New Blueprint: A Plan For Democrats

From The Democratic Leadership Council website: "A successful opposition must oppose and propose, and do both well," they say. "Democrats in Congress have an obligation to stand firm against the Republicans whenever they're wrong, which is all too often. At the same time, however, we have an obligation to ourselves and to the future to suggest a clear alternative path for the country to follow."

The Plan features five goals:
1. A New Social Contract: What You Can Do for Your Country, and What Your Country Can Do for You.
- Citizen Service. We need a new patriotism that brings out the patriot in all of us by establishing, for the first time, an ethic of universal citizen service. All Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 should be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic civil defense training and community service. This is not a draft -- nor is it military. Young people will be trained not as soldiers, but simply as citizens who understand their responsibilities in the event of natural disaster, epidemic, or terrorist attack. ...
- Universal College Access. We must make a college degree as universal as a high school diploma. ...
- Universal Retirement Savings. An aging society cannot afford to keep saving less and risking more. We need new means to create wealth. Employers should be required to offer 401(k)'s, and workers will be enrolled unless they choose otherwise. ...
- Universal Children's Health Care. We need to cut the cost of health care so that every business can afford it, and every child in America at last can get it. ...
2. Fiscal Responsibility and Ending Corporate Welfare. We can only achieve universal service, college, pensions, and children's health care if we're willing to cut and invest to pay for them. The place to start is by ending corporate welfare and the hack-ridden government that fuels it.
3. Tax Reform to Help Those Who Aren't Wealthy Build Wealth. We propose a tax reform plan that makes sure no middle-class family with an income of under $100,000 will ever have to pay an effective income tax rate of more than 10 percent. ... and a universal pension that replaces the current hodgepodge of 16 existing IRA-type accounts.
4. A New Strategy to Win the War on Terror. ... should reform and strengthen multilateral institutions ...
5. A Hybrid Economy that Cuts America's Gasoline Use in Half. ...
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Editorial Note: It is always good to know what the opposition is proposing. But it might prove useful when reading the word "Universal" to substitute the words "Social Government Control" or "Meaningless" and the DNC Plan may reflect their true plan.

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Tags: Democrat, DNC plan, Blueprint, 2007