Grand Ethical Strategy: America's Home of Policy Wisdom

2010-09-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

Links:
http://www.delicious.com/jtfournier
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/jtfourn
Book Reviews:
goodtrue.tripod.com/home.htm

Energy Policy Recommendations

2010-02-25T13:50:00.000-08:00

Create a 95 cents per gallon federal sales tax on all fuels derived from crude oil. Increase the tax with the monthly CPI plus four cents per gallon each month for the next 39 years. Slap a buyer's cartel fee of $244 on each barrel of oil or petroleum products costing more than $31. Break off trade relations with any non-OPEC nation that does not enact a similar or larger buyer's cartel fee and Pigouvian tax on oil products.

Provide federal funding to build at least 62,000 US roundabouts.

Eliminate fuel economy rules (CAFE) for vehicles. Ban cash for clunkers. Ban cap and trade.

Approve construction of well-designed fast breeder reactors.

Create a $54 per ton (of carbon emissions) negative externality tax on fossil fuel generated electricity consumed within the US. Increase the tax with the CPI plus three dollars each year for the next 49 years.

Require all two-stroke engines to have retrofit kits installed that eliminate at least 80 percent of harmful emissions.

Require all marine engines entering US waters to meet strict emissions standards. Ban any ship burning bunker fuel from entering US waters. Fine any ship carrying bunker fuel in US waters $1.01 per kilo of bunker fuel found on board. Seize assets of shippers who fail to pay bunker fuel fines.

Require all local, state, and federal government entities to use light bulbs with the lowest overall costs in light fixtures.

Use 1.8 percent of federal spending on alternative energy research and development (including energy storage technologies), especially batteries, super-capacitors, and thorium related research and development. Make all patents developed with these funds solely the property of all citizens.

Create electronic vouchers to inspect and weatherize utility using US buildings not already inspected. Mail (with instructions) to every US household: an Ambient Orb, Kill-A-Watt, electric mattress pad, mini power minder, window bubble wrap, and compact fluorescent light bulb (or cheaper equivalents) for Christmas. Implement the Energy Future Coalition conservation prescriptions: http://www.energyfuturecoalition.org/preview.cfm?catID=68

Ban all NIMBY lawsuits, zoning ordinances, and HOA regulations restricting the use of energy conservation practices and non-fossil fuel sources of energy.

Require countdown timers at all traffic lights.

Create a GPS air traffic control system.

Eliminate the Energy Star program. Ban any Energy Star labeling on products. (The program is riddled with fraud.)

Repeal the Jones Act, requiring US built ships for domestic shipping. Eliminate the harbor maintenance tax on domestic shipping.

Allow the sale and use of licensed four wheel vehicles that have not passed federal passenger safety standards on roads with speed limits under 31 miles per hour.

Require all imported and exported goods, not transported most of their journeys by sail, to pay a one dollar per 91 pounds of weight negative externalities fee.

Ban the use of corn stover for electrical production.

JT Fournier, last updated January 22, 2012

Foreign Policy Recommendations

2010-02-25T13:49:00.001-08:00

Ban all federal foreign aid to foreign governments and quasi-governmental entities--except aid for family planning, communicable disease prevention, and defense from wars of aggression.

Vaccinate at least 98 percent of children worldwide for measles. Deliver insecticide sprayed mosquito netting to at least 98 percent of individuals in malaria prone areas.

Per the Bellagio Study Group: Spend 2.5 billion dollars yearly for prevention and treatment of malaria worldwide, four billion dollars yearly for treatment of other childhood illnesses. Per Bjorn Lomborg: Spend $60 million each year to provide micronutrients to 140 million undernourished children. Per the Stop TB Partnership: Provide DOTS tuberculosis treatment to almost all TB victims. Provide hepatitis B vaccinations to high risk individuals.

Start a $40 billion fund to conduct bio-prospecting research and development in poor country biological hot-spots, provided any beneficial substances discovered during the prospecting enters the public domain. Provide funds for schools of medicine and clinical pharmacology. Require that the fund enrolls at least 4,000,000 participants in strictly run clinical trials.

Eliminate the trade embargo on Cuba. Use carrot and stick trade approaches with North Korea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Zaire, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and all OIC members. Require major moral changes in policy for carrots.

Provide 4.6 million annual green cards for infidel citizens of good character from China, Vietnam, North Korea, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Ban the importation of goods not meeting standards similar to ILO standards.

Create coordinated import controls of imported oil so prices do not skyrocket when glitches occur.

Offer at least four million dollars in federal funds to each of the following to accept exile: Omar al-Bashir, Dictator Abdullah, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Idriss Deby, Seyed Ali Khamanei, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Saparmurat Niyazov, Islam Karimov, Mswati Kangwane, Denis Sassou Nguesso, Joseph Kony, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, Robert Mugabe, Obiang Nguema, Omar Bongo, Than Shwe, Kim Jong-Il, Blaise Compaoré, José Eduardo dos Santos, Boungnang Vorachith, Tran Duc Luong, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Yahya Jammeh, Lansana Conté, Meles Zenawi, Hugo Chavez, Pervez Musharraf, Bashar Assad, Raul Castro, Husni Mubarak, Gnassingbé Éyadéma, Aleksandr Lukashenko, Isayas Afewerki, Abdullah Gül, Bamir Topi, Pascal Couchepin, Fatmir Sejdiu, Giorgio Napolitani, Mehmet Ali Talat, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Yoweri Museveni, King Mswati III, Muammar Qaddafi, Gordon Brown, Jan Peter Balkenende, Angela Merkel, Mary McAleese, Nicolas Sarkozy, Fredrik Reinfeldt, Horst Köhler, Heinz Fischer, Romano Prodi, Giorgio Napolitano, Bertie Ahern, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Yves Leterme, Jens Stoltenberg, George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Michael Mukasey, Alberto Gonzalez, John Ashcroft, William Clinton, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Ben Bernanke, Barack Obama.

Add China, India, and South Korea to the G8 nations.

Create and implement secession plans for infidels from Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

End all federally sponsored or subsidized loans to foreign countries, organizations and individuals.

Per William Greider: Suspend NAFTA's investor-state enforcement mechanism allowing corporations to sue governments because government regulations of corporate misbehaviors incurred losses to corporations. Do not sign trade agreements with anything similar to NAFTA's Chapter 11 (end of Greider).

Eliminate all food tariffs.

Issue work permits to infidel, nontourist US Visa holders upon arrival at their port of entry. Issue a visa leading to citizenship to any infidel of good character, who with cash buys any US property for more than $115,000 and holds it for at least nine years.

Grant U.S. citizenship to law abiding, infidel sweatshop workers in U.S. territories.

Eliminate the Peace Corps.

Require 160 hours of human service for all immigrants.

Grant US asylum to all law abiding Jews living in Europe.

JT Fournier, last updated February 25, 2010

Health Policy Recommendations

2010-02-25T13:41:00.000-08:00

Require mandatory vaccination of all children, visitors, and immigrants for measles, mumps, and whooping cough.

Create a national registry on how individuals fare after surgeries.

Per Larry Zaroff: Create a nationwide database of drugs prescribed to patients. Make the database available to almost all working pharmacists and those permitted to write prescriptions. Per Shannon Brownlee: Create "a new Institute for Effective Medicine... Its mission would be threefold. It would serve as a new, independent source of research dollars for medicine. It would provide independent evaluation of data generated by industry. And it would oversee the creation of clinical practice guidelines, a manual of proven 'best practices' for physicians devised entirely without industry influence."

Increase the NIH budget by at least 14 percent. Use the 14 percent to investigate and implement non-patent treatments with the highest benefit-cost ratios.

Cut the number of federally funded endarterectomys by at least 50 percent. Cut the number of federally funded back surgeries by at least 60 percent and the number of chondroplasties by at least 90 percent.

Prohibit makers and distributors of drugs or medical devices from giving gifts to anyone in the medical industry. Prohibit drug and device makers from giving anything to doctors employed by the government.

Require anyone with a trivial complaint, who demands an ambulance or goes to the emergency room, to pay out of pocket or perform 20 hours of community service or serve three days in jail (if they fail to pay or show for community service.)

Increase federal funding for addictive drug vaccines, and addictive drug vaccine research by at least 100 percent.

Create a universal, insurance free, free to enroll health care system open to all US citizens and green card holders, locally administered, employing government medical workers receiving hourly wages, with strict state and federal oversight. Allow those wanting to pay for alternative health care at private facilities that option. Eliminate medicare, medicaid, and the prescription drug "benefit." Require federal health care purchasers to almost always make purchases as a buyer's cartel. Fund comprehensive family planning, including free IUD installation. Pay any fertile, U.S. resident female $200 cash when they have their first IUD installed by the new health care system. Legalize the re-importation of prescription drugs. Give FDA approval to Plan B.

Increase federal funding for pain management research and education by 95 percent. Double the number of federally funded pain management clinical trials.

Implement a 100 percent VAT on all products more than 10 percent meat or fish or both, except chicken, nutria, tilapia, feral swine, Asian carp, and constrictor snakes. Create a 100 percent VAT on non-meat food products that provide more than 24 percent of their calories from sucrose, glucose, maltose, dextrose, fructose, saturated fats, non-sugar refined carbs, partially hydrogenated fats or fully hydrogenated fats--or combinations of these substances, excluding the meats mentioned above. Require food labels to list the masses in grams of trans fatty acids and fully hydrogenated fats to two decimal places. Prohibit the sale of foods containing more than four percent of their calories in trans fats. Ban the retail sale to children under 16 of all foods having more than two percent by mass trans fats, one percent fully hydrogenated fats or four percent by mass any sugar.

Fully fund the Johns Hopkins Clinical Compound Screening Initiative to test existing drugs for efficacy against illnesses they were not developed to help. Require drug makers to remove drugs from the market when follow up studies indicate their harms outweigh benefits. End federal funding for treatments with overall harms outweighing overall benefits.

Amend relevant privacy laws so price and quality data on doctors can be collected, analyzed, and published. Pass the National Medical Error Disclosure and Compensation Bill--creating a national database of medical errors, researching injury prevention, and implementing injury prevention programs.

Require states to increase the number of nursing school graduates 45 percent and medical school graduates 68 percent to qualify for federal health care funds. Continue increasing medical field enrollments in proportion to population increases. Create one national medical licensing board. Prohibit all doctors from working more than 15 straight hours. Require they leave their place of work for at least nine hours after their shift ends. Allow qualified nurses and physician assistants to act in place of general practice physicians.

