A: Its goal is to promote majority rule in America by enabling U.S. voters across the political spectrum to elect representatives to public office at all levels of government who will enact their policy priorities into law.
Q: When the website is fully operational, how will it help voters do this?
A: It will provide individual voters free tools and services that they can use to close the gap between their policy priorities and their elected representatives' priorities, and the laws voters want to see enacted and those that are actually enacted.
These tools and services are built around the patent-pending Interactive Voter Choice System. The invention and website enable voters with shared policy priorities to join forces to build politically-oriented social networks, winning voting blocs, political parties and electoral coalitions that can elect representatives to office who will enact their priorities into law.
They also enable voters of all political persuasions to find common ground across traditional party lines and build winning voting blocs, political parties and electoral coalitions around shared policy priorities.
The unique contribution of the invention and website to majority rule is that they enable voters across the political spectrum to create an unprecedented lever of individual and collective control over the entire U.S. political process.
That lever is the unique policy agenda that the invention and website enable voters to define and leverage to gain entree into any political arena in U.S. politics they wish to influence.
Voters' written policy agendas are like a contract between voters and their elected representatives, setting the terms and conditions for representatives' election and re-election.
If voters deem their representatives have exerted their best efforts to enact voters' priorities into law, after examining their legislative track records, they will vote for their re-election. If not, they will vote to defeat them.
The agendas, which can be updated at any time, serve as voters'
Legislative mandate to elected representatives and electoral candidates;
Gateway to locating and teaming up with voters who have statistically similar policy priorities to build winning voting blocs, political parties and electoral coalitions that have the voting strength to elect representatives who will enact their priorities into law;
Rating tool for evaluating announced candidates and recruiting prospective candidates;
Monitoring tool for tracking and overseeing elected representatives' legislative actions;
Score card and decision-making tool for evaluating elected representatives' legislative track records when voters are deciding whether to vote for or against their re-election.
In a nutshell, the invention empowers you and voters across the country to decide what the nation's policy priorities should be, who runs for office, who gets elected and what laws get passed.
Most importantly, these tools and services make it possible for you to leverage the untapped collective action potential of the Internet to build winning voting blocs that become the control centers of American politics.
Right from your desktop, laptop and mobile phone, you can weigh your policy options; discuss, debate and define your policy agendas; and build influential political networks and winning voting blocs with your friends, family members, neighbors, co-workers and other voters who share your priorities.
IVCS enables your voting blocs to perform all the functions of political parties — and more. You can use IVCS tools and services to build consensus and voting blocs with voters across the political spectrum who share your priorities and increase your numbers have until you have the voting strength you need to run and elect your own representatives to office.
Your IVCS-enabled voting blocs can run your candidates on existing party lines and take organizational control of any political party operating in your electoral district. You can then join forces with other voting blocs and political parties outside your district to expand your influence throughout your state, region and across the country as a whole.
Or you can use IVCS tools and services to create unique new political parties that are run by voters who determine the parties' policy agendas and use their agendas to nominate party candidates.
IVCS makes it possible for you and your political parties and voting blocs to build winning electoral coalitions with other voting blocs and political parties, so you can elect candidates to public office at all levels of government who will enact your policy agendas into law.
No existing political party allows its supporters to set their agendas across the board in writing and build consensus within a broad cross-section of voters who may not belong to the party, as does this website.
Nor is there any equivalent mechanism as that provided by the Interactive Voter Choice System for overcoming the divisiveness, political rancor and risk of stalemate that now plague American politics and public policy-making.
With tools such as the Policy Options Database, the Policy Priorities Database and the Voting Utility, your voting bloc, party and electoral coalition can build consensus within a broad-based cross-section of voters that can prevent the fragmentation of the electorate into splinter groups that cannot win elections.
If your elected representatives fail to enact your policy agendas once they vote them into office, you can use your voting blocs and political parties to vote them out of office just as easily as you voted them in.
Q. How do I get started?
A. First, you can create an account, profile and homepage on this website, free of charge, where you can build your own personal networks, voting blocs and political parties comprised of people whose policy priorities are similar to yours. Or you can join other IVCS-enabled networks and voting blocs hosted on this website whose agendas are similar to yours.
Below are nine steps you can take to gain a decisive influence in American politics using IVCS tools and services.
Set your policy agendas across the board. You can weigh your policy options and set your policy agendas by accessing the Policy Options Database below.
Just click on the options you prefer and add them to your agenda. You can propose new options and update the agenda whenever your priorities change.
Here's how the options are organized:
The options are divided into 8 umbrella themes.
To help you locate the various policy options in the database and remember their location for future reference, the options are visually displayed on cards in two decks of playing cards.
Each deck has 4 umbrella themes.
Each of the four suits of cards in each deck has a theme.
Each suit contains 13 cards. Each card displays a theme and a policy option associated with the theme. (To view the decks, click here).
Each options contains links to online sources of information describing their pros and cons. The sources are continuously updated.
You can:
Select any number of options
Rank order them if you wish from most to least preferred
Define different agendas for different purposes
Update your agendas whenever your priorities change
Email them to any number of recipients
Save all your agendas in your own personal archive on the IVCS website for future reference.
Email you agendas to your elected representatives to pressure them to enact your policy priorities into law. You can also request your representatives to access this website and use the Policy Options Database to define their policy agendas and legislative priorities. Then you can compare your respective stances and evaluate their legislative track records to see how they compare with your respective priorities. If there is too large a discrepancy, you can pressure them to change course or decide not to vote for their re-election.
