Project 2029 - 2

Dear Friends,

 

There are two broad goals that the Democrats must address in Project 2029 – improving the lives of working people and improving our democracy.  There are, of course, many other goals, but if the changes are made to improve our democracy, many of the other goals can be achieved through normal democratic processes.  

 

There are two prerequisites to achieve these broad goals – elimination of the filibuster in the Senate and significantly enlarging the Supreme Court.  Other than legislation that can be shoehorned into a reconciliation bill, the filibuster will need to be eliminated to pass the legislation needed to accomplish the two broad goals.  In addition, the concept of the unitary executive, currently in vogue with the radical right majority on the Supreme Court, will need to be defeated.  Under the unitary executive theory, the President can do what Trump has done – ignore the legislation and the authorized spending and just do those things that (s)he wants. 

 

So, every Democrat running for the Senate must be asked “what legislation will you fight for that will improve the lives of working people and will improve our democracy?”.  The follow up question is “will you work to and vote for the elimination the filibuster and the enlargement of the Supreme Court?”.  If the candidate is not willing to eliminate the filibuster and enlarge the Supreme Court, they are not serious about improving the lives of working people or improving our democracy.  Without eliminating the filibuster, the legislation cannot become law; and without enlarging the Supreme Court, a President can avoid duly executing the law. 

 

The goal is not to look like we are fighting but to take action that improves the lives of working people and improves our democracy.

 

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

The Democrats' Project 2029 -1

Dear Friends,

 

The Republicans developed their Project 2025 to provide a clear list of their priorities and the actions they would take if they took control of the Congress and the Presidency in the 2024 election.  They have been devastatingly efficient at accomplishing their goals because Republican elected representatives were complicit in the destructive policies and because they pursued their goals without regard to the Constitution and laws of the country.  

 

The Democrats must prepare their own Project 2029 to provide a clear list of their priorities and the actions they will take when they control the Congress and the Presidency after the 2028 election.  It can also be used as a campaign platform in the 2026 midterm elections.

 

I have decided to help the Democrats out by beginning a draft of Project 2029.  My next few posts will consist of first drafts of portions of Project 2029.  I can use all the help I can get so feel free to critique and augment my draft.  As a start, here is a couple paragraph preamble to Project 2029.

 

The goal of the actions and priorities outlined in Project 2029 must be to reestablish and insure the future of our country as a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-religious liberal democracy in which we all respect, value and support each other, and governments at all levels respect, value and support all the people, ensuring their constitutional rights, keeping them safe and providing them with the opportunity to meet their potential and prosper.  

 

Project 2029 provides a bold vision and list of priorities to be pursued by the Democrats including both short term and long-term policies to enact and implement asap once they control the House, Senate and Presidency.  As a prerequisite for this vision, the Democrats must immediately eliminate the filibuster and reform the Supreme Court by enlarging it and in the longer-term instituting term limits and a method of providing each Presidential term with some nominations.  

 

There are many issues that must be addressed.  The Democrats must take them all on at once, much as the Republicans did with Project 2025, except that the Democrats must follow the rules.The Democrats must within the first two years of unified control prove to the voters that they are going to make good on their campaign promises.

 

Future posts will outline the various policies and actions that I think should be included in Project 2029.

 

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

The Deterioration of the Standard of Living of Working People in the US

The economic system in the United States was broken well before Trump started to run for President. For decades going back at least to the Clinton presidency, the Democratic Party has failed to prioritize improving the lives of working people.  Since the Democrats were not working to make their lives better, nobody was, and their lives became harder and harder.  The fact that the Democratic Party was not fighting for working people and the resulting negative impact on their lives were two of the primary reasons that working people turned against the Democrats and helped elect Trump in 2016 and again in 2024. 

 

Since the economic system has been rigged against working people and in favor of the rich and powerful for decades, policies aimed at returning to the way things were before Trump does not solve the problem. Democrats must propose dramatic and transformative policies to improve the lives of working people, reverse the movement of wealth to the top 1% and seek equity for all.  Small and incremental changes to get back to the status quo ante Trump will just lead to even worse economic conditions for working people and yet another defeat for Democrats and even more claims by the Republicans and the oligarchs that authoritarianism is the only thing that can help working people.

 

Working people have suffered in many ways because of our broken economic system.  Their share of household income and wealth has fallen well behind those on the top of the economic ladder.

 

While household incomes at all levels of income have risen over the last 50 years, the incomes of the top 10% have risen at a much higher rate than those of the bottom 50%.  According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, the median household income from 1973 to 2023 rose 16.6% while the household income for the top 10% rose 50.0%.  