Increase funding for Toxoplasma Gondii research.

Reinstate the U.S. entry ban on HIV positive individuals.

Provide $1.3 billion per year for the NIH to publish and advertise the best clinical research on drugs. Provide an additional $840 million per year for the NIH to study the effectiveness of drugs with expired patents and study the effectiveness of substances lacking patents in new medical applications. Provide at least $400 million per year for the NIH to study and compare the cost effectiveness of all relevant drugs for a given illness. End the ban on stem cell research. Increase funding on domestic flu vaccine research and production by $1.1 billion per year.

Stockpile 680 million doses of smallpox vaccine, enough for every citizen and for non-Americans at places of outbreak. Per Michael Alderman: Produce bacterial pneumonia vaccine for every American.

Legalize irradiation for almost all foods.

Require dietary supplements to comply with food and drug laws.

Allow competent adults to sell their body parts while living and to sell their future cadavers. (Notes Bruce Gottlieb: 2,300 people a year die waiting for kidney transplants. Kidneys from dead people last eight years. Kidneys donated from the living last 17 years. Dialysis costs $40,000 per year for those waiting for a transplant. Others in medicine make money. It is unjust to prohibit potential donors from selling parts.) Place organ donation stickers on all driver's licenses. Require individuals to opt out if they do not wish to donate organs.

Require drivers older than 76 to pass a driving test once every two years.

Allow all licensed physicians to prescribe Mifepristone, also known as RU-486. (Reasons: Little danger, earlier abortions rather than more and later abortions.)

Require all acetaminophen tablets to contain low doses of N-acetyleysteine.

Allocate at least $30 million annually for the study and development of 18-mc, noribogaine, and similar drugs.

Test more cancer drugs on humans, including many that failed on mice.

Terminate FDA drug export license requirements.

Allow drug companies to sell new drugs proven sufficiently safe, but not yet proven effective, provided the drugs are labeled as such in at least a 12 point font in neon orange containers. Ban other medicines from having similar colored containers.

Provide every American not institutionalized (above age two) with a $1360 annual electronic voucher good for the purchase of broccoli, cabbages, onions, tofu, carrots, cauliflower, celery, radishes, rutabagas, pears, strawberries, scallions, spinach, barley, squashes, purslane, eggplant, tomatoes, turnips, lentils, cucumbers, apples, bulgur cilantro, chayote, artichokes, asparagus, blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, blackberries, beets, split peas, bok choy, collard greens, brussels sprouts, dandelion greens, lettuces, beet greens, bean sprouts, green peas, turnip greens, lamb's quarter, beans (except coffee and cocoa beans), peppers, psyllium husk fiber, blackeye peas, wheat bran, chestnuts, oat bran, corn bran, oat bran bread, wheat germ, soy flour, carob powder buckwheat groats, buckwheat flour, garbanzo bean flour, textured vegetable protein, whole grain teff, whole amaranth, whole grain corn flour, whole grain corn meal, whole grain wheat flour, whole grain breads, whole grain rice, non-palm vegetable oils, alpha-galactosidase supplements and most foods with at least five grams of fiber per 100 calories and fewer than two grams of sugar per 100 calories. Make the voucher nonrefundable and prohibit the addition of expensive or unhealthy substances to items purchased with vouchers. Provide an additional $110 annual voucher good toward exercise equipment or health club memberships--or both. Require prison and public school meals to provide at least 96 percent of their calories from plants, to deliver at least 11 grams of fiber per meal, and contain fewer than 30 percent of their calories from refined carbohydrates.

Make three years hard labor the recommended sentence for voucher fraud by recipients and twenty years hard labor for voucher fraud by sellers for any federal voucher program.

Eliminate the Supplemental Nutrition Access Program (food stamps).

From Goodman and Musgrave: Require cost estimates prior to any medical service over $160, except in cases where the patient or her representatives are not fit to respond and the patient needs immediate care.

Require random and stealthy inspections by the FDA, at least once per year, of all facilities where drugs for the U.S. market are tested or manufactured, no matter the location. Ban facilities, its doctors and executives if repeated or systemic fraud exists. Reject any private medical study from foreign facilities with rates of positive efficacy results higher than the 70th percentile of U.S. facilities.

JT Fournier, last updated December 20, 2010

Financial Policy Recommendations

2010-02-25T13:31:00.001-08:00

Choose monetary policies that maximize overall benefit.

Implement a regime of efficient, thorough capital controls to slash the trade deficit.

Permit the Treasury Department to issue notes for paying down the national debt, keeping inflation at the most morally well-reasoned target. Experiment with a small number of Greenbacks, but do not allow inflation to rise above six percent.

Require every state and local government entity with over 60,000 residents to establish public banks or credit unions, roughly modeled on the Bank of North Dakota, to maximize beneficence to the citizens of each state. Prohibit any employee of any public bank from earning more than five times the national median family income.

Prohibit the issuance of state or federal waivers for all health, safety, and financial regulations, except when those waivers have been approved by the majority of relevant legislatures.

Require all lenders to obtain, directly from the IRS, the prior three years of tax transcripts for loan applicants on any loans exceeding $22,000. Require the transcripts to be communicated by a method that cannot be forged. Repeal any laws that prohibit lenders from obtaining those transcripts.

Require all regulators to take a daily oath to regulate according to the law. Fire all regulators who ignore legal violations and refuse to regulate according to law. End all FBI partnerships with lobbyists and corporations. Make executives and proprietors criminally liable for repeated wage theft.

Require mandatory credit counseling before individuals declare bankruptcy. Require individuals with larger incomes and larger assets to repay more of what they owe when they file.

Per Peter Swire, and as Daniel Prieto notes, institute "a $50 cap and automatic dispute resolution for identity theft losses, similar to the basic anti-fraud provisions for credit cards."

Centralize all federal financial regulators and regulations in one agency under control of the elected Attorney General, with oversight by the House to prevent corruption driven hiring and firing. Quadruple the number of financial regulators and investigators. Fire and replace all regulators who fail to regulate according to the law. Implement a 0.21 percent financial transactions tax on all financial instruments. Eliminate limited civil and criminal liability protections for all entities failing to pay or collect the transactions tax. Enact sanctions or other costs on nations that fail to enact similar taxes. Per William Black: Add 1,000 FBI agents to investigate white collar crimes.

Limit financial institutions to thirteen-to-one leverage ratios in bad times and eight-to-one ratios in good times.

Require regulations applying to one financial instrument to apply to all similar instruments, regardless whether labels differ. Create new transparency rules.

Turn government-supported enterprises into nonprofit government agencies, then slowly break them up and sell them or kill them.

Charge banking entities having more than $960 million in deposits or 0.19 percent of national deposits an additional $22 of deposit insurance per year, per each $1000 in balances (counting all entities with their parent entities).

Strengthen SEC disclosure rules and enforcement.

Allow bankruptcy courts to alter home mortgage terms. Prohibit mortgage lenders from repackaging loans. Eliminate FHA housing insurance.

Require all publicly traded entities having assets greater than $6 million or gross receipts greater than $8 million per year to make their tax returns public.

Require all public high school students to take a morally risk-neutral personal finance course and require all public high schools to provide such.

Prohibit all financial bailouts not getting equivalent or greater market rate equity in return. Unwind bankrupt financial entities with no compensation given to equity owners. Unwind any too big to fail entity. Prevent investment banks from having limited liability protections. Prohibit the federal government from suing states and local governments to protect predatory financial entities.

Prohibit U.S. banks from doing business with shell banks or businesses involved in money laundering. Enact sanctions on nations cavalier about banks doing business with shell banks or businesses heavily into money laundering.

Support international efforts to reduce money-laundering, tax evasion, and rogue banking. (Rich criminals say it would violate their right to privacy. Too bad. Their right to criminal privacy is outweighed by the rights of others to protection from crime and by the benefit created by preventing parasites from profiting. Almost no one complains that the government has access to the financial records of ordinary wage earners, individuals who cannot afford battalions of lawyers to defend themselves. Yet financial criminals expect that they should get special privileges to do harm.)

Repeal the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Commodity Futures Modernization Act, and legal elements of the National Home Ownership Strategy. Ban futures trading for all commodities. Prohibit any entity that participates in offshore futures trading from importing anything into the U.S.

Require all states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico to appoint a mortgage regulator.

Ban all government contracting with all inverted corporations, including when it conflicts with trade agreements. Ban all federal contracts with entities that require employees to sign contracts requiring legal conflicts be resolved through arbitration.

Require credit card entities to give customers at least 23 days to make a payment before adding late fees. Prohibit credit card entities from increasing interest rates on existing balances except when a payment is at least 30 days late. Prohibit credit card entities from charging interest exceeding the inflation rate plus 12 percentage points. Prohibit credit card late fees larger than $20. Ban credit cards offering more than $14,000 in credit.

Pass H.R. 3221, banning federal contracting with companies engaging in fraudulent practices.

Ban naked short selling and all other forms of selling without ownership. Ban securitization.

Require all banking entities to list all assets and liabilities.

Set the top corporate income tax rate to 11 percent, except at those corporations that pay no more than nine times national median family income to any individual in all forms of remuneration. Lower the top tax rate at these latter corporations to zero. Require all remuneration above nine times median family income at any publicly traded corporation to be severely restricted stock, with only five percent transferable per year. Institute a two percent annual federal property tax on all corporate properties at all corporations that pay any individual more than nine times the median family income in all income, gifts, etc.

Per Elizabeth Warren: Create a financial product safety commission.

Per William Greider: "Restore the boundaries between commercial banking and investment banking... [a]ssign the Federal Reserve's regulatory role to a new public agency that is visible and politically accountable... [r]e-enact the federal law against usury."

Per Robert Reich: "Credit-rating agencies should no longer be paid by the companies whose issues are being rated; they should be paid by those who use their ratings... Institutional investors like pension funds and mutual funds should not be getting investment advice from the same banks that profit off their investments; the advice should come from sources without a financial stake... investment banks [must] return to being partnerships and the capital on their books be their own, not yours or your pension fund's..."

Per George Soros: "The issuance and trading of derivatives ought to be as strictly regulated as stocks. Regulators ought to insist that derivatives be homogeneous, standardized and transparent."

Ban the selling of new credit default swaps and CDOs. Prohibit entities with more than $400 million in assets or deposits from owning existing credit default swaps.

