23 Things to make this a better country

TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK! is the rallying cry from both the Right and the Left, but fails to define from whom. The need is to take back the country from corporations and special interests. This is no longer an agrarian economy and there is no reason for all of the special agricultural benefits, subsidies, exemptions and exclusions. Big Pharma needs to be curbed as does the oil, gas, and coal lobbies. Finally, the voices of citizens needs to drown out the voices of lobbyists. We need to take back out country, but we need to take it back from those forces that got the country in today’s mess. 23 Things to make this a better country: 1.Redefine what constitutes a domestic corporation. Rather than looking at where a company was incorporated, look at where it originated. If a company created an off-shore corporation to escape taxes, prevent that company from doing business in the United States unless U.S. taxes are paid. Is the company listed on a U.S. stock exchange? If so, regardless of where incorporated, it is a U.S. corporation and liable for corporate income tax. Does a significant amount of business come from the United States? If so, it is considered a U.S. corporation and liable for U.S. corporate taxes. 2.Treat corporations like individuals when it comes to income earned abroad. A U.S. citizen working abroad is still required to file and pay U.S. income tax. A certain portion of income is excluded for “housing” and tax credits are given for foreign taxes but the U.S. citizen working abroad is still liable for any income tax on income that exceeds the housing deduction and foreign tax credits. 3.Require corporate financial statements and income tax returns be the same. Income reported for earning purposes should be identical to income reported for tax purposes. There should not be a set of books for the government that differs from the set of books for the stockholders. 4.Prohibit corporations from deducting as business expenses any expenditures for purposes of influencing legislation. This would include any fees paid to registered lobbyists or lobbying organizations, and fees paid to “legislative consultants”, and any expenditures for advertisements or position statements on any electoral or legislative issue. 5.Prohibit corporations from deducting as business expense any expenses involved in closing a domestic facility when the closure will result in moving jobs out of the country. Further prevent a company from deducting any and all domestic expenses including to and from travel for any work formerly done domestically (within the past 5 years) but now being done off-shore. 6.Forbid any tax deduction for any payment, regardless of form, to a single individual in excess of $1,000,000. At the same time, the IRS should consider any payment in exchange for work to be wages regardless of form. No individual should be able to receive compensation in the form of stock options or in any other form that is not also classified as wages. Any dividends or proceeds from the sale of stock acquired as a form of compensation should also be considered and taxed as wages rather than capital gains. This would apply not only to stock received in lieu of a cash salary but also should apply to stock acquired as a result of stock options granted an employee. 7.Eliminate all tax deductions for personal and corporate payments for event tickets and private boxes for any entertainment/sporting venues. “Customer entertainment” should not be considered to be an allowable business expense and should also no longer be deductible. This is especially the case where entertainment of elected officials is concerned. No organization should be allowed to deduct any expenses for the entertainment or benefit of any and all elected officials. Expenses for so-called “fund-raising” should also be disallowed as tax-deductible business expenses. 8.Restrict any individual running for federal office from accepting a campaign contribution from any individual not registered and eligible to vote for the office in question. This will also restrict any individual running for federal office from accepting a campaign contribution from any organization that is not an individual, registered voter. Additionally no individual running for federal office may accept a campaign contribution that exceeds the sum of three months salary for the position in question. This “three-month” limit also would apply to contributions and/or loans made to a political campaign by the candidate him or her self. 9.Eliminate any individual deductions from income in excess of $1,000,000. The only exception would be for exceptionally large medical expenses or casualty losses (excessive defined as exceeding 40% of gross income). 10.Add additional marginal tax brackets at the $500,000, $1,000,000, 10,000,000 and 100,000,000 level. 11.Tax all income the same regardless of form. There is no evidence that a lower tax rate for so-called “capital gains” or dividends provides any economic benefit deserving of special tax treatment. Income is income! 12.Eliminate the cap on the company side of FICA and raise the individual side of income liable for FICA to $1,000,000. Business (including self-employed) should be liable for FICA on the entire amount of income (including stock, stock options, dividends, or any other remuneration given employees). 13.“Obama Care” needs to change into “Medicare for All”. Private insurance can offer supplements or advantage programs as long as the insurance companies are not subsidized by government payments. If insurance companies can provide equal or better benefits for the same premium as the government’s cost for Medicare coverage they should be allowed to market this as an option. 14.There is a need for an “Ask your Doctor” tax. Without question, advertising for drugs and medical devices increase both the demand for medical services as well as the costs for medical care. A 10% tax on all “Ask your Doctor” advertising (both production costs as well as media costs) could be used to offset some of the Medicaid expenses needed to provide care for the very low income population. 15.Drug companies and medical device providers should be forced to pledge that the prices they charge any government subsidized or reimbursed program are the lowest prices that firm charges anyone. No company doing business in the United States should be able to charge American citizens who have medical expenses reimbursed by government programs a higher price than paid by citizens of another country. Canadian drug prices should not be lower than drug prices charged Medicare/Medicaid recipients. 16.Members of Congress (Senators and Representatives) should be prohibited from working as lobbyists when their Congressional service ends. They should sign an oath that they will not work in any capacity to influence any legislation in behalf of any constituent or contributor to a prior campaign. 17.Employees of Congressional members(Senators and Representatives office staff) should be prohibited from working as lobbyists when their congressional employment ends. They, too, should sign an oath that they will not work in any capacity to influence any legislation once their Congressional employment ends. 18.Members of Congress (Senators and Representatives) shall no longer have their own medical and retirement programs but should participate in Medicare while service in office and should contribute to and be eligible for Social Security when they retire. The only “government” retirement should be a 104K program where they make matching contributions and are eligible to receive funds from the program once they have reached retirement age like any other Social Security recipient. 19.Members of Congress must affirm that they personally have read and understood any legislation for which they have voted. They should not be permitted to vote on any legislation if they have not read it in its entirety. 20.No member of Congress may directly or indirectly accept any government remuneration other than their actual salaries during their term of office nor for a period of 5 years following their term of office. This would include benefits such as farm subsidies, contractual awards, payments as consultants or any other remuneration other than retirement pensions. 21.Members of Congress should be considered “insiders” and subject to the same rules, regulations, and laws as employees of investment firms and subject to prosecution if they personally financially benefit from knowledge available to them because of their political position. 22.Congressional salaries and office expenses as well as salaries for congressional staff should be tied to tax receipts, government expenditures, and GDP. When government action increases tax receipts, lowers government spending and there is an increase in GDP, more funds can be made available for Congress. When the reverse occurs, less funds should be made available for congress. 23.For any home with a federally insured or federally guaranteed mortgage, the amount of mortgage may never exceed the original purchase price of the home. The only exception would be where re-modeling or other property improvements act to increase the original purchase price. Along the same line, a tax appraisal may never exceed the purchase price of the property excepting where improvements are added to the original purchase price.