 

To give you an idea of how much income the various levels have, Census Bureau data indicates the following for 2023

Top 5%                        $526,200

Top quintile                 $297,300

2^nd quintile                  $129,400

Median                        $80,730

4^th quintile                  $47,590

Bottom quintile           $17,650

 

A Federal Reserve study on household wealth from 1989 to 2025 demonstrates that during that period 

·      the wealth of the top 0.1% increased 67% 

·      the wealth of the rest of the top 1% increased 22.5%

·      the wealth of the rest of the top 10% decreased by 4%

·      the wealth of the 50% to the 90% decreased 18.2%

·      the wealth of the bottom 50% decreased by 26.5%

 

In my view there are many reasons for this deterioration of the financial wellbeing of working people.  I will discuss several important ones – income tax rates, estate tax rates, decline of union membership and the increase in monopolistic power.

 

The maximum individual income tax rate has fallen over time, and the amount of income it applies to has also fallen.

 

In 1950 the maximum rate was 91%, and it applied to income over $400,000 ($5.4 million).

In 1975 the maximum rate was 70%, and it applied to income over $200,000 ($1.8 million).

In 2000, the maximum rate was 39.6%, and it applied to income over $288,350 ($542,659).

In 2025, the maximum rate was 37%, and it applied to income over $751,600 ($751,600)

 

The dollar amounts in parenthesis are the amount expressed in 2025 dollars.  As you can see the wealthy are not paying anywhere near their fair share, if you define fair share as what they were paying in 1950 or even 1975.

 

The same is true for estate tax rates and exemption amounts.

In 1954, the maximum rate was 77% on amounts over $10 million ($118 million).

In 1977, the maximum rate was 70% on amounts over $5 million ($27 million)

In 2009, the maximum rate was 45% on amounts over $3.5 million ($5.3 million)

In 2025, the maximum rate was 40% on amounts over $14 million ($14 million)

 

Once again, the rich are not paying their fair share and more and more generational wealth is moving to the very, very rich due to government policies.

 

A report issued by the Library of Congress in 2023 discusses union membership from the 1880s to 2022. The percentage of the workforce that were union members reached a peak in 1945 at 34.2% and stayed above 30% until 1961 when it dropped to 29.2%.  During the 1960s and 1970s, it dropped steadily but slowly.  In 1980 22.2% of the US workforce were members of unions.  After that the rate of union membership dropped faster to just 9.4% in 2022.

 

While I cannot say that there is a direct causation, there is certainly a correlation between the decline of union membership and fact that working people have fallen behind in the share of household income and wealth. 

 

The increased monopolistic power within the US economy has also had an adverse impact on the economic condition of working people.  As an October 2016 report from the Council of Economic Advisors states:

 

There is also growing concern about an additional cause of inequity—a general reduction in competition among firms, shifting the balance of bargaining power towards employers (Furman and Orszag 2015). Such a shift could explain not only the redistribution of revenues from worker wages to managerial earnings and profits, but also the rising disparity in pay among workers with similar skills. These trends also have broader implications for the economy as a whole: instead of promoting growth, forces that undermine competition tend to reduce efficiency, and can lead to lower output, employment, and social welfare.

 

Since that report, Trump has essentially stopped all anti-trust enforcement.  Unfortunately, even during times when Democrats controlled the White House, anti-trust enforcement has not been a priority.  

 Government policies related to income tax, estate taxes, unions and anti-trust as well as others have concentrated most of wealth and political power in the hands of a few very wealthy individuals and corporations (the "oligarchs") and have had a significant negative impact on working people.  Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have prioritized making the lives of working people better.  It is no wonder that working people are angry and frustrated.  They abandoned the Democrats because the Democrats took them for granted and never really prioritized making their lives better.  They moved to Trump because at least he promised them a better life.  It is now clear even to the working people who supported him, that Trump was lying.

 

Consequently, the Democrats have an opening to regain the votes of working people by enthusiastically embracing a platform of government policies that will improve their lives.  The word of the day is “affordability” and that is critical to improving working people’s lives, but it doesn’t stop there.  High quality childcare, education, health care, food, unemployment benefits and retirement benefits are not just affordability issues they are also quality of life issues.  Of course, part and parcel of all these issues is to reclaim our democracy where working people share equally and fully in the power and prosperity of our country.  Their voices must be heard.  The oligarchs cannot be permitted to continue to buy our elections and politicians.

 

In later posts, I will discuss what policies the Democrats should embrace to enhance the lives of working people and save our democracy.

 

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal