10 Big Goals for Obama's First 1,460 Days

By Mark Green, Huffington Post. Posted January 13, 2009.

So the 44th president should strive to: increase the bi-partisan Earned Income Tax Credit; raise and index the minimum wage and move toward a "living wage"; better link inner-city residents to good jobs in the regional economy; create a national program to help ex-offenders successfully integrate into society; seek a temporary increase in food stamp benefits as part of any stimulus package (since $1 in benefits generates $1.84 in economic activity); make a national commitment to pre-K for all as part of an overall system of developmental care for children; establish a national version of the very successful Harlem Children's Zone, an after-school program that stays with children through their education; and make a renewed effort at bi-partisan, comprehensive immigration reform so one in 20 undocumented workers get out of the shadows by paying taxes and fines and learning English on the path to citizenship.

2. Enhance Democracy to stop special interest vetoes. Pro-democracy reforms often take a back seat -- in campaigns and governance -- to bread-and-butter, life-and-death issues such as economy, war and health. But process is policy, especially if a flawed democracy allows big commercial interests in the legislative and administrative arenas to stymie change.

So the new administration should push for: universal voter regulation (adding up to 50 million to the rolls); matching public funding of congressional elections; protective measures for electronic voting; criminalization of voter suppression techniques; national standards in a Fair Elections Now Act; instant run-off voting; a requirement that all agencies catalogue and post all information in a timely and feasible way; a comprehensive national broadband strategy so all Americans have access to an affordable network of at least 100 megabits per second; national standards to give state redistricting responsibilities to a neutral body -- and ideally establish a "Democracy Czar" within the White House to make sure that all such often-ignored reforms are this time advanced and enacted.

3. Get economic growth rates back to at least 3% of the Kennedy and Clinton years. The world now understands how Bush's tax cutting, deregulation, laissez faire approach has led to slow growth, no growth or near economic collapse. From Enron to e Coli Bacteria to imported Chinese toys and drugs to the subprime mortgage criss, it turns out that laissez wasn't fair.

So even beyond the consensus for a super-sized "stimulus" plan, the new president should do everything feasible to bolster the squeezed middle-class and those seeking to enter it by: pushing for tax reform that increases top rates back to 38 percent while reducing rates on families suffering real income losses this decade; proposing an Innovation Agenda involving Research Fellowships and employment-based permanent immigration visas; including enforceable labor and trade standards in all future trade agreements; experimenting with wage-loss insurance; developing a long-term national surface transportation policy emphasizing light-rail and a national infrastructure bank; expanding one-stop job centers especially given rapidly rising unemployment as places to both obtain training and get placement in available positions; creating a 90 day moratorium on home foreclosures; and restoring enforcement of securities, anti-merger and labor laws at the SEC, Justice Department and Labor Department.

4. Move to a clean, green low-carbon economy. With a scientific unanimity that an increase of even 2˚ C above pre-industrial levels would be a global disaster, it's surely inadequate for a country with 3 percent of human oil reserves using 25 percent of all energy to focus on drilling and production. Yet while man-made global warming was burning the planet in the past eight years, two oil men in the White House simply fiddled away.

So the new president will be creating a new White House National Energy Council that directs his energy/environment agencies (EPA, DOE, DOT, DOA, DOI) to develop a comprehensive energy plan that a) replaces carbon-based energy with clean, renewable energy and b) promotes policies for millions of green collar jobs. Consistent with that effort, the 44th president should: alter the government's procurement process by giving "energy points" to contract bidders who demonstrate more efficiency and utilize more renewable energy; establish a national Clean Energy Corps to help cities and neglected rural communities retrofit and weatherize homes, business, school houses and public buildings; require the EPA to promote "total appliance efficiency"; increase auto fuel efficiency standards to European levels of 43 mpg by 2020; pursue a joint R&D project with China to develop new carbon capture-and-storage technologies for coal-fired plants; and prepare legislation to create a carbon cap-and-trade bill reducing fossil fuel use and generating $100 billion+ to mitigate negative effects on low-income consumers.

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Mark Green is co-editor of the just-released "Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President," and president of Air America Media.

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