ON POVERTY:
as President, it will be my goal – and, as Americans, it will be our moral quest – to reduce the poverty rate to the lowest it has ever been in our history within four years – and then to go further – to cut the rate of poverty in this country by one-third in ten years.
Continue welfare reform, because it works – but make it work better by giving families the child care, job training and other resources they need to find and keep good jobs. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, and end the marriage penalty within it so families can benefit from their hard work.
ON THE ECONOMY:
I'll dramatically expand Individual Development Accounts matching the savings of the working poor when they save money to buy a home, go to college, get job training or start a small business.
Enact an Investment Tax Credit: An Investment Tax Credit of 20 percent for the acquisition of information technology
the Lieberman plan creates a zero capital gains rate for direct, long-term investments by individuals and companies in the new offerings of stock by small businesses businesses with a capitalization of up to $300 million.
the Lieberman plan would make the R&D tax credit permanent, and make it easier for start-up companies to take advantage of it.
A doubling of the budget of the National Science Foundation the only agency with the responsibility for supporting all disciplines of science and engineering and other key federal science agencies.
A direction to science agencies to renew their commitment to support high-risk, high-return research. Many funding agencies have become overly conservative and incremental, discouraging researchers from submitting their best and highest impact ideas.
Continued support for curiosity-driven, fundamental research. This research is important in its own right because it advances the frontiers of knowledge, but it can also have enormous (and unpredictable) economic and social payoffs.
Increased funding for nanotechnology – a technology with a potential impact comparable in scope to electricity, antibiotics, and the transistor.
Eliminate foreign tariffs on information technology and other high tech products and work to knock down non-tariff trade barriers to U.S. goods;
Seek market access for all services that can be delivered via e-commerce;
Make cyberspace a “duty-free zone” for electronic transmissions; and
Oppose efforts to apply basic telecommunications regulations to Internet-related services.
A key U.S. trade priority must be to prevent foreign piracy of U.S. intellectual property. According to industry estimates, foreign copyright violations alone cost the U.S. more than $20 billion in annual losses. U.S. copyright-based industries contribute almost $800 billion to the U.S. economy, and almost $90 billion in exports and foreign sales.
Promote broadly shared stock options. Compensation linked to company performance and that promotes employee ownership of companies encourages employees to work hard and take risks. There clearly have been abuses of stock options by some in senior management, so it is important to take steps that require that stock options be offered to a broad base of employees.
co-sponsored legislation that limits out-of-control securities and biomaterials lawsuits that harmed investors and deterred innovation
Relax export controls on widely available business computers
ON EDUCATION:
Improve America's K-12 math and science education. A vastly expanded national effort is required to recruit, support and retain more qualified math and science teachers. For example, the service of retiring baby boomers or military vets with technical backgrounds could be enlisted on a part or full-time basis in this cause.
worked for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 and will fully fund that law and significantly expand efforts in these areas.
The Lieberman plan would expand and fully fund his “Tech Talent” bill, passed last year:
He will support programs for IT innovation for education and life-long learning, in the kind of way that DARPA has played for defense and NIH has played for biomedical research. An example project might be the development and evaluation of interactive simulations for math and science that allows students to engage in “learning by doing” in the same way that pilots learn to fly a plane using realistic flight simulators.
Accelerate the deployment of the broadband Internet: Make more efficient use of spectrum to allow expanded use of unlicensed devices, building on the phenomenal success of “WiFi” and other unlicensed technologies.
Offer tax credits to ensure that telecommunications companies have an incentive to deploy “next generation broadband,” and to serve inner-city and isolated rural communities.
Revitalize America's semiconductor manufacturing:
Even as the Internet evolves, it important to ensure that it continues to provide an open platform for rapid and decentralized innovation, and for the exchange of ideas.
ON HOMELAND SECURITY:
Joe Lieberman is proposing the creation of a new federal effort, the American Center for Cures, aimed at the development side of medical R&D, to find solutions to these diseases. It will provide new focus and coordination directed at transitioning medical research to medical applications, from bench to bedside. It will assist in navigating the patent and drug approval processes, accelerating clinical trials and evaluating barriers to drug testing and approval. It will particularly focus on the many smaller population diseases that are not a major focus for the pharmaceutical industry.
Strong incentives (both tax and intellectual property) for companies to develop vaccines, microbicides, diagnostic technologies, and other drugs to prevent and treat illnesses associated with a biological, chemical, or radiological attack.
Secure America's critical infrastructure: The United States is not investing adequately in the technologies that will secure America's critical infrastructure, such as the power grid, the financial system, air traffic control, the telecommunications and Internet infrastructure, etc., from physical and cyber-attacks. Increasing these investments is crucial to our homeland security.