Join with voters across the country to set the nation's policy priorities. You can use the Policy Options Database and the Policy Priorities Database to make sure that your preferences and the preferences of the U.S. electorate determine the nation's priorities rather than the preferences of U.S. lawmakers and the special interests that fund their electoral campaigns.
You can use the policy options database as if it were a poll, and with one click send the priorities you have selected to the Policy Priorities Database. Voters' priorities will be tallied and published periodically online as Public Opinion Reports, to inform the nation's lawmakers and the news media of voters preferences and changes in their preferences over time.
Individual voters like yourself who are registered users and contribute their policy priorities to the database can query it free of charge to find out interesting political facts and trends that will help you in your political organizing to get your policy priorities enacted into law. Revenue-generating groups and organizations can also mine the database but they must pay a fee to do so.
For example, you can query the database of a specific report to find out what are the policy priorities of voters in specific ZIP Codes and election districts, and what combinations of policy options they include in their policy agendas. You can identify trends and shifts in priorities that occur when voters favor or oppose laws that lawmakers are proposing to enact or have enacted into law.
Find and contact voters with policy priorities similar to yours to create policy-oriented networking groups hosted on this website. Your groups will be provided similar networking, collaboration and communication tools and services as those provided by social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
Join forces with other voters to build powerful online voting blocs around shared policy priorities to pressure lawmakers and candidates for elective office to adopt and enact your priorities into law.
The members of voting blocs built around shared policy priorities can pool information and develop collective policy expertise as great or greater than that of lawmakers and the thousands of lobbyists that try to write legislation. You can research critical issues so you can debunk the disinformation that political parties, politicians, pundits and special interests use to ignite conflicts and get votes.
Increase the voting strength of your voting blocs until they can win local elections, by using IVCS tools and services to recruit new members online and offline, and form electoral coalitions with other voting blocs, political parties, unions and advocacy groups.
Use your voting blocs to get control of existing political parties and the electoral process in your electoral district so bloc members can screen prospective candidates using your bloc's policy agenda, and run and elect bloc-preferred candidates in primary and general elections on preferred party lines.
By creating policy agendas with broad appeal, your voting blocs can easily take organizational control of the dominant political party in your election district by electing members of your voting bloc to a majority of party positions.
Use your voting blocs to build new political parties that have a broader electoral base than existing parties and have the voting strength to prevent the fragmentation of the electorate, by using web-based tools like the Voting Utility to build consensus among ever larger cross-sections of voters across the political spectrum.
End the legalized bribery of U.S. elected representatives by the special interests that fund their electoral campaigns, which can now spend unlimited funds on political advertisements after the Citizens United versus FEC court decision.
Because candidates nominated by your voting blocs and political parties already enjoy popular support and share a common policy agenda, they will not have to raise large amounts of money from special interests to get their message out in order to drive sufficient numbers of voters to the polls to get elected.
By using web-based IVCS tools and services, you will be able to attract to your voting blocs and political parties a large enough cross-section of voters who share your policy priorities and those of your candidates to win elections without being dependent on large campaign contributions from special interests.
Q: Can candidates for public office, advocacy groups, political parties and unions use IVCS tools and services?
A: Yes, but not all the tools and services are available free of charge to groups that are formally organized and have revenue flow.
Q: How will the invention and website affect the U.S. political system as a whole?
A: It will enable grassroots voters to build dynamic, democratically-run voting blocs, political parties and electoral coalition that replace minority rule with majority control of government.
For more information about the Interactive Voter Choice System and how it works, click here.
A growing economy is the best way to create jobs.
And the best way to keep the economy growing is by keeping taxes low so that Americans have more of their own money to spend, save, and invest in businesses that create jobs.
Taxes on the wealthy should be kept low because they have more money to invest in job-creating businesses.The private enterprise system and free markets, not government, is best equipped to create the jobs American workers need.
Every American has the right to health care. To provide affordable universal coverage, anyone who wishes to join the current Medicare system should be able to do so. The federal government can set fair premiums at reasonable rates by negotiating drug costs and reimbursement rates with service providers. This will provide a public option to compete with the private insurance companies, which charge 20% - 30% more to cover their profits and administrative costs.
National security officials warn that global climate change threatens American security. Research has proved that it is caused by the emission of heat-trapping gases from power plants, vehicles and food production. U.S. lawmakers must protect their constituents instead of corporations that produce the gases and pass legislation limiting their production. To prevent impending catastrophes, the U.S. should sign international treaties that sharply reduce global warming.
Polls show that most Americans think corporations have too much influence in government. They also think their elected representatives do not care what they think. These negative views may stem from the fact that lawmakers routinely pass laws that sacrifice their constituents' needs and interests to those of their corporate campaign contributors. Lawmakers must stop taking money from corporations and pass laws requiring all electoral campaigns to be citizen funded.
The free enterprise system and the entrepreneurial spirit made the American economy the most powerful in the world. A strong economy requires bold, innovative entrepreneurs driven by the profit motive. They must be able to build enterprises and markets free of government interference, regulations and burdensome taxation. Their businesses should be able to raise capital on fair terms and operate according to the laws of supply and demand in unfettered free markets.
Property ownership is vital to democracy because it gives people a stake in their communities.
Yet people with average and modest incomes, especially senior citizens, cannot afford to pay the steep increases in local property taxes that have resulted from state lawmakers' efforts to limit state expenditures by shifting costs to the local level.
