voting machines have open source software.
Universal and permanent Vote By Mail option
Automatic/Mandatory Voter Registration at Age 18
o Precedent: Mandatory Selective Service Registration (for males)
De-militarize police force.
Professional salaries and training (e.g. 3 years) for police officers
End for-profit prison system.
Victimless crime = civil infraction.
End capital punishment.
End cash bail system.
Convert prison system from punishment to rehabilitation.
End war on drugs – drug use is a mental health issue.
Legalize marijuana for recreational use, clear convictions,
Abolish “Stand your Ground” laws.
Federal investigation/prosecution of injuries/death by Law Enforcement Officers
The Senate Confirmation Process under Sen. McConnell makes a mockery of judicial impartiality or even competence. The only present legal recourse is judicial, and Senatorial, Impeachment. It is not rational to allow respect for the Judicial Branch to cloak the destruction of Constitutional checks and balances.
Federal per student funding for Pre-K to 12
o no Disadvantaged School Districts.
o Dramatically reduce regressive property taxes
Tuition free public universities and trade schools.
o GI Benefits used for living expenses
Professional salaries for all teachers.
No public funding of for-profit schools.
Cancel student debt.
Restructure student loans to 1960's format.
Climate Chaos produces ever more National Security breaches
o This is the natural role of the National Guard
o Abolish FEMA - Its contracting latitude fosters Disaster Capitalism
Novel Viruses
o Coronavirus is the greatest National Security Breach in our History
o Restore pandemic response team. Contain the threat offshore.
o Secure Supply Chains, Logistics, and National Means of Production.
Ban military contractors in war zones.
o A first step in Ending Endless Wars
o Apply savings to salaries of enlistees – our soldiers are professionals
End international sanctions that punish populations.
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are American controlled vehicles of unconventional warfare.
o For example: Ukraine default on loans invoked 'modern agricultural techniques' clauses giving American GMO seeds and toxic pesticide companies forced entry into what had been a sustainable organic food powerhouse.
o Re-define 'loans' to nation states as zero-interest co-investment contracts
Fully fund VA – There are presently 49,000 unfunded staff positions
End veteran homelessness.
Preserve the VA as a separate full service medical facility dedicated to care of our veterans
Make less veterans: End wars of choice, Wars for Oil
LGBTQ rights.
Religious freedom – ALL religions.
Respect separation of church and state.
Minority housing and business grants.
Path to citizenship
DACA / DREAMers / TPS protections.
Abolish DHS and its ICE and CBP units. These are products of the extremely problematic 2003 AUMF – the repeal of which is long overdue
Abolish immigrant detention for misdemeanor border crossing
o Ankle tagging is cost effective. And (relatively) humane.
Codify Women’s Reproductive Rights
Center foreign policy on human rights.
Gun control: background checks + train, test, license, insure.
