The American Dream: prosperity, liberty, security for all.

The American Dream begins with every American's right to be healthy, educated, and to live in a safe community and a clean environment. We believe vibrant economy is built with American jobs, well-paid productive workers, innovation, and the entrepreneurial spirit. We believe responsibility, honesty, and compassion are fundamental to a successful nation and that efficient government, effective public investments, and fiscal responsibility serve our citizens best.

We believe protecting personal liberty begins with the right of every citizen to enjoy their full civil liberties with equal access to opportunity and justice, We believe in the values of freedom, fairness, and respect. We believe the cornerstone of democracy is honest elections, transparent government and a deep commitment to our nations' Constitution and Bill of Rights.

We believe leadership with global cooperation is the best way to secure peace and acting on environmental challenges strengthens our nation and protects the Earth. We believe the power of the United States must be used honestly and wisely.

We believe America's promise of prosperity, liberty and security belongs to all Americans and that our nation's strength lies in a shared commitment to these ideals.

It is our fundamental belief that the American economy should be an economy that is democratically managed for the benefit of all the American people, not for the pursuit of corporate, government, or global power. We have seen in recent years that when government abdicates its responsibility to regulate the economy, chaos ensues and the working class suffers as a result. We believe in free enterprise and we support the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people, but we believe that such enterprise flourishes only when the economy is responsibly managed by government on behalf of the people. In light of this fundamental belief, we propose the following steps to lift our economy out of its current recession:

1. Recognizing that our budget deficit contributes to the devaluation of the dollar and thus to inflation, we call for responsible budgeting by our government. Government can and should pay for programs as it goes without accounting or political trickery; we cannot continue to fund programs with deficit spending.
   
   
2. To work toward a balanced budget and ensure that needed programs do not suffer.
   
   
3. To refocus our military budget to pay down the National Debt, fund the inevitable Social Security issue, and/or scientific exploration and education.
   
   
4. Like our budget deficit, our trade deficit contributes to the devaluation of the dollar and inflation. We therefore call for a renegotiation of all free trade agreements, especially the North American and Central American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA and CAFTA). All trade agreements should be sensitive to both domestic and foreign economic needs, to the rights of workers here and abroad.
   
   
5. The current home mortgage and banking crises have occurred because government failed to adequately regulate the banking system. We call for a more efficient, streamlined form of regulation for financial institutions, investor rights, and financial product and commodities trading, and to ensure no one single institution is too integrated to fail at the taxpayer's expense.
   
   
6. To encourage competition and prevent any government-backed institution from becoming too large to fail at taxpayers' expense, we call for a government-engineered break-up of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
   
   
7. We encourage and empower the GAO other regulators to ensure each government agency is running, efficiently and transparently. Specifically, we empower the Government Accounting Standards Board to enforce government financial accounting and reporting.
   
   
8. To ensure a strong economy, government must work to curtail corporate crime and impropriety. Among the many steps that must be taken to curtail corporate crime, we call for an end to loopholes that allow corporations to move to offshore tax havens and avoid their taxes; for better regulation of the pension system to ensure retirement security; and for a ban on government contracting to corporate criminals.
   
   
9. We believe in the fundamental principle that much should be expected from those to whom much has been given, and we have seen in recent years that the "trickle-down" theory of economics in which it is argued that tax cuts to the wealthy will trickle down for the benefit of all is a false theory.
   
   
10. We recognize that our energy and education policies are integral to a bright economic future for America. We call for an energy policy based on renewable resources to lower costs for Americans and create new jobs. We further call for an educational policy that deemphasizes standardized testing and that is sensitive to inequities experienced by underprivileged and minority students.
    
    
11. We respect the role of working women in our economy, and we call for economic policy that recognizes the vital role these women play. We call for the ratification of a federal Equal Rights Amendment to ensure, among other things, that women are given equal pay for equal work.
    
    
12. We recognize the contribution made to our economy by undocumented workers, and we reject policies that force them into hidden slave-labor. We call for humane immigration policies that make it easier for those of other lands to pursue the American dream, as many of our own ancestors did. We call for legal normalization of undocumented workers' status and a path to citizenship for those who have contributed to our prosperity.
    
    

These steps are vital to creating a people-powered economy, but they are the means to an end and not an end unto themselves. The ultimate goal of our economic policy must be to create an economy that works for all Americans, and government should pursue any policy that would work toward that end, no matter how bold or innovative. Boldness and innovation have helped to turn us into an economic superpower, and only that same boldness and innovation will preserve our economic standing for future generations.

Human Rights and Justice

We believe that every citizen regardless of their sex, race, national origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or economic status is entitled to equal protection under the law, to equal access to the benefits of our political and economic system, and to equal access to our courts. We support efforts to integrate individuals with handicaps into the community and workplace. We repudiate the racist and/or violent tendencies of extremist groups. We support a path to citizenship for all immigrants. We support the inherent right to privacy for lawabiding citizens, and the right of individuals to control their own bodies and medical decisions. Constant vigilance is necessary to protect our constitutional rights against efforts to undermine or ignore them.

Restore our American Constitution and Balances of Power in Government

Our Constitution is the fundamental framework of our democracy and freedoms. It must be upheld. We must actively secure government of the People, by the People, and for the People.

