The Jacksonian Party and the Liberal litmus test

Hat tip to Instapundit on the Atrios Liberal litmus test being boiled down by a number of bloggers. While many have boiled this down, The Jacksonian Party will do a point-by-point review of the ideas for the Nation. The Jacksonian Party stands neither Left nor Right in outlook, but endeavors to give the greatest freedom to individuals while keeping the Nation whole and abiding to the Constitution and the responsibilities placed upon each of Us in that document. The Jacksonian view is that each individual does as they want so long as they abide by their responsibilities, endanger no others in the doing, hold themselves accountable for their actions and keep to the concept that simple ideas need not be simplistic.

And so it begins, with original points in bold:

1) Undo the bankruptcy bill enacted by this Administration with the help of Congress - Agreed. Too much power is given to Corporations over individuals. If Corporations cannot figure out who and who is not a good or bad credit risk in this day in age, then they deserve to live with the consequences. An individual can admit that they have made poor decisions, pay back what they can so long as self and family are not jeopardized in the doing and, generally, seek to end their problem via bankruptcy. ONCE. Until they get a good credit rating after a decade or more of proven payment on such things as rent/mortgage, monthly gas/electric/phone/net connection/insurance bills and have proven some capability to actually *save* money, I do not see why ANY credit institution should provide any credit to such individuals after a bankruptcy. By leading a poor life to get goodies and not pay for them, the drought of NO CREDIT will be a *wake up* call to such individuals. If they have a problem with being unable to restrain themselves or spend wisely, they should seek counseling and perhaps some medical help.

2) Repeal the Estate Tax - Agreed. What one earns through wealth creation beyond paying an income tax should be without taxation. Taxing someone at death denies them the right to responsibly manage the end of their lives free from interference. While some monetary *dynasties* may be made, in general those require shrewd financial insight and re-investment to remain viable. Further such things tend not to track as well as *original* wealth creation does, so the strength of monetary foundation will sink as more and better ideas are built upon and not *actively* supported and pursued by individuals that just *invest*.

As a further note on this: for those who believe in the individual's deciding on when to terminate their life in the face of terminal illness, supporting an estate tax is saying, 'Please die so we may get some goodies from you.' That is repugnant.

To those saying you should live out a horrible, painful death until your body finally gives in while money is poured into supporting that death, you are saying, 'Please waste your money on useless and fruitless endeavors and deny your heirs funds that they would be due if you had not done so.' That is ALSO repugnant.

The Jacksonian Party stands fore-square in opening the entire pharmacopoeia to those with terminal illnesses so that their end may be as pain free as can be managed. If you die an addict, may it be noted that you would be dead *anyway*.

3) Increase the minimum wage and index it to the CPI - No. The minimum wage sets a floor for wages in the economy. Indexing to the CPI will cause wage and price spirals that eat upon each other. While the economy as a whole benefits from a minimum wage, the political mill of proposal and passage or non-passage has been a good one for the United States and sets a positive brake on wage and price spirals until wages are only raised when it is apparent that the entire floor of the economy has already shifted upwards.

4) Universal health care (obviously the devil is in the details on this one) - In the Domestic Policy an outline for an improved medical system is given. First, open all Federal health plans to the general public so that the public may take advantage of group buying and insurance. As these plans have minimum goals but no set minimum for payment, it is expected that there will be some payment adjustment by the plans over time. Second, allow any health plan that denies no one of joining and ALL Federal health plans to use the Federal Government as a Guaranteed Group purchaser for medications for all of those plans. Pharmaceutical corporations will be given Cost of production PLUS minimal profit contracts for such purchases. This savings will equalize the cost to ALL medical plans that are open to EVERYONE. Private and discriminatory plans may seek to do other things, but they will not be given a better pricing than that offered to the Federal Government. Third, to help out the truly poor and underserved in this Nation, establish a Federal Medical Corps. that will serve such areas. Use current Federal medical facilities when available, work out use of private facilities through medical plans when such are not available and where neither are available move patients on a temporary basis to get such tests done. Drug legalization shall be discussed later, but plays an integral part in this.

5) Increase CAFE standards. Some other environment-related regulation - This set of regulations has had the effect of moving individuals to purchasing vehicles not covered by CAFE standards. It is humorous that the very standards are self-defeating save for corporate fleets of *cars*. That said, Federal Air Quality must be met in certain high pollution regions and heavy fines upon those States for not meeting Federal law need be enforced. As air, water and ground pollution cause more health and disease problems, the fines should cover the expected higher treatment cost to the public and be punitive. The Jacksonian Party stands all FOR daily fines to the States for abusing the health of their populations in this manner. Such monies collected would go into the medical system described in (4), paying for new and innovative research and development on energy use and, also, for new techniques at environmental clean-up.

6) Pro-reproductive rights, getting rid of abstinence-only education, improving education about and access to contraception including the morning after pill, and supporting choice. On the last one there's probably some disagreement around the edges (parental notification, for example), but otherwise - Teach general biology and how the reproductive organs actually work. Point out that the reproductive system has biological means to be used to prevent conception. As has been given before the States should use the Roe v Wade logic and support abortion up to the viability of the fetus to exist outside of its host mother. At that point ALL fetuses become Citizens so that due process is not denied by the *bad luck* of early birth. These points gone over in the links.

7) Simplify and increase the progressivity of the tax code - An oxymoron, one cannot do both. Instead The Jacksonian Party believes that there shall be one income tax that stretches from the lowest individual to the highest corporation at a set flat tax. The only exemption that is allowed is corporate payrolls, so that income is not doubly taxed in the doing. There will be no taxation on capital gains, interest income, or revenue generated by such means that do no require active participation of the individual or corporation. Income is taxed at one flat rate.

