“These are the times that try men’s souls.”

— Thomas Paine

The vast majority of Americans (86%!) feel that Republicans and Democrats are more focused on fighting each other than on solving problems. Toxic tribalism has pushed us into black-and-white thinking – where one side is always right, and the other is always wrong.  Consequently, our country ends up in a hopeless position of lose-lose gridlock, thwarting ANY viable solutions to our national challenges.

Here’s the good news: most of our problems are solvable… and pretty simple. We must, however, embrace a paradigm shift in recognizing and appreciating that both sides are (often) half right and half wrong.  As such, we ‘simply’ need to meld the two ‘half rights’ together to create optimal, win-win, common sense solutions. This principle is nothing new. As Aristotle observed over 2300 years ago, “the answer often lies in the ‘golden mean’ between the two extremes.”

At the Thomas Paine Society, our mission is to research, design, and advocate such ‘golden mean’ solutions that will reunite Americans by putting ‘country over party.’

It’s time for solutions, not sides.

National Debt

It’s a mathematical certainty that we will go bankrupt unless we change our trajectory.

Over the last ten years, our national debt has more than doubled from $19 Trillion to $39 Trillion! (That first $19 Trillion took us 240 years to accumulate!) At the current trajectory, our economy will become insolvent and collapse in the next 10-20 years. As a result, not only will our entitlement programs be unable to pay their promised benefits, but we will also suffer the horrific consequences of exploding taxes, inflation, interest rates, and unemployment. As we approach the 100-year anniversary of the Great Depression, we are facing the reality of an even worse economic depression that will see the return of bread lines, families forced onto the streets, and the destruction of the middle class. The 1930s Great Depression brought about a 60% drop in wages, a 25% unemployment rate, a nearly 30% decline in real GDP, and 9,000 bank failures.  Given how hyper-connected global markets are today, and our significantly higher debt-to-GDP ratio, a modern-day depression would put those statistics to shame. This is a reality we cannot afford, but also one that we can avoid if we act now.

The Solution

  1. Congress must establish a ‘Simpson-Bowles’ commission of nonpartisan experts to do an actuarial analysis to recalibrate all entitlement programs to become sustainable. (To leave them knowingly unsustainable is tantamount to a Ponzi scheme victimizing the younger generation.)

  2. Congress must enact a mandate that all annual budgets be limited to a ‘sustainable’ deficit of 2-3%. (Allowances only for recessions and emergency conditions.)

  3. Compensation for congressional members and staffers will be terminated until such qualified budget is passed. (Like the rest of us: do your job, or don’t get paid.)

Immigration

America has ended up with a broken immigration system that must be addressed.

We presently have over 14 million undocumented residents subject to neither the rights nor the responsibilities of American citizenship. Our politicians are wholly complicit in creating this dysfunctional shadow society by failing to address ANY effective reform measures over the last 40 years. The time has come to solve this predicament.

The Solution

  1. Consistently secure the border under all future administrations.

  2. Establish a pathway for undocumented residents to gain citizenship.

    • All sufficiently employed undocumented immigrants with clean criminal records will have 3 options:

      • Apply for citizenship

      • Apply for seasonal work visas

      • Voluntary or assisted deportation from the United States

    • For those seeking options 1 or 2, individuals will be permitted to legally work and live in the United States until their applications are reviewed.

    • Those who can prove undocumented residency in the United States for at least 5 years will be given priority.

      3. Extend citizenship to law-abiding undocumented minors who have at least 3 years of enrollment in United States public schools (Dreamers).

      4. Businesses and individuals will be severely fined for employing undocumented workers.

      5. Reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and fund Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Inner-City Education

In America, every child should have an equal opportunity for a quality education.

Largely as a vestige of our 400-year history of slavery and racial discrimination, our inner-city schools have ended up separate and unequal. Generations of innocent minority students have been victimized with systemically inferior educations, achieving only a fraction of what their counterpart suburban students achieve. This has inevitably fostered a perpetual cycle of impoverished conditions leading to a greater tendency and vulnerability toward drug usage, unstable households, criminal behavior, and incarceration. In short, this is an outcome that punishes both the victimized students and society as a whole. This falls under the category of “We broke it; we need to fix it’’.

The Solution

  1. Over the last several years, there have been several inner-city ‘charter-like school’ models that have demonstrated remarkable success. Using what has worked from these successful modes, we have a responsibility to establish a nationwide system of these inner-city charter schools that would provide every desirous student a high-quality education that would finally give them an equitable opportunity in pursuing the American Dream. 

  2. Expanding affordable access to technical schools, trade programs, and community colleges should be prioritized to ensure as many citizens as possible have opportunities to succeed and contribute to society (i.e., the Workforce Development Act).

Wealth Inequality

As the rich get richer, the rest of us are being left behind.

While the ultra-rich get richer, the rest of us struggle to make ends meet, let alone afford the escalating costs of housing, healthcare, groceries, and education. Over the last 5-6 years, the top 1% have increased their wealth by 50%! This inflated aggregate wealth now equals the combined wealth of the entire bottom 90%! This extreme and obscene inequality is corrosive to a democracy that is predicated upon the common good of its citizens.  

The Solution

  1. Enact an ‘Employee Fairness Doctrine’ that would incentivize companies (with a reduced corporate tax rate) to share a greater percent of compensation with their workforce - vis-à-vis upper management.

  2. Levy an annual 1% ‘wealth tax’ on the ultra-wealthy.

  3. Reverse the recent Trump tax cuts on the highest income earners. Levy a 2-3% surtax on any income over $10 million, and 5% on income over $50 million.

  4. Rectify the ‘step-up provision’ (a massive tax loophole for the ultra-wealthy) that permanently extinguishes hundreds of billions in capital gains tax revenue through inheritance conveyances. 

  5. Eliminate ‘carried interest’ and other loopholes for the wealthy created by lobbyists.

  6. Levy a tax on unrealized capital gains above a certain threshold.

  7. Raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour, and have it increase annually at the inflation rate. 

  8. Lower middle-income tax rates by 2-3 percentage points.

“I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense.”

— Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Contact

Feel free to contact us with any questions, or to find out how you can help make a difference.

Email
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