Name 10 things the new Democratic Congress should do:

We've heard our new Congressional leaders mention a few items that they plan to address in the "first 100 hours" after we take charge. They've mentioned raising the minimum wage, implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and allowing Medicare to use group bargaining power to negotiate lower drug prices. It also looks like we may soon take the first steps towards bringing our troops home from Iraq.

What's at the top of your "to do" list?

Do you agree with our leaders? Do you have your own list? Even if you have one, or five, or nine ideas, let's hear your ideas as to what the new Congress should do to make this country a better place.

In no particular order, here is my list:

1) Health Care - I believe we should push an incremental plan that eventually results in guaranteed health insurance for all
Americans. Nancy Pelosi has said that she will push for a plan similar to what they have in San Francisco
whereby all children are guaranteed health insurance, and they retain it until they are 25 years of age. I
fully endorse her "San Francisco Plan", and I would expand it to include all new and expectant mothers,
regardless of age, or other factors.

2) Minimum Wage - The minimum wage has not gone up since 1998. Because of inflation, minimum wage earners today
earn about 30% less than thos in 1998. That's eight years with not only NOT getting a raise, but
effectively getting a pay cut due to inflation. We can't let this happen anymore. Not only do minimum
wage earners deserve an immediate raise (up to about $7.50 per hour), but we must also see to it
that minimum wage earners are never again subject to the sadistical whims of right wing politicians.
This past eight years of effective pay cuts was a repeat of the 1980's when the minimum wage was
raised in 1981, but not again until 1990. We cannot allow our most vulnerable workers have their wages
set by the likes of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. We need annual inflationary increases in the
minimum wage. We cannot settle for a raise without the mandatory annual increases.

3) Tax Fairness - Since the days of Ronald Reagan, the GOP has worked to reduce the tax rates of the wealthiest
Americans. Reagan reduced the number of brackets and he reduced the rates paid by those in the
highest brackets. The difference is left to be paid by those in the lower tax brackets, or not at all, resulting
in a loss of one service or another. Since the arrival of Reaganomics, the right wingers have worked to
reduce or eliminate other taxes paid by wealthier Americans: Capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, estate
taxes, property taxes, all the while continuing to push for cuts in the top brackets.

In order to work for tax fairness, we need to fight to reduce the taxes paid by working individuals, and
have the difference made up by wealthier individuals. The best way to accomplish that is to increase the
exemptions to federal taxes. I would suggest that each adult receive an exemption of $20,000 per year,
with an additional $5000 annual exemption for each child. That way, a family of four would pay $0 per year
in federal income tax with a $50,000 income.

The Republicans like to claim that it's more important to cut taxes for the wealthy, because they will then
use the money to "create jobs", and that the wealth will eventually trickle down to the wage earners. I
think the Clinton years proved that the best economic plan for America is to have everybody working and
bringing home a paycheck. Consumers with money to spend create jobs, not rich Republicans.

4) Fair Trade - We've watched as hundreds of thousands of jobs have left this country for overseas to places like China,
India, and Indonesia. Workers in those nations now make a huge percentage of the products sold on the
shelves of places like Walmart. Just try to find a plastic child's toy this Holiday Season that WASN'T made
in China. American corporations now import their goods from developing nations that treat their employees
in manners that would get the executives thrown in jail, if they did that in America. Likewise, those foreign
manufacturers damage the environment in ways that would lead to jail time in this country.

The jobs continue to leave on a daily basis.

In addition, China and Japan have been manipulating their currencies, making their products more affordable
to Americans, while making our products unaffordable to their consumers. Michigan GOP Gubernatorial
candidate Dick DeVos said that the only reason he opened factories in China, was because they wouldn't
allow him to sell products there, that were manufactured here. Why can't we provide the same protection
for our workers? Why can't we insist that they open their markets to our products, if they want to sell their
products here? Part of the reason is that the American corporations that profit from the cheap Chinese
labor have been writing our trade policies in the past. That must end.

We must insist that they open their markets to us, or else we will close our market to them. We must also
insist that they let the value of their currencies float on the open market, and that they also provide
compensation for their past abuses of currency values. We need the Congress to fight for American workers
and for corporations that still manufacture goods in this country.

