We Need Policy For All Issues - POST YOUR PROGRESSIVE SOLUTIONS HERE

OK we won! After all, I'm Dems Will Win so I always thought we would.

But now what?

The truth is, we at DU are not used to being in power, and it's a whole different ballgame than politics -- trying to get into power. I know this at the local level. You have to be smart and innovative -- and actually make the world a better place.

As the blogosphere, we must push the Democrats to not only confront the Republicans and investigate/impeach but they must make good policy or the bad guys will get right back in.

Even if nothing is passed and all vetoed by Bush, the Dems will show their voters they do have a "Plan" and then people will elect a Democrat President in '08 so all the bills Bush vetoed can be signed by President Alobamaedclintclark in '09. And it can often take years or a decade or more to pass legislation--so let's get started now.

For all that to happene, however, we need good policy. And I know from being on Dem teams that took over a couple of Counties, it takes lots of innovation and it takes determination and good media imaging to succeed.

Our society is unhealthy and we need to cure it. We can't tinker around the edges anymore, we need a network of solutions that allow us to address the causes of social disease. But we have to be smart and develop "Creative Leap Solutions". These are solutions that have one simple leap that addresses the cause, rather than the typical political compromise that trys to treat the symptom.

It will be the Creative Leap Solutions addressing the cause rather than the symptom which are the political end-runs around the usual minefield of old politics and corporate media editors.

So let's all get together in this thread and post the progressive Creative Leap Solutions and start making some smart policy. Then we can lead our Democratic "leaders".

I'll start off with some innovative solutions, some old, some new:

EDUCATION: Better funding and tuition help as the Dems will pass, but more importantly is to start looking at the disaster known as the high school curriculum. 30% of 9th graders never graduate, 50% if they are Hispanic or African-American. And 88% of the dropouts had good or passing grades. When asked why they left school the number one response overwhelmingly was "boredom"! We need to make a curriculum that is relevant to today, and doesn't bore the high school student to death. Right now, 30% of the money taxpayers spend on education is WASTED -- all because the curriculum is outdated and deadly boring.

Time's Cover story in March: DROPOUT NATION
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2006/American-Dropout-Nation17apr06.htm

HEALTH CARE: Universal health care paid for by a 2% income tax and a 7% payroll tax for larger businesses. People are scared shitless and pissed off with the system we have now, so there won't be the resistance there was before. Click on these 2 links below to find out more:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/27/114614/15
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/30/22050/797

TERRORISM: The War on Terror is over. We need a global peace movement that includes economic development of developing nations and regeneration of areas that never recovered from the end of the colonial system. War is not the answer as the song goes, but bottom-up international development through good NGOs is the answer--done smart like the Clinton Global Fund is proposing to do.

A targeted bottom-up $60 billion -- spent in a "regenerative" way, would literally transform the lives of the poorest 2 billion people and remove the root cause of poverty and oppression that creates terror groups. That and diplomacy toward a Mideast solution and whatever can be done with the Iraq mess after a rapid withdrawal. Terror will be with us for a while. We have to make better the lives of the young and make them more aware, and that will take a generation, after decades of Bushs' screwing the pooch. Education and Economic/Environmental Regeneration are the Creative Leaps here that address the cause instead of the symptom.

RENEWABLE ENERGY: New 40% CPV Solar solutions, new tidal power solutions and more efficient wind turbines mean we can now realistically transition off of fossil fuel and hazardous nuclear power, addressing both the cause of economic and dollar weakness, the financing of Iran and radical Islamists through high oil prices and the most important issue, climate destruction and the killing of our oceans. Did I mention the electric Tesla Roadster that goes 250 miles on 6,138 laptop batteries?

Take a look at the 2 most important Creative Leaps on this planet, brothers and sisters:

http://www.pyronsolar.com
http://www.teslamotors.com

Can I get a Hallelujah?

ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: We gotta switch over, to save the oceans from Dead Zones, ourselves from cancer and high health/death costs. The Rodale Institute at http://www.newfarm.org has an entirely new form of organic agriculture based on regenerating soil. You can look it up and it should be our policy. And with Organic gardening and lawn techniques, we can get rid of the chemicals sprayed on our suburban and public/corporate lawns and landscapes that make us sick, kill us and even cause learning disabilities in kids. (Have an LD kid? It might be the blood level of herbicide in them from lawns being sprayed). Here again solve the cause of the problem.

US ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: End the Tax deferrals that have driven American jobs overseas. Economically regenerate America with "Regenerative Zones" that focus on increasing local money circulation and local purchase of local goods and local organic food. Renewable Energy conversion of the military industrial complex. Use of old Army bases as Renewable Energy Industrial Parks, as in NY Saratoga area. There's a lot that can be done here and it all interconnects with solving the education/environmental/outsourcing/bigbox/GOP Dilemma we've dug ourselves into. Local county governments and school boards have to have the funding restored that state GOPs stole, so property taxes became ruinous. There's a lot to do here that would be innovative and get to the root causes. Just rolling back the Bush cuts for the wealthy is just a beginning.

WHAT ARE YOUR PROGRESSIVE CREATIVE LEAP SOLUTIONS? POST BELOW

And if you think we need to talk policy innovation, Please remember to recommend this thread.

Clean Elections gives candidates the option to qualify for public funding to run their campaigns. While the specifics vary, typically a candidate must collect a set number of small qualifying contributions—usually $5—from people in their district. The number of signatures and contributions required varies according to the office sought.

http://www.publicampaign.org/node/34047

I have placed a progressive agenda at the web site http://www.dmocrats.org and a way to get it passed.

However with Mitch McConnell as minority leader of the Senate I suggest that Kentucky members of DU look up Mitch McConnell at http://www.opensecrets.org and find out his contributors that make and sell consumer products.

I suggest everyone contact these companies. After all this government appears owned by a superset of these companies and not us unfortunately So contact these companies and make the following demands.

WE WILL NO LONGER BUY YOUR PRODUCTS

UNLESS YOU GET YOUR CEO TO GET THE GOP to do the folowing:

1. Get Mitch McConnell to not use the filibuster to block any progressive legislation.

2. Get GW Bu$h to not use the veto on any progressive legislation.


If we progressives and others band together to contact these companies by the thousands we can place pressure on Mitch McConnell's contributors and other GOP contributors to get progressive legislation passed.

"The Republican party appears weak and vulnerable at the cash registers of those companies that give the GOP money." After all the election process does not do everything. We need to pressure the companies that give the GOP legislators money because they need our money to keep their busiensses running so we might as well get something else legislatively for our purchases.

Boycott conservative contributors.

They will review all Congress-related Constitutional issues and controversies. This will separate Judicial concerns (i.e. justice) from Constitutional concerns (i.e. vigilance).

Heading up the committees will be Barbara Lee and Bernie Sanders.

Have a place where the rank and file can forward their ideas and concerns. Show the American people that the Democratic Party is responsive to them, rather than lobbyists.

I agree with your proposals, adding only this:

Finding alternative energy to power our society should be top priority-it should be recognized that it is the only way we can maintain our standard of living without bankrupting the country or poisoning the planet.

Universal Health Care has GOT to include Wellness education. By this I mean teaching people how to have a healthy lifestyle. And this isn't one size fits all, either. A doctor should be able to give you a physical exam, draw blood, and look at your health history to determine the diet/exercise regimen that is best for you. It is vital that this be individualized--many people are sick because of what they eat, and I'm not just talking junk food here. Many many folks are gluten intolerant,don't realize it, and don't know that it can cause skin problems, depression, etc. etc. Full information must be given on what to do to prevent flu--and again the answer isn't just "go get a flu shot". There are already holistic physicians fulfilling these vital needs-we need to have more of them, and encourage mainstream medical practitioners to listen to their wise counsel.

This should be relatively easy to fix and should pass unanimously (I'm an optimist). Outlaw voting machines, get back democracy to this country! This will start in motion a mountain of events, including assurance that Democrats will pick up even more seats, PLUS THE WHITE HOUSE. Thom Hartmann told his listeners the other day that talk show hosts were being called by Democrats and asked NOT TO TALK ABOUT VOTING ISSUES because people would be scared away from the polls. Well, well. Isn't that one of the reasons we flocked to the polls!!! We are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore.

The more seats the Democrats take back, the more cooperation we will see from Repukes on the impeachment issue. They will be afraid to NOT impeach. IMHO

Without honest elections, what's the use of doing anything else?

