A Somewhat Immodest Proposal
While we go off and discuss what we really believe, and re-articulate our vision of America, we'll need to be fighting in the trenches to hold our ground. Part of this is an intelligent, guerilla campaign in Congress, controlling the narrative so that we look cooperative and supportive, not obstructionist and elitist. Kerry did a good job during parts of the campaign of making Bush respond to his issues and initiatives. We need to keep that going, in clever new ways, dressed in "sheep's clothing". With that in mind, I present the following somewhat immodest proposal. ("Somewhat immodest", because, as opposed to Swift, I'd be OK with any of these actually happening.)
"We respect the President, and the majority of the American people who voted for him. We deeply appreciate the President's expressed desire to reach out to his former opponents, and heal the divides that have harmed our nation. To that end, we are today responding to that desire, by reaching back across the aisle in support of the President's announced initiatives.
Tax Reform. Every American can agree that our tax code has become too cumbersome and confused. It is a crime that honest, God-fearing Americans can't even tell if they've paid their proper tax without an accountant. That's wrong. And it's wrong that all those corporations go without paying any taxes because they have buildings full of lawyers who use every loophole hidden in those thousands of pages in the tax code. Meanwhile, regular Americans who work hard have to keep fighting to make sure they keep their hard earned money. The Democratic Party will work with the President to reform and simplify our tax code, by the end of 2005. We propose that all families earning under (some number picked to include a lot of people) should pay no federal income tax, starting in 2006. What could be simpler than that? To pay for this change, we will eliminate the tax loopholes used by billion-dollar corporations. All corporations earning over $1 Billion dollars will be required to pay a minimum of (some very large number). Also, individuals, not families, earning over $5 million dollars a year will be simply taxed a minimum of $1 million. Not quibbling, no clever tax shelters, no clever accountants working to keep you from paying a cent. You earn that much, you can afford it. If you can't live on $4 million a year, start shopping at Wal-Mart like the rest of us. Simple.
Halving the Deficit. Both candidates agreed during the campaign that this was important. This is obviously something both parties agree about, so let's get started. The sooner the better. Cutting the deficit will make it easier to protect Social Security for our children, and prevent them from suffering with debts that would cripple even our strong economy.
Since the American people feel they already pay too much in taxes, we can't raise revenue. So we support the President in his request for a disciplined budget, which will require some tough choices. We have faith in the American people's ability to handle tough choices - we have over and over. We do what is needed to win the war, protect our nation, and provide our children with a better future. The first tough choice we propose: immediately suspending all farm subsidies, until we have triumphed in our war on terror. The sad reality is that just cant' afford them anymore if we're going to fight a war on terrorism. We know this will hurt the people in our farm economy, but we have to ask this sacrifice for our own protection from the terrorists that want to destroy us. Every bale of cotton, pound of tobacco, and ton of sugar sold at market rates buys our soldiers more body armor, helmets, and combat air support. Would you rather protect a bushel of corn, or an American soldier in harm's way? It's time to beat our plowshares into swords, so that we can triumph over our inhuman enemies.
Defending the Homeland. We support our President in his stated desire to protect us from our enemies. All Americans care about the defense of our nation, and we stand behind our Commander-in-Chief. To support fighting the terrorists "over there", so we do not have to fight them here, while we keep taxes low, and cut the deficit in half so that our economy stays strong, we are willing to work with the President, adjusting our spending so that it matches his priorities. We propose the Homeland "Spend Where It Matters" Initiative. Domestic spending for counter-terrorism should be directed to those places where we get our money's worth: where the people are. The terrorists are not going to waste their time blowing up caribou or sagebrush; they want to hurt us where they can kill the most of us the fastest. We urge the President to redirect all counter-terrorism spending to counties with populations of over 1 million people. That will put more firemen, police, and emergency health care workers where they can do the most good, right away. We must protect ourselves where we know terrorists like to strike: commuter trains, large hotels, and large office buildings. We support an immediate block grant to our 25 largest cities, to reinforce the security of these vulnerable targets. This way, we can defend ourselves without the "tax gap" that the President noticed during the debates.
Defending Family Values. Both Republicans and Democrats are concerned about the changes we have seen in our society involving higher divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births. We agree that our country is stronger when couples are stronger, and children aren't being raised by struggling single moms working for a low wage. Let's stop complaining about it and start doing something about it. To encourage the states to do all they can to support marriage, while giving them the freedom to determine their own needs themselves, we support an yearly financial award to the state with the lowest divorce rate. We also propose preferential treatment in the disbursement of Federal family assistance, with the states having the lowest average rates of out-of-wedlock births getting the majority of Federal funding.
Finally, all Americans can agree that protecting the quality of our electoral process is vital. Though we are sad that we lost, we are as glad as anyone that the nation avoided another contested, confused election. But it was not yet as good as it should be. No patriotic American can feel good about the allegations of fraudulent registrations, delayed and missing absentee ballots, and voter suppression that we heard in the days leading up to last Tuesday. No one wants to see Mary Poppins voting, just as none of us want to see elderly grandmothers forced to stand for hours in the sun, just to cast their votes. Now that the voting is over, and before the next election, we must all do what we can to make sure this never happens again. We support the formation of a bipartisan Presidential commission, like the 9/11 commission, to investigate all the problems and charges, and report to the American people.
