Opinion on what economic policies the US government should pursue

[1978 New Wave skinny trousers]

Fiscal Policy:
Government spending on social services and public services such as Medicare, Social Security, and infrastructure should be high. This is because these are services that help people and make their lives better. Deficit hawks may complain that this would increase the debt too much. However, this increase in spending would be offset by high taxes and a moderate amount of military spending, unlike the bloated military budget that exists now. The main purpose of the high taxes, though, would be to reduce income inequality and make the rich pay their fair share. Also, the cut in military spending and the raise in taxes would not be a burden on the economy. This is because the economy is not in a recession at all; the economy is doing OK. Therefore, increased stimulus is not necessary.

Monetary Policy:
The Federal Reserve should keep interest rates low, because there is no need to raise rates when inflation is as low as it is now.

Trade Policy:
Generally, free trade is a good thing. However, it coupled with an overvalued US dollar creates a trade deficit, causing losses in US manufacturing employment. It is not automation that causes this. If automation caused this, then productivity would rise. However, productivity growth has been very slow during the decline of manufacturing jobs. To reduce the trade deficit, the US should pursue a weak dollar policy and negotiate a deal similar to the Plaza Accord. To offset job loss due to the trade deficit, the US should substantially improve its Trade Adjustment Assistance program. In regards to the TPP, it was good that it was withdrawn, because all it was was patent protection. NAFTA, on the other hand, should not be withdrawn, because it has had a net economic benefit on the US.

Unfortunately, most of these policies are unlikely to be implemented due to the government being controlled by Republicans.

[Kingpoleon]

Trade:
- Enter a free trade agreement with India, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, New Zeland, Japan, maybe Hong Kong if possible, and other democratic Asian countries.
- Secure an official trade deal with the Commonwealth
- Prevent free trade with human rights violators, notably Syria, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and various others
- Help the government in India advance the country's economy

Fiscal:
- Decentralized administrative welfare with federal funding
- Temporary support for Collins-Cassidy; later introduce Wyden-Bennett for UHC
- High speed rail mostly paid for by state with federal and business subsidies on a 2:1 ratio
- One time tax of 50% of all net worth in order to pay down the debt(applicable to all who A) make >$1 million a year; or B) have >$15 million+ net worth)
- Nationwide 2.5% sales tax(Exemptions for those at or below 200% of their state's poverty line)

[Del Tachi]

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Laughable.  So you're literally going to take away half or people's wealth at once?  Most of those affected would have to liquidate assets (sell real estate, stocks, bonds, etc.) in order to come up with that kind of money; it would result in a stock market and housing market crash overnight.  

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How is this enforceable?  How can a sales tax only be applied to certain consumers?

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Can you say "Depositor Haircut"?

(I kid, I kid. We have better methods of creating equality than that!)

[Santander]

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How is this enforceable?  How can a sales tax only be applied to certain consumers?

Rebates or prebates. Not saying it's a good idea.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Spending Reform  Policy:

- Auditing any department where the federal government has allocated 50 billion dollars a year over the past decade

- Using the audit , cutting any program (defense and domestic ) which has been wasteful and reforming any program which has inefficient .

- Demanding NATO allies spend 2% of their GDP on defense

- Allow US government to import  prescription drugs from Canada thus , using it as a negotiating tatic to lower the price of prescription  drugs which will result in the costs of medicare and medicaid to go down

 Tax Policy:


- Cut income taxes on all Americans ( Having rates of 0% 10% 18% 25% 33%)

- Tax Income and Dividends at the same rate

- Cut the top corporate tax rate to 25% and have rates of(0%,5%10%,15%,20%,25%) and allow all businesses who have 4 or more employees to pay taxes at the corporate level and not the income level

- For Business who dont ship their jobs overseas or automate their jobs , their tax rate is reduced by 40% while companies who continue to layoff workers and either automate them or ship them overseas their tax rate is increased by 40%

- Eliminate the carried interest loophole

- Have a one time wealth tax of 40% on all overseas tax havens , and after that tax the money you put there at double the rate taxes are here in the US.


Domestic Policy:



- Allocate 100 Billion Dollars a year on infrastructure projects(this money will come from spending cuts in other areas and the wealth tax on overseas tax havens, and we still will have lots of money to spare)

- Invest more money in trade schools , and job training while massively cutting back spending in degree programs what dont get people jobs(mostly non English and History liberal arts programs)

- Allow people to by health insurance across state lines while setting minimum requirements for all insurance to provide catastrophic coverage

- Increase minimum wage for non dependents to $10.50 dollars and hour and have it adjust for inflation

- Reform welfare and transition it to workfare(on infrastructure projects) or job trainingfare .