We believe that the will of the people is expressed through multiple venues, including but not limited to direct democracy, use of our first amendment rights, and the election of representatives to our legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

We resolve to restore the balance of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, in particular, all Congressional prerogatives such as declarations of war, the power of the purse, challenges to executive overreaching with signing statements and executive orders, enforcement of Congressional subpoenas, and impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors. We believe that the role of the Congress to advise and consent to the executive branch is a necessary activity, not to be abridged by the theory of a unitary executive.

We believe that the balance and checks on the power of these branches is vital to the continued peace and stability of our nation. We believe that the checks on all of these branches by the people themselves through speech, activism, and voting is a vital right and responsibility.

Restore our Constitutional Rights and Demand Accountability

We resolve to restore our constitutional rights including dissent, free speech, assembly, habeas corpus, privacy, due process of law, and equal protection. To this end, we resolve to put an end to government practices and to repeal or substantially amend laws (including the Patriot Act, the FISA Amendments law and the Military Commissions Act), executive orders, and executive signing statements that attempt to legitimize warrantless surveillance on Americans, the use of secret evidence in military courts, torture, illegal rendition and imprisonment of U.S. citizens and others, and arbitrary racial and religious profiling. We resolve to replace these with laws that reaffirm our fundamental rights and hold accountable all parties who violate those rights.

We resolve to remove from law, policy and practice of the United States the redefinition of torture by the Bush administration. We resolve to support full and complete and independent and open investigations into those creating the new definitions of torture, those who made them the law, policy and practice of the United States, and those who carried out the torture, from the highest to the lowest levels, and to support such criminal charges as are recommended. We resolve to suport a full and complete and open accounting of all those held in Us custody and all those rendered and their treatment, since January 21, 2001. We resolve to support the re-signing of the Treaty of the World court by the President of the United States. We resolve to support the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility and just a fair and speedy criminal trials for those still held without charge. We resolve to support the swift finding of safe havens for those who have been found innocent whose countries will not allow them to return or who fear torture if they are returned.

Get FISA Right

We resolve to repeal or substantially amend the FISA Amendments Act, which threatens Fourth Amendment and other fundamental rights and to replace the FISA Amendments Act with a law that restores fundamental rights and holds all parties accountable who violate those rights.

We resolve to conduct a full investigation of illegal government surveillance programs, make public the legal opinions that justified them, and hold accountable those who ordered illegal warrantless surveillance.

We resolve to restore the rule of law and end unchecked unitary executive power by bringing to justice all corporate entities, government agencies, and persons who violated the Fourth Amendment and other fundamental rights.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender/Transsexual (LGBT) Equality

We support the hate crimes bill, known as the Matthew Shepard Act, as approved in the 110th Congress and will renew the effort to pass into legislation a hate crimes bill in order to protect more LGBT Americans from bias-motivated violence. We support non-discrimination in employment, housing, credit, and public accommodation for LGTB people.

We support repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, as well as Article 125 of the Unified Military Justice Code, to allow all LGBT Americans to proudly defend our country.

We believe in the separation of Church and State. While different religions set different criteria about the sex of people that they marry, the government should not practice discrimination based upon the sex of the intended spouses in the issuance of marriage licenses.

We support the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and explicitly require the Federal Government to consider as married all couples legitimately married or joined in a civil union in a jurisdiction that recognizes these unions. We believe that the government should recognize all civil unions and domestic partnerships equally.

We believe in a person's freedom to choose how to live his or her life, including the freedom of gender identity and expression and will pass legislation to protect that freedom.

We believe in a country in which all children can have a learning environment in schools safe of harassment and bullying and will pass legislation to that effect.

We support protecting all families and their children equally and explicitly acknowledge the adoption rights of same-sex couples. We will pass legislation to that effect.

Democracy and Civil Rights for Puerto Rico

We believe that the disenfranchisement of Puerto Ricans must be a matter of concern for all Americans, since we cherish the ideals of liberty, equality, justice and the inalienable right to choose those who govern us. We believe that it is time to put an end to the gross deficiency of our American democracy in Puerto Rico, which contains the largest group of disenfranchised voters under the American flag, by working towards a non-colonial, non-territorial and fully democratic solution to the 110-year-old dilemma of Puerto Rican colonialism. We believe that the People of Puerto Rico must determine, themselves, their own political future and ultimate relationship with the United States. However, it is incumbent upon the American government to set up a framework to create a genuine and transparent process for self-determination that will be true to the best traditions of democracy. Therefore, we resolve to work with the Puerto Rican People in promoting a deliberative, open and unbiased process toward political self-determination.

We resolve to continue the work started by the White House Task Force on Puerto Rico, as established by President Clinton and continued under President Bush, in order to support the President's role in bringing about a constitutionally viable and binding process for the political self-determination for the people of Puerto Rico.

We resolve to support Congress in a renewed effort to pass existing and/or new legislation aimed at fostering a constitutionally viable, binding and ultimate process of political self-determination for the people of Puerto Rico.

We resolve to support the roles of the Judicial Branch and of the Justice Department in denouncing civil rights violations against our American citizens in Puerto Rico.

While much attention has been focused on administrative details, there is more than one road to achieving a fair healthcare system for America. No one structure can claim to be the only right way.

