Ten issues I'd like to see addressed by Congress soon

[dsrtao]

• Copyright. Copyright is a mess; but Pelosi is in Hollywood's pocket. Nothing good will happen.
  
• Right to Travel. All long distance travel except in private cars is a mess.
  
• Healthcare. Too many places to begin. Pick one and start there.
  
• Patents. I'm with Justin -- throw 'em all out.
  
• FDA. Time to reign in the supplements market.
  
• Wart On Terror. How about less security theater and over-reaction, and more HUMINT? I'd like my privacy back now, please.
  
• Data Privacy Laws. We don't seem to have any, except for some mostly ineffective ones like HIPAA (where every doctor needs you to sign your rights away before they can see you).
  
• Broadband Infrastructure. Ours sucks -- most Americans can hope for a duopoly as their telco and cableco vie to provide the stupidest add-on services and the least amount of actual bandwidth per dollar.
  
• Just Say No -- to executive signing statements. Send a clear message that Congress makes laws, the President carries them out, and the Supreme Court decides what they mean. No mixing.
  
• General Legislative Reform. We've got a lot of cruft built up in the system, and it's about time for a comprehensive review.
  

That's 10, and one more for luck: Tax law simplification. The average American should be able to do their taxes without missing any loopholes. The IRS ought to offer binding tax advice all year round.

Comments

Implementation

[robertdfeinman.livejournal.com]

Goals are all for the good, but the problem is implementation. For each goal think about who stands to benefit from the status quo, what it would take to overcome their resistance and how one would go about it.

To give the simplest example: filing taxes. In many places people don't have to file taxes if they are normal wage earners. The government already has all the information it needs. Even with our more complicated system of deductions there is no reason the IRS can't provide an online form to be filled out and then they do the calculation. Except there is: a for-profit tax software and tax preparation industry which lobbied (successfully) against this happening.

Now try to deal with the intellectual property issues and you can see how difficult change becomes.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

My #1 is still "habeas corpus for everyone", and its larger standard "US laws where US troops have control". #2 is "maintain balance of power" (your "Just Say No"). All the rest of these can be fixed if dissenters don't disappear.

Taxes and...

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Didn't they reach a compromise? I mean, I can (and do) go online and do my taxes in a fairly straightforward fashion -- I just get dumped into a dozen ads for ways to *pay* for this service afterwards. Smells like compromise to me... ;)