Local property taxes should be reduced by increasing state and local taxes on corporations and requiring developers to assume their fair share of the tax burden.
The United States of America was founded to "promote the general Welfare". Yet many U.S. lawmakers have put the interests of the private sector ahead of those of the American people. For example, they have allowed businesses to engage in unsafe business practices that pollute the air, water, soil and food. These elected officials should be replaced by lawmakers who will play an active role in passing laws that solve societal, economic and financial problems in the public interest.
The greatest threat to American citizens are weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), whether in the hands of terrorists or nation-states.
The U.S. should cooperate with the international community to resolve conflicts that might lead to the use of WMDs such as nuclear bombs.
The U.S. should also adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and work within the framework of the United Nations.
17% of the U.S. workforce was unemployed at the end of 2009. 50% was unemployed in cities like Detroit that have lost manufacturing jobs. The number of U.S. jobs lost since 2000 equals the number of jobs created. The quality of life in America will plummet if the middle class is wiped out and the economy provides high-paying financial services sector jobs to the wealthy and low-paying service sector jobs to everyone else. Lawmakers must act to spur full employment or be ousted from office.
The best way to maximize choice, personal freedom and personal responsibility is to make private health insurance the cornerstone of American health care. By using market forces to increase competition among insurance companies, it will reduce spiraling medical costs and make health care more affordable. Government-run health care will lead to greater government control over peoples' lives, the rationing of health care and bureaucratic interference into patient-doctor relationships.
U.S. homeowners and investors have lost billions of dollars due to the fraudulent practices of large banks and financial institutions who sold worthless mortgage-backed securities to unsuspecting investors. U.S. lawmakers should not bail out these banks and institutions but instead break up those that are "too big to fail". They should help homeowners who fell victim to the fraud re-finance their mortgages. Lawmakers who refuse to pass tough financial regulations should be ousted from Congress.
Free speech is a fundamental constitutional right. Government cannot abridge the free speech rights of individuals, advocacy groups and businesses to speak on political issues. Campaign finance reforms that restrict political spending abridge freedom of political speech because they make it imposible to produce, distribute and broadcast political communications that cost money. All laws and restrictions on free speech and political contributions should be repealed, although their sources must be reported.
Since U.S. consumers buy more goods from other countries than they buy from the U.S., more money is leaving the U.S. than is coming in. If this imbalance persists, and high unemployment remains high and consumer purchasing power remains low, non-defense related economic activity in the U.S. could come to a standstill. To eliminate the trade deficit, lawmakers must act to spur the domestic production of goods and services that other countries and American consumers want to buy.
Taxing the buyers of goods and services is the fairest type of taxation.
Higher sales taxes should be imposed at the local, state and federal levels to reduce and eventually eliminate property taxes, estate taxes, payroll taxes and federal income taxes.
At the local level, sales taxes should be used to support schools instead of property taxes. A national sales tax should replace the federal income tax to eliminate all the costly paperwork and bureaucracy involved in federal income tax collection.
The best government is the government that governs least. Governments that interfere in businesses and free markets usually hamper economic growth. Governments that intrude into the private lives of their citizens limit their individual freedom. They prevent their citizens from developing their creative abilities and determining their own destinies. Lawmakers should only pass laws that involve government in doing things that cannot be done by the free market or individuals acting on their own initiative.
One of the most serious causes of conflict and violence in the world is the wealth gap between the rich and poor, especially when the poor are politically and economically disenfranchised.
The path to peace lies in sharing the wealth and the know-how for creating wealth with those who have no wealth.This will prevent people from losing hope and becoming so desperate that they resort to violence or are recruited by terrorist groups.
Working Americans' cost of living is outstripping their real incomes, which have been stagnant for decades while the incomes of the wealthiest have soared due to huge increases in executive compensation. These discrepancies are due to lawmakers' failure to tax excess profits and enforce anti-trust laws to prevent corporations from destroying their competition and jacking up their prices. Lawmakers must enforce anti-trust laws, tax excess profits and raise the minimum wage.
Congress should fully fund Social Security and Medicare to avoid any future cuts in the benefits due present and future U.S. retirees.
Congressional lawmakers should pay back the $2 trillion Congress owes the Social Security Trust Fund for the money they have transferred from the Fund into their General Fund and spent over the past 40 years. Lawmakers who vote to lower Social Security and Medicare benefits should be ousted from office.
Former President Bush set a good example for future presidents by providing strong leadership after the attacks of 9/11 in declaring a war on terror and launching a military counter-offensive in Afghanistan.
He was correct that the U.S. must make this war its top priority and rely primarily on military force to "kill or capture the terrorists, deny them safe haven or control of any nation, prevent them from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and cut off their sources of support".
Lawmakers and officials who restrict basic freedoms like voting rights, such as by installing electronic voting equipment whose results can be falsified, unlawfully purging voters from voter lists, or requiring photo identification, should be removed from office. The laws and regulations they use to deny these rights should be repealed. Law enforcement officials must prosecute those who intimidate voters with false claims about voting eligibility or incorrect instructions about voting procedures.
Investment tax cuts spur economic growth and competitiveness by increasing the after-tax return of those who have discretionary income and wealth to invest.
Although these cuts reduce tax revenues from these individuals, they increase tax revenues from corporations, executive bonuses and stock market profits.
They also address the problem of taxing dividend income twice as corporate profits and personal income.
