US Politics: In concept (Not Practice), what are the big changes you want?

[Thekri]

So this thread is triggered by Ben Sasse's editorial to the Wall Street Journal, where he lays out fundamental changes to the senate. Link. Now, some of his particular proposals, like repealing the 17th amendment, are spectacularly bad and are pure partisan power grabs. Others, like abolishing cameras and standing committees, have merit, but also serious downsides.

The real point I want to draw here is that I like that he would actually bring up the subject. Large scale fundamental reforms are good topics for political discussion, because it clearly establishes a set of political ideals and helps to sort through the knotty issues of administrative actions, and can cut through to the ideological premises underlying them. These policies don't actually have to be practical, it is supposed to be aspirational. Conversations about the merits of term limits, redistricting, and other fundamental bits of how government works are a good way to test out your political believes in a way that isn't nearly as rooted in partisanship as individual policies might be.

So to start it out with a couple aspirational changes I would like (I think, open to discussion):

1) Fixed funding for campaign spending, scaled to the population size. Lets say $0.50 per census population of the district represented. So a senate campaign in Texas cannot raise or spend more then $15.5 million. You might need to scale it up a bit for smaller districts, but keep it consistent for all levels of government. So your State Senate rep should be spending as much advertising on reaching you as the US Senator. In addition to this, ban all outside spending on the campaign. If you aren't associated with the candidate, you can't run adds for or against one.

2) Non-partisan redistricting and state level election commissions. This is ridiculous to leave to party affiliated Sec. States and Legislatures. Something like a 6 person committee with 3 of each party, or 2 of each party and 2 nonpartisan participants (Always hard to find truely nonpartisan ones though).

Any other concepts you think would work or are interested in discussing? Keep actual policies out of this thread please, this is looking at aspirational changes to how you think would improve government (Which means voter fraud, census, and voter ID laws are actually in play, despite being policies as well).

[bladeXcrasher]

Districting by non-partisan judiciary committees, fix the House so it's an actual representation of the states again.

Delete the EC or at least the winner take all aspect of it.

Change to a ranked choice voting system and loosen the restrictions on debates to allow for larger playing field, or at least head in the right direction.

[Endus]

1> A non-partisan civil service. Politics should have little capacity to affect the day-to-day operations of most government agencies, whether that's the FBI, the Post Office, welfare programs, etc. Politicians should be establishing new policies, not abusing the civil service to push a partisan agenda.

2> Building off that, any budget bill failing to pass should not lead to government shutdowns. Until a new budget is passed, the prior budget should remain in place, projected forward, allowing the civil service to continue without interference.

3> Further, somewhat related, the concept of a non-confidence vote, which is pretty standard outside the USA. If such a vote passes, an election is called (there's other options in other systems, like Canada's, but I don't think it's practical for the USA, since it requires an entity like a Governor-General). Such a vote can pass in either house, and does not need to be supported by the other; a non-confidence vote in either the Senate or the House of Representatives would be enough, not both. Budget bills are automatically non-confidence votes, if they fail to pass. This forces the party in power to play "nice" if they don't control both Houses, because they can get torn down if they don't. This may, given the divides in the USA, lead to a lot of wasted money and repeated elections, but if we handle #1 first, fuck it, it doesn't hurt the average American.

4> Unrelated to the above, but the Electoral College and the Presidential electoral process needs an overhaul to a system that isn't fundamentally predicated on appeasing slave states. Because that's what the EC is. It's a dumb system that makes no good sense.

[xChurch]

I think a lot of problems can be solved just by fixing the electoral process. No more EC, public financing, getting rid of FPTP, etc and you'd probably see most issues eventually take care of themselves. If you really wanted to fix up America for the 21st century though it starting to seem more and more like a full tear down and rebuild is required but...well good luck with that these days.

[Shadowferal]

Two general fields; financial and social. And financial issues are by far the greater ones.

Reestablish Progressive Income Tax.
This structure was in place from WWII until the early 60s. Bear in mind no one ever paid 91% of their income during that time. That max rate only applied to income over $400k. Adjusted, I believe that comes to roughly income over $5mil.
State and local taxes weigh even more on the middle class and lower income workers. To correct this, the federal government could create a system of rewards and penalties when distributing revenue-sharing money to the states. The more progressive a state's tax structure, the more money it receives.

