A More Perfect Union

A More Perfect Union PDF Author: Stuart Dunn
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 148174061X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
This book describes a fiscal plan designed to balance the federal budget without austerity or endangering the entitlement programs. It does this primarily through increasing income taxes on the wealthy by raising rates and eliminating deductions. It calls for significant savings in the cost of health-care delivery without diminishing services and an end to government waste and inefficiency. It largely eliminates poverty through raising the minimum wage, and a full employment program in which the government serves as the employer of last resort. This program is paid for by a new net-worth tax on the wealthiest 1 percent. The plan intends to improve economic equity and preserve political democracy by reducing the income/wealth disparity which exists today. The plan extends Medicare to all, eliminates payroll taxes, and funds entitlements out of the general fund. State and municipal costs are significantly reduced by absorbing Medicaid patients into Medicare, thus freeing up capital for necessary infrastructure repair and the expansion of education funding for preschool through college. Working- and middle-class families will see their first real increase in disposable income in almost thirty years through the elimination of the payroll taxes, the reduction in the personal cost of health care and the increase in the minimum wage. The full employment program and the increase in disposable income for so many will serve to stimulate the economy, bring about business expansion, and increase employment. The cost of doing business in America will be reduced by eliminating company contributions to the payroll tax, ending the need for company-paid health insurance and a reduction in the corporate tax rate. These savings will motivate bringing jobs home from overseas and increase the profit margins for American companies providing capital for research and development, modernization, and expansion.

A More Perfect Union

A More Perfect Union PDF Author: Stuart Dunn
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 148174061X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book describes a fiscal plan designed to balance the federal budget without austerity or endangering the entitlement programs. It does this primarily through increasing income taxes on the wealthy by raising rates and eliminating deductions. It calls for significant savings in the cost of health-care delivery without diminishing services and an end to government waste and inefficiency. It largely eliminates poverty through raising the minimum wage, and a full employment program in which the government serves as the employer of last resort. This program is paid for by a new net-worth tax on the wealthiest 1 percent. The plan intends to improve economic equity and preserve political democracy by reducing the income/wealth disparity which exists today. The plan extends Medicare to all, eliminates payroll taxes, and funds entitlements out of the general fund. State and municipal costs are significantly reduced by absorbing Medicaid patients into Medicare, thus freeing up capital for necessary infrastructure repair and the expansion of education funding for preschool through college. Working- and middle-class families will see their first real increase in disposable income in almost thirty years through the elimination of the payroll taxes, the reduction in the personal cost of health care and the increase in the minimum wage. The full employment program and the increase in disposable income for so many will serve to stimulate the economy, bring about business expansion, and increase employment. The cost of doing business in America will be reduced by eliminating company contributions to the payroll tax, ending the need for company-paid health insurance and a reduction in the corporate tax rate. These savings will motivate bringing jobs home from overseas and increase the profit margins for American companies providing capital for research and development, modernization, and expansion.

Congressional Record

Congressional Record PDF Author: United States. Congress
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1482

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Book Description


Obama Power

Obama Power PDF Author: Jeffrey C. Alexander
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745684211
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
What is the source of Obama’s power? How is it that, after suffering a humiliating defeat in the 2010 mid-term elections, Obama was able to turn the situation around, deftly outmaneuvering his opponent and achieving a decisive victory in the November 2012 presidential election? In this short and brilliant book, Jeffrey Alexander and Bernadette Jaworsky argue that neither money nor demography can explain this dramatic turnaround. What made it possible, they show, was cultural reconstruction. Realizing he had failed to provide a compelling narrative of his power, the President began forging a new salvation story. It portrayed the Republican austerity budget as a sop to the wealthy, and Obama as a courageous hero fighting for plain folks against the rich. The reinvigorated cultural performance pushed the Tea Party off the political stage in 2011, and Mitt Romney became fodder for the script in 2012. Democrats painted their Republican opponent as a backward-looking elitist, a “Bain-capitalist” whose election would threaten the civil solidarity upon which democracy depends. Real world events can spoil even the most effective script. Obama faced monthly unemployment numbers, the daunting Bin Laden raid, three live debates, and Hurricane Sandy. The clumsiness of his opponent and his own good fortune helped the President, but it was the poise and felicity of his improvisations that allowed him to succeed a second time. Converting events into plot points, the President demonstrated the flair for the dramatic that has made him one of the most effective politicians of modern times. While persuasively explaining Obama’s success, this book also demonstrates a fundamental but rarely appreciated truth about political power in modern democratic societies namely, that winning power and holding on to it have as much to do with the ability to use symbols effectively and tell good stories as anything else.

