There oughta be a law

Or else, maybe a few repealed

Congressional ‘To Do’ list – legislation we’d like to see;

1)     Legislatively legalize the resident status of all DACA qualified people who are currently in limbo and provide a clear, quick path to complete citizenship for any of them who haven’t been convicted of a felony. Anyone who has served in the military or is a survivor of a veteran should become a citizen by the time I’m done typing this. The performative nonsense that passes for discussion on this topic has gone on far too long and is bereft of both legal and moral justification.

2)     Permanently remove the income cap on OASDI taxes and base the tax on Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) rather than wage/salary income as it is now. In 2019 which is the last year that the IRS has published figures for, $3.4 trillion dollars of reported income wasn’t subject to the 6.2% OASDI tax. Just removing the income cap would impact 9 million taxpayers and would generate just over $210 billion in additional income to the Trust Fund thereby providing stability into the reasonably foreseeable future.1

3)     Pass the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act (S.4573) to minimize the chance of another 2020 fiasco and make the associated shenanigans that much more difficult to pull off. While there are undoubtedly people in Congress and supporting them who would love to delegitimize the whole electoral process, most Americans and, I have to believe, most politicians of any party, aren’t among them. This should have been done long ago and even the least intellectually well-endowed members of the current legislature should be able to see the value in standing for a reliable election process. For those who aren’t, one wonders about their views on parenthood, apple pie and the law of gravity.

4)     Legislatively repeal all laws limiting the use of cannabis in any form and expunging the criminal records of anyone still living who was convicted of violating any of those laws. This would end a substantial part of the improperly named and pursued War on Drugs and give some people their lives back. As with President Biden’s pardon, this would not apply to people who were found guilty of other criminal acts but would, hopefully, act as a spur to those recalcitrant state legislatures who still think Reefer Madness was a documentary rather than a satire.

1 Figures are from the IRS SOI tax stats, a fascinating, really wonky, and informative bunch of information.