Corporate Tax...pfft
Corporations pay less than they have decades ago. Corps paid 39%, individuals paid 61%. Currently corps pay 11% (stop adding payroll taxes. They don't count as corporate income). So we raise the corp tax rate to about 40%. (In the 50s it eas 52%. In 1996 it was 35%) Corp deductions need to be evaluated for either scaling back or eliminated altogether. (The essentially unlimited deduction for interest payments and the carryover deduction of losses...can go to hell.) Also foreign tax provisions need to be amended so multinationals can no longer move income around the world to escape payment of taxes.
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Of course the very first thing that needs to be done;
Campaign Finance and Lobby Reform
Until this is an issue that gets meaningfully addressed nothing will actually get accomplished beyond cheap talk...

[Thekri]

1> A non-partisan civil service. Politics should have little capacity to affect the day-to-day operations of most government agencies, whether that's the FBI, the Post Office, welfare programs, etc. Politicians should be establishing new policies, not abusing the civil service to push a partisan agenda.

I like this one in particular. One of the issues with our current federal and state level administrative services is that they all grew out of the executive branch as Governors and Presidents used them to extend executive power. Things like the Justice Department should absolutely not be part of the Executive branch in the first place, and there is no constitutional basis for any of the departments. Each of them grew from the expansion of the personal staff of their department head, who were part of the President's cabinet. When we started, the President's "Cabinet" consisted of personal advisors to the President, none of them had vast government bureaucracies behind them. But then those advisors started consolidating the function they were advising under their personal control, leading to the modern system where each cabinet secretary is the equivalent of the CEO of a giant corporation in addition to their advising job.

This is very bad for the country, as it gives the entire structure of the Federal bureaucracy to the rotating control of the Presidency. Granted, this is something that started happening immediately, but there is no constitutional base for it.

- - - Updated - - -

Two general fields; financial and social. And financial issues are by far the greater ones.

Reestablish Progressive Income Tax.
This structure was in place from WWII until the early 60s. Bear in mind no one ever paid 91% of their income during that time. That max rate only applied to income over $400k. Adjusted, I believe that comes to roughly income over $5mil.
State and local taxes weigh even more on the middle class and lower income workers. To correct this, the federal government could create a system of rewards and penalties when distributing revenue-sharing money to the states. The more progressive a state's tax structure, the more money it receives.

One of the catches to this is that extremely high incomes are not the primary driver of income inequality. The vast majority of the absurdly rich do not have particularly high incomes, but a few do.

For instance, Jeff Bezos probably has income in the 2-3 million a year range. He is worth billions, but it is in appreciating assets that are not taxed until they are sold. If you buy stock for $5 a share, it goes up to $500 a share, you don't pay any taxes unless you sell it. So they simply don't sell them, they just hold their wealth there. Even their charitable donations are usually direct stock transfers, which are sold by the charity (Which is tax deductible at the full value, not value - tax).

On the other hand things like entertainment celebrities do have huge incomes. Think sports stars, singers, TV Hosts, and that sort. Those do have huge annual incomes, although with net worth astronomically lower then the Bezos and Musk style billionaires.

So I am all for a Progressive income tax, but it doesn't have the impact a lot of people assume it will. The vast majority of the super rich will be unaffected.

[Shadowferal]

I like this one in particular. One of the issues with our current federal and state level administrative services is that they all grew out of the executive branch as Governors and Presidents used them to extend executive power. Things like the Justice Department should absolutely not be part of the Executive branch in the first place, and there is no constitutional basis for any of the departments. Each of them grew from the expansion of the personal staff of their department head, who were part of the President's cabinet. When we started, the President's "Cabinet" consisted of personal advisors to the President, none of them had vast government bureaucracies behind them. But then those advisors started consolidating the function they were advising under their personal control, leading to the modern system where each cabinet secretary is the equivalent of the CEO of a giant corporation in addition to their advising job.

This is very bad for the country, as it gives the entire structure of the Federal bureaucracy to the rotating control of the Presidency. Granted, this is something that started happening immediately, but there is no constitutional base for it.

- - - Updated - - -


One of the catches to this is that extremely high incomes are not the primary driver of income inequality. The vast majority of the absurdly rich do not have particularly high incomes, but a few do.

For instance, Jeff Bezos probably has income in the 2-3 million a year range. He is worth billions, but it is in appreciating assets that are not taxed until they are sold. If you buy stock for $5 a share, it goes up to $500 a share, you don't pay any taxes unless you sell it. So they simply don't sell them, they just hold their wealth there. Even their charitable donations are usually direct stock transfers, which are sold by the charity (Which is tax deductible at the full value, not value - tax).
.

It would be inclusive of the corporate tax structure. If it's of any monetary value it gets taxed, regardless of whether there's liquidity or no.
Any loopholes will be closed.