However, there are certain tests that must be met by any true reform.

They are:

1. Universality and Reliability. A successful and fair reform must cover everyone, regardless of health status, age, economic status or place of residence. This system must be reliably available to anyone in the United States.
   
   
2. Equality. Everyone must be covered for the same standard of care. Any differentiation into one program for the poor and a different program for the rich leads inexorably to decay of programs perceived as serving the poor and disadvantaged. Health care providers will be provided increased incentives for working in primary care as well as in underserved communities and populations.
   
   
3. Comprehensiveness. All needed care covered, including inpatient and outpatient medical, dental, vision, mental health, physical and occupational therapies, hospice care, rehabilitation services and complementary therapies scientifically judged to be effective.
   
   
4. Broad-based financing mechanism for affordability. The financing mechanism must be broad-based and appropriately progressive, or at a minimum, not regressive. It must also not be based on discriminatory pricing based on pre-existing conditions.
   
   
5. Cost-Effectiveness and Efficiency. The structure of the reformed system must be designed to minimize spending on administrative processes and maximize the portion of spending devoted to actual provision of care.
   
   
6. Usability, Transparency, and Patients' Rights. The reformed system must provide ease of access and simplicity both for patient and provider, including electronic medical records systems which protect patient privacy. The mechanisms of obtaining care and treatment shall be transparently clear to all. Patients must have a "Bill of Rights" protecting their rights, including refusal of care.
   
   
7. Emphasis on Prevention. To the extent that decisions must be made on the allocation of scarce resources, high priority should be given to prevention and early detection of disease and incentives designed to maximize patient use of preventive services, while minimizing preventable disease and disability. This includes public health policy based on sound scientific guidelines following guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
   
   
8. Long-term Care and End-of-life Care. We support the availability of quality long-term and end-of-life care for our most vulnerable citizens. This care should be provided on a sliding scale rate system so that the families in greatest need are not forced to destitution by the costs of care.
   
   
9. Privacy of Medical Decisions. Decisions around medical issues shall reside with the patient and the doctor, and any other person the patient permits to be involved, except in cases with impact on the public health at large (such as infectious disease transmission). All other parties will remain outside of the decision process. Privacy will include keeping abortion "safe, legal, and rare" (President Bill Clinton) through protecting women's right to a safe and legal abortion, and facilitating the reduction of abortion through noncoercive means such as family planning, sex education, adoption, maternity leave, parenting classes, and reducing poverty.
   
   
10. Freedom of Choice. Americans should have freedom of choice among care providers. They should also be freed from undue burden or coercion by the government, e.g., purchase of health insurance for adults should not be mandated, or made a condition of employment.
    
    

The foreign policy of the United States should reflect our highest ideals of freedom, liberty, justice, and democracy. In the past, we have often relied too much on our military strength instead of our ethical principles. US military intervention in other countries is often seen by the people in those countries as insensitive and bullying, which has made it easier for extremists to rally support thus placing America in far greater danger.

Real security is best advanced by ameliorating global poverty and other problems that afflict people worldwide, upholding human rights, adhering to international law, cooperating with our allies who support these principles, and honestly negotiating mutually-satisfactory solutions with our adversaries.

We call for a new US foreign policy. Specifically we call for the United States to:

1. Expeditiously end the war in Iraq and bring our troops safely home.
   
   
2. Renounce pre-emptive or preventive wars and instead cooperate with our allies and honestly negotiate with our adversaries.
   
   
3. Support pending international treaties (the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the International Criminal Court, the land mine treaty, cluster bomb treaty, and banning weapons in space), reaffirm our support of previously ratified international treaties (Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty), and seek to negotiate other treaties that will eliminate weapons and build confidence in nonmilitary solutions to conflicts.
   
   
4. Support international capacities for prevention of armed conflict, for human rights monitoring, and for multilateral rapid responses to conflict and crisis via the United Nations.
   
   
5. Renounce the first use of nuclear weapons and reaffirm that these weapons would only be used in retaliation after a nuclear attack initiated by another country. End efforts to develop new "useable" nuclear weapons.
   
   
6. Work to end the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Specifically, expand funding for the Nunn-Lugar program to guard nuclear weapons and materials more securely and destroy existing nuclear stockpiles and production facilities, adhere to the provisions of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty which calls for all countries with nuclear weapons to reduce and eliminate their nuclear weapons, adhere to chemical and biological weapons protocols to reduce and eliminate these weapons, and support verification measures and enhanced inspection of all weapons facilities.
   
   
7. Ban the sale and transfer of arms to regions of conflict and to regimes involved in human rights abuses.
   
   
8. Support programs that promote peaceful conflict resolution, democracy, human rights, equality, sustainable development, and civilian-led political transition and reconstruction programs.
   
   
9. Increase foreign aid to democratic countries that work to end poverty and misery. End foreign aid to regimes that abuse human rights or block democratic reform and use this money to support nonprofit international aid organizations.
   
   
10. Support nonpartisan, nonviolent intervention as practiced by groups like the Nonviolent Peace Force and Peace Brigades International.
    
    
11. End all financial contracts with private companies that provide soldiers (mercenaries). Ensure that all armed forces personnel adhere to the Uniform Military Code of Justice.
    
