What Americans Really Want: 10 Policies We Can All Agree On

President-elect Barack Obama faces huge challenges when he takes office. But he's got one asset that is rarely mentioned. Large majorities of Americans agree on some of the most important issues of the day, from health care to foreign policy. These "Ten Policies for a Better America" shows an agenda a majority supports -- whether we vote red, blue, or some other political color.

ECONOMY

• Repair and rebuild neglected bridges, railroads, schools, and other infrastructure, designing for climate change & a post-petroleum world.
• Extend unemployment insurance benefits.
• Provide tax relief to middle- and low-income families, and reinstate fair taxes on high-wealth individuals and corporate profits.
• Adopt the Employee Free Choice Act to increase opportunities to unionize.

67% Favor public works projects to create jobs.

55% Favor expanding unemployment benefits.

73% Say corporations don’t pay a fair share of taxes.

76% Support tax cuts for lower- and middle-income people.

71% Say unions help their members; 53% say unions help the economy in general.

[Sources]

FAMILIES

• Make the minimum wage a “living wage” adequate to keep working families out of poverty.
• Provide everyone vacation and family leave.
• Provide gay and lesbian couples with the legal protections afforded to straight couples.
• Make bankruptcy and foreclosure laws protect families first, not predatory lenders.

80% Support increasing the federal minimum wage.

59% Favor guaranteeing two weeks or more of paid vacation.

75% Want to limit rate increases on adjustable-rate mortgages.

64% Are not confident that life for our children’s generation will be better than it has been for us.

65% Believe same-sex couples should be allowed to marry or form civil unions.

[Sources]

CONSTITUTION

• Fully restore habeas corpus for all people in U.S. custody.
• Protect our right to privacy and freedom from warrantless search and seizure.
• Keep the internet free of corporate and government censorship and obstruction. Protect “net neutrality.”
• Restore the balance of power between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.

70% Support restoring habeas corpus rights for detainees at Guantanamo.

58% Believe a court warrant should be required to listen to the telephone calls of people in the U.S.

59% Would like the next president to do more to protect civil liberties.

68% Believe the president should not act alone to fight terrorism without the checks and balances of the courts or Congress.

[Sources]

ENERGY & CLIMATE

• Take a leadership role in reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions.
• Maximize the conservation and efficient use of existing energy supplies.
• Launch and fund ambitious research & development programs, offer tax credits, invest in public works projects, and focus government procurement to jump- start renewable energy deployment.
• Invest in public transit and intercity rail.
• Tax carbon; use revenues for renewables and to help ratepayers.

79% Favor mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions.

76% Believe that oil is running out and a major effort is needed to replace it.

90% Favor higher auto fuel efficiency standards.

75% Favor clean electricity, even with higher rates.

72% Support more funding for mass transit.

[Sources]

HEALTH CARE

• Offer all Americans the option of joining a single-payer national health insurance program, paid for with tax dollars.
• Break the drug companies’ monopoly and lower drug prices by allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs abroad.

73% Believe our health care system is in crisis or has “major problems.”

64% Believe the government should provide national health insurance coverage for all Americans, even if it would raise taxes.