Amend The Supplemental Emergency Pro Bono Civil Legal: Fill & Download for Free

Wow, this is such a big question! I'm not going to pretend I can change human nature, individually or collectively, or indulge fantastic ideas like "There should be no violence." That's true, but unachievable.Given the above limitations, I propose changes in five categories: civil institutions, social programs, economics, foreign relations, and miscellaneous.CIVIL INSTITUTIONSVoter ID: The Federal Government should issue photo IDs to interested individuals at no cost, and with available "house call" service to their doors. These federal IDs would be valid for all government uses including as voter ID, across the nation and extended jurisdictions of the United States. This does not replace states' rights to define who is eligible for the driving privilege, the right to vote, or other services. It only allows citizens to appeal to a different institutional analysis of those rules to see if they are correctly applied. This would, I think, minimize or eliminate the feared problem of voter disenfranchisement arising from government photo ID requirements to vote by ensuring that every eligible voter, no matter their circumstances, has access to valid voter ID.Legal Aid: A tax on lawyers' fees (waived in pro bono cases and criminal defense cases at taxpayer expense) should be levied, and the funds used to fund Legal Aid, more staff for district attorney's offices, and other sources of legal justice for the poor and underdogs. This would do a great deal to supplement the funding currently provided by collecting the interest from laywers' escrow accounts to fund these charities (a funding mechanism called IOLTA). Lack of financial resources should never be the reason for losing a legal case, and this increased funding would go a long way to reducing such miscarriages of justice. This falls under the category of tort reform.Open Primaries: Candidates for any elective office should be presented by the various parties to a state-run primary. Each party can choose its own nomination process. Each party that has received at least 1% of the vote (for all candidates for a particular office) in the previous election is allowed to present one candidate for inclusion on the primary's ballot. Parties that received at least 25% of the vote present two candidates each. Eligible voters from across the state vote in the open primary, choosing their first, second, and third choices for the office, with the option to write in the names of candidates that do not appear on the ballot. Each candidate has a victory condition, which is 50% for all candidates that have never served in this office and (50+2t)% for those who have served t terms in that office. While there are more than two candidates remaining, the candidate that is the furthest from their victory condition is dropped and their votes given to the next candidate on the voter's ballot (if it was the voter's 1st choice, the vote is given to that voter's second choice; if 2nd, then 3rd). The top two finishers go on to the general election, and ballot eligibility for the next election is determined from the percentage of the vote each party received in the open primary (including write-in candidates, so new parties and independent candidates can get ballot access). States have the option to allow or disallow write-ins on the general election ballot, to merely allow or to require major parties to present two options, or to allow primary ballot access based on signature petitions and other means besides success in the open primary. This open primary system has four major advantages over the existing system; it weakens the ideological hold of the major parties (promoting more of a "big tent" attitude), it counteracts the effect where incumbents are disproportionately likely to win elections, it encourages the participation of minor parties and independent candidates, and it gives the general public more influence over who runs for office (not just who wins those elections).Jails & Prisons: In an effort to reduce criminal recidivism rates and improve overall public health, the jail/prison system needs a major reform. Suspects need therapy, drug rehab, and other assessments to determine and address the pressures driving them to criminal behavior. Sentencing should not just be in years of prison time, but separated into categories based on demonstrably effective rehabilitation. Convicts with mental health problems need facilities specifically designed around effective treatment of those mental illnesses. Convicts with drug addictions need effective drug rehabilitation facilities. Convicts desperate from poverty need job training, so that they are not returned to similar desperation after they are released. Punishment is a reasonable aim for a prison system, but convicts returning to the outside world need to return to a healthy, productive role in society as a protection for society. Parole can help guide an ex-con in that new civilian life, but training for that new life should begin in jail and continue in prison. If and when that kind of rehabilitation is impossible, the far more expensive avenues of life in prison or capital punishment are the only avenues remaining. Prisons incapable of low recidivism rates need to be phased out in favor of the new style prisons. In the long run, the greater justice of rehabilitation costs far less money than the perpetual housing (or the drawn-out appeals process of execution) of our tremendously large prison population.Job Hunting: People change jobs a lot these days, and ought to more than they do as a check on employer's power. It'd be cool to have a very effective automated program that is constantly looking to place people in better jobs. While you work, while you sleep, and while you recreate, the jobs app is comparing your skills and preferences to all available jobs, and informs you of potential dream job matches. Opportunity won't just knock, it'll use push notifications.Campaign Finance: Moderate reforms should strengthen the wall of separation between corporate donations and political campaigns. The paper wall between SuperPACs and campaigns is too weak. Perhaps it would be better to keep donors' identities secret from candidates and their campaigns, so they are dealing only with revenue without any verifiable knowledge of to whom they