Trade Policy


- Do Trade policy with countries one at a time and give more favorable trade deals to countries with similar labor standards as the USA.

- Make a rule that any country who tariffs US products we will tariff your products as well

- Countries who have gilded age labor standards(such as no min wage, child labor , or unsafe labor) tariff their products at 25%

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

Promoting the Public Good

- Raise the amount of money given by SNAP, make it apply to necessities like toilet paper, and raise the poverty line

- Institute a "luxury stamp" program to allow poor people to have basic quality of life improvements like an occasional soda, a nice dinner, etc.

- Make college public funded like K-12, stop doing charter schools, federalize school funding, increase education spending, give priority to struggling schools

- Invest in infrastructure

- Invest in parks and recreation

- Invest a large amount of money in the promotion of alternative energy

- Invest more in scientific research(esp. epidemiology and sustainable agriculture methods), and discourage not publishing results that aren't interesting. Make getting research into journals a part of grant funding.

- implement a universal healthcare system

- increase the minimum wage to $13.10

Tax policy

- remove the cap on payroll tax, increase it

- implement a carbon tax

- reduce corporate tax rates to the international standard of 25%

- increase income tax rates across the board, give gigantic deductions to people on welfare programs.

- implement a 5% VAT

Trade and foreign aid

- Enter a free trade deal with the same people in the TPP

- Push increased labor standards in these agreements

- Aid in infrastructure improvement in the developing world

- Spend more on fighting famine


Probably more I'd want, but this is a good starting point.

[mvd10]

Why not:

Spending policy

- Reform Medicare and Social Security (reforming is another word for cutting spending here tbh)

- Invest more in infrastructure and especially R&D (though most of the R&D spending should go to incentives for companies)

- Find other spending cuts if possible

Tax Policy

- Replace the corporate income tax with a VAT

- Implement a carbon tax. Maybe you can use the revenue for the R&D incentives I mentioned earlier

- Cut income tax rates paid for by repealing all itemized deductions except the one for charitable giving

- Replace the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance with a fixed credit for everyone who purchases health insurance including people who don't get employer-sponsored coverage

Trade Policy

- Finish TTIP and sign TPP

- Keep NAFTA and other existing trade deals

- More trade deals, especially with Asian countries

Regulatory Policy

- Squish the labor unions

- Rewrite Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley. They're better than nothing, but there are a lot of unnecessary rules in them (and there probably also are some areas that aren't properly regulated)

- Review all federal regulations and cut unnecessary red tape as much as possible

[vanguard96]

Making the US government focus on courts, military defense not regime change or humanitarian action seem to be two primary functions to emphasize. These two and the protection for fraud and dispute settlement to allow for the division of labor and private property.

Anything else is fluff and we should disarm the ability of the government to grant favors especially on the Federal level.

Ending the drug war would be a boon for the government. With that the opioid epidemic would go away as it is starting to go down in places that treat drug addiction as a health problem rather than a crime problem like Portugal.

I would also consider ways to quit the ineffective 'war on poverty"and the new unholy alliance of social conservatives and feminists behind the 'war on trafficking' that is more an attack on prostitution among consenting adults. The model of Australia and not Sweden seems to be the one I would follow toward that goal.

With all the reductions in lobbying for the prisons, the drug companies, the military hardware makers, big tobacco, etc then we can reduce our regulatory red tape.

With the auditing and reduction in the interference of the Federal Reserve in distorting the market the US can move in the right direction on economic freedom.

Combined with the reduction of corporate taxes with unneeded and unproven subsidies for big corporations we will see a return to prosperity long term with a heavy focus on private entrepreneurship.

If this is not acceptable to the liberals in CA or OR or the conservatives in TX or AL then let the states decide with only very limited oversight by the US government and state autonomy in economic matters will be the rule. When we force the issue one way or the other that's when we will see further conflict as the states clamor for federal money for infrastructure or military or social benefits.

[Suburbia]

Strict welfare reform. President Obama gutted the welfare reform in 2012.

[vanguard96]

Strict welfare reform. President Obama gutted the welfare reform in 2012.

In the very least get rid of so-called 'welfare cliff' where the benefits go down and you get less when you go over a certain threshold. That means people shun overtime, second jobs, promotions, and salary increases. This is so counterproductive when combined with the rules put in place to restrict what you can buy and also where they go through people's personal items to see if the woman has a boyfriend or someone else supporting them.

http://www.learnliberty.org/blog/the-welfare-cliff-and-why-many-low-income-workers-will-never-overcome-poverty/

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This can somewhat explain why you have people working at the same pay rate for a super long time. It is an absolute travesty of the system.