    
12. Ban all lobbying by defense contractors. Bolster the resources of the Inspector General to reduce corruption in defense contracts.
    
    
13. Reduce the number of US military bases around the world, reduce the number of people serving in the armed forces, slow the development of new weapons systems, and reduce the defense budget to reflect a truly defensive force. Use the savings to promote peaceful conflict resolution, democracy, and sustainable development.
    
    
14. Increase health and education benefits for veterans to ensure they are taken care of and compensated for the toll taken by their service to our country.
    
    
15. Support communication and commerce between Americans and people in other countries to increase empathy and understanding, reduce prejudice and fear, and build mutual interdependence.
    
    
16. Renounce and repudiate torture under all circumstances.
    
    

Our society is inexorably tied to conventional energy. It governs the way we live, the foods we eat and the economy upon which we depend. Today, we see an increasing urgency to find sustainable alternatives that will provide us and our environment with a cleaner way of life. Ten years ago would we have expected to see energy and environmental issues discussed on the Senate floor, on the tips of Presidential candidates' tongues, or on the daily pages of mass media outlets. We must use this momentum to drive the change that will lead us towards more sustainable energy in all facets of our systems:

• Electricity (currently driven by dirty coal and questionably safe nuclear power).
  
  
• Transportation of humans and goods (currently driven by imported gasoline) and
  
  
• Heating in the northern climes (currently dominated by cleaner yet pricevolatile natural gas).
  
  

While a lofty yet achievable goal, the United States must commit to producing 100% of our electricity from cheap, clean renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, within 10 years. This will not only depend on investing in technologies that are commercially available today, but also must include substantial increases in investment for research and development for more efficient renewables and electricity storage. Without such R&D to make renewables more cost-competitive through efficient designs and government subsidies, renewable electric technologies will most likely always lag behind the cheaper yet dirtier alternative, coal. Of particular note, we should invest in a pilot plant for space solar power, and continued developmental work in all forms of fusion energy (magnetic containment, laser-powered inertial confinement, and inertial electrostatic fusion).

Over 30% of conventional fuels we use are devoted to transporting ourselves and the goods we depend upon. Our transportation network is based on the faulty premise that we have enough clean and inexpensive fuel to drive it. We must increase train transportation and reduce the distance from which our goods and foods come. We must also embark on a major effort to develop mass transportation - reducing private vehicle use by 30% within 10 years. And the private vehicles that do remain in existence must become much more efficient - we need to double or even triple the efficiency of all private vehicles.

Our throwaway society is unsustainable. Every good that we send to the landfill embodies energy that is lost when thrown away. To send the right signals, producers of products and our built environment need to be designed with the whole life cycle in mind. We need to replace our current cradle-to-grave disposable mindset with cradle-to-cradle design that will be healthy for all the children of all species for all time. When the price reflects the recycling and/or disposal costs, producers have an incentive to design for recycling and design out toxics. This idea is sweeping the nation. More than a dozen states - and New York City - have passed producer take-back recycling laws for electronics such as computers and TVs. Most have passed since May 2007.

The green economy has arrived and should be embraced. The United States should commit to rebooting our economy using the needs of a sustainable green economy to create jobs and develop new industries. We should commit to a Green New Deal to support energy efficiency and build renewable energy capacity to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and the economic consequences that will undoubtedly arise with expensive and dirty fuels.

We believe that the basis for any democracy must be free and fair elections. We therefore endorse the following reform proposals to ensure the fairness of our elections and to make participation in our democratic system more accessible to Americans.

1. We support a mandatory paper trail for all electronic voting systems to protect against error and fraud.
   
   
2. We support the institution of a federal election holiday to ensure that every American has the opportunity to vote.
   
   
3. We support the public financing of all political campaigns, with no loopholes - including donations through national party committees - to allow corporate and lobbyist money. We believe that our elections should be driven by the people of this country and not by the rich and powerful elite.
   
   
4. We support a federal standard for ballot access in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the American territories.
   
   
5. We support a more inclusive public debate process, including the adoption of reasonable and clear standards by which candidates may participate in debates.
   
   
6. We support instant run-off voting to ensure that our elected leaders are always chosen by a majority of the electorate and not by a mere plurality.
   
   
7. We support proportional representation to ensure that all parties and candidates that enjoy the confidence of a significant percentage of the American people will have a seat at the table for the making of public policy.
   
   
8. We support a binding national initiative to enable the people to have a direct role in the making of public policy, a proposal now made possible by new technologies.
   
   
9. We support governmental affirmative action to ensure that minorities and women are well represented at every level of government.
   
   
10. We support a constitutional amendment to abolish the electoral college, and in the meantime we support state-by-state efforts to award electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.
    
    
11. We support a change in the too expensive, too prolonged and unfair Primary Election system by adopting the use of an equal distribution of money by the Democratic Party to all candidates, a six month electoral race and a one day election thereby eliminating the unfair advantage of the early voting states.
    
    

Our commitment to education is among our greatest obligations to our children, and it is a challenge we take seriously. It is our goal to provide children with an education that will broaden their horizons, expand their minds, and help them grow as individuals.