Create a new Pecora Commission to investigate and prosecute high-cost financial crimes. Ban leveraged buyouts. Strictly regulate futures contracts in industries where cartels, monopolies, or oligopolies exist.

Per Amar Bhide, "revive the radical idea of narrow banking and tightly limit what banks (and any other entities that raise short term deposits from the public) can do: nothing besides making loans—after old-fashioned due diligence— and simple hedging transactions..."

Per Willem Buiter: "Regulate all systemically important highly leveraged financial enterprises, whatever they call themselves: commercial bank, investment bank, universal bank, hedge fund, SIV, CDO, private equity fund or bicycle repair shop. Regulate all markets for systemically important financial instruments. Regulate all systemically important financial infrastructure or plumbing: payment, clearing, settlement systems, mechanisms and platforms, and the associated provision of custodial services. Do it all on a cross-border basis... First, there is a positive list of financial instruments and institutions. Anything that is not explicitly allowed is forbidden. To get a new instrument or new institution approved, there will have to be testing, scrutiny by regulators, supervisors, academic specialists and other interested parties, and pilot projects. It is possible that, once a new instrument or institution has been approved, it is only available ‘with a prescription'. For instance, only professional counter-parties rather than the general public could be permitted."

Prohibit the issuance of home mortgages having monthly payments larger than 28 percent of any buyer's mean monthly income. Make 30 years hard labor the recommended sentence for any member of lending institutions willfully creating mortgages in excess of 28 percent.

Allow the elected Fed chairperson to make Federal Reserve appointments and firings.
Require the Federal Reserve to reveal information about all loans it makes. Provide for the impeachment of the chairperson by three-fourths congressional vote.

Let bankruptcy judges decide which parties should be paid and how much when distributing bankruptcy assets.

Prohibit all federally insured financial entities from making or selling any financial instruments other than loans and their stock.

Prohibit all financial entities receiving federal loans, including any loans from the central bank, from making or selling any financial instruments other than loans and their stock.

Prohibit anyone who earned more than 250,00 annually from corporations, at any point in her lifetime, from being employed by the federal government.

Cancel tax treaties with countries that do not provide tax query information. Prohibit US banks from doing business with entities in countries that aid tax evasion by US citizens

Eliminate the Enron loophole.

Pass the Specter Amendment altering the Exchange Act, allowing anti-fraud actions against enablers of fraud.

Require all creditors to resell all foreclosed homes within 60 days of foreclosure to individuals who will use the homes as their primary residence. Fine creditors $241 per day each day after 60 the homes remain unsold.

Make lifetime hard labor the mandatory minimum sentence for control fraud exceeding $240,000.

Ban all forms of credit risk insurance for corporations.

Per Savvy Emailer: "Make it illegal for financial institutions to transact off balance sheet."

Prohibit anyone or anything from taking out a life insurance policy on an individual without that individual's knowledge. Prohibit corporations from taking out life insurance policies on individuals unless those individuals' children, spouses, parents are the beneficiaries.

Ban the issuance of any new credit cards.

Place a $200,000 cap on executive lawsuits against companies.

Require selection of board members for publicly traded companies by shareholders in proportion to shares held, excluding shareholders with shares below a federally mandated level. Ban the top two executives from voting. Require a re-election of top executives at publicly traded companies by board members any time a majority of board members request such.

Ban increases in any form of remuneration for any executive at publicly traded companies whose share price decreased over the previous six months.

Ban hedge funds.

Implement some of "Overcoming Short-termism" found here:

http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/docs/pubs/overcome_short_state0909_0.pdf

JT Fournier, last updated December 31, 2011

Freedom Policy Recommendations

2010-02-25T13:21:00.000-08:00

Eliminate all federal drug "war" spending.

Restore habeas corpus for those detained by the government and its subcontractors. Repeal the Military Commissions Act and 2006 Defense Authorization Act. Eliminate the Department of Homeland Security. Pass the Federal Agency Data Mining Reporting Act of 2007, Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, Congressional Lawmaking Authority Protection Act of 2007, Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007, American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba Detention Center Closure Act of 2007, Military Commissions Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007, Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007, Anti-Torture Clause in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, National Security Letters Reform Act of 2007, State Secrets Protection Act, Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act, National Security with Justice Act of 2007, Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007, Open Government Act of 2007, Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act (OPEN) Government Act of 2007, Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, Whistleblower Protection Bill, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Modernization Act of 2007, RESTORE Act of 2007 (Responsible Electronic Surveillance that is Overseen, Reviewed and Effective Act), and NSA Oversight Act. If any of the above legislation contradicts other laws recommended herein, write laws eliminating the contradiction.

Repeal the USA Patriot Act.

Allow private companies and individuals to deliver all forms of mail.

Require Internet transactions to pay the same sales taxes as other transactions. Pass a net neutrality law.

Require all law enforcement officials to take an annual oath stating it is not illegal to audio or video record the public behaviors of law enforcement officials and that they will not arrest or prosecute anyone for audio or video recording public activities, and that they will not confiscate those audio or video recordings. Withhold federal funds to any state or local government that concocts laws banning the recording of any public activities by anyone.

Fairly auction electromagnetic broadcast frequencies. Pass the cable TV CHOICE Act. Implement a 100 percent negative externalities VAT on cable and satellite television.

Eliminate federal laws on the production, distribution, and possession of marijuana, laughing gas, and alkyl nitrites.

Pass the Community Access Preservation Act of 2009 and The Local Community Radio Act. Ban all media mergers involving corporations having more than $60 million in assets. Prohibit all foreign entities and individuals from owning any media entity that uses the electromagnetic spectrum or has wires crossing public lands.

Require all public and private corporations to pay at least $7.25 to all adult workers, including interns, for each hour of work performed. Require all individuals having incomes exceeding $51,000 to do the same, except for work performed by first degree relatives.

In the event that the reforms on this website (or similar reforms) are not enacted, peacefully divide the United States into thousands of smaller countries, including countries where ethical reasoning prevails, rather than selfish, wishful, repetitive, group-think, self-satisfied, confirmation biased litmus test demagoguery.

J.T. Fournier, last updated February 23, 20

2010-02-25T13:02:00.000-08:00

Pass a constitutional amendment doing the following:

eliminating the US Senate (devolving necessary functions to the House, excluding filibusters)
banning all forms of honoraria and remuneration for speaking engagements by current and former federal elected officials
banning non-majority congresspersons and other individuals from holding up legislation
eliminating the nine person Supreme Court, electing a U.S. Attorney General, Chairperson of the Central Bank, and a one person Supreme Court by nationwide instant runoff vote, with each individual serving four year terms (making each of them removable only by a recall vote of over 50 percent of voters)
requiring all potential judges at all levels to take a 600 hour course in weighing evidence
giving all citizens 18 or over the right to vote
eliminating the current organization of The Federal Reserve (replacing it with a public Central Bank having a new set of principles and regulatory functions)
eliminating judicial review
requiring all military employees to take a monthly oath to defend American individuals from violence
requiring a special election to fill any vacated federal office held by an elected official
banning military interventions lasting more than 90 days without quarterly House approval
Requiring federal elected officials to participate in a military draft lottery (with a 20 percent chance of being drafted into the infantry as an enlisted soldier with no age, medical or other excuses for escaping service, to be served for two years at the end of each drafted officials current elected term)
eliminating the electoral college and instead electing presidents by nationwide instant runoff vote
creating party-list proportional representation in the House with seats awarded to candidates from each party who receive the most votes
permitting the president to introduce legislation requiring a vote
distributing house seats by the best research methods, not census data, using independent, blinded redistricting czars to eliminate gerrymandering
implementing nationwide vote by mail
eliminating all lifetime judicial appointments (creating judicial terms of four years)
automatically registering all adult citizens to vote at the address on a national ID card
granting DC statehood
giving every political party having at least 0.2 percent of registered voters registered in their names a spot on ballots
banning signing statements
granting line item veto power to the president and the ability to override the veto to Congress with a two-thirds majority
prohibiting labor unions for teachers and government employees
prohibiting public school teacher tenure; requiring the federal government to set national education standards for all public school courses, test the standards, and provide reports of results--requiring inclusion of the results on student report cards
allowing stamp scrips and complementary currencies
banning the use of electronic devices to record votes, requiring election paper trails to be available for inspection for three years after all government elections
increasing the size of the House to 12,000 representatives, with no more than one staff member per representative
limiting bills and laws to one issue per bill or law
prohibiting current and former federal auditors, prosecutors, inspectors, investigators, political appointees, elected officials and federal employees who received a gross, annual federal salary more than $62,000 in inflation adjusted dollars from receiving direct or indirect gifts from anyone other than grandparents and first degree relatives for the rest of their lives; prohibiting the previously mentioned individuals from ever being employed directly or indirectly by a publicly or privately owned corporation for the remainder of their lives (including freelance, subcontract work and quid pro quo gifts to themselves or first degree relatives)
granting citizens the right to presumed innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt
banning legislatures from limiting liability on any corporations
banning judges from altering civil damages against corporations by more than 50 percent
allowing the president, attorney general, and head of the central bank to make all appointments without congressional approval, giving the attorney general authority to supervise and enforce all financial and anti-trust laws, with funding decided by voters.
permitting any elected official or appointed official to be removed with a 75 percent vote by congress
eliminating pardon power for presidents, governors, and legislators
banning all government affirmative action policies, and all race, ethnicity, and religion based government mandated financial benefits
banning all government desegregation policies
lowering the age children may voluntarily drop out of school to 13, requiring drop outs to be employed at least 28 hours per week or perform 60 hours per month of community service or be enrolled and have passing grades in a vocational program that meets at least 24 hours per week
prohibiting corporations from spending on polictical advertising and political campaigns, overturning Citizens United
overturning Buckley v. Valeo
requiring surgical sterilization for any parent failing to pay more than nine (consecutive or nonconsecutive) months of required child support
requiring surgical sterilization for any male or pre-menopausal female spending more than three months of their lives in prison or more than six months of their adult lives on government assistance, not including retirement, nutritional or health care assistance
requiring all government activities to be randomly audited at least once every three years by the Attorney General's office
requiring all government entities to have an anonymous tip line, run by the Attorney General's office, reporting criminality and inefficiency, making publicly available all submitted tips, except those tips that may endanger the safety of a tipster potentially unable to keep their anonymity
granting birthright citizenship only to individuals having at least one US citizen biological parent
requiring all privately held corporations to be reorganized as partnerships or sole propietorships
Eliminating diplomatic immunity, holding all individuals within the US to the laws of the land, requiring all diplomats entering the US to sign an oath agreeing to obey US laws and to comply with any punishments for violating US laws
banning the use of precedent in legal decisions, requiring all legal decisions to be made by an accurate weighing of well-reasoned evidence relevant to each individual case
prohibiting government entities from contracting or otherwise devolving licensing, inspecting and regulating activities to non-government entities
banning all federal elected officials and their first degree relatives from owning equities in any foreign or multinational entities, and from receiving any personal or campaign gifts or funds from any foreign or multinational entity
requiring all law enforcement entities to make all evidence publicly available from all law enforcement actions that result in death, injury, destruction of property or confiscation of property
banning government aid to private post-secondary schools and their students
banning government aid to college students not studying nursing, medicine, engineering, the natural sciences, or high demand, tw0-year or less vocational fields.