owe their gratitude; that would prevent quid pro quo relationships without any violation of freedom of political speech as upheld by the Supreme Court. But how could the information be made publicly available while keeping it secret from the campaigns? If that's impossible, maybe SuperPACs could be limited to making arguments recommending issue positions and asking voters to vote for "any candidate who agrees" (without naming names). If corporate money cannot mention specific candidates or parties, perhaps coordination between campaigns and SuperPACs would be crippled. Maybe corporations should be allowed to donate money or lobby, but not both. I donno. Something needs to be done, and "take money out of politics" is a sentiment rather than a policy. I need to do more research, though.Election Districts: After each decade's census, election districts will be drawn up by a non-partisan committee of sociologists, city planners, census analysts, and other experts with the intent of drawing districts that respect non-political cultural differences within the populations. No more gerrymandering.Presidential Elections: The territories and Americans living abroad will collectively be given electorial votes for President on the same principle as DC; they get three, the same number as the least populous state. Thus, Americans in the territories will finally be able to cast votes for President.________________SOCIAL PROGRAMSHomelessness: The federal government should adopt a "Housing First" approach to addressing homelessness. This approach has proven in various cities and states that it is cheaper for the taxpayer to buy homes for the homeless and help them out of their state of dependency on government programs than it is to pay for expensive services (emergency room visits, shelters, etc) for the same population perpetually. Ronald Reagan said that welfare programs should be judged by how many people no longer need them, and "Housing First" is an excellent example of that principle in action.Education & Federalism: Legislation should be passed that keeps the federal government out of schools that have high graduation rates and high rates of graduate success in colleges, leaving their regulation to the states and communities that, seemingly, are operating them well. Conversely, schools that are doing poorly should taken over by the federal government's Department of Education and provided with emergency funding for a period of four years, with the express motivation of bringing educational outcomes above the national and state-wide averages. At the end of those four years, the schools' management will be returned to the state control with instructions to maintain the new style of operation for a minimum of four years or lose federal education funding. In short, states should be accountable to the federal Department of Education for gross educational failures, but the responsibility for running education should stay primarily (if they do a good job, entirely) with the states.Adult Education: English and employment classes should be available to all Americans in all 50 states and DC, at taxpayer expense when necessary. The Department of Education can manage this national program. The dignity that arises from earning your own way through your own job should be available to all. This would also likely lower welfare expenses, especially unemployment and the "free rider" problem with health costs; workers are more likely to be insured, especially since ObamaCare (the ACA).Immigration: Legal immigration (work visas, student visas, permanent resident status, and naturalization) should be streamlined to take months instead of years (excluding the refugee vetting system, which has proven very effective). Also, all immigration caps will be eliminated (especially for immigrating workers). The implementation of this program will correspond to increased border security, on the premise that anyone cheating the new, easier system knows they would not pass the security check (eg, they are smugglers or agents of hostile governments/organizations or something). A pathway to legal status without deportation will be offered to all people physically within the borders of the United States at that time, with the understanding that any future border-jumpers will face serious punishments and denied birthright citizenship after the reform takes place. All this will probably require a significant increase in federal employees of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Customs and Border Patrol, and perhaps other agencies at least temporarily. But in the end it results in a more open gate to the law-abiding and more security directed against smuggling, human trafficking, disease vectors, transplanting of invasive species, and the other hazards borders exist to protect against. It's easier to protect the borders when decent, desperate people don't have to intermingle with criminals just to get into the country.Abortion: Legal, safe abortion should be universally available to any woman whose consent was not given for the sexual act, whose life is threatened by the pregnancy, whose child is affected by serious birth defects, whose pregnancy is still early in the process (perhaps the first trimester, or the embryo stage; some standard of early pregnancy set by congress), or who was prevented by coercive force or threats of violence from getting an abortion in those early stages. But late-term pregnancies without unusual medical challenges resulting from consensual sex should be carried to term and, if unwanted by the birth parents or their families, adopted.Gay Rights: LGBT people should have equal access to housing, employment, military service, insurance, and especially adoption rights everywhere across the nation. Religions maintain the right to have whatever doctrine they want about the morality of same-sex attraction and its expressions, but they are denied any ability to punish those things except by denying official membership recognition to those individuals. Discrimination in the providing of charitable or other public services to individuals on the basis of sexual orientation is grounds for denying tax exempt status.Community Policing: Many places in America have serious cultural rifts between the civilian community and local police. These rifts need bridging. If that means police doing charitable work in