8) Kill faith-based funding. Certainly kill federal funding of anything that engages in religious discrimination - Agreed. Faith is up to the individual to decide. By giving the individual a means to know exactly how they will be taxed, how they may invest in society to gain benefit by expanding it and allowing them the freedom to do other social good on their own, the Federal Government makes for a poor chooser on anything done with religion. Religion is for individuals, not the Government of We the People, no matter *what* the majority religion is. No religion gets benefit nor disdain in their beliefs.

9) Reduce corporate giveaways - Agreed, entirely on subsidies and all similar tax breaks given to industries within the United States. For Foreign goods a The Jacksonian Foreign Policy that rewards friends, puts tariffs on the neutral and no trade with the enemies of the United States is better than free trade everywhere.

10) Have Medicare run the Medicare drug plan - Scrap both. Put in the medical policy outlined above.

11) Force companies to stop underfunding their pensions. Change corporate bankruptcy law to put workers and retirees at the head of the line with respect to their pensions - For this let each corporation give a full accounting of its pension plan and policy and how it is doing and where it is invested so that each employee may choose or not to be invested in same. Further, all corporations shall have sufficient funds to cover a severance of ALL employees under the severance policy that each was HIRED under in case the corporation goes into bankruptcy. These funds may NOT be touched by bankruptcy courts and are put into trust until they run dry.

12) Leave the states alone on issues like medical marijuana. Generally move towards "more decriminalization" of drugs, though the details complicated there too - The banning of alcohol established a revenue center for organized crime that allowed other criminal activities to swell and persist once alcohol was no longer banned. Today's prohibition is creating drug cartels and illegal operations that are swelling on a global scale.

Drugs that are addictive caused major problems on their early introduction and availability to the United States. Today all medications should be examined for their pharmaceutical activity, their toxicity levels, their ability to impair the mind and body, methodology that may be used for such medications and the conditions they are good for, methodology for lessening or treating addiction if they have such, and generally giving purity and prescribed dosage sizes for body mass, sex and illnesses being treated.

All medications shall be available over the counter with a proposed Federal tax of 50% upon them if they have no legitimate medical use or are addictive without medical supervision. Further, all employers may actively use Federal testing programs to identify individuals who break work contracts by showing up incapacitated due to the use of medications or intoxicants. Some job categories that have a high degree of endangerment for the general public will fall under a *no use* policy for addictive medications outside of the care of a practitioner and require three randomly chosen practitioners to review the case and ensure that the individual is not addicted to such after treatment. As the States already have a number of laws for doing things while impaired by intoxicants, they should look to expand upon those.

13) Imprison Jeff Goldstein for crimes against humanity for his neverending stupidity - While that may improve the outlook of making imprisonment near Mr. Goldstein an *effective* deterrent, it would only be for that one location. The Jacksonian Party supports putting internet displays in each and every prison cell in the United States that can ONLY access the writings of Mr. Goldstein and ALL who support him. Which, includes The Jacksonian Party on most days, although there are others...

14) Paper ballots - Numbered and initialed with tear-off number slip. Agreed.

15) Improve access to daycare and other pro-family policies. Obviously details matter - Not a Federal responsibility and leads to micromanagment and the Nannystate. Let individuals decide keep the Federal Government out of this completely. If eeducation policies do not lead to better education from the Federal Government, then why should this lead to better daycare for children?

16) Raise the cap on wages covered by FICA taxes - The Jacksonian Party supports ending Social Security as part of hitting the Federal Government RESET button.

17) Torture is bad - Agreed. Return the concept of Duelling back to the law. A non sequitur deserves one in reply.

18) Imprisoning citizens without charges is bad - Identify where and when this is happening. Some crimes may be complex enough that properly figuring out what to charge someone *with* may take a bit. And any Citizen shown to have ties to Transnational Terrorists or any enemy of the United States shall be charged with TREASON. If here as an undercover agent of a Foreign Nation they are to be charged with ESPIONAGE.

19) Playing Calvinball with the Geneva Conventions and treaties generally is bad - To date the Geneva Conventions have been upheld against all lawful combatants as designated by the Treaties signed by the United States. Non-lawful combatants who wear no uniform and represent no Nation should be SHOT ON SIGHT. That is *exactly* what is allowable under the Geneva Conventions and The Jacksonian Party supports THAT to the hilt.

20) Imprisoning anyone indefinitely without charges is bad - Not allowed for Citizens or those here legally and lawfully with lawful intent. Those that represent enemies or perform espionage or otherwise seek to destroy the United States and originate from foreign lands may be dealt with by the Laws of the Land. To date this has not been indicated as a problem for Citizens and those that are *not* Citizens may appeal to their home government for help. I believe a *single phone call* system would be a good one for this to let foreign governments know exactly what sort of individuals are coming from their Nation. This is what diplomats are *for*.

21) Stating that the president can break any law he wants any time "just because" is bad - To date no one has claimed that for this Executive and the only one that has been seen as doing so was Abraham Lincoln. The Jacksonian Party has a good concept of where and what the powers of the Executive are and where they are used and where the rights of the Citizen are actually in-forces. Perhaps a reading of the Constitution is in order to understand these concepts?

22) Marriage rights for all, which includes "gay marriage" and quicker transition to citizenship for the foreign spouses of citizens - The Jacksonian Party would see giving no preference at ALL on marriage status and keep governmental prejudice from intruding upon what goes on between adult individuals in their States. And the transition rate for spouses of Citizens should be INSTANT if that spouse wants to become a Citizen and renounce their Foreign Citizenship before anyone in the Immigration Service and sign such documentation. Dual citizenship is NOT permitted.


There, that should confuse everyone and yet still be somewhat understandable.