Crime and Various Other Policy Recommendations

2010-02-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

Send 80 percent of lawsuit punitive damages and 60 percent of pain and suffering damages above $400,000 to pay down the national debt.

Remove prisoner on prisoner rape and assault victims--and those at risk of rape, assault and murder--from the general prison population at all federal, state, and local prisons.

Decriminalize consensual sexual activities between all non-incarcerated individuals separated by four years or less in age.

Eliminate work prohibitions on holders of spousal, fiance, and fiancee visas.

Eliminate requirements that spouses of immigrants provide spousal support after divorces.

Eliminate income minimums above $14,500 annually to obtain spousal, fiance, and fiancee visas. Prohibit convicted felons from sponsoring any immigrant. Require the INS to approve or disapprove all spousal, fiance, and fiancee visas within two months of application.

Create more prison employment for prisoners. (Numerous studies suggest that prison employment reduces crime.) Implement CeaseFire in all areas with high rates of violent crime.

Pass the Workplace Wrongful Death Accountability Act, increasing fines and prison sentences for corporate murder and manslaughter. Exempt individuals earning less than two times the national median income from libel and slander lawsuits. Prohibit libel and slander claims from exceeding 16 percent of defendant assets.

Create national legislation legalizing surrogacy contracts, holding individuals to the surrogacy contracts they sign.

Allow auto owners to purchase auto insurance allowing them to contract prior to accidents property and personal damage covered, including pain and suffering damages and ability to sue--similar to the Auto Choice Reform Act. Allow individuals to choose contractual binding precommitments for drug treatment.

Require losers to pay reasonable court costs in civil trials. Prosecute criminal perpetrators regardless whether victims want to press charges. Make framing an individual by any other individual, including prosecutors, a felony.

Repeal the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Implement a $3.90 hourly wage subsidy for employers hiring individuals with total disability and who pay those individuals at least $7.40 per hour.

Eliminate the Age Discrimination Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act
Ban pay based solely on seniority.

Use social security cards and numbers only for Social Security. Create new national identification cards and numbers. Require names and national identification numbers of both parents to be recorded on US birth certificates when parents are American citizens.

Increase the budget of the Employment Standards Administration by 80 percent and increase the number of work place inspections by at least 80 percent.

Prohibit any government entity from banning individual filming, photography, videography from any property an individual is legally entitled to sit, walk, stand, or recline upon.

Per Michael Smallberg: "The Department of the Interior should phase out its Royalty in Kind program and return to a market-priced Royalty in Value program." Downblend "excess highly enriched uranium" and sell it to nuclear plants. Implement "more than 13,000 recommendations that have been made by inspectors general since 2001." (End Smallberg.)

Pay teenage females ages 13 to 18 $1.50 per day if they remain childfree. Replicate Ready, Willing & Able nationwide.

Collect fingerprints and DNA samples of all individuals living in the US. (Many argue it violates privacy rights but the samples would protect the much larger privacy, moral, life and property rights of non-criminals. "Given the restricted information we're talking about and the limited access that would be afforded, the main privacy right at stake is the right to commit crimes anonymously"--Steven Pomper)

Levy a $800 billion dollar fine on those convicted of murder. Return fines paid plus interest if convictions are overturned. Require juries to receive research supported training on weighing eyewitness testimony and physical evidence and abuses thereof. Sterilize individuals convicted of murder. Sterilize anyone convicted of more than two separate felony crimes. Attach automatic fines at least equal to the overall cost of harms done to all convicted violations of federal law.

Per Lawrence Sherman and friends:
Require 10 percent of federal-local partnership crime funds be used to establish controlled studies of methods.
Increase spending on federal-local crime partnerships 10 percent.
Create a central evaluation office within the Department of Justice. Put the office in charge of the previous two recommendations and make the office responsible for the results it produces (end of Sherman).

Eliminate mandatory minimum laws, except for murder or financial crimes. Require those convicted of financial crimes to serve a minimum of one day of hard labor for each $178 of harm done.

Make group purchasing organizations subject to anti-trust and anti-kickback laws.

Prohibit patents on intellectual properties directly developed by taxpayer dollars.

Create a strict, new federal anti-corruption, anti-crime agency, fighting crimes committed by law enforcement entities. Prohibit law enforcement officials from seizing any object from any individual, except under court order, or when that object poses an imminent, unlawful threat to individuals or their properties.

Allow new teen drivers to drive only with licensed adults over 20 during their first year with a license. Restrict driving between 10pm and 5am. Allow teen drivers solo driving during the six months following the first year, but with no driving between 10pm and 5am. Grant an adult driver's license after 18 months are completed with no moving violations or at fault accidents.

Treat all violent crimes committed by individuals of one race against individuals of other races as hate crimes. Treat all financial crimes exceeding $600,000, committed by individuals of one race against individuals of other races, as hate crimes.

Prohibit state and federal prosecution for the same offense. Rid three strikes laws.

Lift the ban on assassinating foreign leaders in situations where majority congressional approval is granted for assassinating foreign leaders.

Ban any entity receiving government contracts from funding political media, making campaign contributions, giving gifts to current and former federal employees, or employing former government officials.

Per Jonathan Cohn: Experiment with malpractice health courts and "sorry works" voluntary reporting of medical errors.

End federal funding of PSA screening.

Implement a 10 percent national sales tax on pet foods and foods harvested from biological hot spots.

Give the attorney general the right to make all justice department appointments and the head of the central bank the right to make all central bank appointments.

Make lifetime hard labor the sentence for false flag operations anywhere, except within the borders of nations Congress declares war on.

Invalidate intellectual property claims when that property is deliberately kept off the market for anti-competitive reasons.

Per the Obama administration: "allow federal judges to quash subpoenas against reporters if they determine that the public interest in the news outweighed the government’s need to uncover the leaker – including, in some circumstances, disclosures of classified national security information." --Charlie Savage

Ban any law that punishes news and opinion generators for keeping sources confidential, except in cases where generators reveal secret military tactics, weapons technologies, or positions of forces.

Ban credit risk insurance, including credit default swaps.

Ban no knock raids.

Replace the Peace Corps with a Planned Birth Corps offering free IUD procedures to females within the U.S. and to females who cannot afford IUDs elsewhere around the world. Spend $380 million annually on a domestic public education campaign promoting the use of IUDs.

Per Fran Korten: "Require shareholders to approve political spending by their corporations... Ban political advertising by corporations that receive government money, hire lobbyists, or collect most of their revenue abroad... Impose a 500 percent excise tax on corporate contributions to political committees and on corporate expenditures on political advocacy campaigns... Prohibit companies from trading their stock on national exchanges if they make political contributions and expenditures... Require publicly traded companies to disclose in SEC filings money used for the purpose of influencing public opinion."

Ban human gene patents, and patents on non-human genes that have not been created in a lab.

Require any intellectual property developed with government money to be made available to no private entities or for free to all private entities.

Eliminate all regional Federal Reserve banks. Eliminate all central bank officials who have not been elected by citizen vote or appointed by officials elected by U.S. citizens.

Create a 135 percent of tuition costs federally administered student loan program for U.S. citizen and permanent resident students at nursing and medical schools with per semester hour costs below the national mean.

Move all criminal trials of public servants to jurisdictions outside the jurisdictions currently or formerly employing the public servants on trial.

End federally funded mammograms for ordinary women under 50.

Support an international treaty that requires all ocean going vessels over ten tons to pay a environmental damages security deposit.

Remove Turkey from NATO.

Prohibit all government entities from subcontracting prisons, litigation, law enforcement, or tax collection to private entities.

Apply all fines and forfeitures collected after criminal trials to the national debt.

Provide federal funds to purchase 178,000 acres of U.S. Sugar's land in the Everglades at minimal price.

Ban all doctors from working more than 16 hours in a 24 hour period.

Require the salt added to processed foods to be at least 40 percent potassium chloride by mass.

Pass the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2009, State Secrets Priviledges Act, FISA Amendments Act of 2009, USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009, National Security Letters Reform Act of 2009, Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act, and Executive Branch Accountability Act of 2009.

Create an international treaty requiring all synthetic DNA sellers to screen orders with lists of dangerous pathogens, to report and punish violators. Embargo any nation that fails to find and punish violators.

Make all first class, one ounce stamps forever stamps.

Eliminate funding for air marshals.

Require own-cognizance systems nationwide. Ban bail bond systems.

Require all criminal trials or plea agreements for non-violent crimes, causing less than $10,000 in damages, to take place within four working days of arrests.

Per Mark Kleiman: experiment with sentencing juveniles to empty, solitary hotel rooms and school books. Require all jurisdictions to implement the Hawaii Opportunity Probation with Enforcement system, with minor violators, having curfews monitored with GPS devices. Provide adequate federal funds to support the system.

Implement all of Lawrence Sherman's anti-crime prescriptions nationwide.

Require all schools and government offices to provide treadmill desks, backless padded stools, or cushioned 120 degree angle chairs for all students and employees.

Repeal the $75 million liability cap on oil companies.

Pass the Specter Amendment to the Exchange Act.

Revoke Rule 144A.

Require hospitals to provide private drop off spots for babies that mothers plan to abandon.

Encourage 55-year-olds to have a federally funded scope exams of their bowels, removing polyps.

Require medical providers to give a printed copy of any dangerous test results to patients..

Implement the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission national standards.

Pass the Healthy Families Act, legislating seven days of paid sick leave each year for workers.

