I like some of that stuff
What particularly do u not like?
You asked for it.
The fact that they deign to speak for anything remotely close to 99% of the nation is enough to discount the entire concept. The arrogance is staggering, and the constant reference to "the 99% of the American people" sounds like a bad wrestling promo. But anyway.
1. Elimination of the Corporate State. For a group concerned with the first amendment from the get-go, they sure do like deciding whose voices should and should not count. If you run, represent, or own shares in a corporation, shut up whilst we redistribute your monies.
2. Overturning the “Citizens United” Case. See #1. It's also humorous, as it's possibly the only time I've seen leftists decry the "anti-democratic" judiciary. Republicans use super-PACs, Democrats use unions...where's the beef? If you want to see real campaign negativity, look at the Revolution of 1800. If you want to see why it shouldn't be undone, see the first amendment once again.
Plus I'd counter that it was McCain-Feingold that should have been repealed, but that's a knock-down drag-out for another time.
3. Elimination of All Private Benefits to Public Servants. So, let's say I win a congressional seat and was appointed to the banking and finance committee. Where would I keep my money? I could lose my life insurance policies and my highly hypothetical children could have unfair employment restrictions placed on them (see 14th amendment, equal protection clause). All that sounds far-fetched, but think for a moment...what
doesn't the government regulate? It'd be easier if they'd just stop regulating everything. But we can't have that, can we?
4. Term Limits. I have no beef with this at all. Now someone find a feather and try knocking everybody down with it.
5. A Fair Tax Code. I'm tired of hearing "fair share". Who decides "fair share"? Who decides the "fair share" is fair? The "fair share" might be fairly unfair. But it's fair to the fair people who decide how fair or unfair the "fair share" might fairly be. Notice that this entire paragraph concerns corporate tax, which is already quite high...and they wonder why companies relocate and carry jobs elsewhere? BTW, loopholes will naturally close when the IRS is dismantled and a flat tax is instituted across the board.
6. Health Care for All.The government can't pay for or even make Medicare work properly for just old people. Not only is current iteration of federal health-care causing havoc with health-care providers (don't get me started on the clustermuck Obamacare is already beginning to cause), one would be foolish to neglect the enormous potential for the abrogation of personal freedom (see the recent contraception issue for a trite example). Like it or lump it: health care is NOT a human right, and it's outside the scope of the Constitution and therefore the federal government.
7. Protection of the Planet. Great, environmentalist whackos blaming corporations for killing Gaia again. This reads like an excerpt from Gore's movie coupled with doomsday rhetoric. Giving any government agency new, more broad powers is never a good idea, particularly when the one in question sucks so badly using the ones currently at its disposal. Current scientific data is too limited to properly inform responsible law, though that's never stopped Congress before.
8. Debt Reduction. The only way to reduce government debt is to stop (not reduce) government spending. You could tax everyone 100% and not pay this sucker off for decades. Besides, universal healthcare by itself would be the undoing of this pursuit. Which do they want? It's either/or, not both. Oh, and it's yet another thing blamed on corporations.
9. Jobs for All Americans. Government never made a job in its entire history because whatever it has to pay workers is first taken from them. Only business produces jobs, and we're already effectively running them out of the country (see previous answers). Besides, we already have jobs training programs in place...they're called "high schools". But they've been dumbed down so severely that a high school diploma's worth is only that its required to get into college. And beyond that are the numerous programs (many private, many state-level) that get people college-level job training. But where would the federal gov't get the money to fund this? Corporations again?
10. Student Loan Debt Refinancing. If high schools weren't so decrepit the need for an expensive college education would be reduced. But no one was forced to go to college...I've still got $1500 left on my first foray's loan debt, but that sucker is getting paid with no help from anyone else. I also disagree with the notion that education is the answer...hard work and guts is the answer.
11. Ending Perpetual War for Profit. Tell me where the profit is? All I see is cost. It's a misnomer. However, I agree with closing WWII era bases overseas when sea-bases are far more economical and flexible, as most countries we'd be concerned with are 120 miles from some sort of coast. Reducing nuclear armament isn't so critical as modernizing it is...the numbers aren't the problem as much as the maintenance of fifty year-old installations and unnecessary submarine second-strike capability dating from the days of MAD.