We believe that every student should have access to safe, supportive schools with certified, well-paid teachers, regardless of their socioeconomic status. We believe that education should be flexible enough to meet individual students' unique needs and learning styles. We think parents and communities should play a role in education, because success cannot be achieved in school alone. We recognize teaching as one of the most challenging and vital jobs in our country, and we believe teachers should be paid fairly and rewarded for their accomplishments. We think that primary and secondary education should prepare students both personally and academically to enter college and that a high quality public college education should be affordable for every student.

To accomplish these goals, we must invest more in our schools, teachers, and students:

• We will enable teachers to give each student the individual academic and personal attention he or she needs to succeed, by reducing class sizes and providing adequate paid non-teaching time to reflect the many responsibilities faced by today's teachers beyond actual pedagogy.
  
  
• We will expand robust extended-day programs to support working families and to provide students with extra help and diverse learning opportunities.
  
  
• We will seek out, develop, and reward programs that aim to build community, provide individualized support for students, and encourage parental involvement.
  
  
• We believe that immigration has brought some of our country's best talent, and we pledge to support English language learners with strong bilingual education and English as a second language programs.
  
  
• We will improve the way professional development services are delivered to professional educators, to reflect the understanding that best practices in professional development require not only theoretical instruction, but also ample opportunities to collaborate with colleagues in common planning and interactive reflection on teaching practices.

We will replace the failed No Child Left Behind program, which posits standardized test scores as the sole measure of learning, with a more comprehensive system of accountability that considers students' personal development and academic preparation more three-dimensionally. Rather than punishing schools, students, and teachers that need the most help, we will make available all the resources they need to improve.

We will continue to emphasize literacy, social studies, and the arts while also prioritizing math and science. When students in the United States fall behind their peers around the world in math and science, we fail in our promise to prepare them to succeed in a globalized world. We will reconsider the curricula offered in these areas to ensure students have access to the best tools and the greatest opportunities.

We will invest in better financial aid options and increase debt forgiveness programs for students who pursue careers in public service.

Working to improve our educational system is one of our nation's greatest challenges, and we are prepared to work hard and invest significantly to uphold this obligation to our children and ensure them the opportunities they deserve.

American Prosperity through Science and Technology

In the past, government funding for scientific research has yielded innovations that have improved the landscape of American life, technologies like the Internet, digital photography, bar codes, Global Positioning System technology, laser surgery, and chemotherapy. At one time, educational competition with the Soviets fostered the creativity that put a man on the moon. Today, we face a new set of challenges, including energy security, HIV/AIDS, and climate change. Yet, the United States is losing its scientific dominance. Among industrialized nations, our country's scores on international science and math tests rank in the bottom third and bottom fifth, respectively. Over the last three decades, federal funding for the physical, mathematical and engineering sciences has declined at a time when other countries are substantially increasing their own research budgets.

We believe that federally funded scientific research should play an important role in advancing science and technology in the classroom and in the lab.

The 21st century tools of technology and telecommunications have unleashed the forces of globalization on a previously unimagined scale. They have flattened communications and labor markets and have contributed to a period of unprecedented innovation, making us more productive, connected global citizens.

We believe that by maximizing the power of technology, we can strengthen the quality and affordability of our health care, advance climate-friendly energy development and deployment, improve education throughout the country, become a spacefaring society, and ensure that America remains the world's leader in technology. Through marshalling our exploding base of knowledge in biotechnology and related fields, we will support 'efficient medicine' to drastically reduce the costs of health care - and human suffering - by preventing disease and by improving health outcomes. To facilitate a more effective Science & Technology policy, and foster America's global competitiveness, we must educate more scientists and engineers than ever before.

We believe that we should invest in the Sciences. We support doubling federal funding for basic research, changing the posture of our federal government from being one of the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that embraces science and technology. This will foster homegrown innovation, help ensure the competitiveness of US technology-based businesses, and ensure that 21st century jobs can and will grow in America. It is often federally supported basic research that has generated the innovation to create markets and drive economic growth. For example, one recent report demonstrated how federally supported research in fiber optics and lasers helped spur the telecommunications revolution.

We resolve to make the R&D Tax Credit Permanent. We will invest in a skilled research and development workforce and technology infrastructure here in America so that American workers and communities will benefit. We will make the Research and Development tax credit permanent so that firms can rely on it when making decisions to invest in domestic R&D over multi-year timeframes.

Restoring Scientific Integrity to Federal Policy Making

Scientific knowledge and its successful applications have played a large role in making the United States of America a powerful nation and its citizens increasingly prosperous and healthy. The challenges that face the United States in the twentyfirst century can only be met if this tradition is honored and sustained.

To that end, the U.S. government must adhere to high standards of scientific integrity in forming and implementing its policies. Breaches of this principle have damaged the public good and the international leadership of the United States.

The United States government must adhere to high standards of scientific integrity in forming and implementing its policies on crucial issues such as climate change. To meet its obligation to serve the public interest, the government must have reliable scientific work and advice at its disposal, and provide the public with reliable scientific information. This requires the government to provide the resources needed to carry out its scientific missions, and to create an environment that respects the scientific method. To that end, scientists should have the freedoms and protections they need to fulfill their public responsibilities.

We believe that federal government science should be depoliticized.

