The Big Ideas Project

Pass a law explicitly overturning the Citizens United ruling and the Supreme Court's 19th century redefinition of corporations as legal "persons." Without that (and the overturning of Buckley v Valeo's redefinition of campaign spending as a form of speech), no law trying to stop unlimited campaign spending can survive judicial challenge.

Submitted by signs sans signifieds in Government & Elections Jan. 15, 2015, 8:52 a.m.

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#221

1116 votes

Mandate that all jury duty be treated as paid time off for all businesses. This will unclog the legal system on several fronts and result in fairer trials.

Submitted by bellcat in Government & Elections Jan. 2, 2015, 10:26 p.m. 2

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#222

1109 votes

Improve cyber-security and reduce the expense and trauma of Identity Theft by ensuring that Social Security Numbers are only used as originally intended for Social Security and taxation purposes.

Submitted by msgemstone in Civil Rights Jan. 2, 2015, 8:38 p.m. 1

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#223

1108 votes

Merged Idea

End the governments subsidy of US/multinational corporations offshoring American jobs, imposing a tariff on goods to make reimportation of goods made by 3rd world, slave-wage labor prohibitively expensive, compared to using domestic labor. The net efffect will dramatically slash unemployment, leading companies to raise wages in competition for the most talented employees & result in increased revenues collected by the govt from income taxes; which in turn ends deficit spending.

Submitted by Craig C. from RI in Economy & Jobs Dec. 10, 2014, 3:17 p.m.

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#224

1099 votes

High wage earning citizens who now do not have medicare deductions taken from income should have this done. All citizens should contribute to national health care as long as they can afford to do so.

Submitted by the answertothegap in Health Dec. 29, 2014, 11:10 a.m.

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#225

1092 votes

Push for a system more like France's, where voters can choose 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices for candidates (at least for the presidency) and make paid political advertising illegal. Only publicly-sponsored debates should be allowed.

Submitted by Diane P. from TX in Government & Elections Nov. 14, 2014, 8:57 p.m.

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#226

1077 votes

Make sure that all police departments nation wide have body cameras and vehicle cameras at same time.A special outside of the state prosecutor should be assigned to unarmed police shootings of all people.Police departments should vigorously seek to hire minorities especially black and latin people.ALL police officers should have race and ethnicity training to properly understand the communities their are paid to serve and protect.

Submitted by ANTHONY D. from NC in Civil Rights Jan. 4, 2015, 4:36 p.m.

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#227

1076 votes

Expand the right of workers to join unions and collectively bargain. Make it a felony for any company executive and hired person to in any way prevent or restrict the right of the workers to organize. That would make it a felony to terminate a person for such legal organizing activities. Second offence must lead to a mandatory jail sentence.

Submitted by Lone Maquis in Economy & Jobs Dec. 10, 2014, 7:52 p.m. 1

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#228

1068 votes

Merged Idea

No revolving door between our regulatory agencies (FDA, USDA, EPA) and the corporations that they are responsible for regulating. No agency personnel can be employed by or receive any income from a corporation that they regulate for 15 years. No employee, manager, or board member of such a corporation can be employed by a government regulatory agency

Submitted by Kathy R. from IL in Health Dec. 10, 2014, 10:43 p.m.

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#229

1066 votes

Currently, the FDA has two conflicting objectives: 1) to ensure the safety of our food and medicine, and 2) to promote the food and medicine industries. The FDA needs to be dedicated to only one of these, preferably #1, safety. Let the industries promote themselves.

Submitted by Bruce in Health Jan. 8, 2015, 8:20 a.m.

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#229

1066 votes

Pass the LINE ITEM VETO once and for all. Congress will hate it because they will have to present unpopular bills on their own merits, not sneaking pork belly legislation as a rider to, or worse hidden within a real bill.

Submitted by randygillespie1 in Government & Elections Dec. 11, 2014, 12:48 p.m.

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#231

1065 votes

Late fees and overdrafts should be a percentage of the total balance, with the maximum being $25 or $35. No one should have to pay $45 for being overdrafted $6. Or $35 late fees on a $10 balance. Also, payments should be able to be made up to midnight of the due date, not 5 days before or before 1 pm three days prior.

Submitted by stonerbunny in Economy & Jobs Jan. 8, 2015, midnight

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#232

1062 votes

President Obama has the authority to create National Monuments that will be off limits to big oil, gas and logging interests. Please ask our President to create as many National Monuments as he can over the next 2 years so that OUR PUBLIC LANDS can be kept safe, wild and free for our wildlife and their habitat and that no one person or group can try to take the land for their personal use.

Submitted by makl1 in Environment Jan. 8, 2015, 1:49 p.m.

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#233

1057 votes

Time to actively work on moving from a war oriented industrial complex to a peace oriented country. Convert closed bases to spaces for the homeless and the aging. Refit arms manufacturers into alternative energy manufacturers. Work on paying public school teachers more or expand home schooling and the educational offerings on the internet. End the 40 hour work week and provide benefits to people who work part time or job share.

Submitted by Skywalker Payne, RN in Society & Community Nov. 11, 2014, 8:31 p.m.

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#234

1037 votes

Completely change the cozy relationship between District Attorneys and Grand Juries to ensure that there are no repeats of police going off scott free after killing unarmed citizens.

Submitted by antonio l. from CA in Civil Rights Jan. 4, 2015, 5:08 p.m.

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#235

1019 votes

Establish much higher standards and provide much better regulation and enforcement for preventing conflicts of interest among the judiciary, all the way to Antonin Scalia, John Roberts and the rest of "his" court.

Submitted by Timothy Salt in Civil Rights Dec. 16, 2014, 1:36 p.m.

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#236

1017 votes

Many Senators and Representatives multiply their wealth during their tenure by investing in companies where they have insider knowledge or by promoting legislation where they have a financial interest. As with the Presidency, wealth of our legislators should be placed in a blind trust until they leave office, all the insider trading laws should apply to our legislators, and they should be required to recuse themselves in any vote in which they have a financial interest.

Submitted by Martha Luehrmann in Government & Elections Jan. 10, 2015, 4:18 p.m. 1

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#237

1007 votes

Merged Idea

The environment includes our wild animals some of which are being slaughtered daily for contests and derbies. 85 countries have banned trapping so why hasn't the United States banned this cruel and horrendous way to kill animals. There are millions of us who want trapping banned but it seems no one is listening.

Submitted by Sandra Weber in Environment Dec. 9, 2014, 7:32 p.m.

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#238

1000 votes

Repeal "The Patriot Act" which has gutted the Bill of Rights. Close down the NSA as an unwarranted illegal invasion of Privacy (including the use of domestic drones) Allow and push for Factual NEWS reporting and Stop misinforming the Public. The Mass Media needs to be broken up just like the Big Banks (Wall Street) - enforce "The Sherman Anti-Trust Act".

Submitted by LeeG in Civil Rights Dec. 11, 2014, 8:11 a.m.

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#239

994 votes

How we handle mental illness. We need outreach to younger kids and teenagers dealing with depression or bullying. The criminally insane should be in facilities that are equipped to handle them and not in prisons. We need facilities and programs as a preventative resource to assist families and individuals dealing with mental illness. This should include work programs as well as financial resources to assist families. We need more free drug rehab programs.

Submitted by jake in Health Dec. 29, 2014, 11:15 p.m.

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#240

989 votes

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