Republicans

Definition of LEAD

a : to guide on a way especially by going in advance

b : to bring to some conclusion or condition <led to believe otherwise>

c : to guide someone or something along a way

b : to lie, run, or open in a specified place or direction <path leads uphill>

d : to be first

Definition of LEAD

a: a bluish-white soft malleable ductile plastic but inelastic heavy metallic element found mostly in combination and used especially in pipes, cable sheaths, batteries, solder, and shields against radioactivity

b : a thin stick of marking substance (as graphite) in or for a pencil

c : bullets, projectiles

Republicans need to separate themselves from the definition of the noun, lead and move to the verb, lead.  If the republican Party is ever going to return to the party of Eisenhower and the party of a majority of Americans it is necessary to move from the extreme, lose the Tea Party idiocy, and begin to lead.  Some ways they could do this in the area of deficit reduction is as follows:

1.     Immigration Reform.  Expanding the guest worker program to allow every undocumented alien presently in the country, employed, and with no criminal record,  to apply for a guest worker visa.  This would put between 8 and 10 million more people on the tax rolls and the additional revenues would help deficit reduction as well as benefit Social Security and Medicare since most of these workers would be wage earners subject to payroll taxes.

2.     Redefine the W-2 terms for salary and wages to include all income and taxable benefits from work regardless of form.  If there is compensation defined in a labor contract or employee agreement, all of that compensation is to be reported on Form W2 as wage/salary.  If an employer deducts anything as employee compensation the same thing would apply.  If self-employed, all income from that employment would meet the definition of wage/salary as would all surplus distributions from partnerships, LLCs, and S corporations.  This would also include “carried interest” and other forms of compensation not presently subject to payroll taxes.

3.     Income tax on dividends and capital gains should also be progressive with a low rate, say 10% for the first $50,000 of income from dividends and capital gains, 20% for the next $50,000, 30% from $100,000 to $500,000 and 40% on capital gain/dividend income between $500,000 and $1,000,000 and 50% for all over $1,000,000. 

4.     Repeal all federal legislation and encourage repeal of all state legislation that is anti-woman or based upon religious dogma.

5.     Require US Corporations (to be defined as any corporation offering shares for sale on a U.S. exchange, regardless of where corporate headquarters is located) to be subject to all income regardless of where earned if reported on a financial statement or used to determine executive compensation.

6.     Alternative Minimum Tax for corporations which would require income tax at present rates being paid on a minimum of a sum of dividends and executive compensation.

Republicans in the House and Senate could initiate legislative activity on any of the above mentioned items and go a long way to returning to the center/right which represents the majority of citizens and the majority of eligible voters.