Promote a market-based approach to fuel efficiency: Rather than imposing an inflexible mandated increase in corporate fuel economy (CAFE) standards, Lieberman's plan would adopt a market-based approach to increasing fuel efficiency to a level that would save 2 million barrels of oil a day by the year 2015.
Invest in coal's potential: Making better use of America's 200-year coal supply, Lieberman's plan would invest $15 billion over 10 years in advanced coal technologies such as Integrated Gasification-Combined Cycle (IGCC), which turns coal into clean-burning hydrogen, the cleanest fuel in the universe. The only by-product of the process is carbon dioxide, which can be disposed of by injecting it deep underground.
Speed development of renewables: Lieberman's plan would also invest $6.5 billion for a comprehensive plan to help put 100,000 fuel cell vehicles on the road by 2010 and 2.5 million by 2020, and give consumers who purchase hybrid cars tax incentives ranging from $1,000 - $5,000 per vehicle, depending on the amount of oil conserved.
Commit more U.S. troops and resources to Iraq. Despite the president's assertion that we have enough troops there, we clearly need both more forces and the right kinds of forces
Ask NATO to assume command of the forces in Iraq. America cannot sustain supplying 150,000 out of 160,000 of the troops on the ground for any length of time – but the nations we need as partners are unwilling to join forces with us under unilateral American command.
Make clear to Iraq and the world that the critical decisions about Iraq's oil will be made by Iraqis, and set up an international monitoring agency to show that all oil deals are above board
Develop a clear process and timetable under which the people of Iraq will shape their own permanent government. With cynicism this high, “trust us” won't work.
Provide $7.5 billion beyond the $3.5 billion proposed by the President, to help local first responders fund new technology; hire, support, and train professionals; update computer networks and integrate communications systems.
Pass the SAFER Act – which will provide $7 billion over six years to local communities to hire thousands of additional firefighters needed across the country.
Lieberman called for urgent action to stop dangerous materials from getting into and traveling around America, proposing that the government: Work with the private sector to make sure that all containers have their contents verified, and securely sealed, then logged and tracked with a transponder
Strengthen port security by boosting spending for new guards, gates and monitors;
Speed the modernization of the Coast Guard fleet by doubling the President's budget request for fleet upgrades;
Hire thousands of new border personnel to help make America's borders less porous to illegal goods and people; and
Broaden the Transportation Security Administration's scope beyond air travel to all forms of transportation and commit necessary resources to protecting roads, rails, bridges, tunnels, buses and subways.
ON THE ECONOMY:
To Spur Business Investment and Innovation: Enact a short-term Investment Tax Credit of 20 percent for acquisition of information technology to spark productivity and manufacturing (S. 798). The stimulus bill approved by Congress last year provided for accelerated depreciation for investments in plant and equipment, but wasn't focused on the short-term, and was only a deduction, not a credit. Lieberman's proposal would fix both shortcomings
Grant a tax rebate to the 34 million taxpayers who did not receive one in 2001;
Extend unemployment insurance benefits to maintain the purchasing power of the unemployed;
Adopt a 10-day national sales tax holiday during the upcoming holiday season to boost retail sales;
Replenish depleted state Medicaid accounts to counterbalance state budget cuts;
Restore the value of the minimum wage; and
Pass the Small Business and Farm Economic Recovery Act to provide tax relief and growth incentives for farmers and small businesses.
Implement recommendations for SEC and independent analyst reform contained in the Governmental Affairs Committee Report “Financial Oversight of Enron: The SEC and Private Sector Watchdogs,” including: increased SEC review of company filings, stepped-up efforts to root out fraud with better technology and a more vigilant staff, creation of a compliance monitoring system, and institution by Wall Street firms of performance-based compensation to encourage analyst accuracy and independence
Enact the Protecting America's Pensions Act (S. 1992) to protect employee retirement investments in 401(k) plans and provide flexibility of 401(k) withdrawals to avoid forcing employees to take losses in a down market;
Enact the Venture Capital Gains and Growth Act (S. 1142), which would provide a zero capital gains rate for long-term investments in new offerings of stock by entrepreneurial firms.
Enact the Rank and File Stock Option Act (S. 2877) to prevent executive abuse of stock options, by: denying a tax deduction for stock option plans unless half of the options are given to employees making under $90,000; requiring shareholder approval of all option plans to increase transparency; and instituting holding periods for executives to diminish incentives for manipulating earnings statements.
Enact a short-term New Jobs Tax Credit that would give companies who hire additional employees a payroll tax credit;
Encourage universities to increase their math and science majors to give high-tech firms the talent they need, by enacting the Technology Talent Act (S. 1549);
Fully fund the promise of the historic No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed into law last year but which President Bush has shortchanged by $6 billion in the implementation phase.
To live within our means, cap all other non-defense discretionary spending, possibly at the rate of inflation
Enact a proposal (S. 2181) setting up a commission to cut corporate welfare; and