U.S. companies are at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy because of high corporate tax rates.
Lawmakers should cut business taxes to promote business growth, job creation and investment.
States with low corporate taxes attract and retain companies that shy away from high-tax states.
If corporate taxes go up, the increase is passed to consumers in the form of higher prices or to shareholders via lower dividends or share value.
The Bush administration increased the debt and budget deficit by cutting taxes on the wealthy and increasing defense spending. The Obama administration added to both by retaining the tax cuts, increasing defense spending, bailing out insolvent banks and passing an economic stimulus. To fill the gap between revenues and expenditures, both administrations have borrowed money from countries like China. Congress must end these irresponsible fiscal policies.
One of the greatest threats to Americans and American interests is a loosely-organized network of Islamic radicals operating in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Its goal is to use terrorist tactics to end U.S. influence in the Middle East and elsewhere and replace it with a radical Islamic empire.
It is also seeking to destroy Israel and develop weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. must use whatever means are necessary to stop Islamic radicalism.
The American economy will grow and create more jobs and wealth only if U.S. businesses produce goods and services that consumers here and abroad can afford, and do not cost more than those of foreign competitors.
If high U.S. labor costs make U.S. products and services more expensive than those of foreign competitors, U.S. businesses will have to outsource their jobs to lower wage areas to reduce labor costs.
It is a moral imperative that Congress protect vulnerable Americans and the nearly 50 million low income families with children whose parents are unable to obtain the basic necessities through their own efforts.
Lawmakers should adequately fund Medicaid and the social services needed to provide vulnerable Americans safe housing, food, health care, child care, and job training opportunities so they can get jobs that pay living wages.
Research conducted by U.S. intelligence agencies shows that the use of military force against suspected terrorists makes the American people less secure rather than more secure. The evidence shows that U.S. military attacks often kill and injure innocent civilians, and that these attacks help terrorists networks recruit would-be terrorists who are enraged by the attacks. The more U.S. military attacks kill and injure civilians, the more they will increase the number of terrorists trying to attack Americans.
Corporations are the driving force behind U.S. economic growth and the creation of jobs and wealth. Since they know what is needed to keep the economy growing, they should have the same free speech rights as citizens to bring their views to the attention of the public and the nation's lawmakers, especially during elections. They should be able to use corporate funds to educate the public and lawmakers so that they elect representatives who will enact laws that help rather than hurt the business sector and the economy.
The driving force behind the economic growth that is raising standards of living around the world is an interdependent global economy based on the free enterprise system, free markets and free trade.
This growth can best be sustained by government non-interference in business decisions and the workings of the marketplace so that capital can freely move across borders, and supply and demand can determine prices.
It is unfair that many states require low income Americans to pay a higher percent of their income in taxes than the wealthy. It is also unfair that they collect more from sales taxes than income taxes, since sales taxes require low-income and middle-income taxpayers to pay more of their income in taxes than wealthier taxpayers. Lawmakers should increase the taxes of the wealthy. Congress should increase the Earned Income Tax Credit for low to moderate income taxpayers.
The middle class is being squeezed by increasing taxes, stagnating real income and higher costs of living.
The Bush administration increased the tax burden of the middle class and cut the taxes of affluent Americans, cuts which remain in effect under the Obama administration.
Congress must reduce the tax burden of the middle class and increase that of the wealthy, especially those whose incomes increased as a result of federal bailouts of insolvent banks.
The Bush administration failed to respect U.S. treaty obligations under the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners it captured in conducting its "war on terror". Congress must compel the executive branch to treat prisoners of war, "detainees" and "enemy combatants" in compliance with its international treaty obligations. All persons held in U.S. custody at home and abroad must be informed of the charges against them and afforded due process and fair trials without delay.
Steep increases in gas and home heating prices are becoming unaffordable for millions of Americans.
These increases will continue for the foreseeable future because of lawmakers' failure to create and fund a national plan to develop alternative, renewable sources of energy to replace dwindling supplies of fossil fuels. They must act swiftly to support public and private sector initiatives to assure U.S. energy independence.
More than half of the federal budget is spent for entitlement and other mandatory programs.
More than 70% of mandatory spending goes to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, a proportion that is likely to rise as more people are added to these programs.
Congress must slow the growth of these programs by restricting entitlement spending to avoid the substantial increases in taxes that will be necessary to pay for them.
Too many violent crimes are committed in the U.S. by criminals using illegally acquired guns or assault weapons that are available due to lax gun control laws.
While there are legitimate reasons to own guns, assault weapons should be banned. It is time for lawmakers to pass stricter gun control laws.
Those who refuse to do so because they accept campaign contributions from the the National Rifle Association should not hold elective office.
The U.S. Constitution gives citizens, not corporations, the right to vote. But corporations insist that they have all the rights of natural "persons" and can use these rights and their vast wealth to increase their political influence. They argue that they can not only influence lawmakers through campaign contributions, but sway public opinion by attacking or supporting electoral candidates. Lawmakers must restrict corporate political influence to ensure government is run by the people, for the people.
The U.S. and other industrialized nations have denied the benefits of economic growth to workers by paying low wages. They have harmed developing countries and ruined local industries by forcing open their markets to low-priced goods, including government subsidized agricultural products.
Multinational corporations have increased the wealth gap by paying low wages and taxes. Lawmakers should pass laws outlawing these harmful practices.
All parents should have the opportunity to choose the schools their children attend, including public schools, charter schools, faith-based schools and private schools.
