{news} The First 100 Days of a Green Party Administration

Sat Jan 31 12:28:55 EST 2009

----- Original Message -----

From: "John Rensenbrink"
To: natlcomaffairs
Subject: [usgp-dx] The First 100 Days of a Green Party Administration
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:55:49 -0500

Hi, This op ed appeared today in the midcoast Maine daily, the Times
Record.

John R
Maine

Friday, Jan. 30, 2009

The First 100 days of a Green Party Administration

letters at TimesRecord.Com
01/30/2009

By John Rensenbrink

I wrote this piece the weekend before Obama's inauguration. It is
partly a fantasy but it is also meant as a practical vision of what
a Green president-elect might/could proclaim to the country and
the world at this moment.

I do not mean thereby to downplay Obama's historic moment. I was
full of joy on Obama's inauguration day and very glad to hear his
brave and inspiring words. He may be able to ameliorate some of
the terrible problems vexing our people, so much of them caused
and/or exacerbated by eight years of mendacious, unlawful and
incompetent leadership. He may even be able to go at least some
distance to satisfy the great expectations aroused among the
people by his charismatic appeals to hope and "a better life."

At the very least, his administration may give us a reprieve in
which to gather our wits and create momentum for meeting
successfully the multiple crises that now loom over us.

With a view, then, toward staking out a practical vision that is
adequate to the crises we face, I offer this sketch of what a Green
administration should set about to do. You will see that it takes
a different approach from the one being taken by Obama. Note also
that it is based on the principle of community self-reliance and
community empowerment both here and abroad.

The Green Party's president-elect is about to take office in
Washington, D.C. She will be joined by Green Party majorities in
both Houses of Congress. Their program for their first 100 days in
office includes the following highlights for both domestic and
foreign policy.

Domestic policy

— Initiate a $1 trillion community-based grant-in-aid program from
the national government to local communities. These funds will be
channeled though collaborative arrangements between state and local
governments and require maximum feasible participation in
governance by all parts of each local community receiving these
grants.

Also required is a 5 percent matching grant from each participating
local community. The purposes of the grants are for sustainable
community development and empowerment. The grants include funds for
renewable energy, conservation, work-force housing, small
business development coupled with apprenticeship programs to hire
the unskilled, open space, extra support for teachers and for
ecologically informed education, college scholarships, food and
water security, public works, public transportation, regional
cooperative projects, support for neighborhood policing programs,
and support for the arts.

This replaces the "bailout from the top" scheme initiated in late
2008 called the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

— Substantially lower the income tax and combine this with a carbon
tax of $250 per ton to be phased in at the rate of $25 per year
from 2009 to 2020 — the carbon tax to be offset at each step of
the way with a matching reduction in income tax.

This is advocated by Lester Brown of "State of the World" fame and
is designed to discourage fossil fuel use and to stimulate
investment of renewable sources of energy.

— Extend Medicare to the entire population; in other words, a
single- payer health-care program for all.

— Establish a financial transactions fee. Economist Dean Baker (co-
director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in
Washington, D.C.) estimates that a very small fee — ranging up to,
say, 0.25 percent will yield $100 billion or more annually. The fee
would be placed on the sale or transfer of stocks, bonds, and
other financial assets, including the great variety of exotic and
speculator-driven financial instruments so much in the news lately.

— Initiate a "reparations program" for dispossessed African
American and Native American peoples.

— Initiate a constitutional amendment for the election of president
and vice president by popular vote.

— Pressure state and local governments to institute "instant
run-off voting" in elections and to develop pilot programs for
proportional representation.

— Push for laws and administrative rules in military and civilian
life that provide support for gay marriage and gay families.

— End the "War on Drugs," decriminalize cannabis and support
growing hemp for industrial use.

Foreign policy

— Initiate, through collaborative diplomacy, "Peace," "Justice" and
"Sustainability" summits, starting with summits engaging
respectively the governments in the Americas, in Europe, in
Africa, in the Middle East and in the Asia-Pacific region, leading
to a World Summit on Peace, Justice, and Sustainability within two
years.

— Promote in these summits a worldwide program for collective
security; renewable energy; and community-based sustainability
programs in food, water, energy development, education,
transportation, and local self-reliance, with guaranteed
participation by all sections of the local community.

— Promote in these summits plans and provisions to end the trade in
arms, the trafficking of women, and the militarization of space.

— End the war and the military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

— Promote equally the security and rights of both Israel and Palestine.

— Develop a plan to close American military bases throughout the
world, phasing out the bases in step with collaborative actions to
provide the affected countries with alternative collective security
arrangements.

— Take leadership in promoting a worldwide financial transactions
fee, the funds raised to be directed primarily to solar power
development in developing countries.

— Institute a worldwide carbon tax, proceeds to be used to lower
taxes that burden small businesses.

— Create a World Environmental and Labor Protection Organization
alongside the World Trade Organization (WTO) ... Or expand the WTO
to include protection of the environment and labor.

John Rensenbrink lives in Topsham. He is a founding member of the
Green Party of the United States and founder of the Maine Green
Independent Party. He was the 1996 Green Party candidate for U.S.
Senate from Maine.
Top of Story

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Tim McKee, Manchester CT, main number cell-860-778-1304, 860-643-2282
 National Committee member of the Green Party of the United States and is a spokesperson for the Green Party of CT.
BLOG-http://thebiggreenpicture.blogspot.com

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