Require all individuals contemplating non-emergency surgeries to be informed of non-surgical alternatives and of expected values for surgery and alternatives by independent decision making experts. Prohibit the experts from receiving any gifts or payments from the medical industry.

Ban all seizures of non-lethal private property by law enforcement agencies, except when ordered by courts as the result of a civil or criminal trial or pretrial agreement.

Rid the Davis Bacon Act

Ban the importation of all species of live freshwater and salt water animals.

Pass an abortion consistency law: In any state restricting abortions during the first trimester, require all girls and women aged 11 to 68 to subsist on supplements, white bread, white rice, skinless potatoes, and unsalted saltines. Prohibit any labor among these girls and women that might induce an abortion. Ban the sale of all other foods to men having wives, mothers or daughters aged 11 to 68. Require any female who eats other substances to watch a four hour fetus video. Fine any company that sells other drugs or foods to the individuals above seven million dollars for reckless endangerment. Require monthly, random testing for pregnancy and banned substances, including, but not limited to, alcohol, Skittles, and pork chops.

Require national ID cards for employment. Fine employers $27,000 for every illegal immigrant employee they hire.

Ban all trademarks on all words contained in the 2000 edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, except for words already trademarked.

Require anyone conceiving a child with an individual married at the time of conception to pay child support if the married individual or their spouse retains sole custody of that child and that child is under 18.

Give any pregnant tween, teenager, or convicted felon $400, and another $500 to a charity of her choice, if she gives her child for adoption to the best available parents within the first three months after birth.

Prohibit states and local governments from restricting the number of taxi licenses granted to individuals and partnerships, except to ensure that taxis are adequately insured and have passed safety and emissions inspections.

Prohibit prisoners from using online dating sites.

Begin antitrust actions in all industries with more than seven billion dollars in gross, annual receipts, having six or fewer competitors controlling over 92 percent of those receipts.

Require all government fines to at least equal the dollar value of the harm done.

Require all law enforcement agencies to fire employees directly responsible anytime agencies lose lawsuits exceeding $40,000 for violating the rights of individuals. Prohibit those fired individuals from working in law enforcement elsewhere.

Eliminate the DEA.

Create a ten percent VAT on new clothing.

Require all food manufacturers selling food in America, having gross receipts exceeding $140,000, to include trace amounts of pork or dog meat in all their foods.

Require individuals sentenced to more than 30 days for financial crimes to serve their sentences in supermax prisons.

Make it a felony to tamper with recording devices owned by any level of government.

Pass the End Debt Collector Abuse Act of 2010 and the Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act of 2009.

Require all college or vocational students to serve a 200 hour internship within the field they plan to major before they start classes within their field.

Permanently ban anyone sentenced to more than four days in jail, more than $5,000 in fines, or more than 50 hours of community service for financial crimes from working in the financial industry. Permanently ban the CEO of any corporation fined more than $4.5 million for financial crimes committed during the CEO's tenure from ever working in finance or as an executive in any capacity.

Require all religious entities receiving more than $9,000 in annual donations to file an IRS Form 990 every year.

Prohibit the central bank from having private regional banks.

Ban all partnerships between law enforcement agencies and potential white collar criminals.

Repeal the diversity visa program.

Require all state and federal legislators to live at least 210 nights per year in randomly selected for rent or sale housing in the poorest zip code within their district, state capital city, or Washington DC.

Repeal laws imposing costs on employers that require employers to meet employee religious requests.

Require all federal agencies and departments to undergo independent financial audits at well-reasoned intervals.

Implement a twenty percent VAT on all purchases made by the Department of Defense from private entities.

Create a new Truman Committee to investigate the Department of Defense.

Pass The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act.

Prohibit any individual from being punished for audio or video recording any public activities engaged in by any government employee or contractor. Make it a felony for government officials to punish employees for reporting legitimate crimes and misconduct committed by contractors or other government employees. Make it a crime not to report crimes committed by fellow government employees or contractors. Eliminate the pensions of any government employee convicted of any felony, except when the convictions are later overturned. Return any forfeited retirement payments to retired government employees when felony convictions are later overturned. Require every state to create an investigators and prosecutors division to prosecute crimes committed by government employees. Fully fund the divisions with federal funds. Elect the heads of the divisions by statewide elections. Allow the heads to make all division appointments and to override the decisions of local prosecutors to prosecute or not prosecute government employees. Put the division in complete control of all dash-cams and and other state and local law enforcement recording devices. Prohibit employees of this division from knowingly socializing with other government employees while off duty.

Finish construction of the U.S.-Mexico border fence.

Create federally funded clinics to provide a low-cost daily fixes for drug addicts. Require all addicts to arrive and leave the clinics by walking or public transportation. Make all dosing records electronically available to law enforcement agencies.

Create dozens of Truman Commissions for all major areas of state, local, and federal spending.

Remove Secret Service protection for any individual or family having greater than eight million dollars in assets.

Require all contracts to be easily comprehensible to consumers. Nullify new contracts written at reading levels greater than consumers signing them.

Change the name of the "federal" income tax to the non-flat tax.

Fire all military personnel having a rank above 0-7. Draft all individuals who own more than $11,800,000 in defense contractor equities to serve as privates in the infantry for 12 years. Draft all active and retired senior defense contractor executives to serve as infantry privates for the rest of their lives.

Prohibit motor vehicles not meeting the emissions standards held by the strictest U.S. county from entering the United States. Exempt tourist, passenger vehicles from Canada.

Pass S. 1196, Chuck Grassley's e-verify bill.

Prohibit any government funds, including tax entitlements, from going to any religious entity,

Implement a 40 percent VAT on all non-biological herbicides and pesticides.

Grant water rights to owners' of lands rainwater falls onto, until the rainwater leaves those lands.

Eliminate all Freedom of Information Act exemptions, except Department of Defense exemptions specifically granted by Congress and the President.

Eliminate the J-1 Summer Work Travel Program.

Separate all state and federal prisoners by race, religion and nonreligion, except when doing so would create excessive costs.

Eliminate federal funding for PSA screening, except for men with a previous histories of prostate cancer or family histories of prostate cancer.

Expand the ban on insider trading to all U.S. citizens and anyone making trades to and from the United States.

Send 20 percent of all fines collected from financial criminals to financial whistleblowers. If no whistleblower exists for a given conviction, sen the 20 percent to a pool for whistleblowers from other convictions.

Provide federal funds to establish and run organizations similar to the Westergaard Foundation.

Randomly select all congressional committee heads.

Rescind the tax exempt status of all entities not devoting at least 82 percent of their funds for primary human services--nutrition, health care, infidel primary education.

Ban tax holidays.

Require all items recycled within the US to be processed within the US.

Require all US police officers to have four inch high individual identifying letters and numbers on the back of their shirts and jackets.

Create Independent commisssions to fight corruption at the federal and state level in all states.

Sentence individuals convicted of hiring illegal immigrants to reside for the remainder of their lives in neighborhoods having household incomes below 70 percent of the national median household income in addition to any fines or other sentences recommended for them.

Ban mandatory arbitration clauses in all contracts between corporations and private individuals.

Require surgical sterilization for all convicted murderers and for any individual having greater than one violent crime conviction, except when they are already sterile.

Require surgical sterilization for individuals who have had a child removed from them for greater than 90 days for abuse or neglect, except when the individuals are already sterile.

Repeal the 1991 Civil Rights Restoration Act.

Require all publicly funded published research to published in open-access publications.

Ban the sale or export of weaponry by US individuals to foreign entities, except when approved by Congressional majorities.

Require all K-16 schools to pay for all resonable medical treatments resulting from injuries acquired during school sponsored sports activities.

Charge individuals using homeopathy and faith healing on children with practicing medicine without a license.

Require parents and guardians failing to obtain required vaccinations for their custodial children to pay a $3000 annual negligence tax each year they fail to vaccinate.

JT Fournier, last updated December 29, 2011

Environmental Policy Recommendations

2010-02-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

Phase out farm soil tilling within the next five years. Create a 168 percent VAT on all commercial herbicides and phosphorus containing fertilizers. Implement a 147 percent VAT on plantation raised cocoa products.

Add a nine percent national sales tax on the sale of "natural" diamonds, palm oil containing items, and all products obtained from biological hot spots.

Increase the number of FDA inspectors and inspections by at least 20 percent.

Require catalytic converters on fossil fuel driven lawn and garden engines. Ban the sale and use of internal combustion leaf blowers.

Institute a 60 cent tax on each petroplastic bag. Create an 94 percent VAT on petroplastic packaging materials. Create a 10 percent VAT on all other products more than 18 percent petroplastic. Ban the use of BPA in teethers, cosmetics, sales receipts, food containers, mouth guards, and water receptacles.

Ban the sale and possession of all species of caulerpa.

Require environmental laws to be in a language of overall benefit-harm and rights rather than do no harm.

Ban logging on federally owned old-growth rain forests. Ban clear cut logging on all public lands. Create an 11 percent VAT on products containing more than five percent wood products.

Require government entities to pay market value for new private lands declared wetlands or placed under endangered species restrictions.

Eliminate the Superfund and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and replace them with better laws.

Prohibit federal agencies from requiring any synthetic substance be labeled different from a chemically identical non-synthetic substance. Enact legislation similar to the EU REACH initiative to test potentially dangerous substances.

Implement locally optimal water taxes in areas prone to water shortages.

Ban pet importation and the sale of pets for more than 58 inflation adjusted dollars. Create and federally fund free clinics that sterilize and vaccinate pets. Ban alone chaining of pets.

Ban all private entities doing business in the U.S. from owning water utilities here or abroad.

Ban forced molting, beak trimming, ear cropping, tail-docking, bass pair trawling (and all bottom trawling), total confinement factories, the feeding of animal protein to livestock (including farmed fish), gestation crates, and all long-term crating or caging of livestock. Ban extraction of oysters and menhaden. Auction commercial fishing rights to territorial waters. Require auction winners to maintain long-term fish stocks and prevent extinctions or population collapses due to overfishing within their areas.

Require all livestock to be dead before skinning or slaughtering. Punish violators with a $150,000 fine. Double fines for each subsequent violation. Hire an adequate number of inspectors to enforce the law. Repeal the law that bans the slaughtering of horses. Ban ownership of livestock by any entities other than domestic nonprofits, partnerships, and sole proprietorships. Institute a federal ban on cockfighting and on the sale and interstate transport of cockfighting equipment.

Ban the sale of veal, animal furs, animal civitone, and castoreum. Ban catch and release fishing.

Disallow all patents on seeds and genetically modified food products. Prohibit any company from controlling more than nine percent of seed sales for any species with more than $30 million dollars in annual global seed sales.

Require all packaged foods to list their country or countries of origin.

Ban mining and logging on public lands by any entities other than domestic non-profits, partnerships, and sole proprietorships. Eliminate government funds for the construction and maintenance of logging roads. Charge market rates for grazing on federal lands.

Ban mountain top removal.

Ban anti-biotics in animal feed. Ban anti-microbial hand soaps except in medical facilities. Require the Dutch search and destroy MRSA strategy. Require medical facilities to achieve at least 95 percent hand washing compliance. Create trade incentives for nations to stop selling antibiotics over the counter. Require food and health workers to keep their fingernails short. Prohibit artificial fingernails on food and health workers. Ban the use of antibiotics in all animals except humans and endangered species.

Require buildings having central air conditioning in areas with mean summer temperatures above 69 degrees Farenheit, but not having a white or light metallic roof, to pay a $1.05 per square foot of roof federal negative externalities fee once every nine years.

Ban coal tar based sealants.

JT Fournier, last updated October 6, 2011

Election Policy Recommendations

2010-02-25T12:35:00.000-08:00

Campaign finance reform: Roughly per Bruce A. Ackerman and Ian Ayres, give every adult citizen 80 dollars to donate anonymously, electronically to the candidates or parties of their choice once every two years. Require all campaign contributions to be anonymous and electronic. Increase the 80 dollars with the CPI.

Ban campaign contributions from corporations.

Remove the campaign contributions box from tax forms.

Require states and local governments to publish and distribute a publicly funded voter's guide describing issues and candidates for each public election.

JT Fournier, last updated February 25, 2010

Family Policy Recommendations

2010-02-25T12:26:00.000-08:00

Require states to notify all adoption agencies within 200 miles of the foster home or last known parental home when parental custody rights have been terminated. Allow states to contact adoption agencies outside 200 miles at their discretion. After a child lives in foster care for more than a lifetime total of 150 days, terminate parental custody rights and let the child be adopted by the best available parents. Give states $40,000 in federal funds for every child in foster care successfully adopted.

Eliminate TANF. Create a $5200 annual refundable tax credit for all American children age zero to four living in one minor child families, not receiving public assistance in the past year. Create a $5500 annual refundable tax credit for all citizen children age zero to four living in two minor child families, not receiving public assistance in the past year. Create a $5800 annual refundable tax credit for all citizen children age zero to four living in three minor child families, not receiving public assistance in the past year. Create a $6200 annual refundable tax credit for all citizen children age zero to four living in four minor child families, not receiving public assistance in the past year. Create a $6600 annual refundable tax credit for all citizen children age zero to four living in five minor child families, not receiving public assistance in the past year. Create a $7000 annual refundable tax credit for all citizen children age zero to four who live in six or more minor child families, not receiving public assistance in the past year.

Create federal agencies to administer and distribute all vouchers and credits described herein.

Create a new agency to keep tabs on who has custody of every American child, to audit those claiming child related vouchers or credits, and to ensure that no nonexistent dependents are claimed, that no child is claimed more than once, and that other fraud is eliminated.

Index all vouchers, credits, and other policies to inflation.

Give states latitude in deciding how to spend WIC money. Require all WIC recipients' children to receive all necessary vaccinations when they pick up benefits.

Create a universal nurse home visitor program similar to the Prenatal and Early Childhood Nurse Home Visitation Program.

Terminate parental contact for parents convicted of abuse or neglect. Allow contact when the child reaches adulthood.

Separate visitation from child support. Keep the adoption tax credit, and make it refundable. Federalize child support. Take child support payments from wages the way payroll taxes are. Hire private agencies to find dead-beat parents when other methods fail.

Cut the dependent, personal and standard deductions by 40 percent. Keep the adoption credit and make it refundable.

Require universal pre-marital counseling with licensed counselors, based on research having high, enforced standards.

Create two marriage alternatives for all willing two adult couples and consenting two minor couples aged 15 to 17, excluding those serving lifetime sentences, those currently married to someone else, those committing fraud or immigration crimes.

Covenant marriage: At the time of any divorce in a covenant marriage, if both individuals want a no-fault divorce, immediately grant a no-fault divorce. If one or both individuals want an at-fault divorce, immediately grant the divorce and decide post-divorce duties and rights via legal proceedings later.

Automatic, immediate no-fault at divorce marriage.

Eliminate funding for family "preservation" programs.

Automatically tax the gifts, inheritances, net income, and fringe benefits of noncustodial parents of minor children to provide child support. Tax at 15 percent for those with one child up to a maximum payment of $36,000 per year, at 24 percent for those with two children up to a maximum payment of $57,000 per year, at 30 percent for those with three children up to a max of $77,000 per year. Add four percent and $21,000 to the max for each child beyond three up to a maximum of 46 percent. Divide payments among custodial parents on a per child basis, except when the custodial parent of a disabled child deserves a greater percentage. Create a federal parent locator service to assist in enforcement of child support. Require noncustodial parents not paying required child support to attend a program similar to Charles Ballard's. Require 47 hours of community service every time a parent gets behind more than an amount equal to one month's child support payment.

Require parents or guardians convicted of child abuse or neglect or have had a child removed because of abuse or neglect for more than one month to undergo a mandatory vasectomy or tubal ligation. Require babies born drug addicted or with fetal alcohol syndrome to be immediately placed for adoption. Prohibit the sale of alcohol and cigarettes to pregnant women.

JT Fournier, last updated July 25, 2010

Ethics Recommendations for America

2010-02-25T12:20:00.000-08:00

Raise the retirement age for federal employees to at least 67. Eliminate all Congressional retirement benefits. Prohibit current and former members of Congress and their spouses from having any investments other than savings and checking accounts. Ban lawmakers from appointing to a government position any individual formerly employed by any corporation that gets more than 40 percent of its revenue from government contracts. Switch non-appointed, nonmilitary, non-emergency, non-law enforcement federal employees to staggered four day work weeks, with the same number of hours worked per week. Require that all companies receiving government contracts and purchases have U.S. residing American citizens for executives and that foreign shareholders own no more than eight percent of any government contract receiving company.

Require all federal agencies to accept, evaluate and implement suggestions having overall benefits outweighing harms. Offer $200 and a medal of patriotism to the first submitter of of specific suggestions implemented by the government and that save taxpayers $1000 or more. Prohibit government contracting with any corporation that does not have 100 percent of all employees and operations within the United States, including subsidiaries. Make all US military spending subject to a new internal affairs and accounting office with management appointed by the president and approved by Congress, and forbidden from ever receiving any direct or indirect gift or employment from any military contractor or any other military related employer. Make it a federal offense for any elected politician or subordinate of a politician to in any way threaten an employee of the new office. Require that all new military weapons begin testing as soon as feasible in the development process and continuously.

Restore PUHCA to reduce the power of utility oligopolies. Eliminate all anti-trust exemptions.

Pass the Cell Phone Empowerment Act.

Create legal protections for websites such as Wikileaks.

Suspend all federal contracts with Blackwater, Haliburton/KBR, CACI, Titan, Parsons, Dyncorp International, and Transatlantic Traders. Ban their former and current executives from benefiting from all future federal contracts.

Prohibit any corporation and its subsidiaries from owning more than one oil refinery. Break up any oil company that extracts more than 11 percent of domestic oil production.

Allow members of Congress at least 100 hours to read bills from the time bills are finalized until voting. Require Congress to post bills online for at least 100 hours before voting.

Prohibit executives from companies guilty of over-billing the government from holding public office.

Suggested by Bruce S. Jansson: Prohibit ex pentagon employees, military officers or both to work for companies receiving defense contracts or receiving gifts from companies receiving defense contracts. During times of war, require all defense contractors to pay no more than $41,000 per year to any employee or any other individual, which they will gladly accept because they are so patriotic. Require all retired military officers to take a 20 percent reduction in retirement pay during war, which they will also gladly accept because they are so patriotic. Close all loopholes that undermine competition for government contracts. Eliminate cost plus contracts. Create independent civilian boards to award and oversee military contracts. Prohibit former employees of defense contractors from working for the pentagon (end of Jansson).

Eliminate all congressional subcommittees. Limit the terms of congressional committee chairpersons to one term.

Prohibit federal elected officials and their appointees from working for any lobbying organization at any time of their lives. Ban registered lobbyists and their spouses from government employment for the remainder of their lives.

Remove politicians who receive contributions, gifts, bribes from foreign governments, individuals, or organizations, disqualify them from any future political office, prohibit them from contacting any elected U.S. government official. Give all federal elected officials a cost of living allowance equal to the inflation rate every year the US corruption rating, using Transparency International methodology, is 9.4 or higher. Give them a three percent inflation adjusted pay cut every year the score is between 7.9 and 9.4; a six percent pay cut every year it is below 7.9. Create an independent federal sting operation agency. Randomly select 40 percent of federal elected officials each year for a video and audio recorded attempted sting.

Prohibit government officials and their immediate families from receiving direct and indirect gifts and payments from any foreign entities.

Eliminate the OSC and replace it with a new, larger whistleblower agency whose head is nominated and selected by a majority vote of the second largest party in the House. The agency head may be replaced by only majority vote of the second largest party or two-thirds vote of the House. Pass a law requiring independent audits of all federal agencies at regular intervals, with the intervals determined by well-reasoned cost-benefit arguments. Per Luigi Zingales, award whistleblowers ten percent of corporate fraud fines and awards. Reconcile H.R. 985 and S.274, granting whistleblower protections.

Require all large public companies to be audited by accountants appointed by a presidentially appointed and congressionally approved official. Pay the accountants with only public funds and prohibit them from ever directly or indirectly receiving a gift or payment from a public company or its representatives during their life times. Prohibit the accountants from joining labor unions. Base their pay on accuracy in reporting.

Pass a bill that automatically deducts a percentage of payments to government contractors who owe taxes.

Require all federal elected officials to spend at least 280 days a year in Washington DC.

Eliminate the IMF. Replace with an organization implementing the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission's prescriptions for reforming the IMF.

Use carrot and stick economic policies on most countries with a Freedom House score of 5.5 to seven--a one to seven scale with seven being the worst.

