Next New Deal?

Invest in America's Future: Our Plan for Security, Opportunity and Prosperity

A faltering economy and sudden spike in basic cost of living expenses, skyrocketing health care costs, tens of millions of Americans uninsured, inequality in the education system with soaring fees for college education, a costly and misguided war, increased economic pressure due to global competition, an unhealthy environment, and energy dependence -- these are the most urgent and pressing problems of our time. Invest in America's Future effectively tackles these issues, turning critical dilemmas into positive rewards for America. Our current economic system relies on "bubble" markets that eventually "burst," causing recession and fueling further insecurity. The IAF plan will provide durable, lasting economic gains for families, businesses and the nation as a whole by making health care and education more affordable, creating a new clean energy economy, and ultimately strengthening our work force.

Invest in America's Future [IAF plan] focuses on the changes American families and businesses need:

Guaranteeing quality, affordable health care for everyone,
Granting all children access to high quality education from early childhood through college,
Developing a clean energy economy and independence from oil.
The public investments proposed in the IAF plan will pay off. Federal support for health care will ease the financial burden on employers, providing greater capacity for businesses to generate new jobs and provide better benefits for existing workers. Investing in preventive health care will result in a healthier, more productive workforce, expanding America's human capital. Public investments in education will enable all of America's young people to become formidable global competitors. Greater outlays in education will also cut crime rates, reduce the public burden of an exhausted prison system, and generate new revenue from higher salaries, resulting in lasting economic benefits. Investments in clean, renewable energy sources will not only effectively address the climate change crisis, but they will also give American businesses the chance to once again lead the world in fresh and innovative technologies and spawn millions of new jobs. Investing in clean energy will also increase our exports, stabilize growth and energy costs, and reduce our dependency on oil and natural resources.

Rather than spending billions of dollars on a war overseas or on tax cuts for millionaires and big corporations, this plan invests in our own families and in our own children. The plan addresses the budget deficit -- which makes public investments seem unfeasible -- by rooting out waste from private contracting, eliminating unfair tax cuts for millionaires, closing corporate tax loopholes and saving billions of dollars by ending the war in Iraq. These policy changes address our budget crisis and revitalize our economy in the short term while the public investments create a robust and sustainable economy that ensures a healthy, competitive, and clean America for decades to come.

Invest in Quality, Affordable Health Care for All

Invest in America's Future will revamp the ailing health care system to make it work for everyone. All of us benefit from healthy communities, where we all have access to affordable, quality health care from a provider of our choice, at the time we need it, at a cost we can afford. Our mutual goal is affordable, quality health care for everyone.

To achieve that goal, a uniquely American solution to secure our families' health and a healthy economy is what we need. All of us - individuals, employers and government - have a shared responsibility to realize comprehensive reforms in our health care system. Individuals must use health care services responsibly, pay a reasonable share of expenses and focus on prevention, wellness, and disease management as best they can. Employers must provide a fair percentage of health care costs for employee coverage. Our government's responsibility is to guarantee quality, affordable health care for everyone in America and it must play a central role in regulating, financing, and providing health coverage. We can no longer wait for insurance companies and HMOs to provide us with the quality, affordable health care that Americans need and deserve.

In the IAF plan, people can keep the insurance they have and everyone will have the choice between private insurance and public insurance, with standard, comprehensive benefits that meet our needs, paid for on a sliding scale based on income.

Public investment in health care would ease the coverage burden that plagues the private sector. In addition, big corporations as well as small businesses would become stronger competitors in global and local markets. The high cost of health care in America is a major reason why we have trouble competing with other countries (e.g. the American automobile industry spends more on health care than steel ). An effective and efficient health care system will pay for itself over time through reduced administrative costs and healthier people who require less expensive care. The expansion of a healthy workforce would greatly benefit our economy due to higher production and increased revenue.

Invest in Education: Early Childhood through College

Invest in America's Future makes education a key long-term investment to guarantee lasting, sustainable economic growth. America needs to support early childhood education programs, improve the quality of public schools and make college education accessible, so that all kids have a real opportunity to achieve the American dream. Success in the competitive global economy of the 21st Century requires the creativity and talent of every young person in America.

Our communities need a public education system that provides all children the opportunity to succeed, including in early childhood and after school education. Public schools must graduate more high school students with the education and skills necessary to prepare them for college and the job market. No student should be priced out of the college or advanced technical training they need to prosper in our society, as a college diploma has become necessary, in many instances, to obtain even an entry-level position. In the 19th century, primary school education became a birthright for every American. In the 20th century, secondary school education became a birthright for every American. Now in the 21st century, higher education must become a birthright for every American.

Federal support for education must not be viewed as a drain on our budget, but instead as an investment that gives back. Educators and economists agree that investing in education provides a positive economic rate of return not just for the individual, but for the entire nation as well. Initial public investments in education to modernize schools and hire more teachers will create new jobs. Providing a quality education to all will lead to an educated workforce, a higher per capita income and greater tax revenue. Ensuring access to good child care and afterschool programs will give working parents the support they need.

Invest in Clean Energy: A New Economy for a New World

Invest in America's Future will take advantage of the incredible and unique opportunity before us today. By investing in a clean energy economy, we can produce innovative new technologies, create millions of new jobs and generate billions in public revenue while at the same time becoming energy independent and effectively tackling the climate change crisis. Today, the U.S. gets less than two percent of its energy from clean, renewable sources, like wind, solar, geothermal, and co-generative biomass. A commitment to clean energy and reducing our oil dependence requires a significant expansion of the use of renewable sources of energy, increased gas mileage in our cars and trucks, and broad public investments in energy-efficient retrofits, green buildings, and advanced technologies to create good jobs and support sustainable economic growth. The government must also regulate harmful emissions to curb greenhouse gas pollution and generate new revenue streams.

Solar, wind, biomass, and other clean energy technologies have the potential to be robust industries in the 21st century, with the ability to drive our economy the way steel, automobile, manufacturing and IT industries did in the 20th century. The IAF plan of public investments, tax incentives, and government regulations will propel American corporations into the forefront of these new industries while at the same time dramatically reducing our harmful environmental footprint.

Economic Policy: Fairness, Accountability, and Fiscal Responsibility

Invest in America's Future will shift the paradigm of our fiscal policy from one that is founded on unstable bubble markets to a strategy for building a durable and sound economy. Substantial investments are required to bring about the lasting economic benefits that the IAF plan guarantees. Instead of calling for additional government spending which could increase the $9.4 trillion national debt, the plan promotes fairness and reform that will help pay for initial spending, balance the budget in the short term, provide long-term economic security, and make our government and corporations more accountable.

A strong majority of Americans support an agenda that, along with plans to roll back tax breaks for corporate interests, bring down the deficit and make government more accountable, would ensure:

High-quality, affordable, comprehensive education for all from early childhood through college; Guaranteed quality, affordable health care for all; and
A clean energy economy and reduced dependence on oil.
The time is now to make a bold move for a future of opportunity and prosperity