:bounce:

believe elections could be rigged. It is too frightening for them. We must bring this to the forefront. Democracy can never exist with the current method of non-transparent vote tallying.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/washington/08voting.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en=33cf992325d12800&hp=&ex=1165554000&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=homepage&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1165555190-ex4F8H4w3Epvwwbs6xidhg

Even if DiFi is the head of the committee :-)


:bounce:

We will make our nation safer and we will begin by implementing the recommendations of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

That is the key towards the complete understanding that there will be zero change in government.
The 911 commission were all hand picked corporate flunkies and Bush apologists. Terra,terra,terra has never been about Muslims, it's been about dissolving the Constitution.

We will make health care more affordable for all Americans, and we will begin by fixing the Medicare prescription drug program, putting seniors first by negotiating lower drug prices.

Negotiating drug prices will not fix Medicare Part D alone.

We need to place the Medicaid beneficiaries back into Medicaid where they already had full drug coverage and place a federal drug coverage benefit into Medicare Part B with no extra premiums and no extra annual deductible, no means test and no coverage gap and let seniors vote with their feet and leave those crummy private programs alone to let them die on the vine.

or Repeal Medicare Part D completely and getting rid of all those private insurers from the medicare program and repeal the means test for Medicare Part B that the Republicans snuck into their misnamed modernization act in 2003.

then place a simple 80 percent drug coverage benefit into Medicare Part B in which the Federal government runs this program and will force all medications to get covered 80 percent with no means test, no coverage gap, no late sign up penalty.

So then a person could go to a pharmacy, show their medicare card and pay only 20 percent for their medicines with out any fear of a coverage gap kicking in and paying no extra premiums as they already will pay 90 dollars a month in 2007 and with a 120 dollar annual deductible in 2007.

anti-trust enforcement. End the centralized Pravda type American media empire.
Dissolve Homeland Security
Disband the CIA

If you think we don't need an intelligence agency you are nuts.

we do need an intelligence agency. We do not however need a bunch of thugs sticking their noses into the affairs of other countries at the behest of corporate interests.

for education. Education priority number two should be debt relief for poor students. We give them a mountain to climb and pile on bricks each step of the way. Student debt relief could be funded by a massive homeward bound redeployment of troops making it truly a "department of defense".

renewable energy: In my town there are corn and wheat fields that produce a large surplus and at odd times remain unharvested. There is plenty of space, plenty of wind, and plenty of electric infrastructure to create a renewable public utility that generates enough power to at least meet the partial energy demands of my town (if not the entire town itself). Money could be raised from within the community to provide the seed funds by using these three selling points: 1) Rising electric bills can be replaced with a nominal fee and/or the costs of energy can be swallowed up by a possible rise in tax revenues created by #2. 2) Operating costs for business in my community will go down creating market incentives for further investment 3) Cost overruns will be met through private capital campaigns in order to avoid fee inflation. But these were off the top of my head.

Organic Agriculture: Living in an agricultural area, money can be raised via our renewable energy funds to kick start the development of a local organic produce distribution system. Local farmers will have the opportunity to direct sell to locally owned markets and be able to participate in the trade of produce from other regions during off seasons. This is a solution more for the farmer than the consumer. These changes will increase incentives to invest in organics because transportation costs and transaction costs will be minimized by making an end run around the highly consolidated and cost inefficient corporate grain and produce distribution system. Local farmers will be better able to withstand fluctuations in the market by having greater control over the actual price at the local level. This would free them of the burden to embark upon the more labor intensive organic farming.

Terrorism: Money would rapidly be "redeployed" from the military-industrial complex into the renewable and education complex. The costs of one day of war can be used for an entire region's education budget for a year. The costs of one fighter jet can used to fund an entire urban public school system for 1/2 of the year. The cost of one missile can be used to create jobs and subsidize a living wage for the poor and underemployed in a city and its surrounding areas for one year. Oh wait what happened to terrorism?

and a complete new look at the drug laws in the country. Recognize that there is no War on Drugs, and it imprisons too many, for too little, at too great a cost (both financial and sociological).

Excellent post!

this--proposing positive new progressive ideas and practical solutions.

I want to comment on your excellent suggestions, but first...

