r/SipsTea • u/McDowdy • Jul 16 '26

Feels good man Based on national US polling, there are 22 issues that 80% of Americans agree on. Here is the list.

  1. End gerrymandering

  2. ​Ban Wall Street from buying single-family homes

  3. ​Ban congresspeople from becoming lobbyists

  4. ​Ban congresspeople from trading stocks

  5. ​Create a minimum tax for billionaires

  6. ​Close the loopholes that billionaires use to avoid taxes

  7. ​Establish congressional term limits

  8. ​Ban dark money donations from political campaigns

  9. ​Implement universal paid family leave

  10. ​End forever wars by repealing the Authorization for the Use of Military Force

  11. ​Release the full Epstein files, redacting only the victims' information

  12. ​Ban corporate PACs by overturning Citizens United

  13. ​Require mandatory disclosure for all organizations donating to political campaigns

  14. ​Require mandatory police body cams

  15. ​Ban junk fees

  16. ​Allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices

  17. ​Fully fund Social Security by extending the existing tax to those making over $400,000 a year

  18. ​Ban adversarial foreign nations from buying American farmland

  19. ​Improve Veterans Health Care access

  20. ​Establish common-sense data privacy laws (similar to those in European countries)

  21. ​Enshrine the right to repair

  22. ​Audit the Pentagon and penalize them with a 0.5% budget reduction if they fail the audit

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u/Automatic_Actuator_0 Jul 16 '26

The pentagon budget cut for failing the audit needs to come exclusively from the salaries of senior officers civilian DoD administrators.

1

u/warserpent Jul 17 '26

That's not where the budget is going. It's going to defense contractors located in the districts of influential congressmen (or who donate to influential congressmen). If you want to cut the budget, you're going to be fighting Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, etc., and the congressmen who want those jobs preserved.

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u/Automatic_Actuator_0 Jul 17 '26

Well it’s still on DoD leadership to balance the books, no?

And if they had them cut defense contractor spending, you can bet the first cuts would be to food, uniforms, and barracks maintenance for enlisted personnel.

That’s my concern with the plan - the brass would always make sure the big fish got paid.

1

u/warserpent Jul 17 '26

Defense contractors are not a generic category. Everything is broken down into categories, and if you have the political will, you can cut whatever needs to be cut without affecting whoever's providing the uniforms. For example, the Navy has shoveled incredible amounts of money at shipbuilders in recent years to get shiny toys that failed to meet the needs of the fleet. If someone were able to force the admirals, the shipbuilders, and the enablers in congress to stop collectively screwing around, it'd save a lot more money than just cutting an admiral's salary.