Prohibit television cables from crossing public lands and airspace, including roads and easements. Return the TV and radio portions of the electromagnetic spectrum to their rightful owners--the people. Use the TV and radio portions solely for radio broadcasts of nonpolitical emergency information and nonpolitical, nonreligious, public domain musical performances.

JT Fournier, last updated February 25, 2010

Education Recommendations for a Better America

2010-02-25T12:01:00.000-08:00

Terminate all federal education funding except funding listed herein.

Create universal, voluntary federally funded after school and summer school programs.

Require a minimum mean of 1200 hours of classroom instruction per year, per district, per student, for K through 12 students nationwide

Eliminate state, local, and federal bilingual education programs.

Prohibit all schools receiving any public funds, including any tax entitlements, from requiring any student to read or listen to any religious text, or from offering readings or recordings from any religious text, or from engaging in group recitals of material from any religious text.

Eliminate Hope Scholarships. (Hope scholarships encourage price gouging by colleges. They are unjust to those who do not go to college. College grads earn more over their lifetimes. They can afford to take out loans. They encourage people to attend college who would otherwise be doing better things with their lives. Many ordinary college degrees create no overall benefit.)

Require uniform property tax rates throughout a given state (if the state has property taxes). "Require states to invest roughly equal resources in [every school district] per pupil" --Chaka Fattah

Ban all school-related lawsuits of teachers and K-12 public schools, except when an assault or physical injury or both occurs. Require national end of course exams in all public school courses. Require that national exams be 20 percent of final course grades. Test all American students in math and reading in the first, fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades. Provide statistical reports of the performance of all schools.

Require all high school students to take a half year of decision making, a half year of frugal personal finance, one year of logic, one year of imperative oriented moral philosophy, four years of physical fitness (three days per week) and four years of civics (two days per week, including at least 50 clock hours of research supported anti-corruption strategies, using a broad definition of corruption) to earn a diploma.

Increase GEARUP funding by 22 percent and the number of students served by a similar amount.

Remove LCD and CRT screens from public school classrooms containing students between ages four and 15.

Replace current classroom chairs with padded stools or treadmill desks or both.

Pay students $300 in federal funds for each AP course they pass.

Provide universal federal funding for:
1. Know Your Body health ed programs at all public primary schools, but removing the self-esteem building part of the programs.
2. Life Skills Training or Project ALERT or both.
3. Prenatal and Infancy Nurse Home Visitation Programs.

Require calculation of teacher pay in per pupil spending totals within districts for allocating Title I funds. Increase Title I funding by 40 percent. Make federal education funds contingent on redrawing school intra-district lines so that public schools have greater equality of family income within them. Require all newly built K-8 public schools to serve no more than 200 students.

Require all students and government employees to take an annual oath to defend fellow citizens and residents from unethical violence by the plutoment or anyone else.

Ban any publicly funded schooling institution from purchasing for students any textbook costing more than $40. Prohibit any publicly funded schooling institution from requiring the purchase by students of any textbook costing more than $40.

Pass the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2009.

Require secondary schools to teach marketable, in demand skills to students not planning to study law, medicine or engineering in college. Require all technology and vocational classes in public schools to teach only specific, in demand trades. Prohibit public schools from making foreign language requirements. End all federal college aid, except for students studying nursing, medicine, education, engineering and vocational programs at public colleges and universities.

Eliminate the Department of Education and replace it with a new cabinet level department concentrating on three areas:
1. Moral education.
2. Equalizing per pupil funding in public schools across the nation while factoring in local costs of living.
3. Nationwide research, standards, testing, and reporting.

JT Fournier, last updated October 6, 2011

Defense Recommendations for a Better America

2010-02-25T11:43:00.000-08:00

Cut the 1.05 trillion dollars in annual defense related expenditures by 72 percent.

Divide Iraq into four countries. Create a small country within Iraq solely for infidels (Christians, free thinkers, Mandeans, and others). Move any American forces to infidel Iraq. Gradually reduce the forces in infidel Iraq to 2,000. Sign a mutual defense treaty with infidel Iraq. Liberate all American citizens from the rest of Iraq and Afghanistan within the next four months. Cease construction of the US embassy in Iraq. Liberate all US military personnel from all OIC lands within the next five months. Liberate all Army and Marine enlisted personnel, excluding special forces, from Guam, Africa, Eurasia, and South America, excluding South Korea and infidel Iraq, within the next 28 months. Remove all U.S. military forces from Europe. Invite Russia to join NATO. Invite all infidel nations to join a defense organization to reverse Islam and spread Infidelism.

Allow any infidel scientist or technician of semi-decent character, and formerly employed in the production of weapons of mass destruction, to immigrate to the United States and receive US citizenship.

Pass the The Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act without alteration.

Prohibit any individual with a greater than one in 73,000 probability of belonging to or physically supporting any hate group or terrorist group listed by the following organizations from immigrating to or visiting the United States: The Department of State List of Terrorist Organizations, The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, The Terrorist Research Center. Exempt individuals who were formerly employed in the production of weapons of mass destruction, have tolerable character, are federally monitored and have renounced belief in hate ideologies.

Warn every nation that supports terrorism that if terrorists set off a nuclear weapon in populated lands they will face a nuclear response. Seek treaties eliminating tactical nuclear weapons.

Enact the recommendations found in The Limits of Safety by Scott Sagan, especially outfitting all ICBMs worldwide with remote self-destruct devices thoroughly tested to greater than 99 percent reliability. Continue the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program. Increase funding to $2.6 billion. Use all Nunn-Lugar funding for dismantling nuclear and biological weapons, not chemical weapons. Require Nunn-Lugar contractors be paid per weapon dismantled after dismantling.

Cut the number of military bases by at least 35 percent between 2000 and 2010.

If a cheaper commercial product of equivalent or better quality exists for a product, require the military to buy the commercial product. Require the military to reduce the percentage of its personnel in support services to 40 percent by 2010.

Require all federal biodefense research funds be spent within one federal agency. Staff the NSC with at least one senior biodefense official. Pass the Weapons of Mass Destruction Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2009.

Eliminate all visas for individuals from OIC nations and Kosovo. Eliminate H-2 visas.

Spend at least $21 million per year searching for space objects potentially on a collision course with earth.

Remove all US warships from the Persian Gulf and The Straits of Hormuz. Remove all diplomatic personnel from OIC member lands except one ambassador or diplomat per land.

Prohibit the sale or possession of microbes potentially used for biological warfare, except for government agencies working on defenses from those microbes. Expand and strengthen international treaties limiting the possession of bioweapens.

Impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Use incentives with China and Russia to encourage their governments to 1) eliminate biological weapons weapons and their development, 2) stop selling nuclear and bioweapons products and technologies.

Create two technology agencies, one U.S. and one international, to handle liability, intellectual property claims, harm-benefit accounting of technologies, regulation of technologies with evil expected values, and education about technologies with beneficial expected values.

Deport all individuals illegally in the United States, except convicted criminals who should be incarcerated within the United States.

Make anyone, anywhere who develops or assists in the creation, trade or use of banned bioweapons subject to war crimes charges. Remove all US nuclear weapons from Europe.

Disallow any current or former misanthropists, religious fundamentalists, and racial supremacists from working in WMD related occupations.

Create federally run review boards for all artificial life research. Prohibit current, former, and future employees of artificial life entities from serving on the boards. Prohibit current and former review board members from receiving gifts from anyone other than first degree relatives.

Require a buddy system in biodefense labs, banning anyone from accessing dangerous agents
without someone else present.

Encourage the relocation of BSL-4 labs to sparsely populated areas.

Ban exports of gene-sequencing equipment. Ban the private purchase of gene-sequencing equipment. Enact trade sanctions on nations that export gene-sequencing equipment or sell the equipment to private entities.

Pursue an agreement with China and Russia to eliminate all tactical nuclear warheads and reduce the number of strategic nuclear warheads in the United States and Russia to 1160 weapons each by 2015. Require destruction of all reduced weapons. Require strict verification procedures and annual reduction benchmarks.

Decommission all Marine One helicopters.

Cut the CIA and National Security Agency budgets by 94 percent. Ban all private NSA and CIA contracting, except for the purchase of physical goods.

Require greater competitive bidding, more efficient purchasing, and faster development within the military.

Allow the army to purchase close support jets.

Build no new aircraft carriers. Retire all remaining aircraft carriers within the next 12 years.

Offer federally funded and strictly regulated guaranteed-hire jobs to non-prisoner citizens age 14 or over at $7.25 per hour to 1) weatherize buildings, 2) build fallout shelters, 3) provide full service (free for all to use) tire pressure checks and fills, 4) install air conditioning refrigerant level sensors throughout the US, 5) check refrigerant levels in buildings throughout the US, 6) construct simple earthbag homes smaller than 950 square feet on lots smaller than 0.14 acres (selling the homes to the highest bidder), 7) translate the prose works positively reviewed on goodtrue.tripod.com to other languages, 8) plant food bearing trees on any property with owners desiring such trees. Require all guaranteed-hire participants to adequately perform job duties to retain their jobs.

Send $14 billion in defense aid to animists, Christians, and other infidels in Iraq and Sudan. Pass the Sudan Peace Act, including the Bachus Amendment.

Strengthen laws preventing the export of national security related goods and services. Enhance enforcement and increase prosecution of violators.

Eliminate the F-22, C-17, V-22, F/A-18E/F aircraft, crusader artillery, and Comanche helicopter programs. Retire 40 B-1 bombers. Keep 18 SSBNs. Produce 397 D-5 missiles. Eliminate ballistic missile defense funding. Sell, scrap or mothball at least 89 percent of the Navy's surface fleet tonnage, excluding minesweepers.

Provide free potassium iodide tablets for all Americans and legal aliens.

Encourage Japan, Taiwan, Australia, and South Korea to stealthily develop nuclear arsenals. Remove US forces from Japan.

Create a U.S. agency to study and enforce technology violations. Use the U.S. military to enforce violations abroad if the international agency refuses to do so.

Create an agency to provide vouchers or refundable tax credits to cover 40 percent for the first $12,000 dollars of fallout shelter construction. Create a $11,000 refundable tax credit for underground or earth bag houses smaller than 1400 square feet, and larger than 350 square feet, used for primary residences. Ban all zoning laws and HOA rules prohibiting the construction of such homes.

