Liberals, what are some specific things you think should be done to help the economy?

[Kiran C]

Raise the minimum wage.
Pass immigration reform.
Do not cut Food Stamps.
Work on industry policy that reduces the trade deficit.
Lower the value of the dollar.
Create an all-payer system for health care.

[Mary]

Sometimes answering a question in the negative is helpful.This is what I say .

What I would not do is to ever give another massive tax cut that primarily benefits the 1 % orb any other tax cut to free enterprise business .

Aside from all Bush's lies including the deadly Iraqi ones, this conservative justified his unprecedented tax cut on his promise that it would create millions of jobs.

The URL below shows that in Clinton's 8 tears he created 22,740,000 jobs and Bush in 8 years created 1,116,000 jobs .Even Obama in only 4 years has created more jobs than Bush did in 8 .

So please ,no more conservative voodoo , trickle down economics that rely on giving the wealthy individuals and corporation more of the wealth of WE THE 99 % PEOPLE

No more of your "Repeal regulations on small business." so they can use it to steal more of our wealth .

Perhaps increasing the slave labor low minimum wage will help by taking back some of the wealth your Bush baby stole and give it to Christ's needy who can than go and spend the money and help the economy . Sorry about the Christ reference but as the base of the Republican party is the some 80 million strong Christian fundamentalists , I am always astounded at just how un-Christ like conservatives and Republicans are even though they wrap themselves in Christ .. Yes Christian ethical/moral beliefs are important here to answer the question how large should the have-have not wealth gap be .

[jesswzmn]

1) raise taxes on the wealthy progressively. If you are making over 1 million dollars a year, your top marginal rate at that point should be 49%. Less money in the hands of the rich and in tax coffers stimulates economic activity, infrastructure works, creates jobs, and goes to social programs and spent by very poor people as fast as they get the money...instead of say going to China to create jobs there.

2) Medicare for all..improve it to cover most everything medical with a 20% co pay and reasonable annual copay limits. Also use this as opportunity to control medical costs.

3) Bring back outsourced jobs or as many as we can by passing laws that incentivize manufacturing in the USA. For instance, if retailer is selling goods made in the USA they could get some tax credits for it. If a manufacturer makes goods in the USA they get some tax breaks. But structure this to benefit small and medium size business and fade out the benefits the larger the company becomes, but raise taxes on the super huge firms anyway...especially if they do not make goods in USA or are selling goods not made in USA.

4) Control our southern border. Then sort out of the illegal immigration mess. You need to have all of them report...and have them go back to where they came from and reapply to legally enter the country. Anything other than that is really unjust and not really acting like a civilized society that obeys the rule of law. If you give them amnesty and rewarding law breaking, you are essentially saying good job for breaking our laws, congratulations, won, and it just should not be like that. I think a just solution could be if someone has been working in the country for over 10 years, they could get some sort of amnesty, but those who have been here for less should be asked to leave or deported and could reapply if they wish like everyone else.
Immigration is a problem as far as citizens are concerned because they take away jobs from US citizens, jobs that are sorely needed. They also send money they earn out of the country at a great rate which also has a negative effect on the economy. Lastly they use up scarce societal resources.

5) Go on massive infrastructure revitalization binge.......and spend some of that new tax revenue from taxing the rich and big corporations more and fix bridges, repair and build highways, build a high speed railway system that crisscrosses the country etc....

6) Improve social security...give out more benefits, lower the retirement age to age 61. I already said improve medicare earlier. If someone must be on welfare, give out more
but ask them if they can to do something ...some community service in exchange.

7) Put restrictions on how much govt funded colleges can charge students for tuition room & board and books and supplies. Guarantee a student loan to any student that wants to go to school to learn something for a new career...without parents having to cosign or be credit worthy. Refinance all student loans with federal loan program at rates of no higher than 1%

[plaque fighter]

eliminate the trade gap.
eliminate american based businesses sending all the jobs overseas by simply not letting them sell their product here if they do. someone else will make it and scoop up the profit and provide jobs here.
end the war on drugs.
replace welfare checks with actual job checks. look around you there is something they could be doing to raise our standard of living.
but nothing the government could do would equal good ol' inovation. actual new products not just newer versions of old products.

[zirp]

Well, take away the money-creation monopoly from the commercial banks. As long as we don't create money that does not have to be paid "back" (with interest), the only way is down, deeper in debt.

I think interest and dividend need to be abolished.

I also think interest creates more inflation than money-creation itself

[livelycobweb134]

End tax cuts for millionaires and corporations exporting jobs. Invest in infrastructure.