These schools should receive the same funding as the regular public schools. This option will improve failing schools when their administrators and teachers see parents removing their children in order to place them in schools that provide better education.
"Tax and spend" politicians argue that the problems of unbalanced budgets in the public sector can be solved by taxing the rich.
Yet the wealthiest Americans already pay more than half of all tax revenues, even after recent tax cuts.
People who have more money than they need to live on will invest it, if it is not taxed away. Their investments will create jobs and increase federal tax revenues from the businesses in which they invest.
The war against terrorism is unlike the wars covered by the Geneva Conventions because the enemies are not states but nebulous, non-state global networks of militants. Convention requirements regarding the treatment of prisoners captured in wars between states do not apply to these militants.
They can be detained indefinitely without formal charges and interrogated in unorthodox ways to obtain information that can prevent future attacks.
Since the free market economy has failed to produced enough jobs to meet the needs of American workers, lawmakers must take action to spur the creation of the jobs that are needed even if it means protecting the products and services of domestic industries.
They must oppose business practices and trade policies that destroy domestic jobs without provisions to replace them. They should penalize U.S. companies that go offshore to get cheaper labor and avoid U.S. taxes.
Sufficient public funds must be invested in K-12 public schools to provide all public school students the opportunity to develop their full potential and acquire the social skills they need to live and prosper in a diverse society. Instead of diverting public funds to alternative schools or programs, they should be used by public schools to attract and retain highly qualified teachers and provide all their students safe, stimulating educational environments and equitable educational opportunities.
The right of American citizens to own guns is conferred by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Laws should not interfere with the exercise of this Constitutional right. Instead, laws should be enacted recognizing the right of citizens to carry firearms for self-protection. These laws should protect the firearms industry from being bankrupted by lawsuits.
The Patriot Act enacted during the Bush administration has protected the American people from the deadly plans of terrorists dedicated to destroying the American way of life.
When Congress passed this important act in response to the attacks of 9/11, it applied existing U.S. legal principles and legislative precedents to the unique challenges posed by a global terrorist network. The Obama administration and Congress should maintain the key provisions of the act.
The energy base of the U.S. economy must be re-engineered so that it relies on renewable sources of energy like wind, water and solar power, instead of dwindling supplies of fossil fuels like oil.
Lawmakers must pass legislation funding public and private sector partnerships that create sustainable U.S. businesses that use renewable sources of energy. These businesses should not be allowed to outsource green domestic jobs they create with public resources.
Education is a key to success in American society. Yet expenditures on public school students vary greatly from one school district to another. These discrepancies contribute to discrepancies in achievement and opportunities to advance in American society.
Lawmakers must eliminate these disparities because they create inequitable educational opportunities and discriminate against students in municipalities that do not provide equitable financing for their schools.
The U.S. is the sole remaining super-power in the world. It is responsible for keeping the peace by using its military force to root out terrorists and prevent or stop aggression by nations that threaten U.S. citizens, homeland, installations, military bases and other interests. The U.S. must also dominate cyberspace and protect its air, sea and ground supply lines. Lawmakers should approve the defense budget and whatever supplemental spending its defense responsibilities require.
A vital role can be played by the World Bank in helping developing nations recover from the global recession because of its expertise in financing economic growth in developing and war torn nations. World Bank investments, loans, credit and grants provide the capital they need to builf their infrastructures so they can exploit their natural resources, fully open their markets and integrate their economies into the global economy.
The best way for individuals to get ahead in life is to rely on themselves and their own resources and industriousness.
America was built by enterprising people who took great risks to create economic opportunities, not by those who waited for others to take the initiative or depended on hand-outs from government.
People who fail usually have only themselves to blame because they do not take advantage of the opportunities that are out there.
Air, water and soil in the U.S. is being polluted with toxins that contaminate food, causing sickness and death to those who eat it. These toxins cause 40% of all deaths worldwide annually. Lawmakers must require federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration to dramatically improve their protection of the air, water, soil and food. Farming practices and factory farms in the U.S. and abroad that produce toxins should be prohibited.
The death penalty is vital to preserving law and order. It is a just penalty for capital crimes. Former U.S. President Bush was correct in supporting capital punishment because it serves as a deterrent and helps save innocent lives. It also helps prosecutors plea bargain, protects the community by making sure convicted criminals do not offend again and provides closure to survivors of victims.
Federal and state laws authorizing the death penalty should remain in effect.
The Patriot Act violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitute, which is part of the Bill of Rights. It states that U.S. citizens have the right to be safe and secure from unreasonable government searches and seizures. Yet key provisions of the Act allow government authorities to enter citizens' homes or offices secretly without providing them authorizing warrants. Lawmakers should remove such unconstitutional provisions in the Act.
The three largest U.S. oil and gas companies increased their profits by more than 40% in recent years by raising the price of oil and gas. Global oil companies’ combined yearly profits total more than the annual GNP of 100 countries. U.S. Banks that have received taxpayer-funded bailouts have used these funds to dramatically increase their profits and their employees' bonuses. Lawmakers should tax excessive industry and employee profits.
Individuals of the same sex should be able to marry each other in marriages recognized by the states in which they live.
These marriages should confer on them the same legal status as marriages between males and females.
They should entitle same sex couples to receive the same benefits and avail themselves of the same legal protections afforded marriages between males and females.