these neighborhoods, side-by-side with locals, so be it. If it means town meetings where grievances can be brought to police attention or appealed to outside authorities (state police or the FBI, for example), so be it. If that means defying police unions in order to regain community confidence in the local police force, so be it. If it means communities democratically assembling institutions of legally armed civilians to protect the local community members from police deemed clearly corrupt, so be it. If a police department sufficiently fails a community, it is reasonable for the community to assemble a rival law enforcement organization to do a better job. While I firmly believe that the vast, vast majority of police in America do an excellent job serving and protecting their communities, I can't ignore the likelihood that there are a few bad examples among the police departments of such a large nation as ours. Repairs must always be possible.Science: Scientific research grants and subsidies should be at least doubled, and NASA funding restored. The use of fetal biomatter from medically induced abortions for scientific research should not be federally funded as a cautionary protection against turning humans into literal commodities, and the ban on the sale of human organs should continue. An organization should be created as a subsidiary of the National Science Foundation (perhaps in association with PBS, NPR, and/or Nova) to assemble periodic reports on the current state of scientific research in different fields for a reading/YouTube audience of legislators and voters. From abiogenesis to zoo conditions, from global warming to guns' effects on crime, vaccination safety, nutrition, what really causes cancer (and what doesn't), forensics, child development, etc... it'd be good to have a trustworthy one-stop-shop where a layman can go to learn what is and what is not currently accepted science. Free to the public, of course. It could be called the Science Advisory Agency (SAA).______________________ECONOMICSCapital Gains Taxes: The Warren Buffet problem, where the very rich who make money investing are not taxed to as high an effective rate as their less wealthy wage and salary employees are, needs to change, but in a way that does not undermine investment in startups that provide significant employment, infrastructure construction and upkeep, research and development, or other socially essential investments. Is there a way to distinguish large, long-term financial investments that do clear social good from large, long-term investments that do no particular social good? If so, I'd like to apply an annual but small tax on the possession of the unhelpful long-term class of investments over $1 million (2000USD, adjusted for inflation).Corporate Taxes: The corporate income tax rate should be slightly lowered for all categories (even slightly negative for very small startups), loopholes eliminated, and the tax rate also applied to payroll cost (bonuses and stock options included) of the top 10% highest-paid employees (presumably executives) of the corporation. This will increase the proportion of all tax revenue raised from corporate taxes, create a strong disincentive to overpay top executives, and do so without challenging the United States to attract major companies or those companies' ability to attract top talent to top positions.Payroll Taxes: Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security should be altered from the "personal accounts" model that creates such high payroll taxes (especially on the lowest income individuals) and instead allow other tax revenue to supplement personal savings. This will lower the cost of hiring people, thus lowering unemployment, while increasing the minimum level of benefits available and helping balance the revenue-to-payout ratio of these entitlement programs. Running these programs as welfare programs rather than entitlement programs makes far better fiscal sense.Income Assistance: The lowest income bracket should be a negative rate to make even menial jobs more financially rewarding. Furthermore, the unemployed and/or unemployable who provide their time and efforts to charitable causes should be eligible for an income tax refund even if it is volunteer work. This would encourage more people to apply themselves to the betterment of their community, and would help defer the costs of welfare programs both by encouraging private charity and by keeping folks active in socially beneficial pursuits. This can work as a stand-alone policy, or can be combined with basic income proposals or minimum wage increases.Defense Spending Priorities: A greater share of defense spending should go to vets services, serviceman/-woman compensation, veterans' hospitals, and other rewards and showings of thanks to our servicemen/-women. I'm also willing to cut defense to some degree. See also: Peacekeeping, and Deficits & Debt.Deficits & Debt: I propose a one-time spending cut funded 1/4th by tax revenue increases, 1/4th by defense spending cuts, and 1/2 by non-defense spending cuts, all relative to the previous year's budget. The sum of these deficit reductions should be such that payments on the national debt are at least 50% more than the interest payment alone. Let congress debate the details (perhaps drawing from the cost savings proposed in other points on this list), but this budget framework should continue until the federal debt is less than 80% of GDP. Thereafter, it should be the goal of the federal government to get the debt under 80% of GDP at least one year each Presidential term.Income Taxes: I mention above that I'm okay cutting the deficit in part through tax increases. If that means raising the tax rate on the rich, or creating a new super-rich tax bracket, or both... I'm okay with a slight rate hike. A highest marginal tax rate above 50% seems excessive, but 40% or 45% is probably fine, especially if only applied to income above the million-dollars-a-year mark. Personal income taxes are the most progressive form of taxation already; they don't need much reform.Pollution/Carbon Tax: A small tax on carbon emissions (eg, mining, refining, manufacturing, and fossil fuel sales) intended to differ the costs of the negative externalities of air pollution is not an unreasonable way to pay for the ever-increasing costs of environmental cleanup in the modern