What Compromise in Congress Can Look Like
As we are all aware, the US is more polarized than ever. At the same time, and perhaps as a result of this, we are all aching for things to be done on the most important issues in American politics. A solution to both of these problems is this list of ideas that I think could reasonably pass with bipartisan support in Congress:
Courts
I would have the Supreme Court justices impose a unanimous-decision rule on themselves as part of their Court rules.
Crime
A Criminal Justice Block Grant would be created where states and localities would receive funding to simplify their criminal justice system to two categories: nonviolent crime (addressed by civilian workers and corrected with fines) and violent crime (addressed by police officers and corrected with either life in prison or the death penalty, depending on what the criminal’s family chooses).
Education
Allow K-12 students in the US to stay in the public school system or receive $10,000 per year to pay for private school tuition. Every family, regardless of if their child attends public or private school, would receive an additional $5,000 per year, to be used after the student’s high school graduation. The money would only be given if the student is in good standing at a public or private school or being verifiably homeschooled. Under this plan, non-tuition fees for public school students could be paid for with the $10,000, eliminating many overhead costs in public school district budgets.
Environment
This simple five-point plan would be enacted to reach net-zero emissions worldwide by 2030:
Replace all current electricity systems with natural gas extracted using zero-emission fracking and carried using US pipelines in order to achieve energy independence;
Electrify all heat and transport systems with heat pumps, EV-charging roads, electric locomotives, low-emission ferries, and kelp-based sustainable aviation fuel;
Require all trash and wastewater to be incinerated with zero-emission incineration and require all incineration ash to be composted;
Replace all current agriculture systems with water-free vertical and cellular agriculture systems;
Capture and store remaining emissions with carbon-capture technology
Equality
Sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity would become protected categories in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, federally funded programs, credit, and jury service. I would also prohibit discrimination for people of color in public accommodations such as exhibitions, goods and services, and transportation. However, sex and gender identity would be separate protected categories and the LGBTQ rights law would not apply to religiously affiliated institutions.
Finance
Portions of the US federal budget would be simplified:
The Income Security budget function would be mostly phased out by 2030 because of the collective agreement minimum wage, meaning that working people wouldn’t need income security. Two programs, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Security Income, would remain after 2030. TANF would remain for working-age people who are temporarily unemployed because they are looking for work and can’t find some (regardless of if they have children). SSI would remain for working-age people who are permanently or semi-permanently unemployed because of illness, disability, or home responsibilities.
The Net Interest budget function would be mostly eliminated by my plan for wiping out the national debt, which would entail raising bank reserve requirements and converting banks from fractional-reserve to full-reserve banking.
First Amendment
First Amendment rights would be completely protected. I would:
Guarantee the government does not respect an establishment of religion by ending all taxpayer funding of religious activities and ensuring discrimination on the basis of religion is prohibited in government programs
Guarantee freedom of religion by ensuring students can attend religious private schools with their school choice money, and ensuring federal prisons accommodate the religious practices of prisoners
Guarantee freedom of speech by restoring net neutrality, legalizing whistleblowing and stopping aggressive enforcement of copyright laws
Guarantee freedom of the press and assembly by prohibiting law enforcement surveillance of the press or peaceful assemblies
Foreign policy
The US would increase donations to the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals program to help end all suffering in developing countries by 2030.
Guns
To keep unlawful guns out of the hands of criminals, universal background checks on all gun sales would be imposed, as would closing the Charleston loophole, prohibiting people with violent crime and/or hate crime convictions from buying a gun, requiring gun owners to report lost and stolen guns, and issue a buyback of guns currently owned by now-prohibited people.
Healthcare
I would create universal healthcare through which every American would be provided with a health savings account, to be used to pay for health insurance and out-of-pocket medical costs. Funding for accounts would come from individuals and families contributing money tax-free to their accounts. People who can’t afford to contribute would request government funds for their account on a sliding scale based on income and need. As for health insurance regulations, people would be able to buy health insurance as a group, which means entities could offer low-cost group health insurance. Savings not spent at the end of the year would carry over, enabling people to have a safety net for healthcare emergencies. People would be able to withdraw up to 10 percent of their total savings every three years tax-free to spend on anything they want, encouraging healthcare savings.
Immigration
The current system of visas would be replaced by a system of loophole-free, thorough universal background checks at the border. Once immigrants are in the country, they would have an eight-year pathway to citizenship: After they pay taxes, they would be allowed to live and work in the US for five years. After that, they could apply for a green card, giving them permanent resident status in the US and the opportunity to become a US citizen after three more years. All non-citizens currently living permanently in the US would be automatically granted citizenship after they pass the same background check that incoming immigrants pass.
Infrastructure
Spending on classic, physical infrastructure (transportation, broadband, power, water, resilience, remediation) would become part of the Farm Bill, previously limited to agriculture.
Jobs
In an effort to get people back to work and tame the supply chain crisis (which are causing high inflation), the following things would be done:
I would shorten the workweek from 40 to 21 hours, allowing people to work 6 hours each day Monday to Wednesday, 3 hours on Thursday, and not work Friday to Sunday. Workers would be able to set their own hours and choose where they work. I would also remove all overtime exemptions.
I would eliminate minimum wage laws and replace them with collective agreements between employers and stakeholders covering all workers.