The U.S. is the world's sole remaining superpower. It can maintain its military pre-eminence without spending more money on defense than all other countries combined. Since its primary adversaries are non-state terrorists who use small-scale weapons, it can ferret them out more efficiently and cost effectively using counter-terrorist techniques and international policing than overwhelming military force and expensive weapon systems.
The policies and practices of the World Bank have widened the wealth gap between rich and poor.
They have forced developing nations to take on crushing debts to finance huge infrastructure development projects they can ill afford.
These projects benefit the multinational companies who build and use them to force open the markets of these nations to unfair foreign competition, extract natural resources at unfair prices and destroy indigenous economies.
Reliance on rugged individualism to get ahead is not enough.
Giant corporations like Wal-Mart pay such low wages that their workers cannot afford basic essentials. Their incomes are so low that they fall below the poverty line if they have more than one mouth to feed.
The 40 million Americans in poverty in 2008 show that people can be victimized by circumstances beyond their control and need outside help from friends, family, government and social service organizations.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) "prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, State and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation, and telecommunications. It also applies to the United States Congress". Lawmakers should continue to uphold, fund and enforce the Act.
There is no proof that the death penalty deters crime. The U.S. is one of the only industrialized countries in the West that still has the death penalty, and yet it still has one of the highest murder rates in the world. China, Iran, the U.S. and Vietnam conducted 97% of executions carried out in 2004. Since many people convicted of capital crimes are later proved innocent using DNA specimens, death penalty laws should be revoked and replaced by life sentences without parole.
Terrorist threats should not be used to justify intimidation or incarceration of journalists in the print or broadcast media or bloggers on the web, or used as a pretext to impose restrictions on public access to government information.
U.S. citizens should be able to assemble in visible sites to express their views about government policies and demonstrate outside government buildings, political party conventions and other venues without government interference, intimidation or arrest.
Lawmakers must pass tough laws to protect American consumers from exploitive business practices. For example, they should enforce anti-trust laws against private insurance companies to prevent them from fixing prices. Americans are denied freedom to choose when there is no competition among insurance companies and virtually no difference in what they charge policy-holders. Premiums must be controlled so that policy-holders have enough money to pay for deductibles and co-pays.
Only a man and a woman should be permitted to marry. Traditional family values and our children's future are best protected by having a father and mother in the home who are married. If people of the same sex marry and raise families, they will set a bad example for the children of normal families. U.S. laws should prohibit marriage between people of the same sex. Schools should not be allowed to teach that it is alright for people of the same sex to marry because it will also set a bad example.
The holocaust showed the world what happens when dictators are allowed to persecute ethnic and religious groups.
Like the U.S., Israel is fighting against terrorism and terrorist attacks, some of which originate in Palestine. Israel has the right to defend itself and the U.S. should continue to provide the financial and military support it needs. It is one of the only democratic governments in the Middle East and one of America’s staunchest allies.
Microfinance programs narrow the gap between rich and poor and reduce conflict in poor, violence-prone communities abroad by creating small businesses and jobs.
U.S. lawmakers should expand funding for these programs because they provide much needed capital and credit to the local level.
They help indigenous people become entrepreneurs and create businesses and jobs that protect them from exploitation by outside profiteers.
Fewer and fewer Americans have access to affordable housing. The growing number of homeless is estimated at 1 million. The root of the problem is cut-backs in federal aid to low-income housing. This has removed the housing safety net and forced many people to pay more for housing than they can afford.
Lawmakers at all levels must fund programs that provide incentives to public and private sector entities to build affordable housing for all U.S. income groups.
America is falling behind emerging economic powers like India and China in the number of students graduating from college in science and technology.
To ensure U.S. competitiveness, lawmakers must adequately fund higher education to provide access to all qualified middle and low income students.
College students and their families should not have to borrow large sums of money to finance their education.
Millions of Americans go to bed hungry every night, as do hundreds of millions of people abroad. Yet before large agribusinesses replaced indigenous farming, most people were able to buy or grow their own food. The problem is not lack of food but lack of money to buy food at the prices that agribusinesses demand. Lawmakers must ensure that people have enough money to buy food and that food prices are not excessive. They should also pass laws that encourage local food production.
Nearly half of all Americans use the Internet to learn and participate in politics and civic affairs. Since the electromagetic frequencies that make the Internet possible are owned by the American public, lawmakers must make sure that the Internet serves the public interest. They should also see to it that even though the federal government leases the frequencies to for-profit Internet services providers (ISPs), all Americans have affordable access at the highest speeds that are technologically possible.
Whenever lawmakers pass laws that affect the private sector and place constraints on the workings of free markets, they inhibit economic growth and the creation of jobs. Compared to other industrialized countries, the U.S. has developed a stronger economy because government has interfered in the private sector less than their governments.
The Obama administration authorized $23.7 trillion to bail out Wall Street banks that bankrupt themselves through wreckless speculation. Yet they voted less than $1 trillion to create jobs and revive the economy so that states and localities have the revenues to provide essential public services. Lawmakers whose favoritism of Wall Street over Main Street denies state and local governments revenues needed to keep firefighters, police officers and teachers on the job should be ousted from office.
U.S. foreign policy has been unfairly biased in favor of Israel in comparison to Palestine, whose territory is illegally occupied by Israel.
This bias is largely the result of the undue influence that pro-Israel special interest and lobbying groups exercise over U.S. foreign policy.
Countries that invade and occupy foreign territory are prohibited by international law from retaining it. The U.S. should insist on the creation of a separate Palestinian state.
