If I had a million dollars...

...or maybe several tens of millions.

I know that CmdrSue tagged me to do the Meme of Seven, but I was more inspired by her Liberal Values Index. This is what I was thinking about as I rode home yesterday from the Midwest and drank way too much caffeine. Hence, I am still awake. This is also why I haven't gone to bed yet.

I am under no illusion at all that anyone cares or listens to what I say on this blog. However, if I were running for Congress as a Democrat in 2006, I would write a book. I would put all the most important information in the first two chapters, so that if you didn't read the whole book, you'd still get the idea. This is the outline for that book. This idea, of course, is inspired by Newt Gingrich. Also, I would not claim ownership for any of the ideas below. All of them are just things that I believe in. Al, if you're interested, feel free to lift anything from below.

Find this as a word file at http://www.people.virginia.edu/~mjl6p/five.doc

I) FIVE FUNDAMENTALS OF FREEDOM
It is a profound and simple truth that freedom isn’t free. However, its cost can be described, if not counted.
A) Self-Determination
All individuals, groups, and nations should have the right to choose their own path in and way of life.
B) Mutual Accountability
If individuals, groups, or nations choose their own way of life, the responsibility for that choice lies with them. Citizens, both individual and corporate, should be accountable to their government and to each other. The government should be accountable to its citizens. Government is no more inherently bad that its citizens. It is by holding each other accountable that the good can be maximized.
C) Honesty and Openness
If one is accountable for one’s actions, then one must be prepared to not only be able to honestly give an accounting for those actions, but to fully and openly disclose one’s dealings.
D) Service
The great religious and philosophic traditions maintain that how we treat others is how we treat ourselves. Helping others to free themselves is the way we can experience true freedom.
E) Fair Competition
Honest, accountable, and fair competition draws out good from the human spirit—whether that competition is in the arts, athletics, academics, politics, or the marketplace. Fairness means not that everyone competes on an equal playing field, but that everyone competes at a level which matches their abilities and meets their needs.