My plans for universal healthcare, disability insurance, retirement benefits, and tuition assistance would eliminate the need for employers to provide these benefits. I would also create a federal paid leave program, allowing workers to count towards overtime up to 3 days of bereavement leave to mourn or attend services, 2 weeks of vacation leave to rest, travel, visit loved ones, or bond with family, 7 days of sick leave to recover from illness or care for a sick child, 26 weeks of family leave to care for a new baby, adopt a child, place a child in foster care, or care for a family member injured in combat, and 12 weeks of safe leave per year to find safety from sexual assault, stalking, or domestic violence. I would also give the US two paid public holidays: Labor Day (every year) and Election Day (in presidential election years only).
-I would make rapid home molecular Covid tests, and Pfizer Covid pills, free and widely available for everyone, regardless of insurance.
I would make rapid home molecular Covid tests, Pfizer Covid pills, transparent nanoporous reusable masks, HEPA filters, and self-cleaning surfaces free and widely available.
I would provide grants to states for them to establish universal pre-K for all 3 and 4 year olds, with parents able to choose the setting that works best for them, whether that be public schools, non-profit daycares, or Head Start. I would also establish an affordable child care program to ensure working families with children ages 6 months to 3 years making up to $150,000 per year who are not otherwise eligible for Early Head Start would spend no more than 10% of their income on child care. Parents in those families could also choose the setting that works best for them, whether that be individual nannies, family child care homes, or faith-based centers.
Marijuana
Recreational marijuana would be decriminalized nationwide, but not legalized. Medical marijuana would be legalized nationwide.
Military
All non-voluntary military service would be eliminated by mostly getting rid of the draft, though people of either gender aged 18-25 who are starting to build a criminal record would still be drafted in the event of war.
Pandemics
I would spend money on vaccines, biosafety and biosecurity, public health systems, and early warning systems for pandemic preparedness:
Build biofoundries for vaccine design and production.
Ensure vaccine trials are both large enough to detect rare side effects and include underserved populations by enabling the use of decentralized trial platforms.
Produce a genome sequence within a day of identifying a potential emerging pandemic threat, develop a safe and effective vaccine within a week, and begin rollout within a month.
Eliminate cold-chain transportation requirements and short-lived storage requirements.
Replace sterile injections with 3D-printed microneedle skin patches that can be self-administered at home, and eliminate the need for more than one dose with timed-release formulations.
Ensure vaccines are effective against all variants of a virus by using spFN (spike ferritin nanoparticle) vaccine technology.
Prevent laboratory accidents by requiring that labs who need to study potentially dangerous biological agents use computer models of them and not the actual pathogens.
Prevent the development of bioweapons by promoting strong international oversight.
Support social science research-based public health communication involving faith-based organizations, local leaders, family doctors, and other community voices to establish trusted communication channels.
Incorporate genome sequencing of samples from patients with unexplained fever and/or respiratory disease into routine clinical care.
Expand wastewater sampling in order to detect new pathogens circulating in communities.
Retirement
The current system of Social Security would be replaced with a program for paying lifetime benefits to workers after retirement, based on a collective risk-sharing fund that pays a base benefit amount in addition to bonus payments when the fund earns surplus investment returns. The fund would operate without any cost or liability to the sponsor. People would be eligible for the plan beginning at age 50. As for Medicare, it would be replaced by my universal healthcare plan (everyone 50 and older would automatically receive government funds for their health savings account without needing to request any).
Senate
Eliminate the 60-vote threshold needed to start debate on a bill, but keep the 60-vote threshold needed to end debate on a bill.
Taxes
All types of federal taxes would be reformed:
Individual income taxes would have easier-to-understand brackets. Any single-filer making less than $100,000 per year (or joint-filers making less than $150,000 per year) would not have to pay any federal income tax. Any single-filer making between $100,000 and $1 million per year (or joint-filers making between $150,000 and $2 million per year) would pay a 15% federal income tax. Any single-filer making more than $1 million per year (or joint-filers making more than $2 million per year) would pay a 30% federal income tax.
Payroll taxes would be eliminated, because the three things they pay for (Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment benefits) would be replaced by my universal retirement system plan, my universal healthcare plan, and my plan for expanded TANF and SSI benefits, respectively.
Corporate income taxes would get tiers back, only this time, they’d be simpler: S corporations would pay no taxes at all, and C corporations would pay a 15% global minimum tax (if they report less than $1 billion in corporate profits to shareholders) or a 15% global minimum tax in addition to a US corporate minimum tax (if they report $1 billion or more in corporate profits to shareholders).
Excise taxes would stay as they are.
Estate and gift taxes would have simpler brackets. Estates and gifts that exceed $1 million (or $2 million for couples) would be subject to a 70% tax. Estates and gifts not exceeding $1 million (or $2 million for couples) would not be taxed.
Technology
Section 230 would be reformed to hold companies liable for harmful algorithms, instead of users’ actions.
Trade
I would pursue an investment treaty with other developed countries to protect intellectual property rights.
Voting
My voting plan would do the following:
Make Election Day a paid public holiday (in presidential election years).
Require the use of the Punchscan vote counting system (with additional security steps) in all elections, including for absentee and mail-in ballots.
Allow automatic voter registration through DMV with ability to opt out.
Require photo voter ID in all elections (with voters able to obtain a free ID from their county registrar’s office up until the day before the election).
Allow for maintenance of voter rolls using information from state and federal documents.
Ban partisan gerrymandering.
Designate foreign citizens who interfere with US elections as inadmissible or deportable
Require online political ads to disclose who has paid for the ad.
Allow unlimited individual contributions to candidates with immediate disclosure of donations of more than $200.
With this plan, we can finally fulfill our founders’ promise of a nation of compromise. Don’t be fooled by the partisanship and polarization you see and hear inside the Beltway. There’s another path for American politics. Let’s take it.
by EMMA McQUADE