Close the Gerry Adams loophole that allows terrorism advocates to enter the US.

Make databases of known criminals available to banks for anti-dirty money enforcement.

Pass the Levin and Coleman tax haven reform plan.

Pay each current US Muslim citizen or permanent resident of African or Southern Eurasian descent $160,000 to permanently move to majority Muslim nations having infidels numbering fewer than 17 percent of the population. Move all current US Muslims refusing to accept the $160,000 buyout to Unimak Island. Prohibit any entry of any new Muslims into the US. Charge a $1.4 million annual federal negative externalities fee (NEF) on each US property owned or rented by Muslims, excluding Unimak Island. Charge a $19,000 annual federal NEF on each adult Muslim found entering or residing in the US and an 72 percent federal NEF on all forms of income each Muslim entering or residing in the US earns, excluding Unimak Island. Charge a $140,000 negative externality fee for each child born to or adopted by a Muslim in the US. Remove the NEFs on former Muslims who prove beyond a reasonable doubt they have left Islam. Prohibit Muslims from obtaining means tested state, local, or federal benefits. Ban all other state, local, and federal grants and tax entitlements to all Muslims and all Islamic entities anywhere in the world.

Eliminate the Refugee Resettlement Program and all similar programs.

Create a tamper-proof, biometric electronic employment verification system, approve REAL-ID with biometric data, expand US-VISIT to all US entry points.

Eliminate all federal anti-terrorism grants to states and local governments.

Eliminate the domestic use of coin and paper currency. Replace them with electronic currency. Allow the use of negative interest rates on electronic currency to help prevent deflationary traps.

Implement a few anti-terrorism prescriptions of the Gilmore Commission: http://www.rand.org/nsrd/terrpanel/terror3-recs.pdf

Downsize the service academies to nothingness. Use ROTC programs and promotion of enlisted personnel to create officers.

Prohibit any individual from receiving more than $250,000 combined per year from all entities obtaining government contracts.

Vagueness per Bill Joy: "Create an international body to publicly examine the dangers of technologies... Relinquish pursuit of that knowledge and development of those technologies so dangerous that we judge it better that they never be available."

Declare any sea lane with high rates of piracy to be an almost no boat zone, banning all vessels except row boats, international shipping, and international military craft. Within the no boat zone, seize or sink all non-rowed vessels from suspected pirate groups.

Ban the for profit sale of products containing triclosan.

Disallow anyone who received means tested federal benefits during the previous 16 years from sponsoring or cosponsoring immigrants.

JT Fournier, last updated December 28, 2011

Fiscal Recommendations for a Better America

2010-02-25T10:35:00.000-08:00

Eliminate all the trillions in tax expenditures (corporate welfare, home mortgage deductions, farm subsidies, etc.) listed within Tax Expenditures the Hidden Entitlements by Citizens for Tax Justice and listed elsewhere except those recommended below. Inflation adjust all those below. Eliminate 15.3 percent payroll taxes. Pay for Social Security and health care with taxes on bads, not good actions.

Set all capitals gains tax rates equal to income tax rates. Reinstate the capital gains tax on real estate. Primary reason: To prevent massive incentive of having other income relabeled capital gains. See the Labyrinth of Capital Gains Tax Policy by Leonard E. Burman.

Implement tax reforms similar to those proposed by Michael Graetz in 100 Million Unnecessary Returns, but make the reforms far more progressive.

Eliminate NASA and replace it with a much smaller agency that has nothing to do with space shuttles, space stations, and other joy riders in the sky.

Prohibit government funding of underfunded private pensions. Eliminate the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.

Require all government managers to take a yearly oath to base hiring and promoting decisions on merit.

Eliminate the following: The Small Business Administration, Federal funding of state and local construction projects, Americorps, FEMA (including all flood insurance), HUD, Head Start, Franking by legislators, The Maritime Administration, The Federal Railroad Administration, The Export-Import Bank, The Appalachian Regional Commission, The Farm Credit Administration, The Federal Transit Administration, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, SSI for children without total disability, The Mining Act of 1872, The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Job Corps, Demonstration projects, the Farmers Home Administration, federal drug treatment programs. (End of above elimination list.)

Gradually increase the full benefits age for social security to 67 by 2010 and 69 by 2020.

Defund most particle collider activities.

Open most federal lands and waters for oil and gas extraction. Eliminate all water, electrical, and land subsidies. Charge 18 percent royalty fees on oil, gas, minerals and other assets taken from public lands and waters. Rent asset containing federal lands at market rates.

Eliminate the Economic Development Administration, Interstate Commerce Commission, U.S. Information Service, and Federal Advisory Commissions. End Community Development Block Grants.

Sell all federal aircraft except military aircraft.

Keep the Social Security cost of living allowance.

Gradually make social security income taxable for individuals with more than $33,000 in all income, couples with more than $47,000 in income and retirees with one dependent child with more than $57,000. Add $10,000 to the $57,000 for each additional dependent child.

Eliminate the DEA, the class size reduction program, federal funding for dislocated workers, and all federal housing programs except those recommended herein.

Create a 21 percent VAT on all advertising except medical advertising. Create a 198 percent VAT on medical advertising.

Raise the federal excise tax on alcoholic beverages to 27 cents per ounce of ethanol. Raise $1.8 billion per year taxing water polluters. Adjust these taxes and tobacco taxes for inflation.

Create a 31 percent tax deduction or refundable credit for charitable national or international donations exclusively engaged in the following: Non-cosmetic health care and health education; basic nutrition; moral education that emphasizes consequences, merit, duties, and human rights; independent and ethical press; basic sanitation; primary education; emergency services; democratic civics education; Charles Ballard's National Institute for Responsible Fatherhood and similar parenting programs. Revoke the tax deductible status of any charitable organization that pays any employee more than $140,000 per year.

Eliminate all federal charitable deductions, transfers, and subsidies except those recommended herein. (If citizens donate money to the National Committee for Chicken Nugget Artwork, they should not get a tax break.)

Per Dean Baker: Give each American adult a $100 annual artistic freedom voucher, which is then given to creators of each adult's choice who put their works in the public domain.

Require 22 hours of weekly charitable service when receiving federal unemployment insurance.

Implement the John Kerry proposals to tax U.S. corporate, untaxed overseas earnings.

Make tax rates for almost all sources of income equal to federal personal income tax rates.
"Permit businesses to deduct the present value of all depreciation deductions for an asset in the year of purchase" --Aaron, Gale, and Sly with idea from Auerbach and Jorgenson

Repeal the law requiring the sale of the entire US helium reserve by 2015. Enact a 400 percent VAT on the sale of helium.

Use federal highway spending for repairs only.

Increase IRS audit funding:
1. Until the cost of each additional audit outweighs the revenue received.
2. To increase the audit rate of those earning over twice median family income from one percent to at least 12 percent.

Eliminate SSI for non-citizens and non-native born citizens who have worked in the U.S. fewer than 20 years except citizens with total, permanent disabilities.

Change the progressivity of estate tax rates to four through 39.6 percent marginal tax rates.

Eliminate all federal job training aid and programs.

Remove all intellectual property rights held by anyone who renounces their citizenship primarily for tax purposes and prohibit them from transferring the property rights to other individuals or organizations.

Prohibit anyone who renounces his or her US citizenship primarily for tax purposes from reentering the US.

Create an exit tax on those who renounce their citizenship primarily for tax purposes.

Make anyone who renounces their citizenship primarily for tax purposes liable for federal taxes for 15 years after leaving.

Locally administer federal housing, education and childcare vouchers. Repeal the housing bailout bill.

Require Internet transactions to pay the same sales taxes as other transactions.

Eliminate all regressive Bush era tax shifts.

Eliminate the Departments of Energy and Agriculture. Hand their essential tasks to others agencies.

Implement multiyear pentagon budgeting.

Sell Amtrak.

Institute an eight percent federal tax on all gross public and private gaming revenues.

Use inflation-indexed bonds for the national debt. (It lowers interest rates.)

Eliminate all interest subsidies.

Sell the Power Marketing Administration.

Sell the national gold reserves. (Reasons: Raises $50 billion, Holding gold is a terrible investment. Government possession serves no purpose. Government ownership creates incentives for greater gold mining and environmental destruction.) Require all human landscaped government properties, with the exception of athletic fields and research plots, to replace non-native flora with native flora or edible flora. Permit the killing and sale of harmful non-native plant and wildlife species up until the point where those species no longer cause overall harm.

Create federalized unemployment insurance and disability insurance plans somewhat similar to those described in True Security.

Create an employer paid ten percent excise tax on fringe benefits.

Per the Cato Institute: Eliminate the Agricultural Adjustment Act (food import quotas and restrictions), the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 (corporate welfare for exports), the Meat Import Act of 1979, presidential food-import proclamations, the Agricultural Act of 1958, The Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, U.S. funding for the World Bank, The U.S. Information agency, The School of the Americas, The Selective Service System, the Asia Foundation, the Delaney Clause, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Require regulatory laws to meet cost-benefit standards.

Prohibit the use of subcontractors by CIA and NSA.

End the Rural Electrification Act, and the Community Reinvestment Act.

Eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Eliminate: Highway Demonstration Projects, The Maritime Administration, Cargo Preference Programs, Wastewater Treatment Subsidies, The Economic Support Fund, The Corporation for National and Community Service, ACTION, The Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation, National Flood Insurance, The Service Contract Act, Free mailings by congresspersons, congressional non-salary benefits and perks, Economic Development Assistance, The International Trade Administration, The National Institute of Standards and Technology, The Advanced Technology Program within the Department of Commerce, substance abuse block grants, and the Federal Transit Administration.

Eliminate federal grant money to nonprofits.

Require all trusts that do not use at least 98 percent of their funds on primary human services (food, health care, clean drinking water) to pay taxes at the top federal income tax rate on all assets, contributions, and earnings. Remove all laws that allow trusts to evade civil judgments.

Ban private tax collection and the sale of tax debts to private entities.

Eliminate Department of Labor programs except for research, reporting and regulatory functions.

Per Willem Buiter: Blockade all tax havens.

Create trade sanctions on nations that do not enforce blockades on tax havens on or within their borders.

Ban anyone renouncing their U.S. citizenship for tax purposes, who earns more than $30,000 per year, from entering the U.S. Seize their U.S. assets, ban them from engaging in any financial transaction with any U.S. entity.

J.T. Fournier, last updated July 17, 2010