Crossposted at Daily Kos, Booman, My Left Wing, and MyDD.
The Republicans have already done most of the work for us, with their spectacular implosion and criminal corruption. But for us to complete the task of winning in 2006 and 2008, we need to give people vision. To many people, the situation looks hopeless, with the rising war, budget deficits, peak oil, and a lower standard of living in the future.
If we fail to gain any seats, that tells me that many people think the situation is hopeless, that the Democrats are no different than the Republicans, and that politicians are just a bunch of crooks. So, we must do what FDR did in an apparently hopeless situation for our country during the Great Depression — he proposed a bunch of ambitious plans that brought us back to our feet again.
We can eliminate the deficit next year if we wanted to. The problem is that we lack the political will to do so. In order to get back on our feet, we have to make sacrifices as a country to do so. When Clinton got his tax increase passed, he did so without getting a single Republican vote. He succeeded in selling the plan because he had the political courage to warn us as a country that we needed to make sacrifices in order to balance the budget.
But in 2001, Bush passed a massive tax cut plan at the same time that he was planning to go to war with Iraq. He passed even more tax cuts in 2002 and 2003, giving us record deficits as far as the eye can see.
Our first priority should be to eliminate the budget deficit by restoring taxes to their 2000 rates. That will eliminate the deficit and allow us to pay down the debt.
Next, we should end the Iraq War. That costly and destructive war is draining $200 billion out of the treasury a year. That accounts for $200 billion.
Then, we have a way to generate over $300 billion without increasing taxes any higher than they were in 2000 — crack down on people who don’t pay their income taxes. Senator Kent Conrad estimates that there is over $300 billion a year in unpaid taxes because the IRS does not have the staff or resources to go after non-payers:
Senator Conrad also believes that to address the deficit, the first step we should take on the revenue side of the ledger is to close the tax gap – the difference between the amount of taxes owed and the amount actually paid. The tax gap is money owed by corporations and individuals under the current tax laws that is going uncollected, either due to a failure to pay – including actual tax evasion – or a failure to collect on the part of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Closing the tax gap will lower the tax burden on the vast majority of Americans, who year after year pay what they owe. Senator Conrad believes that when the American people pay their taxes, they deserve to know that they aren’t paying higher amounts because others are avoiding their responsibilities.
The size of the tax gap problem is staggering. The IRS has estimated that the tax gap was $353 billion in 2001, and only about $55 billion of that would ever be recovered given the agency’s current capabilities. The added burden on taxpayers is very real. IRS’s National Taxpayer Advocate has testified that the tax gap added about $2,000 to the average tax bill in 2001. Senator Conrad believes that much more should be done to close the tax gap before measures to raise other revenue should be considered.
In other words, fully staffing and supporting the IRS so they could crack down on non-payers would be well worth the investment. So, there is the $500 billion that we can spend in whatever way we want.
To give you a picture of what $500 billion could do, here are some possibilities:
–Raise teacher’s salaries by over $150,000;
–Fully rebuild New Orleans and write a check to victims for new housing;
–Install a universal health care system in this country;
–Do a massive overhaul of our energy system; convert many of our electric plants to solar and wind power;
–Colonize space and research ways to send spacecraft to the stars;
–Eliminate poverty by giving people below the Federal Poverty Guidelines as defined by HHS money to bring them up to the poverty level.
–Pay tuition for people listed as unable to find work to give them new work skills.
–Math and science teachers are in biggest demand; pay tuition for all math and science teachers for 5 years.
–Forgive student loans and give stipends for anybody who does two consecutive years of volunteer work after leaving college.
–Make the right to work a fundamental human right and revive the WPA; hire people at $10 an hour to engage in construction and infastructure projects like the rebuilding of New Orleans and hire all applicants.
–Hold a design competition for a car which does not need gas and which can go at least 300 miles before refueling and/or recharging; award the winner $1 million and subsidize the starting of their business. Do this for five times in order to generate competition and jumpstart the market.
–Have Federal Student Aid cover all the costs of student’s tuition; make Pell Grants 60% of student’s financial aid instead of its current 33%.
–Set up a disaster relief fund; funnel all the aid, money, and personnel that is needed to relief agencies in the event of a disaster like the recent Pakistan earthquake.
–Set up an escrow account for every child born in the US with $125,000. The money will be placed in a bank; the government will shop for the highest available interest rates. Upon their 18th birthday, the child would recieve their money, which would be nontaxable.
–Increase Social Security benefits for older Americans by adding a $30,000 a year benefit for people 85 or older above and beyond current levels.
–Dramatically expand the Peace Corps into a cabinet-level US Department of Peace. Hire 4 million people at $100,000 a year to enter world’s trouble spots and mediate conflicts at the local level. This would be above and beyond their current functions. To raise money for needed projects, they could blog from a computer supplied by the government and do their own fundraising.
–One of the biggest problems in Iraq is our inability of our rank and file soldiers to relate to the Iraqis as a people and a culture. We could pay all our state colleges and universities to offer Middle Eastern studies and recruit teachers for them from around the world.
–Give every home in this country that doesn’t have it Internet access.
–Implement all of the Apollo Alliance’s initiatives to overhaul the environment.
–Pay the tuition of all people who lose jobs through outsourcing to attend community colleges and change their careers.
–Use as a rainy day fund as a hedge against future emergencies.
These are just some ideas to generate discussion. What would you do if you were in charge of the government and you could spend $500 billion as you liked?