No one is talking about how to prevent an Iraq War--and a Bush regime--from ever happening again. No one is talking about recovering the trillions of dollars that have been stolen from us. And only a few are talking about Corporate Misrule (the death of competitiveness through monopolies; filthy lobbying; corporations writing our laws, corporations taking over our voting system with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code in all the electronic voting systems, etc.). These are very heavy and complicated issues, but I think we have to address them before we expect ANY truly progressive proposals to make headway in our government.

1. No more wars of choice! We need some kind of structural or Constitutional change to address one of the MAIN evils that our Founders tried so hard to prevent--imperial war, war at the whim of the executive. The war profiteers who suck our blood like some kind of vampire octopus, with tentacles throughout our economic system and into our lives, have succeeded in overcoming every obstacle that the framers of the Constitution designed to prevent an Iraq War from happening. The war profiteers are now MANUFACTURING war, to keep vacuuming up our money. And in Bush they found a ready tool. But this vital issue-- the decision-making about war--should not be determined by the PERSONALITY of the President (his weakness, stupidity, aggressiveness, whatever). What can we do, a) by means of law or structure to curtail Presidential war?, and b) to dismantle the war profiteers and put our economy on a peaceful footing? (We've really had a war economy since WW II--we have never demobilized--and that is the problem.)

2. Recovering our money. We need to get some of our money back from the bad actor corporations that have stolen billions of dollars from us directly, or by other means such as unconscionable tax breaks and price gouging. I'm thinking particularly of the war profiteer corporations and the oil giants. My proposal is that we pull their corporate charters, dismantle them and seize their assets for the common good--in addition to specific investigations to recover stolen money and/or impose very heavy fines for certain actions (such as the energy corporations that met in secret to plot the Iraq War and divvy up Iraq's oil fields). I would also like to go after individuals--Cheney for instance--to confiscate all war profits.

3. Busting corporate monopolies--including NEWS monopolies. If we do #2--dismantle some of these bad actor corporations--it will "send a message" to the other mega-corporations that, either they begin acting for the public good, or they, too, will be dismantled, or forbidden to do business on these shores. In general we need to beat back the corporate monopolies and megalopolies that now live forever, accumulating wealth and power that they then use against us. Chief of among the corporate monopolies that need to be busted down--if not dismantled and seized--are the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. My proposal: one newspaper or one TV station per business. Period. Bust them completely. (Why not go for it? Why not insist on the best, most competitive, most lively news and opinion production on earth? Utopian, yeah. But why not go for it?)

4. PAPER BALLOTS, HAND-COUNTED, WITH RESULTS POSTED AT THE PRECINCT LEVEL. Really, I've never heard of anything more mind-bogglingly absurd than Bushite corporations "counting" all our votes with "trade secret" programming. Heart of all our troubles, right now. A Stalinist voting system. The coup de grace of Corporate Misrule. Get these bastards out of our election system NOW. No more private corporate interests running our elections!

------------------------

Well, there are my suggestions for restoring American democracy--channeled from Thomas Jefferson, if you want to know. (He's very concerned--rolling over in his grave he is!) If you curtail wars of choice, bust the military budget down by, say, 90%, to a true defensive posture (by Constitutional amendment, if necessary), bust up some corporate monopolies and seize some substantial war profits and assets for the public good, bust the corporate news monopolies down to one newspaper or TV or radio station, and rid our election system of private corporate control, you will have the foundation for creating progressive policies. If you don't address these grave problems of elective war, war profiteering/theft and Corporate Misrule, you can propose all the progressive ideas you want, and they will go nowhere.

------------------------

Some comments on DemsWillWin's proposals:

Education: Put teachers back in charge of the curriculum. That's what THEY'RE saying, and I believe they are right. (I also have experience as a hs & college teacher.) Stop the centralization of textbooks and curricula and "testing." It just leads to vast corruption. Have broad outlines of what needs to be covered at each level, and let the teachers use their own creative and experienced judgment, and knowledge of their students, to use the best books and tools to design exciting programs. I was never so happy or motivated as a teacher as when I was choosing paperback novels and plays, that my students could obtain cheaply, for an English Lit curriculum. It made all the difference in the world to me that I got to choose the texts. I chose the ones that I knew and loved the best, and thus was able to communicate my excitement to my students. It also bolstered my confidence as a young teacher to design the curriculum myself, and to create assignments and tests that were relevant to my students. I think I was good at inspiring creativity and a love of books in them. This is just one example of what I think should be a general policy. Trust the teachers! They are NOT doing it for the money! Don't kill THEIR love of learning with the heavy hand of bureaucracy! Foster their love of what they are doing, and give them the respect and latitude to FIND THE BEST WAY to teach their PARTICULAR students.