1. We believe that scientists should have freedoms and protections that enable them to fulfill their responsibilities to the public, including legislation that strengthens the rights of federal employees who blew the whistle on fraud and corruption. Career civil servants should perform press release reviews of government-funded scientists' data--not partisan propagandists from any side of the aisle.
   
   
2. We believe that government should be more transparent, so politicized science can be detected and disavowed. The policy-making process should presume that government information is public knowledge, to be withheld only when necessary, and scientific results or analysis used in promulgating any policy, guidance, or regulation should be available to the public.
   
   
3. We believe that the regulatory process should be fundamentally reformed, to protect the important role of independent science in that process. A balance must be struck between the executive brand priorities and federal agency independence. Policies and executive orders which tightened centralized control of federal agencies under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) should be reversed, restoring power to commence rule making to the agency heads and ensuring that OMB review of agency guidance documents does not permit inappropriate political review of scientific documents. The President and Congress should have testimony from authorities in science and technology fields, and the testimony should not be filtered by administrators.
   
   
4. We believe that scientists should have better mechanisms for communicating high-quality advice to government officials, so policy makers have accurate and robust information on which to base their decisions. The scientific advisory committee system should be reformed to insure that selection of advisory committee membership is fully transparent and based solely upon experience and technical qualifications. We believe that well informed representatives must have free and unbiased access to the best in the scientific and technology fields. In order to provide legislators with timely technical information, the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) should be reinstated by appropriating enough funds to create a successful office and a widely respected scientist should be appointed to lead it. We believe that the National Academies of Science should provide such access to the representatives to any member of congress, the judiciary, or the administration at government expense. Because science and technology issues are so closely intertwined with other national priorities, including health, energy policy, and national security, the science advisor acting as an assistant to the president must be widely respected scientist. The position of Science Advisor to the President should be a cabinet-level job.
   
   
5. We believe that Congress and the executive branch should ensure the consistent enforcement of existing regulations and statutes in order to avoid politicizing the scientific process. We believe that the monitoring and enforcement of these laws should be depoliticized. In addition, executive branch agencies should compile an easily searchable database of federal environmental-monitoring programs.
   
   

Space Policy

1. The United States, in cooperation with other nations and private industry, must reduce the cost of reliable access to space in order to move humanity towards a spacefaring society.
   
   Currently, the space industry is a $251 Billion dollar industry. Beyond pure economic benefits, space provides invaluable resources in the form of GPS, weather forecasting, new technologies, and so on. Further development and expansion of society into space, such that the average person can directly interact with space, will provide a range of benefits, from new resources and economic opportunities, enhance our understanding of ourselves and our universe, and engender a new era of peaceful cooperation with other countries. Key to these benefits is a massive reduction in the cost of reliable transport to space. We can best accomplish such breakthroughs by catalyzing innovation by private space entrepreneurs (using such policy tools as large scale prizes or guaranteed launch payments), and by working in close peaceful partnership with other spacefaring nations.
   
   
2. Space and NASA are vital to dealing with the intertwined problems of energy independence and climate change, including both monitoring and finding solutions.
   
   NASA collects more data about Earths environment than any other single entity on our planet. NASA has also historically incubated new technologies that are vital to clean renewable energy such as solar cells, batteries, and lightweight composite materials. The resource of space solar power may even offer us a long term, large-scale solution to the problem of energy independence. However, under the Bush Administration, the Earth was removed from NASAs mission statement and the findings of NASAs leading climate change researchers were censored. Going forward, NASAs Mission to Planet Earth must be fully funded, and the NASA must be explicitly called upon play a central role in our nations understanding and mitigation of climate change.
   
   
3. The President should re-establish the National Aeronautics & Space Council. In addition, the National Aeronautics & Space Council needs to have direct access to the president.
   
   Vital to our future in space is the re-establishment of the National Aeronautics & Space Council. To often, our policy, especially with regards to space policy, has been disjointed, and inarticulate. A range of issues, related to space, could finally be addressed in a comprehensive manner, that insures everyone who has a stake in space policy will have a voice. Issues like the International Trafficking and Arms Regulation, the establishment of large scale space prizes, and a working group on Space Solar Power are all examples of what this council would handle. However, such a council is only as effective if the president chooses to use such a council, and therefore it must have direct access to the president.
   
   

Broadband Infrastructure

We support the expansion of the nation's broadband infrastructure through the establishment of a broadband superhighway system, along with guaranteed access to broadband Internet connectivity.

Educational and enterprise innovation will thrive in an atmosphere of universal broadband access - laying the infrastructure for an explosive increase in American competitiveness in the information age.

One of America's great philosophers and educators, John Dewey, once wrote, "A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience." Nothing could be more true, and it is imperative that we, the people of the United States, in our commitment to grassroots participation in our own democratic society find and utilize all the means of communication at our disposal to assure a collective experience reflective of our complex and diverse associations.

Political platforms rarely, if ever, address the importance of our technology in constructing perceptions of who we are and how we relate to one another. The content of our transactions is protected by the First Amendment, and the context of our messages are bounded by landmark decisions of the Supreme Court. These principles will always require the vigilant attention of the American people and their elected representatives, however the various media that facilitate communication play an important role in determining who has access to the conversation and what bias or biases exist in the transactions. Each medium requires its own understanding, possesses its own rules, and offers a different relationship between authority and audience. Any platform worth its own weight in the 21st century must pay equal attention to the communication environment itself, and the various properties and grammar of individual media, as much as it does the traditional pillars of content and context.

