If you could get only one thing through this Congress, what would be your Dream Bill?

[hedgehog]

I'd love to see the Minimum Wage raised to current Living Wage levels, which I think run about $12.50 - $13.00 an hour; with an automatic COL increase built in!

[annabanana]

1. I would take a robust public option in the health exchanges. . . .n/t

[peacebird]

9. +1

[underthematrix]

2. I want the DREAM ACT passed - but I want

a DREAM ACT that automatically grants citizenship to the 23 million undocumented citizens already HERE with the usual caveat - no violent crimes or serious felonies like drug dealing manufacturing distribution. Once they finished their sentence, they would have to go through a more extensive process to obtain citizenship. If we pass immigration then we don't have to mess with the safety net and we could get our PUBLIC OPTION.

I'm African American and passage of comprehensive immigration reform or the DREAM ACT is more important to me than any other bill because if we take care of our undocumented citizens then we can take care of everything else.

[bluestateguy]

3. Single Payer health care

I'd do it by transitioning out of the private health insurance regime by way of a universal public option. I'd make it open to everybody and it would be so generous that the private companies could not possibly be able to compete with it. The insurance companies would collapse within a year.

[peacebird]

10. +1

[xxxsdesdexxx]

24. This would be my dream bill as well

[bunnies]

26. +1 nt

[NewJeffCT]

28. That would be mine as well

and, make sure that it needs a 2/3 vote in Congress before any of it is rolled back.

[graham4anything]

4. 100% amnesty, 100% citizenship

[graham4anything]

5. Allowing the President a Third Term starting with President Obama

[southernyankeebelle]

6. Well if I could get a bill it would get the FCC back to where it use to be so it MUST BE FAIR AND

BALANCED across the news networks and especially radio. Pass a bill for a single payer plan for healthcare for all.

[jberryhill]

7. An amendment to the Fair Housing Act

...under which every single family would be entitled to a single family home, and I would call it "The Bungalow Bill".

[BlueJazz]

8. Raise taxes on income over 5X the minimum wage.

[ZombieHorde]

11. My dream bill would outlaw war, unless another nation's military attacked us, and country music. nt

[hedgehog]

14. other nation's militaries are attacking country music?

[ZombieHorde]

17. I wish! I would ban war and country music. But I would still allow our military to protect us in

some cases.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Lower Medicare age to zero.

[meow2u3]

13. I'd criminalize the violation of workers' rights

Union busting, firing at will, etc., would be punished as felonies by 10-20 years in prison, a maximum fine of $10M (for corporate entities) or $500K (for wealthy individuals), and mandatory criminal asset forfeiture.

[Tx4obama]

15. Prison reform.

Outlaw privatized prisons.
Stop businesses from using prisoners as low paid workers.
Release folks that are doing time for drug possession/use from prison and transfer them into rehab facilities.
Etc, etc, etc.

Also...
There are more than 1 million African Americans in prison in the U.S, more than the number of prison
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021951347

[hedgehog]

16. I think the only way we'll get prison reform is if the churches and/or other groups get behind it.

I say churches, because many have prison visitor programs. The pressure is going to have to come from below, no politician will ever succeed by running on a platform of prison reform.

[Whisp]

22. I think that is one of the most important but least talked about problems.

It's heartbreaking. It's slavery.

Makes me cry.

[TeamPooka]

18. I would legalize cannabis and wind up with a reformed legal system

[Hippo_Tron]

19. European-style campaign finance reform

Everything else would fix itself.

[Ruby the Liberal]

20. Campaign finance reform with term limits.

Gotta cut that snake off at the head.

[Filibuster Harry]

42. Ditto. Many items to chose from but this would be my choice as well. Great minds think alike.

[Ken Burch]

21. Repeal of Taft-Hartley.

Second choice would be abolition of the filibuster in the Senate(but I'm not sure that's legislation so much as a rules change).

[Chan790]

37. It's amazing to me how many Democrats don't realize this is virtually the whole enchilada.

We get T-H repeal, we'll hold Congress and the WH for decades as we create a new middle-class and decisively cement ourselves as the party of the American worker. It's why the GOP fought so hard to get the repeal in the first place...it cripples labor organizing and transfers all the power back to the big-money ruling class that the GOP is beholden to.

It's the backbone of the anti-worker, anti-labor right.

[tinrobot]

23. Hand Counted paper ballots for all elections

No more of this computer-rigged election BS.

[zipplewrath]

25. Closing Gitmo

And I don't mean just moving it to Illinois

[hogwyld]

27. Campaign finance reform AND...

some way to draw up congressional districts fairly, without any gerrymandering. Oh, and while I'm at it, term limits. If the president is limited to 2 terms, why isn't congress?

[Cosmocat]

32. THIS! Campaign finance, campaign finance, campaign finance

this is the one thing that would most positively impact everything else.

[11 Bravo]

29. The "John McCain May Never Appear Again On A Sunday Talk Show Omnibus Appropriations Bill".

(And the same goes for his sniveling little pissant sidekick, Lindsey Graham.)