Health care: Free education for all qualified persons who want to be doctors or other health care professionals. Restore the mercy in health care. Take away the profit motive, or at least mitigate it. Don't let student doctors get into heavy debt. Just one of a number of ideas for revising how we think about health care. I got this one from communist Cuba. Why shouldn't we draw upon all systems for ideas? Cuba provides a free medical education; thus, when Venezuela needed doctors--because its rich elite had so neglected education in their country--Cuba could trade doctors to staff Venezuela's many new medical clinics in the poor areas, in exchange for cheap oil. And Cuba, in turn, is now helping Venezuela to educate a generation of doctors. Why does all this have to cost so much money? The money that doctors have to pay for their educations, and the length of their educations, is the driving factor in our system. The AMA thus became one of the chief rightwing lobby groups against reform and cheaper health care. Take the pressure off young doctors at the beginning of their careers--so that they better nurture their own humanitarian desires. And that benefit will ripple through the system. Many doctors are now locked into a system that they hate--in which insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies, and all sorts of for-profit forces influence health care to the detriment of their patients. I don't think most doctors want to see 50% of the population with no health care. But they have let that become the case, and have even organized to foster it, because of their own situations--their initial high debt and costs of getting started, and their expectation of high profits. Introduce something NEW: A free medical education. It will save us billions and billions of dollars in the end.

Terrorism: Yup. Just think if we had spent the $1 TRILLION that Bush squandered on slaughtering Iraqis and torturing innocent people, on food, infrastructure, education and micro-loans for the world's poor. What if we had just GIVEN Saddam Hussein the money, on condition that he stop all torture and WMD development, and agree to full UN access on those two issues. How quickly might $1 TRILLION have transformed Saddam into the benevolent "father" of his nation? Maybe that's a bit absurd (or is it?), but the point is that violence creates chaos and rage, whereas CONSTRUCTIVE action prevents them. Also, "terrorism"--stateless groups bombing civilians, for instance--is actually an isolated phenomenon, and would be even rarer than it is, if our policies around the world were JUST. It is a POLICE problem, not a military problem. Good police work and international cooperation should prevent it from ever becoming a military problem, but if it does becomes a military problem--terrorist states--then it is a problem for the United Nations and diplomacy, and perhaps for consensus international military action (UN peacekeepers). It is NEVER a problem that will be solved by one nation invading another. That just leads to non-stop violence and more war. But, clearly, the Bushites were just using "terrorism" as an excuse for a corporate resource war, and to flood the hogpen of the "military/corporate complex" with our money. The solution is to DENY fascists the temptation to misuse our military, by turning our military into a true DEFENSIVE institution. No more wars of choice! Then and only then will "terrorism" stop being the modern day "communism" (excuse for hogpen military budgets and wars of choice.)

Renewable energy: Yup. We need a "grand plan," with a stated goal, like Kennedy's goal of putting men on the moon. Total non-polluting energy self-sufficiency in ten years. (I think we can do it in five--if we do some of the above, and motivate our most peoples' best creative energies.)

Organic agriculture: Yup. Our "grand plan II." A veggie garden on every apartment balcony, in every yard, and in open spaces throughout our cities--as well as reform of the ag sector. No more pesticides, chemical fertilizers or GMOs. Many farmers' markets everywhere.

US Economic development: Bust up the corporate monopolies, and you will see a burst of creative trade such as we have never seen. Taxes--oil giants own large chunks of California ag land, and benefit from Prop 13--which was supposed to be for elderly people, so they didn't get taxed out of their homes. Stop corporate abusive of our tax system!

We need a place to put ALL these good ideas in this thread. I bookmarked it.

The whole problem of the Bush administration is the unitary executive. So divide the executive against itself. Make the president and his VP run separately, so that it is possible to have Prezs and VPs of opposite parties. Ironically, this wouldn't have helped in '00 as Lieberman would not have been an improvement, but in '04...would anyone have voted for Cheney over Edwards if they were running separately?