This independent, self-governing organization of nation-states plays a unique role in developing international trade policies that benefit developing as well as developed nations.
It is opening markets around the world and knocking down trade barriers to penetration of foreign markets
Increased trade, especially in developing countries, will benefit U.S. industries and businesses like farming, and create jobs for U.S. and foreign workers.
Interest rates on credit cards and certain kinds of loans have become usurious. Many credit card issuers charge 30% and more.
Lawmakers must regulate the lending industry to protect borrowers from predatory practices that can ruin them financially. In particular, they should make it illegal for credit card issuers to breach their original agreements with card holders by changing original interest rates or lowering original credit limits.
Women of all ages should be free to choose whether and when to have a child. Government should not come between a woman and her doctor and dictate family planning decisions. Nor should lawmakers violate the separation between church and state and allow religious groups to write laws that interfere with women's right to choose. U.S. laws and U.S. funded domestic and foreign aid programs and services that interfere with women's family planning rights should be repealed.
In order to prevent future terrorist attacks like those of 9/11, it is necessary and justifiable for U.S. government authorities to apprehend, transport and detain suspected terrorists and sympathizers indefinitely without charging them with specific crimes, either in the U.S. or abroad. They can also apprehend, transport and hand over suspects to government authorities in other countries for interrogation and detention.
Undocumented workers who came to the U.S. seeking livelihoods and have joined the U.S. labor force should be given the opportunity to earn their citizenship.
They should be protected from unscrupulous employers who benefit financially by paying them less than the minimum wage.
While earning their citizenship and working, these workers should pay taxes on their income and contribute to Social Security and Medicare.
It is better for the private sector to acquire ownership or management rights over natural resources such as land, water, electricity, oil.
Whenever the government tries to operate public utilities to manage these assets and use them to provide services to the public, it does so inefficiently and wastes taxpayers’ money.
For-profit businesses are better qualified to develop innovative technology and use sophisticated management techniques than government bureaucracies.
The National Guard has provided a large portion of the combat forces and equipment deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Former generals and state governors have expressed concern about the adequacy of the remaining portion to respond to domestic emergencies resulting from natural disasters or terrorist attacks. As the response to hurricane Katrina demonstrated, lawmakers and federal authorities must show that they are capable of protecting Americans from these threats.
The U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are a preventive foreign policy strategy to keep terrorists from attacking the U.S. mainland.
They objective is to help these countries resist radical Islamist extremists like those who attacked the U.S. on 9/11. A U.S. military presence is necessary to win the hearts and minds of the civilian population and provide the stability that is needed to prevent terrorists from gaining a foothold from which they can launch attacks.
WTO policies and practices impede the development of fair free trade policies in place of unfair policies that favor industrialized countries like the U.S.
WTO decision-making rules favor multinationals backed by Western countries by allowing them to force open the markets of developing countries and flood them with lower priced goods and services than domestic ones. Lower priced, government-subsidized goods and services should not be allowed to ruin indigenous and nascent industries.
Trade unions are indispensable to attaining and preserving living wages that enable working families to cover their basic costs of living and provide for a dignified and comfortable retirement.
The decline in the percentage of unionized workers in the U.S. has been accompanied by a steep decline in wages and benefits. Countries with a high percentage of unionized employees provide far better compensation and standards of living.
Lawmakers should enforce laws that prohibit union-busting activities.
It is morally wrong for a woman to take the life of her unborn child.
If a woman is unable to care for the child she is carrying, she should put it up for adoption after it is born.
It should be against the law to terminate a pregnancy unless the life of the mother is at risk, or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. No federal, state or local funds should be spent for abortions in the U.S. or foreign countries receiving U.S. aid.
U.S. and international laws prohibit the U.S. government from detaining U.S. citizens or citizens of other countries whom it suspects may be terrorists without charging them with specific crimes in a timely fashion and giving them the opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law.
These laws also prohibit the U.S. from turning over suspected terrorists to other countries for interrogation and detention without due process or lawful trials.
Immigrants who have entered this country illegally have no rights and should not be allowed to remain and become citizens.
They take jobs away from American citizens and put financial burdens on their communities for schooling and social services. Many refuse to learn English and isolate themselves from the mainstream.
Others become drug traffickers or addicts. If illegal immigrants are sent home, they will dissuade others from coming.
The public owns many resources and assets like land, water, oil, roads, bridges, tunnels, air waves and the electromagnetic frequencies that make the Internet possible. These assets should not be sold or licensed to private interests unless they make them available to the public at affordable prices and maintain and upgrade them more efficiently and cost effectively than public agencies. They should not be sold to private interests just to increase revenues.
Laws should be passed and strictly enforced prohibiting government authorities from seizing citizens’ private property and turning it over to commercial interests and developers who promise government greater tax revenues on the property.
"Eminent domain" prerogatives should be used to acquire private property only for public use to meet critical needs. The property must remain in the public domain.
Invading and occupying U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have proked outrage around the world by causing the deaths of innocent civilians. This outrage has strengthened terrorist networks by helping them recruit new members.
The U.S. should intervene only as part of an international effort that relies on proven counter-terrorism techniques, non-violent conflict resolution strategies and economic development assistance rather than military force.
Collective security is the most promising path to peace. Unilateral U.S. military action is the least promising.
The United Nations has the greatest potential to deploy the most effective international peacekeeping forces, provided they are adequately funded, trained and commanded.