We believe that the importance of all forms of media, be they institutional or citizencentered, require different approaches in a democracy. The institutional media, controlled by corporate interests and public trusts, play an important role in reaching the broader citizenry with great resources and the traditional trust endowed in the 4th Estate. Assuring their continued service to the citizen and to the democracy requires regulatory balance that controls the commercial and private interest and its reach, while encouraging and promoting the American entrepreneurial spirit that has marked our technological evolution from the telegraph to the World Wide Web. In the same regard, citizen-centered media have provided a depth and breadth to our conjoint communicated experience never before seen. This new possibility requires a new vigilance. The ability of all citizens to equally participate in this national conversation, shaping and constructing the very society in which we live, is at this moment an unrealized dream. We believe that equal access to these forms of media must be guaranteed and a commitment by government to developing and providing this access via technological, economic, and legislative means is paramount.

Two important aspects to this platform require immediate attention. The first is a commitment to reforming the institutional media environment via stricter regulation and a shift from a pro-business policy to a pro-competition policy. The second is a commitment to maintaining an open flow of information in citizencentered media environments via protective legislation and the improvement of relevant infrastructure to facilitate greater participation in these forms.

Reform of the institutional media environment requires a commitment to rolling back failed aspects of the Telecommunication Act of 1996, particularly those allowing for greater consolidation of media ownership. Legislation must be enacted to limit the market share available to media owners to pre-1996 standards. In addition, the monopoly elements of telecommunication markets must be addressed via investment in technological solutions, as well as a commitment to open and competitive markets. Prioritizing investment in wireless technology eliminates the expensive and monopolistic wires and cables, which until recently have all but eliminated all competition from media markets.

Competition within markets will assure consumers greater flexibility and lower rates, while opening possibilities for citizens to participate in the control and direction of the media in their communities. Policymakers must legislate ownership limits that promote diversity and competition, and antitrust bodies must block further consolidation that undermines them. In addition, policymakers must define high-speed Internet access, and enact legislation to provide nondiscriminatory access to information networks. This is an issue of Net Neutrality.

The Internet must be protected as a democratic communication environment first and a commercial environment second. Legislation providing free, open, and neutral access to the Internet is job one in this respect. An private effort to control or limit access to this environment must be prevented, and measures dedicated to this principle must be written into law. This is a First Amendment issue, and as such must be framed with respect to the Constitution. A national broadband policy that predicates on increased competition, world class bandwidth access and quality, and fair pricing must be set in motion as a commitment to progressive, democratic modernization. Community Internet, or municipal broadband, commitments bring increased access and participation to rural and underserved areas and foster greater participation in the national discourse. Dedicated wireless investments would accomplish this goal, while simultaneously offering a more open, entrepreneurial, and democratic ownership structure within local environments.

The importance of this platform is underlined again by Dewey in his statement, "Communication alone can create a great community. Our Babel is not one of tongues but of the signs and symbols without which shared experience is impossible." Maintaining the channels of our national communication, and making a commitment to their perpetual improvement, assures that the construction of a unifying set of signs and symbols takes place, through which community emerges out of Babel. Access to these channels by the widest possible citizenry is representative of our national values and the great diversity of experience and belief that defines our greatness as a people.

We believe that the government should support a food supply that is sustainable both environmentally and economically. We believe that the level of control exerted by large multinational corporations over agriculture and our food supply is inconsistent with both the free market and social welfare. Strong enforcement of anti-trust laws is a critical step to decentralizing and strengthening our food supply.

We call for enforcement of existing regulations to protect the environment and address food safety. We also call for a recognition that many of the problems that the regulations seek to address are caused by large, industrial agriculture practices. Small, sustainable farms and food processors do not cause these problems and should not be burdened with unnecessary and expensive regulations. Small, local farmers are stewards of the land and water and provide safe and nutritious food, and the regulatory system should address them independently of the centralized, industrial agriculture system.

Economic Fairness

1. We oppose NAFTA, CAFTA and the other various free trade agreements (FTAs) as they undermine our nation's economy. They might benefit the multinational corporations but the rest of us aren't feeling too much trickling down as we watch our jobs go to Mexico.
   
   
2. Our government must enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Packers & Stockyards Act. Monopolies are not good for capitalism. We resent the high amount of consolidation in so many industries and we look to an Obama administration to break them up.
   
   
3. We want to see executives who hire undocumented workers to face severe penalties. They are not only taking away jobs from Americans, they are also often violating human rights by hiring the most helpless class of workers. Undocumented workers who are abused on the job cannot sue, often they cannot speak English, and they work under the threat of deportation. Those who abuse them and profit from their hard work deserve to be penalized for it.
   
   
4. Enormous, industrial farms should be held accountable for the environmental damage they cause. It is not fair that we allow a huge farm to pollute drinking water with fertilizer and/or manure runoff and then taxpayers pay to clean the water to make it drinkable. That is, in essence, a tax subsidy freely given (but never recognized) to factory farms. The EPA must be funded appropriately so that the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts can be enforced (and both acts should be stiffened as appropriate to hold polluters accountable so that tax payers don't end up with the bill for their pollution).
   