As should be clear from this statement, the Democratic Party recognizes that we lost the election, and now, as all good Americans should, we have put aside our partisanship. We are eager to work with our President, the President of all the people, in support of his stated goals, and in the spirit of bipartisanship and patriotism that he has so graciously demonstrated. We, as do all Americans, believe in a better future for America, which we can reach by working together. If the President will give us a meeting this week, we will present other ideas on how we can help him move our country forward in the direction he has set."
"We respect the President, and the majority of the American people who voted for him. We deeply appreciate the President's expressed desire to reach out to his former opponents, and heal the divides that have harmed our nation. To that end, we are today responding to that desire, by reaching back across the aisle in support of the President's announced initiatives.
Tax Reform. Every American can agree that our tax code has become too cumbersome and confused. It is a crime that honest, God-fearing Americans can't even tell if they've paid their proper tax without an accountant. That's wrong. And it's wrong that all those corporations go without paying any taxes because they have buildings full of lawyers who use every loophole hidden in those thousands of pages in the tax code. Meanwhile, regular Americans who work hard have to keep fighting to make sure they keep their hard earned money. The Democratic Party will work with the President to reform and simplify our tax code, by the end of 2005. We propose that all families earning under (some number picked to include a lot of people) should pay no federal income tax, starting in 2006. What could be simpler than that? To pay for this change, we will eliminate the tax loopholes used by billion-dollar corporations. All corporations earning over $1 Billion dollars will be required to pay a minimum of (some very large number). Also, individuals, not families, earning over $5 million dollars a year will be simply taxed a minimum of $1 million. Not quibbling, no clever tax shelters, no clever accountants working to keep you from paying a cent. You earn that much, you can afford it. If you can't live on $4 million a year, start shopping at Wal-Mart like the rest of us. Simple.
Halving the Deficit. Both candidates agreed during the campaign that this was important. This is obviously something both parties agree about, so let's get started. The sooner the better. Cutting the deficit will make it easier to protect Social Security for our children, and prevent them from suffering with debts that would cripple even our strong economy.
Since the American people feel they already pay too much in taxes, we can't raise revenue. So we support the President in his request for a disciplined budget, which will require some tough choices. We have faith in the American people's ability to handle tough choices - we have over and over. We do what is needed to win the war, protect our nation, and provide our children with a better future. The first tough choice we propose: immediately suspending all farm subsidies, until we have triumphed in our war on terror. The sad reality is that just cant' afford them anymore if we're going to fight a war on terrorism. We know this will hurt the people in our farm economy, but we have to ask this sacrifice for our own protection from the terrorists that want to destroy us. Every bale of cotton, pound of tobacco, and ton of sugar sold at market rates buys our soldiers more body armor, helmets, and combat air support. Would you rather protect a bushel of corn, or an American soldier in harm's way? It's time to beat our plowshares into swords, so that we can triumph over our inhuman enemies.
Defending the Homeland. We support our President in his stated desire to protect us from our enemies. All Americans care about the defense of our nation, and we stand behind our Commander-in-Chief. To support fighting the terrorists "over there", so we do not have to fight them here, while we keep taxes low, and cut the deficit in half so that our economy stays strong, we are willing to work with the President, adjusting our spending so that it matches his priorities. We propose the Homeland "Spend Where It Matters" Initiative. Domestic spending for counter-terrorism should be directed to those places where we get our money's worth: where the people are. The terrorists are not going to waste their time blowing up caribou or sagebrush; they want to hurt us where they can kill the most of us the fastest. We urge the President to redirect all counter-terrorism spending to counties with populations of over 1 million people. That will put more firemen, police, and emergency health care workers where they can do the most good, right away. We must protect ourselves where we know terrorists like to strike: commuter trains, large hotels, and large office buildings. We support an immediate block grant to our 25 largest cities, to reinforce the security of these vulnerable targets. This way, we can defend ourselves without the "tax gap" that the President noticed during the debates.
Defending Family Values. Both Republicans and Democrats are concerned about the changes we have seen in our society involving higher divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births. We agree that our country is stronger when couples are stronger, and children aren't being raised by struggling single moms working for a low wage. Let's stop complaining about it and start doing something about it. To encourage the states to do all they can to support marriage, while giving them the freedom to determine their own needs themselves, we support an yearly financial award to the state with the lowest divorce rate. We also propose preferential treatment in the disbursement of Federal family assistance, with the states having the lowest average rates of out-of-wedlock births getting the majority of Federal funding.
Finally, all Americans can agree that protecting the quality of our electoral process is vital. Though we are sad that we lost, we are as glad as anyone that the nation avoided another contested, confused election. But it was not yet as good as it should be. No patriotic American can feel good about the allegations of fraudulent registrations, delayed and missing absentee ballots, and voter suppression that we heard in the days leading up to last Tuesday. No one wants to see Mary Poppins voting, just as none of us want to see elderly grandmothers forced to stand for hours in the sun, just to cast their votes. Now that the voting is over, and before the next election, we must all do what we can to make sure this never happens again. We support the formation of a bipartisan Presidential commission, like the 9/11 commission, to investigate all the problems and charges, and report to the American people.
As should be clear from this statement, the Democratic Party recognizes that we lost the election, and now, as all good Americans should, we have put aside our partisanship. We are eager to work with our President, the President of all the people, in support of his stated goals, and in the spirit of bipartisanship and patriotism that he has so graciously demonstrated. We, as do all Americans, believe in a better future for America, which we can reach by working together. If the President will give us a meeting this week, we will present other ideas on how we can help him move our country forward in the direction he has set."
posted by Paul at 9:27 AM |
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