What needs to be done to save this country

[Terra Alta]

First of all, tax the richest 1% at 50%. The richest 01% at 75%.

Get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. That would save us trillions.

Medicare for all. There is no reason why every man, woman, and child in America should not have health care.

Affordable housing for everyone. Low income housing for the homeless and poor.

Expand the food stamp program. There should be no one in America going to bed hungry.

Get rid of NAFTA and CAFTA. Reward companies that hire within the US; Punish companies that outsource overseas.

Pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Give more power to the workers, not the corporations. Corporations should not be people.

Raise the minimum wage to $10.00/hour.

These are just a few of the things that need to be done to put America on the right track.. will they be done, I highly doubt it, at least not in my lifetime, but I can dream can't I?

[jwirr]

1. I rec. this but I did not see anything about renewables or sustainability. nt

[movonne]

2. first thing ...stop the corporations from taking over our govt...second

thing...tax the corporation big...

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. Publicly funded elections...level the playing field /take corp and special interest money out of it

[Jmaxfie1]

8. +1 n/t

[ladjf]

4. Excellent post. Your ideas, if put in place, would solve the bulk

of our problems. Thanks.

[Initech]

5. I'd also propose a 100% tax on luxury goods costing over $200K.

Not houses but the shit they buy - the Bentleys, yachts, private jets, you name it.

[leftstreet]

6. Agree, except minimum wage should be at least $20 an hour

K&R

[steelmania75]

7. End the War on Drugs, then legalize drugs. We spend too much on prisons plus they're overcrowded.

Then whenever you legalize drugs tax it, but at a price where people would go to the store to buy and not use the black market.

[Marblehead]

9. 150,000

protester in DC and shut down K street.

[Bennyboy]

10. End COPRPORATE PERSON HOOD!

JOB 1.

[Zax2me]

11. Reward companies that hire within US?

You suggest taxing the richest 50% and 75%.
And then to punish companies that outsource overseas....
Why would they and their businesses (along with the jobs) stay?
They will move the entire company overseas.
You left no incentive for money to remain here to pay for all your other suggestions!

Get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan - sensible, saves lives in addition to trillions of dollars.
Hell, never mind my fuss - kick and rec after all on this point alone.

[Donnachaidh]

20. they still expect us to buy their goods

No one brings up that fact when they start screaming about how the companies will *run away*. WE are their customers.

[pampango]

12. Join the EU (would need a new name) if they'll have us.

Would mean we could all live and work in Europe is we so choose. (Of course, we might have to put up with a few Germans, French and others with "funny" accents moving to the US.) Our own government might even catch on to the fact that effective national health care, progressive taxation, strong social safety nets and labor unions are a good thing. ;)

[Joe Fields]

13. lobby reform, term limits, corporate welfare...

to name but a few remedies would go a long way toward putting America back on track.

Of course there are many more remedies...

[Vinca]

14. You silly goose. There you go with that "bottom up" thingy again.

We're back where we started, waiting for something to trickle down on us. I doubt it will be prosperity.

[badtoworse]

15. America needs to create more value in a world marketplace

We are just not adding enough value in the world marketplace to support the standard of living we are enjoying. Instead, we keep borrowing to fund things we simply cannot afford and that cannot continue indefinitely. What we saw in last weeks budget battle was nothing compared to what will be required to prevent the country from becoming insolvent.

I agree with you that taxes will have to rise, but I do not believe the increase will or should be limited to the top 1%. I can see and would support an increase to the Clinton era taxes, but that would involve an increase on everyone.

You can't expect to tax more of a shrinking pie and make things better - that will make things worse because jobs and wealth will leave the country that much faster. America needs to be a more attractive place to do business, so the pie gets bigger. As I see it, that is the only way out and what you are suggesting will do the opposite.

[sendero]

16. America is like a drug addict at this point..

.. a hard drug addict who is still able to function just well enough to keep himself medicated.

Nothing is going to change for real until he can't get the drugs (cash to keep the ponzi economy afloat) any more. That day is coming, nobody knows when but it is coming. And when it does America will hit rock bottom in a hurry.

At that point there are two possibilities. Either we get sane and stop spending money we don't have on stupid wars, drug wars, we name our price health care, etc etc. Or we continue trying to have things as they are today with the rich and powerful feeding off of everyone else - in which case it will be decades of civil war.

[annabanana]

17. It is really that simple. And you know what? Person to person,

America agrees with all of the above.

It's the propaganda poured into living rooms, kitchens & bedrooms all day and night that make it so hard for 29 Maple St. to realize that 27 and 31 Maple St. are on the same page.

[timtom]

18. Spoken like a true liberal!

I couldn't have said it better myself.

K&R!!

[Donnachaidh]

19. punish doubly companies that have already shut down plants here

It always struck me as odd that these companies were claiming to cut costs with the moves -- but NEVER cut prices to the same American consumers who were expected to still keep buying their products.

Hit them with tariff charges to re-import their goods to the us. If they want to get around them - then let them re-open factories and bring a large number of those jobs back to the us.

And if they think they can get by with passing the costs back onto the consumers -- we should boycott them until the jobs are brought back.