Exploring New Ways to Provide Enduring Strategic Effects for the Department of Defense

Exploring New Ways to Provide Enduring Strategic Effects for the Department of Defense PDF Author: Clark Murdock
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 144222858X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 53

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Book Description
CSIS undertook a study in support of Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Strategy and the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) to explore using U.S. military power in new ways to achieve high-priority strategic ends (derived from the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance). The project was informed by a series of in-depth interviews and a Core Working Group with experts from outside the U.S. government, including former government officials, current foreign government uniformed and civilian defense officials, global business strategists, and individuals knowledgeable in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

The Gallup Poll

The Gallup Poll PDF Author: Frank Newport
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442241330
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 547

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Book Description
This work is the only complete compilation of polls taken by the Gallup Organization, the world's most reliable and widely quoted research firm, in calendar year 2013. It is an invaluable tool for ascertaining the pulse of American public opinion as it evolves over the course of a given year, and—over time—documents changing public perceptions of crucial political, economic, and societal issues. It is a necessity for any social science research.

Obama's Guantánamo

Obama's Guantánamo PDF Author: Jonathan Hafetz
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479852805
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
The U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay has become the symbol of an unprecedented detention system of global reach and immense power. Since the 9/11 attacks, the news has on an almost daily basis headlined stories of prisoners held indefinitely at Guantánamo without charge or trial, many of whom have been interrogated in violation of restrictions on torture and other abuse. These individuals, once labeled “enemy combatants” to eliminate legal restrictions on their treatment, have in numerous instances been subject to lawless renditions between prisons around the world. The lines between law enforcement and military action; crime and war; and the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of power have become dangerously blurred, and it is time to unpack the evolution and trajectory of these detentions to devise policies that restore the rule of law and due process. Obama’s Guantánamo: Stories from an Enduring Prison describes President Obama’s failure to close America’s enduring offshore detention center, as he had promised to do within his first year in office, and the costs of that failure for those imprisoned there. Like its predecessor, Guantánamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison Outside the Law, Obama’s Guantánamo consists of accounts from lawyers who have not only represented detainees, but also served as their main connection to the outside world. Their stories provide us with an accessible explanation of the forces at work in the detentions and place detainees’ stories in the larger context of America’s submission to fearmongering. These stories demonstrate all that is wrong with the prison and the importance of maintaining a commitment to human rights even in times of insecurity.

The Price of Politics

The Price of Politics PDF Author: Bob Woodward
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471133877
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description
Based on 18 months of reporting, Woodward's 17th book is an intimate, documented examination of how President Obama and the highest profile Republican and Democratic leaders in the United States Congress attempted to restore the American economy and improve the federal government's fiscal condition over three and one half years. Drawn from memos, contemporaneous meeting notes, emails and in-depth interviews with the central players, THE PRICE OF POLITICS addresses the key issue of the presidential and congressional campaigns: the condition of the American economy and how and why we got there. Providing verbatim, day-by-day, even hour-by-hour accounts, the book shows what really happened, what drove the debates, negotiations and struggles that define, and will continue to define, the American future.

It's Even Worse Than It Looks

It's Even Worse Than It Looks PDF Author: Thomas E. Mann
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465096735
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Acrimony and hyperpartisanship have seeped into every part of the political process. Congress is deadlocked and its approval ratings are at record lows. America's two main political parties have given up their traditions of compromise, endangering our very system of constitutional democracy. And one of these parties has taken on the role of insurgent outlier; the Republicans have become ideologically extreme, scornful of compromise, and ardently opposed to the established social and economic policy regime.In It's Even Worse Than It Looks, congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein identify two overriding problems that have led Congress -- and the United States -- to the brink of institutional collapse. The first is the serious mismatch between our political parties, which have become as vehemently adversarial as parliamentary parties, and a governing system that, unlike a parliamentary democracy, makes it extremely difficult for majorities to act. Second, while both parties participate in tribal warfare, both sides are not equally culpable. The political system faces what the authors call &"asymmetric polarization," with the Republican Party implacably refusing to allow anything that might help the Democrats politically, no matter the cost.With dysfunction rooted in long-term political trends, a coarsened political culture and a new partisan media, the authors conclude that there is no &"silver bullet"; reform that can solve everything. But they offer a panoply of useful ideas and reforms, endorsing some solutions, like greater public participation and institutional restructuring of the House and Senate, while debunking others, like independent or third-party candidates. Above all, they call on the media as well as the public at large to focus on the true causes of dysfunction rather than just throwing the bums out every election cycle. Until voters learn to act strategically to reward problem solving and punish obstruction, American democracy will remain in serious danger.