The UN's peacekeeping potential can only be attained if a majority of all UN members make peacekeeping decisions, rather than the UN Security Council's permanent members.
Trade unions have outlived their usefulness. They have been plagued by corruption, violence and trouble-makers who foment conflict between management and labor. Coercive practices that force all workers to pay union dues should be outlawed. So should their political organizing to elect pro-labor lawmakers. Among the most politicized and abusive unions are teachers’ unions, who do everything they can to prevent incompetent teachers from being fired.
Economic growth and job creation is hampered when companies have to pay huge sums of money to people who win law suits claiming they sustained personal injuries due to the companies' products and services.
Many physicians can no longer practice medicine because they can not afford the premiums of professional liability insurance. Lawmakers should limit the amount of money people can be awarded in these lawsuits.
U.S. bridges, tunnels, roads, levees, dams, sewers and water mains are crumbling and sickening, injuring and killing Americans across the country. Congressional lawmakers are to blame because they refuse to vote the funds needed to repair or replace them. The devastation of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina is an example. Elected representatives who do not vote for infrastructure expenditures should be ousted from office.
The Bush administration opposed the use of torture, which it defined as occurring only when the pain inflicted results in major organ failure or death. As the Obama administration has indicated, the president may have to override U.S. legal precedents and acts of Congress that differ from definitions contained in U.S. and international laws in order to force detainees to reveal information that might save thousands of lives from terrorist attacks.
The free market economy has failed to provide the jobs needed by American workers, and enough goods and services produced by American workers to keep the "real" economy going. This failure shows that the dominance of the economy by giant multinational corporations is undermining the quality of life in America. Lawmakers must pass legislation to develop public/private partnerships to build thriving local economies comprised of sustainable businesses and jobs.
A majority of U.S. congressional districts have been redistricted (gerrmandered), ie their boundaries have been redrawn by state legislators around voters most likely to elect their party's candidates. This is undemocratic because their candidates get re-elected repeatedly. It polarizes politics by encouraging elected representatives to take extreme, uncompromising positions. Lawmakers must use unbiased methods to redraw the boundaries of all election districts.
Foreign aid that assists developing countries create sustainable livelihoods for their populations can help eradicate desperate economic conditions that can breed terrorism.
The U.S. should increase its foreign aid because it ranks among the lowest of all industrialized countries in terms of the percentage of GNP that it gives to foreign aid, which is less than 1%. This aid should not require recipient countries to endorse U.S. policies, buy U.S. products or open their markets if doing so destroys indigenous economies.
The UN is too inept, corrupt and wasteful to conduct effective peacekeeping operations in conflicts around the world.
Its nation-state members are always bickering with each other and can never seem to agree on anything, much less make life-and-death decisions on a timely basis.
U.S. dues are among the highest paid by any member state. The U.S. should not pay for peacekeeping forces that are less capable than U.S. forces.
Retirement pensions are vanishing as more and more employers are allowed to deny their employees the plans they paid for, or refuse to offer pension plans to their employees at all.
Lawmakers should pass laws imposing severe penalties against profitable companies that refuse to offer pension benefits or drop pension programs. The Social Security benefits of U.S. retirees of 30% of full time earnings should be raised closer to the 80% received by eligible members of Congress.
The federal government should not fund research using human stem cells. Although most Americans support science and technology, many are opposed to stem cell research because they are influenced by deeply held beliefs. Like former president George W. Bush, they believe in the fundamental value and sanctity of human life and therefore oppose taxpayer funding for research that would result in the destruction of human embryos.
The World Health Organization predicts that new killer diseases similar to HIV/Aids or ebola may be on the horizon that are capable of killing millions of people. 39 new diseases have been identified that did not exist 30 years ago. Lawmakers and government agencies should place as high a priority on funding programs to prevent and fight global epidemics as they do on terrorist threats.
U.S. laws ban cruel and inhuman treatment of the kind practiced by the Bush administration. Since research has shown this treatment does not obtain reliable information, there is no justification for using it.
The U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Uniform Military Code of Justice and U.S. federal laws banning torture incorporate international laws. Breaches of these laws are criminal acts.
The products and services of locally-based businesses are unlikely to be able to compete with those produced by the large corporations that drive the global economy. For they have greater know-how and access to capital and can more easily create the economies of scale that result in high profit margins. Local businesess will find it difficult to attain these margins, especially if they lack the flexibility to make business decisions solely on the basis of the company's bottom line.
Lawmakers should pass laws that help create public/private partnerships that spur job creation through the development of socially-responsible enterprises that serve the public interest.
These partnerships should be able to use publicly-owned assets such as land, pension funds and even state-backed venture funds to help businesses produce and market goods and services needed locally and regionally, as well as generate wealth and income that remain in the U.S.
The U.S. already gives a greater amount of foreign aid than any other country.
But its current economic and fiscal problems, coupled with the need to spend so much money fighting terrorism, may require a reduction in foreign aid.
Besides, the money the U.S. has given in foreign aid in the past has often been wasted.
Either it was stolen by corrupt officials or squandered on projects that didn't work or were never completed.
The U.S. population is only 5% of the world's population but consumes 20% of the world's natural resources.
Supplies of these resources are dwindling, creating competition and conflict. For example, many people believe the U.S. invaded Iraq to give Western countries control of its oil. To prevent conflicts over scarce natural resources, the U.S. should work with the international community to find adequate alternatives to meet the demand.
