Finally, the Democrats are talking about what they will do if they come to power rather than what they won’t do. Sen. Clinton outlined the Democratic campaign agenda, called the American Dream Initiative, in a keynote speech for the Democratic Leadership Council. The key themes underlying the proposal are:
Every American should have the opportunity and responsibility to go to college and earn a degree, and to get the lifelong training they need.
Every worker should have the opportunity and responsibility to save for a secure retirement.
Every business should have the opportunity to grow and prosper in the strongest private economy on Earth, and the responsibility to equip workers with the same tools of success as management.
Every individual should have the opportunity and responsibility to start building wealth from day one, and the security and community that come from owning a home.
Every family should have the opportunity to afford health insurance for their children, and the responsibility to obtain it.
In order to expand opportunity for all Americans, we must demand a new ethic of responsibility from Washington: to put government’s priorities back in line with our values — and its books back in balance — by getting rid of wasteful corporate subsidies, unchecked bureaucracy, and narrow-interest loopholes; collecting taxes that are owed; clamping down on tens of billions of dollars in improper payments and no bid-contracts; and restoring commonsense budgeting principles like pay-as-you-go.
Proposals for obtaining these goals:
Education:
**Increase the number of college graduates by 1 million a year by 2015. Proposal includes $150 billion in block grants for states to ease sharply rising tuition costs, and will provide roughly $2000 per student.
**Simplify the tax code by consolidating various education tax breaks and credits into a single $3000 college tuition tax credit, which when combined with the state subsidy should make tuition nearly free at most typical four-year colleges.
**Make Pell grants available to part-time and adult education (25+ year old college) students.
Retirement
**Require every employer with more than 5 employees to provide a retirement plan (401k, etc.) that enrolls workers automatically, increases their contributions incrementally over time unless they opt out (many workers today don’t participate simply because they don’t know about the plan, or don’t know how to use it), and provides investment advice. Tax credits would be provided to employers to help them comply.
**Create a 50% match of up to $2000 per year match on retirement savings for working and middle-class families.
Economy/Jobs/Energy
**Create a smart energy policy that sets America on a road to eventual petroleum independence, which will further encourage the development of new jobs in blossoming industries like ethanol and wind power production.
**Create an energy fund that will provide research dollars to develop cutting edge energy efficient technologies, cellulosic ethanol (from plant waste), bio-diesel, plug-in hybrids and other high-mileage vehicles, etc. All of these areas are ripe for growth in the wake of high energy prices, and can create millions of new jobs and billions of dollars in exportable technology and industry.
Home Ownership
**Allow everyone who owns a home to claim the mortgage deduction even if they do not otherwise itemize deductions (as many working- and middle-class families do not).
**Create a $5000 down payment tax credit for families who need it.
**Increase FHA loan limit to 100% of an area’s median home price so that families in high-priced areas are not locked out of affordable FHA loans.
**Provide certain employers such as police, firefighters, teachers, etc. with a 50% tax credit for employee housing assistance programs, to better help these kinds of employees live in high-priced areas (an impossible feat for many of these essential workers in areas like New York and DC).
Healthcare
**Encourage the movement of records from paper to electronic form, with strict provisions in place to protect consumer privacy. This information-sharing would greatly increase efficiency and lower the cost of providing healthcare services.
**Allow small businesses to pool their workforces together to be able to negotiate for better and cheaper health insurance than individual small employers could obtain by themselves.
**Provide universal children’s health care by reauthorizing and increasing funds for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and by providing incentives to employers to cover the dependents of employees in their health plans.
**Promote healthier living (thus preventing expensive future health problems) by taking junk food out of schools, and by providing resources to community-based programs that encourage exercise, nutrition, healthy living, and the like.
**Create a National Center for Cures that targets and coordinates research dollars for finding cures to diseases like cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s.
**Encourage further development of stem cell research.
**Strengthen Medicare by allowing the US Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries.
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Overall it is a good and ambitious plan, and focuses on proposals in which both liberals and moderates in the Democratic Party can agree. My only “nitpick” is that I would like to see this plan condensed down to a few essential points that can be used in sound bytes and commercials over and over again to hammer the points home, just like the Republicans’ 1994 Contract with America. Democrats should also be prepared to provide greater detail as to how these provisions will be paid for at the same time that we attempt to return to “pay as you go” budgets.