Inside the Campaign Finance Battle

Inside the Campaign Finance Battle PDF Author: Anthony Corrado
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780815715849
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
In 2002 Congress enacted the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), the first major revision of federal campaign finance law in a generation. In March 2001, after a fiercely contested and highly divisive seven-year partisan legislative battle, the Senate passed S. 27, known as the McCain-Feingold legislation. The House responded by passing H.R. 2356, companion legislation known as Shays-Meehan, in February 2002. The Senate then approved the House-passed version, and President George W. Bush signed BCRA into law on March 27, 2002, stating that the bill had "flaws" but overall "improves the current system of financing for federal campaigns." The Reform Act was taken to court within hours of the President's signature. Dozens of interest groups and lawmakers who had opposed passage of the Act in Congress lodged complaints that challenged the constitutionality of virtually every aspect of the new law. Following review by a special three-judge panel, the case is expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003. This litigation constitutes the most important campaign finance case since the Supreme Court issued its decision in Buckley v. Valeo more than twenty-five years ago. The testimony, submitted by some of the country's most knowledgeable political scientists and most experienced politicians, constitutes an invaluable body of knowledge about the complexities of campaign finance and the role of money in our political system. Unfortunately, only the lawyers, political scientists, and practitioners actually involved in the litigation have seen most of this writing—until now. Ins ide the Campaign Finance Battle makes key testimony in this historic case available to a general readership, in the process shedding new light on campaign finance practices central to the congressional debate on the reform act and to the landmark litigation challenging its constitutionality.

America's Plans for World Hegemony

America's Plans for World Hegemony PDF Author: Calistrat M. Atudorei
Publisher: ePublishers & Editura Coresi
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
The book acidly tells us a story of the rise and decline of one of the greatest empires ever—and surely the most prominent empire, as the existing one in our life time. The most prominent and as the statistical abstracts and documents of the US Congress reveal the most addicted of all empires to an old and continuous military interventionism in every corner of the world. At the beginning of his book the author lists and examines closely the new and century-old principles and doctrines incorporated into American foreign policy as a combination between diplomacy and war, and almost always the latter being the winner—i.e. American exceptionality, Monroe Doctrine, Teddy Roosevelt’s “Speak Soft and Carry a Big Stick” diplomacy, Show-the-Flag strategic idiom, Gunboat Diplomacy, Truman and Reagan doctrines, the Domino Theory, the neoconservative Project for a New American Century, Bush Jr. Doctrine of preventive wars etc. Then, quoting highly qualified American sources, the author shocks the reader as he concludes that “the US is no longer a truly democratic state, but one led by oligarchy, an ‘Elite’ that no longer represent the will of the population.” He also emphasizes with logical arguments the existence of the US “Military-industrial complex,” the Deep State, the Financial Cartel etc. He unveils an America in the twilight zone of secretive planning and leadership, strictly controlled global institutions, wars and neocolonialism in the Middle East, Latin America and East Europe, and of 75 years of Soviet Union/Russia incisive and limitless budgeted strategies of confrontation. Basically, in his book Mr. Atudorei exposes a perpetual chain of historical misdeeds having America as its originator: America addicted to militarism; an American militarism addicted to aggression, war and imperial supremacy; 240 years long and continuous American wars addicted to millions of victims; finally millions of victims forgotten by a political propaganda machine addicted to falsehood, deception and lies, and calling invasions, coup d’états and aerial bombings as “humanitarian interventions” bringing peace, freedom and democracy… Radu Toma When referring to the world hegemony of the US, the author points out that in fact the first victim of such a policy is the American people itself who became captive of more or less hidden centers of power (called in various ways: global oligarchy, the military-industrial complex, the financial-banking elite, etc.), centers that usurped the real power in the state and transformed the democratic political system into a simulacrum for the use of masses subject to sophisticated social engineering. Calistrat M. Atudorei shows that the US as an empire with pretention of absolute global supremacy tends to impose its dominance both through non-military wars—cultural, ideological, media, economic—as well as through direct military invasions aiming to punish regimes and nations that do not want to be subjected to them. Working with consistent arguments, the author emphasizes that the plans of subjugation of the whole world are neither recent nor do they relate to the preferences of people who become US presidents. On closer examination, the so-called hosts of the White House appear to us like ordinary puppets in the hands of forces behind the curtain. See in this regard, for example, the current US President Donald Trump’ case, who abandoned his electoral rhetoric, being shaped by the “Deep State” on the line of serving the interests of this all-powerful nebula to the detriment of the American people and peace in the world. Iurie Roşca