5) Corporate Citizenship - We need policies that help corporations that remain in America and continue to provide jobs in this
country. Conversely, we need to punish those corporations that do otherwise, such as those that
send manufacturing facilities overseas, or those that create paper home offices in Barbados, in
order to dodge American taxes. We need to aid the companies that pay living wages, and provide
health insurance to their employees, and we need to punish those that don't. The way to do this is
through the tax structure. Provide lower than current tax rates for those that do pay their
employees well, and provide higher than current rates for those who don't. Ditto for those that do
and don't provide health insurance. We can also provide tax relief for corporations that manufacture
goods in America, and sock those that import from slave labor countries with higher (MUCH
higher) tax rates. Hit them so hard with taxes that it becomes cheaper to open factories in this
country. Make it cheaper to pay your employees well.

6) Nationalize the energy industry - The energy industry, including oil & gasoline, natural gas, and electric service have
proven that they will do whatever it takes to make obscene profits, even if it bankrupts
the American consumer. We cannot tolerate that any longer. We cannot allow them to
threaten our economic security any longer. "We the People" should own the refineries,
the pipelines, the electrical generation plants, and the transmission wires, and we
should own the retail gas stations. Those that currently own all of these entities have
proven that they are a threat to our nation, and they should lose their ownership
privleges for it.

7) Iraq - Bring the troops home. The tyrant is out of power, he's been convicted, and he will soon be executed. The Iraqis
voted, and they have voted again. They have voted for the Constitution, and they have voted for the Parliament.
We've all seen the purple thumbs. We can't run their country for them, and they won't run it themselves while
we're there. They'll only do so when they're forced to. That time is now. Bring the troops home.

8) Strengthen Social Security and Medicare - Social Security will remain solvent until about 2040, Medicare until about 2015.
The baby-boomers are about to begin retiring and we will soon need to take
steps to insure the long term solvency of those very important programs.
Anything less will leave the door open to right wing agitators who will try to
eliminate or privatize the programs. We can't let that happen.

9) Public Education - We need to improve our public schools, especially those in the big cities. Declining tax bases are
robbing these districts of revenue and are exacerbating the problems that already exist. With the
falling revenue, discipline and drop out rates will continue to get worse. Class sizes will grow, and
the quality of education will suffer. We need an educational policy that recognized the vulnerability
of our big city school districts and works to improve them, rather than letting them continue to decline.
Vouchers won't help inner city schools, nor will non-union teachers solve the problems. The big city
school districts have the added burden of older buildings that need more money for maintenance and
repairs. The suburban districts have more money to spend on books & supplies, and also on teacher's
salaries. Couple that with the higher degrees of relative safety in the suburban schools and we have
a system where our best teachers migrate from the big cities to the suburban schools. If our big city
schools are going to match the quality of our suburban schools, they we are going to have to pay
the big city teachers comparably. Because of these factors and the falling tax bases in many of the big
cities, meeting these goals will require a higher rate of spending in the big city schools. We need to
make a financial committment to saving all of our public schools. Failing to do so will open the door to
the right wingers who want to destroy the public education system that has done more to pull
Americans out of poverty than any social program.

10) Civil Rights - America has come a long way since the days when African-Americans were counted as only 2/3 of a person. We've come a long way since the days of slavery, Jim Crow, and the lynchings, but we still have a long way to go to guarantee basic civil rights to all Americans. Overt discrimination still exists in this country as does de facto discrimination, both of which work to trap brown skinned Americans in an "economic sub-class". No group, however, bears the brunt of discrimination in this country more than homosexuals. The right to a legally recognized marriage is denied, along with the basic human dignity that goes along with that right. Probate rights are denied. Insurance rights and coverage are denied. Hospital visitation rights are denied. I doubt the Family Leave Act even applies to homosexuals.
(How can you take time off work to help your spouse, if you can't even marry the person?). Basic rights
are denied to homosexuals by the fundamentalist Christians who sometimes have an awful lot in
common with the homosexuals they suppress, when the lights are turned off. We cannot allow the right
wingers to continue to deny basic human rights and dignity to the homosexuals. We must fight to extend
full family and spousal rights to homosexuals. America will never be the "Land of the Free" until this final
civil rights frontier is conquered.