II) A MODEST PLAN FOR GROWTH
A) Fairness in Taxation
1) Building an economy on tax cuts and deficits is like building a house on the sand.
2) Fairness is not equality—to whom much is given, much is demanded.
a) The Graduated Income Tax is fair.
b) The Estate Tax is fair.
c) Consumption Tax is fairer than a Sales Tax.
3) Any company that does business in the United States must make public its assets and that of any of its holding companies or subsidiaries.
4) Tax loopholes for wealthy corporate or individual citizens should be closed.
B) Funding National Priorities
1) The federal budget deficit is made worse by reckless spending.
2) We must establish a clear, concise list of national priorities.
3) The GAO should give ratings to every budget item based on how it matches with these priorities.
4) This information should be made public to every citizen via the internet.
5) We should end corporate welfare, except where it meets vital national interest.
a) For instance, we should phase out farm subsidies, except for farmers or agribusinesses who harvest renewable energies such as bio-diesel, bio-mass, or ethanol.
C) Sustainable Security
1) We must have resolve in the face of opposition.
a) We must succeed in Iraq and Afghanistan, however, success is not measured solely by the number of American boots on the ground.
b) We must increase the size of the Army.
c) We must bring terrorists and their crimes to the public eye, not just kill them.
d) We should favor consensus over secrecy whenever reasonable.
2) Long-term strategies for success
a) We cannot invade every country with whom we disagree.
b) America is a brand that the world will choose to endorse or not endorse.
c) We must encourage the growth of peaceful democracy and free markets.
d) We should openly support peaceful democratic movements with more than words.
e) America should be a positive voice for change.
i) Our government should sponsor development and aid in poorer countries.
ii) A guest worker program is preferable to a wall.
D) Energy Independence
1) We cannot be held hostage by petroleum tyrants.
2) We need to harvest renewable energy.
a) Bio-diesel
b) Bio-mass
c) Solar and Wind to Hydrogen
3) We need to invest in Nuclear Power.
a) Nuclear fission is the cleanest, safest energy we have.
b) We need to invest in nuclear fusion, the energy of the future.
4) We need to use our abundant coal more cleanly.
E) Valuing Faith
1) We need to assume that all people are men and women of goodwill and want to see their fellow citizens flourish.
a) We need to earnestly listen to the voices of all faith communities.
b) Liberals need to respect the voices of Christian Evangelicals.
c) Humanists need to affirm that their values system is a values system like that of any religion.
i) Religion is from a Latin word that means “the tie that binds us together as people.”
d) Christians should recognize that our equality from God comes from the “image of God” which we all bear.
e) Christians should recognize that they do not “earn” their possessions or their livelihood, but that all good gifts come from God.
2) We need to encourage a culture of life.
a) Liberals should work to minimize or eliminate the incidence of abortion, a morally troubling phenomenon, by encouraging…
i) Abstinence,
ii) Condom and Birth-Control Use,
iii) and Adoption.
b) We all should work to make sure that the death penalty, if applied, is only done so justly.
i) All potential death-row inmates should have access to a lawyer paid for by the government at an equal grade to their prosecutor.
ii) DNA evidence should incontrovertibly link death-row inmates to the crimes for which they have been convicted in a court of law.
3) We need to value people.
a) A healthy economy is not the only goal of our society.
b) All American workers should be paid a fair wage.
c) Those who are marginalized should be given assistance to rebuild their lives.
i) Social services are an integral part of a fair government budget.
ii) Private contributions cannot provide for all the country’s needs.
iii) Government should not discriminate by religion when giving funds to social service providers.
F) Educational Responsibility
1) The economy will continue to change and jobs which employed thousands decades ago will become obsolete. However, new jobs will always be created.
a) There is a gap in this country between the current skills of unemployed or underemployed workers and the skills needed for the new jobs that are being created.
b) Government, Industry, and Individuals should all be responsible for closing this gap.
2) Students should be held accountable for their own learning.
a) If the government requires students to take standardized tests, it should provide educational benefits to the individuals who meet the standards.
i) Students who meet state standards as a junior in high school should be given free tuition for two years at any public junior college.
ii) Students who demonstrate excellence on state tests should be given appropriate grants, not loans, to attend state universities.
iii) Students who underperform should be required to repeat the appropriate schooling and given one second chance to earn the same rewards as their peers.
3) The Government should encourage excellent teaching.
a) Those who demonstrate excellence in their profession should be rewarded in their paycheck.
b) Salaries for harder to find subject-area teachers, such as science, math, and foreign language, should be more equal to private industry.
c) Underperforming teachers should be expected to complete university-designed remediation programs.
4) Industry should promote technology in the classroom.
a) Tax-credits should be given to companies that sponsor or donate technology to public schools.
G) National Health Accountability
1) Health-care costs make American businesses less competitive with and American workers less productive than other first world workers.
2) So far, only businesses and individuals have been responsible to government for their health care.
a) Government should pay for a basic level of health care for all citizens.
i) This should include routine and preventative care, including a gym or health club membership.
ii) This should include a certain level of medically necessary and common services which could fluctuate yearly—but not decrease between a certain level—based on the availability of funds.
iii) Affordable co-payments should be made for every medical service rendered that are of a fixed percentage of the medical service’s cost.
iv) Health Care providers would be expected to digitize all medical records, for which the government would take final responsibility to maintain and keep private.
v) The Government would provide all citizens with a patient’s bill of rights, allowing them a choice of health care providers.
vi) The Government would use its negotiating power to purchase drugs at a low cost for seniors, rather than giving pharmaceutical corporations more corporate welfare.
b) Since businesses would be saved a large percentage of medical costs, they would be expected to offer supplementary medical insurance to every full- OR part-time worker to cover the things which government can or will not.
c) Every employer would be expected to offer every worker some type of Flexible Spending or Health Savings Account.