[Thekri]

It would be inclusive of the corporate tax structure. If it's of any monetary value it gets taxed, regardless of whether there's liquidity or no.
Any loopholes will be closed.

Fair, I get the concept, but it is really challenging to do so. But this thread is for concepts anyway, so that is fine. It is certainly worth looking at valid ways to do that.

[Milchshake]

Easy!

Nuke the Senate, it's anti representative.

Expand congress by 400 odd seats.

[Thekri]

Easy!

Nuke the Senate, it's anti representative.

Expand congress by 400 odd seats.

Well it is in the other half of the same building... you would need a very small nuke.

[Felya]

Compulsory higher education, supplemented by a social work force, for those that prefer or need hands on education.

[Thekri]

Compulsory higher education, supplemented by a social work force, for those that prefer or need hands on education.

On that note, I am personally in favor of actually condensing education, with more focus on Kindergarten through High School, and making college optional/relevant in certain professions only again. What I am concerned with is creating another necessary rubber stamp that you need to become an adult, while lacking an actual decent education at any step of the process.

What I would encourage instead is something like the Civilian Conservation Corps, potentially even exactly that resurrected and modernized. Have it function like the military for recruitment and job opportunities, while being objectively not a military. A good opportunity for upward social mobility and job skills while serving vital functions for developing infrastructure, combating natural disasters, and so forth. I think this is generally in line with your social work force suggestion.

[Shadowferal]

Fair, I get the concept, but it is really challenging to do so. But this thread is for concepts anyway, so that is fine. It is certainly worth looking at valid ways to do that.

I have an extensive list of things, including fleshing the above post with an assortment of details. If I had a reliable more 'net connection....
I mean, we laugh at Reagan's trickle down bullshit, but there were several tax "reforms" that were supposed to ensure everypne pays their fair share...but didn't. At all.

I take particular pride when I hear my colleagues say that this bill has the toughest minimum tax they hsve ever seen. It makes sure that everybody pays a fair share.
~~ Marty Russo (D-IL} in 1986
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There's just so much crap that needs to be undone before anything meaningful can be accomplished.

[Zan15]

Representation needs to change in a big way.

First Term limits on every representational position and SCOTUS.

EC abolished or fixed.
When a state that not only has a higher GDP then all of the "swing states" combined but pays more federal tax then all of them combined and gets back less than they pay in.. has less power in the govt then a state it supports with those taxes, something is wrong.
Either start breaking up states so they can be more representative of the country or give them the appropriate standing in the govt and elections.

If you say you don't want one state having all that power then stop making them pay all the bills while getting back less then everyone else out of it. (besides its 7-10 states that are way underrepresented)

Lobbyist. Illegal. Done. or at least regulated and forced every negotiation and conversation to be public information and taped.

Recalls or whatever term you want to call it. Let the voters decide on a POS Politian's career since the current process of impeachment and such are broke as fuck (two times now in recent history).

[jonnysensible]

abolish capitalism

[Gestopft]

What's his logic for undoing the seventeenth amendment? Because that would be...awful.

Of course the very first thing that needs to be done;
Campaign Finance and Lobby Reform
Until this is an issue that gets meaningfully addressed nothing will actually get accomplished beyond cheap talk...

I consider this patient zero for a lot of what ails us.

[Felya]

On that note, I am personally in favor of actually condensing education, with more focus on Kindergarten through High School, and making college optional/relevant in certain professions only again. What I am concerned with is creating another necessary rubber stamp that you need to become an adult, while lacking an actual decent education at any step of the process.

That would be covered by the social work force. Those who opt out, can go directly to working their way up from medial jobs. To facilitate this, since it would create more educated competition, these would be social programs driven by the government. There are a lot of low skill jobs that are ran by the government and with proper infrastructure growth, we can provide on the job training for folks who might not gain as much or be as inclined towards higher education.

What I would encourage instead is something like the Civilian Conservation Corps, potentially even exactly that resurrected and modernized. Have it function like the military for recruitment and job opportunities, while being objectively not a military. A good opportunity for upward social mobility and job skills while serving vital functions for developing infrastructure, combating natural disasters, and so forth. I think this is generally in line with your social work force suggestion.

Totally, I’ve discussed it many times before. I include that to avoid unnecessary conflict, since I do agree with this.

[Elegiac]

I think there's a very good argument for a lot of the small states in flyover country to be either merged or turned back into territories.

[jonnysensible]

give texas to mexico

[Elegiac]

give texas to mexico

You've heard of Brexit, get ready for Texa-Go.