Where congressional approval is concerned, they have the powet to declare war and manage expenditures, and that's it. The president is, for better or worse, the commander-in-chief. By "pre-text" I presume they mean Iraq, where every intelligence agency in the world was telling us they had and intended to use WMDs until our armed forces went in and found a few but nothing what they were told? Whose fault was it really, particularly when you had "Congressional approval" for that conflict? Blame Bush all you want, but that was a botch for which everyone must share blame...except for those few of us who didn't care what they might have as long as they didn't use them and opposed Iran (Ron Paul, me, and I'm sure a few others).
12. Emergency Reform of Public Education. Rewrite that first sentence, "the
public government education system in the United States is a resounding failure," and you both have it right and a good start to fixing it. How about we just worry about teaching children how to write, read, and solve general math problems, like we should have been doing the whole time?
13. End Outsourcing and Currency Manipulation. Another matter of throwing other people's money at the problem rather than addressing the problem, which is directly tied to the value of the dollar, which is directly tied to how much of our tender is borrowed against other currencies. This is what prevents us from starving the Chinese of market muscle and artificial value (re: lending them ours). After all, "the borrower is slave to the lender," per Proverbs 22:7. Also see the inflation tax, as decried by your friend and mine, Representative Ron Paul. Also see my comments on corporate scapegoating throughout this tome.
14. Banking and Securities Reform. Agreed on Glass-Steagall; disagreed on Volcker, as it is a lesser version of the former. Restore the uptick rule and speculation falls back to reality without further need for new regulation.
15. Foreclosure Moratorium, Mortgage Refinancing and Principle Write Downs. Government needs to stop any involvement in the mortage loan industry, as it is the cause of much of it by essentially forcing banks to make risky loans through things like the Community Reinvestment Act. Relaxing regulations made it profitable to offer such subprime loans by selling them off to other investors, so banks naturally sought ways to literally hedge their bets. And, as bad as it sounds, the holders of those crappy mortgages must lose their homes until they can afford one...known as "the old fashioned way". Once things get back on the upward track, there'll be plenty of buyers for those foreclosed homes, and the folks who borrowed them (as opposed to owning...no mortgage holder actually owns anything but a debt) will be in a better position to buy later. The national gov't can't go around buying everyone a house.
16. Review and Reform of the Federal Reserve Banking System. Hah, "bipartisan"...there's no such thing. And there are more than enough commissions and committees in Congress already. The Fed is a bank already; we don't need another central bank to get us into trouble. And another small but important correction: the bubble and bursting thereof is directly attributable to mismanagement of government-subsidized enterprises, poorly-conceived banking instruments and irresponsible laws forcing them to use those instruments.
17. Ending the Electoral College and Enactment of Uniform Federal Election Rules in All of the States. Nothing wrong with the electoral college. We have more than enough election laws now. And Congress making laws about campaign finance reform was already covered. Popular vote is irrelevant short of the passing of an amendment changing that fact. Gore lost; grow up and get over it.
18. Ending the War in Afghanistan and Care of Veterans. I agree with the first part with one condition: that Afghanistan be carpet bombed into oblivion immediately after withdrawal. Make all future wars involve this procedure prior to any ground troops being mobilized. Remember, the best means of preventing veteran suicides is to quit creating veterans. I furthermore propose that whatever is left of the nation and its resources be confiscated to pay for the war effort and returning veterans along with their relevant expenses. Since there is no real profit made in these so-called Wars for Profit, they might as well accomplish something.
19. No Censorship of the Internet. This one's a little late to the game; SOPA/PIPA are dead; we need to worry more about ACTA.
20. Reinstitution of Civil Rights Including the Repeal of the NDAA. Another area of agreement...I support the rollback of PATRIOT and related policies. But I submit replacing them with intelligence gathering on foreign nationals in and out of the country with a refocused NSA/CIA.
21. Curtailing the Private Prison Industrial Complex.Heh. "The so-called “War on Drugs” is a war on young people, minorities and the poor who cannot acquire adequate legal representation...." Maybe if they'd quit buying dope they could afford lawyers? I'm not for legalization and the crop of problems that would cause, but shunting them into rehab may not be any better, as it turns it into essentially another form of incarceration. Then there'll need to be more built, which will cause more cost issues. All of a sudden you have the same problem again.
