If you were elected, what would your agenda be?
ChadInFL has already laid out his here:
Introducing Senator ChadInFL (D-FL)
On today’s agenda:
1. Passage of Universal Single-Payer Healthcare
2. Resolution to Urge President Obama to begin implementation of a speedy withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq
3. Passage of the Global Warming Reduction Act of 2009
4. Passage of a Bill Officially Withdrawing the United States from the NAFTA and CAFTA Agreements
5. Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act
6. Passage of an Expansion of Stem-Cell Research using Government Funds
7. Passage of an expansion of Hate Crimes Legislation to include Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgender Persons
8. Passage of a Bill Allowing United States Military Persons to Serve Openly Gay if They So Choose
9. Passage of Free, Universal College Education for all
Meanwhile, the heads of millions of right-wingers simultaneously explode.
What would yours be?
Mine is below the fold.
My agenda (in no particular order)
1a. a resolution to urge the president toward a speedy but reasonable withdrawal of u.s. combat forces in iraq
1b. a resolution to forbid the u.s. from committing combat forces to any military combat until afghanistan is considered to be in stable condition
1c. a bill to strengthen the power of congress in the war powers act
2. a bill ensuring network neutrality
3. a bill to legalize creative “derivative work” based on others’ creative work (thereby expanding the law from just allowing parody) (just a back-burner idea in my head; i’d really have to research the copyright law scene to figure this one out)
4a. a bill to end new drilling for oil on u.s. soil by some reasonable year (i wanna say NOW, but that’s nowhere near reasonable unfortunately…so maybe 2010 or 2012?)
4b. a resolution to differentiate between “clean coal” as in free of pollutants but still producing carbon dioxide and “clean coal” as in coal burned with carbon-capture to prevent carbon dioxide release to the atmosphere
4c. a bill to end tax credits for carbon-emitting energy technologies and to give tax credits for carbon-capturing or carbonless energy technologies
4d. a bill to give tax credits for carbon-capture technologies (even if they’re not part of an energy-producing process-chain)
5a. a bill to bail out the auto industry with the condition that it must focus on the development of hybrid-fuel and non-carbon-emitting-fuel vehicles
5b. a bill to mandate that treasury money given to banks be used for the credit market and not to buy other banks
5c. possibly (since i’m not yet clear on the details of this): a bill to increase oversight (even if not necessarily regulation) of the hedge fund, credit default swap, and derivatives markets
6. a bill to repeal the george w. bush tax cuts
7. a bill to fund a federal study on infrastructure repair needs and then to help fund states to make these repairs (what, the i-80 bridge collapse wasn’t enough of a wake-up already???)
8. a bill to repeal no child left behind and instead set up a more comprehensive and less testing-oriented federal education mandate program, including funding for early childhood education, substance abuse prevention, and college scholarships
9. a bill to institute pay-as-you-go (is this even possible at this point? i mean, even my stuff is probably crazy expensive)
10. (personal) an annual or even twice-a-year listening tour of my state or district to know what concerns my constituents
11. (personal) investigate flood control and wetland preservation options in the New Orleans area (including consulting Jim Harlan about his flood control plan)
12. reinstate the provisions that make Rep. Henry Brown Jr.’s actions illegal (in light of the news about the California wildfires, I suddenly have renewed reason to dislike him)
My concern is for #10 and #4a conflicting, as well as worry of the development of a gasoline black market if it becomes banned. I’d have to keep it flowing at a restricted rate to combat that, though we might be able to make up the rest with carbon capture technologies…
Okay, I think that’s good enough for starters. What are your ideas?