[njcamden_25884]

30. single payer healthcare

It's something we all need, and soon

[trueblue2007]

31. the AMERICAN JOBS ACT

RE-BUILD OUR INFRASTRUCTURE!!!

i could get a part-time job

[PoliticalBiker]

33. When I saw the title...

... I was thinking the exact same thing.

I make $11/hr - about $22K/yr. (as long as I work 40hr EVERY week... holidays included)
I used to make $55K/yr before layoff.
I live in a small trailer in a trailer park now (house foreclosed)
My income, provided I work a full 40hr/wk is even with my bills (lot rent, ph., internet, basic cable, elec., gas, ins. auto fuel, food)
Can't afford my storage or trailer ins.
If my vehicle breaks.... no way to get to work.

What I make is not a living wage. Jobs are not available in my state (MI) and the governor will sign the right-to-work bullshit next week further reducing the chances of finding a living wage job.

It is that way for thousands upon thousands in my state and around the country. The sad thing is, until we get the republicans out of power throughout the country, it will never change. We will become a two-class society... Elites and Peasants. Just like countries like Saudi Arabia, Qutar, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Russia, China, N. Korea, Syria, Nigeria, and on and on and on. All while the republicans wrap themselves in the flag. Wealth and power are more important than God and Country to them.

[Springslips]

34. The Employee Free Choice Act.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_Free_Choice_Act

[Mr_King]

35. Medicare for all U.S. citizens

I would want a bill to be signed into law that would expand Medicare coverage to every American citizen from birth to death.

[Chan790]

36. Taft-Hartley repeal.

Because if I can only have one thing, I want the one thing that will:

bury the pro-business right
reorganize America's labor force
raise the standard of living
rebuild the middle class
create good jobs in America
erode the power of the exploiter of labor: the sweatshop owner
Hell, it even in the long-term cripples the beneficiaries of Citizen's United because union labor is the only way the working-classes will ever have the ability to collectively fight back...and T-H repeal will grow organized labor.

Repealing Taft-Hartley is to decisively win for the working-class, middle-class and the workers of America. It's more than 50% our economic message and it positions us to win on the other half.

There is no issue I want to win on more. Winning Taft-Hartley is to simply win. We'll get everything else in time if we do this now, we'll have the votes of every currently underpaid exploited American worker. I'll even capitulate on big issues like entitlement cuts and Bush tax cuts for the top-earners if I can get T-H repeal because I know we win in the end with it on everything except social issues and we're already winning social issues.

[NoPasaran]

38. Right to free chips and salsa in all Tex Mex restaurants

[WooWooWoo]

39. a universal GI Bill for non-veterans

which is what FDR wanted to do before it was scaled down to be just for veterans. Basically I'd make government/community service in exchange for college tuition reimbursement. One year of service = six months of tuition.

[BlueDemKev]

40. Tax All Businesses which ship jobs overseas at 90%; Eliminate all tax deductions for them as well.

Jobs and the products we buy need to be created HERE in America.

[closeupready]

41. Tough - 1) student loan forgiveness; or 2) universal health care.

Either measure enacted would spur an explosive entrepreneurial boom, since so many people are doing un-fulfilling work either to pay back student loans or for access to health care, work they would leave to start businesses of their own if they had that opportunity.

[totodeinhere]

43. End the failed war on drugs and legalize pot nationwide. n/t

[jimmy the one]

44. One gun per month law & gunshow loophole fixed

If you could get only one thing through this Congress, what would be your Dream Bill?

Being a guncontrol advocate, I'd say passing 'one gun per month' law combined with fixing (eliminating) the gunshow loophole where gunbuyers can buy guns without a proper background check. The nra & gun lobby have gotten away with their revisionist history on the 2ndA far too long.
But it's wishful thinking, & my 'dream bill' would be just that, a dream, pipedream. Even banning assault rifles, things which most all other countries could not fathom allowing, is a pipedream.
.. Consider 'one gun per month' law, which has been legalized in 3 or 4 states already (as well as rescinded in some), these one gun per month laws are actually '12 guns per year' laws, & even if you want to buy more than one gun per month you could get an official waiver if you're a legal guy, so if you really really really need more than 12 guns per year, gunnut, you can do it!
But no, this is considered an infringement on the alleged individual right to bear arms by the nra, even tho in 1791 when 2ndA was written only half the country personally owned even ONE single shot musket, likely in poor shape at that, where a 'one gun per month' law would've been a ridiculous concept.
So now you can own as many bushmaster ARs you want capable of 120 rounds per minute, turning colonial minutemen into millisecondsmen.
.. and I'm no stranger to guns, I was a marksman in the military (45pistol), & owned two longguns (no handguns tho, & none anymore), but see the logic behind guncontrol, having witnessed the deception & manipulation handed down the past 30 years by the gun lobby.

So my Dream Bill would be, a PipeDream Bill.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

45. an amendment overturning Citizens United

of course, getting through the states to ratify would be difficult