Hell yeah I would vote for that guy (gal?) (conglomeration?)
great thread.

We have to stand united. It is so important that we bash Bush and the GOP at every turn. The media has decided it's time to start the 2008 campaigns. That's not good for Dems. We MUST not tear each other down.

all going to start sniping at each other before ANY Dem policy can be formulated!

A living wage

Fair trade

Raise taxes for the rich

End corporate welface

End deficit spending and start paying down the debt

Punish companies that outsource

Election reform

Media refom

Carbon tax

Investment in renewable and nuclear energy

Investment in fuel ethnanol

Abolish corporate personhood

Tax incentives for co-ops

Cut millitary spending by 1/3

Increase funding for the CIA, the best defense against terrorism is good intel, not invading other countries

Pull out of Iraq and send more troops to Afganistan

Reform and strengthen the UN, give it more teeth.

Greatly increase funding for NASA

Double the salaries of teachers

Abolish NCLB and properly fund schools

Free higher education

1) Get rid of the cap on taxable earnings for social security purposes. This should help to shore up social security.

2) Raise the top income tax rate to 60%, but get rid of the medicare tax. This should be able to fund a national single-payer health care plan, simplify our income taxes and also help to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor. This will also lead to jobs returning to our shores. Any budget surplus must go towards retiring the Reagan/Bush debt first, rather than rebates (bribes) to voters.

3) Put people to work by having a massive public works project to upgrade the nation's infrastructure & power grid (remember the huge east coast blackout a few years ago??) - this will likely take a good decade or more.

4) Revise the Sarbanes-Oxley law to make it less cumbersome and more transparent.

I'll think of others later & post.

*Stop non-stop testing and start teaching. Stop putting taxpayer money into the pockets of the testing industry and back into funding for teacher salaries, school supplies, and adequate facilities.

*Reduce classroom sizes, make sure every student has a healthy breakfast and lunch, and adaquate time outside exercising their growing bodies.

*Start teaching children a meaningful curriculum, applicable science and math, and literature that they can connect to their own experience and that can educate them on the experience of others. Teach the basics of government - electoral processes, the Constitution, American History (un-whitewashed).

*Teach living skills, the importance of diet and exercise, how to read a recipe, how to boil water, how to balance a checkbook, how interest is compounded.

*Compensate teachers by paying them a reasonable salary and rewarding longevity.

These would be a start.

I have a BA in US History (working on my MA as we speak). I've subbed briefly, could probably get a lateral job easily but I don't think I could ever teach to a test. I don't know how to do that.

That must be at the top of all lists. All of the things you wish to do are dependent on this. Number one culprit contributing to global warming? US military. Who's taking the treasury that should be going to health care, infrastructure, social programs etc...? The Pentagon.

Cut all transfer of armaments and all small arms deals. Get US troops out of the 132 countries they reside in and give them jobs in the public sector after training to rebuild US public transportation system.

Cutting the military budget by at least 50% is issue #1. Without that we are shadowboxing. It's going to take a gale force of public outreach, outcry and outrage to accomplish that. Do we understand the stakes? Are we willing to force the issue? Do we sufficiently feel the loss?

solutins of other problems because they address the ROOT CAUSES!

I was praising your connection of sustainability and just buying non-outsourced products.

criminal oil warlords from being able to hold elected offices. Every single one of these bastards have had trouble with the law and are criminals in one way or the other. I think anyone who wants to be elected to office needs to have a clean record and we have a right to have their record published before we decide to elect them.

It works wonderfully in the states that have instituted them!

1) Make it more cost-effective for homeowners to install solar systems by introducing a low-interest loan program for covering the up-front cost of the system. For many the savings in their power bill every month would offset the loan payment.
2) Promote the benefits of having such a setup so that it also increases the market value of the house when it comes time to sell.
3) Pressure electricity providers to credit homeowners for solar-generated power at a 1:1 rate.
4) Government-funded research to make better batteries, thus making the electric car more feasible and affordable.

There was a thread just the other day about how we never discuss policy on DU.

They need the help. Change it to a humanitarian mission. They are still close to the theater if they are needed. Just my two cents.