   
5. Congress should pass the "packer ban," a law prohibiting meat processors from owning livestock. The meatpacking industry is highly, highly consolidated and farmers already struggle to sell their animals for fair prices. When the enormous meatpackers also own livestock (and thus compete with the farmers), the system becomes even more monopolistic and unfair to the farmers.
   
   

Local Food

The government must actively promote sustainable local food systems for a number of reasons: to combat global warming, to ensure better food safety, to provide access to healthy food for all Americans, and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Some methods the government should use to do this include:

1. Significantly increase mandatory funding for the Community Food Projects competitive grant program (ideally from $5 million to $30 million). This program is an incredible bargain for taxpayers as it promotes local food without increasing the size of government bureaucracy, allows for local control over programs, and establishes local food programs that are financially independent after their initial period receiving federal grant money.
   
   
2. Increase funding for the USDA's Risk Management Agency's Community Outreach Partnership Program far beyond its previous level of $8. 3 million before recent budget cuts. This program helps out the nation's most at-risk farmers and populations and produces tangible benefits in the form of increased community food security and healthier local food systems.
   
   
3. Fund schools so they may build gardens, add kitchen facilities, hire kitchen staff, and purchase food from local farms. Make sure that schools do not have to teach to a test (as they do under No Child Left Behind) in such a way that they cannot offer any elective curricula, such as a gardening program.
   
   

Food Safety

Part of national security is being able to trust that food from stores and restaurants are safe. Too often now, the burden of food safety is put on the consumer (i.e. it's OK if the store sells you beef with E. coli and it's your job to cook it thoroughly) and this is not OK. Food safety needs to begin on the farm.

1. Studies show that we can drastically reduce E. coli in beef by changing the cows' diet from grain to alfalfa 3 days before slaughter. Americans die from E. coli 0157:H7 in ground beef; there is no reason we should not be taking this crucial step to save American lives.
   
   
2. Another way to improve safety is to slow down the lines in meatpacking plants. Meatpackers increase line speed to increase profits, but they do so at the expense of worker safety and food safety. E. coli does not get into the meat without a mistake occurring during processing, either contaminating the meat from manure on the cow's hide or in the gut. Decreasing line speed will decrease mistakes.
   
   
3. As Democrats, we should NOT support the ridiculous National Animal ID System as it does NOT improve food safety. By implementing an expensive, invasive tracking system without making the other needed changes in our food system, we will not do anything at all to improve our safety. All NAIS does do is invade privacy and push small farmers out of business.
   
   
4. We should regulate what animals are allowed to eat. Currently, even though we know that feeding animal remains to animals causes mad cow, we still tolerate several loopholes in our system. For example, cows can eat pigs and pigs can eat cows. Calves often eat cow blood. We need to examine this and close the remaining loopholes.
   
   Additionally, there are other things American agricultural animals eat that are banned in Europe with good reason (like chickens and arsenic). We must examine those and ban substances that should not be in the food chain.
   
   
5. Individual farmers should be allowed to test their cows for mad cow if they so choose. Currently, farmers who wish to test every cow for mad cow in order to do business with Japan are not permitted to do so. This is insane. Why are we preventing our farmers from increasing the safety of our food supply?
   
   
6. We need to adopt policies that actively promote small farms, farmers' markets, farm to school programs, and other local, decentralized food systems. We are sick of seeing outbreaks like this latest Salmonella outbreak, in which over 1000 people were affected across the country. When we promote local food systems, we also help citizens avoid the food safety issues that arise from our centralized, industrialized system.
   
   

Food Labeling

Consumers should have the right to know what is in their food so they may make educated choices about what to eat. We propose the following:

1. Label foods that contain genetically-modified ingredients. Consumers are generally unaware that 70% of food in America contains GMOs and they have a right to know.
   
   
2. Label added sugars in foods. Often a food (for example, blueberry yogurt) will contain both natural sugars (in the blueberries and milk) and added sugars (i.e. sugar or high fructose corn syrup). Currently the label shows only the total amount of sugar, which is not always helpful to a consumer trying to make healthy food choices. When eating blueberries or milk, one eats sugar but he or she also gets fiber, protein, and important vitamins at the same time. When one eats added sugar, he or she gets no nutritional benefit. Establishing a recommended amount of 10 teaspoons of added sugar per day for someone who eats a 2000 calorie diet and labeling added sugars would help consumers understand the impact of their food choices more effectively.
   
   
3. Label all milk that comes from cows treated with rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). Also, allow dairies to label products that are rBGH-free. Some consumers wish to avoid milk from treated cows because such milk contains significantly higher levels of a hormone known as IGF-1 (potentially linked to cancer) than milk from untreated cows. Others wish to avoid milk from treated cows because they feel the hormone is inhumane to the animals. Consumers have a right to know how their milk was produced.
   
   
4. Regulate and limit call outs and health claims made on foods. The current trend of labeling cookies that are nutritionally worthless as "whole grain" or "trans fat free" aims to mislead consumers that such products are healthy. Other foods make even bolder claims that they can support or promote a particular body structure or function (i.e. supports respiratory function), leading consumers to purchase food for medicinal benefits when in fact the foods were never required to prove the claims on the labels are true.