age. A similar tax on methane emissions applied to ranchers is also reasonable. One need not believe that humans are causing global warming to believe that environmental cleanup is costly but necessary. (I do believe that humans are causing global warming, though.)Energy: While coal (for electricity) and oil (for transportation) will likely remain the primary energy sources for the foreseeable future, investments in solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and nuclear power must continue. Of those, nuclear power has the best chance of producing electrical power on a scale that will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels in only a few decades. Let development and construction begin on new, extremely safety-conscious nuclear power plants in the United States once again.Currency: I'd like to put Sojourner Truth on the 20 instead of Andrew Jackson, put one of the ladies from the dollar coins (Susan B. Anthony or Sacajawea) on a new, gold-and-copper $5 coin, bring back the JFK half-dollar design, and put Martin Luther King, Jr., on a new $250 bill (utilizing the absolute best in anti-counterfeiting technology). The penny is to be discontinued. A regulation should be passed rushing the update of vending machines, coin counting machines, and such across the country to be updated to accept half-dollar, dollar, and five-dollar coins; I don't just want these to be collectors items, I want them to actually get used.__________________FOREIGN RELATIONSRefugees: Syrian (and future) refugees should be accepted based on successful navigation of the existing, very effective vetting system, not based on population caps, religious tests, or other irrelevant distinctions. The default response to refugees should be to accept them, with rejection only considered when background checks determine cause to reject. Employment and English language training should be available to them, as well as to everyone else in the country.Peace Corps: There should be a massive increase (perhaps 10x) in Peace Corps size and use. Charitable and reconstruction efforts across the globe should find Americans engaged in helping the world. Teaching and building schools; providing food, potable water, and medical care; constructing needed infrastructure; these aims and others provide many Americans an invaluable chance to do good in the world, and give people around the world a positive impression of Americans.Peacekeeping: The United States should master the art of peacekeeping. Some small portion of our military hardware/research budget could easily fund the necessary training, and we need not abandon any other military methodologies. Our military is the best in the world at many things, and another entry on that list can only be a good thing for America.Exchange Students: We should greatly expand our exchange student program, especially the part where American students study abroad. Not every American needs to know every foreign culture out there, but some Americans need to understand any given foreign culture in order to maximize the effectiveness of our diplomatic corps, US-based international companies, and other organizations. If even 0.1% of our student population studies abroad, our workforce will have a steady supply of such experts on various cultures and our negotiating position with the world will be greatly strengthened. Inter-state exchange students would also help more Americans see each others' perspectives. Creating internal cultural connections between north and south, between east and midwest and mountain west and west coast, between urban and suburban and rural, can only improve the unity of the American people.Foreign Policy: The United States should focus on spreading democracy and the free market to places where the population obviously desires those things (not indiscriminately everywhere), and should do far more to understand and respect local cultures, desires, and interests and to hold Americans accountable to reasonable foreign laws (here I'm thinking of Blackwater).War: The United States reserves the right to go to war unilaterally if we believe the cause is just, but more emphasis needs to be placed on choosing our battles wisely, getting congressional declarations of war, and building coalitions (including through NATO or the UN). We have a sovereign right to go to war, but we also have a profound, overwhelming duty to do so wisely or not at all.______________MISCELLANEOUSConspiracy Theorists: There should be a federal agency (perhaps the same or working in conjunction with the Science Advisory Agency mentioned in the Science bullet point) tasked with organizing and presenting public and declassified data that refutes conspiracy theories. There a need not be a direct debate with conspiracists, but the release of, say, uncensored records describing what was going on in Area 51 around the time of the Roswell crash would confront conspiracy theorists with the choice either to abandon their silliness or get even sillier. Either way, whether conspiracy theorists stop it or just become more easily dismissed, the rest of society is better off as a result.Military Composition: No income quintile (poor, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class, rich) should provide less than 10% of total military servicemen sent into combat. This would refute claims that the poor are sent into battle in service of the rich, and would help create bonds between rich and poor that would help unite the country across income brackets. It might even make the American people less eager to go to war.Guns: The principle of a generally armed populous must be maintained, but solid, taxpayer-funded research on the relationship between guns (their ownership, storage, use, and regulation) and crime/public safety should manage the specifics of the regulation. As long as at least a strong majority (at least 60% or 70%) of American adults can legally own a firearm if they so choose, the 2nd Amendment is not infringed. Equal gun rights for minorities (eg, legally armed blacks not getting shot by police more often than legally armed whites) is perhaps more important than the specifics of gun regulation.__________________________________________Over 30 separate reforms... is there any political topic you'd like to hear me opine on that I failed to address? If so, please mention it in the comments.