The recent turnover in Congress, combined with a wide open presidential election cycle, creates a rare opportunity to bring new ideas into the political process.

The spirit of this new era will be captured by those—from either party or no party—who embrace innovative yet pragmatic solutions to the foremost challenges facing our nation. We offer this collection of Big Ideas as fuel for an overdue bipartisan debate about how to update our national policies for the common good.

Ten Big Ideas for a New America:

1. Every Baby a Trust Fund Baby
2. Mandatory, Affordable Health Insurance
3. A Universal 401(k) Plan
4. Tax Consumption, Not Work
5. An Energy Efficiency Trading System
6. A College Access Contract
7. Closing the $700 Billion Tax Loophole
8. Universal Risk Insurance
9. Instant Runoff Voting
10. A Capital Budget for Public Investment

Download Ten Big Ideas for a New America

PDF format, 1.1MB, 69Pages.

Introduction:

As the recent elections also illustrated, increasing numbers of Americans are now part of what we at the New America Foundation have called the Radical Center. They understand that most of our national problems require active government intervention, yet they are wary of complex government programs that are full of hidden subsidies. They are fi scally responsible yet want the government to invest wisely in our country’s future. They demand greater fairness in both our political and economic life but also insist upon greater personal responsibility and respect for traditional American family values. They acknowledge the benefi ts of globalization but do not believe they should come at the expense of a domestic social contract that gives all Americans their fair share of the American dream.

Since its founding in 1999, the New America Foundation has tried to give voice to this yearning for a new center in American politics by advancing bold yet pragmatic solutions to our nation’s problems. With this publication, we have distilled the wide-ranging work of New America’s programs and Fellows into ten Big Ideas that can help meet our country’s most serious challenges, yet can be readily implemented with bipartisan support.

A number of these proposals fit together into a vision of the next social contract, a new approach to the relationship between government, employers, and individuals that is better suited to the profound transformations the American economy, workforce, and family have undergone in recent decades.

Each of the following ideas falls into this category: Len Nichols’s outline of the elements of a successful approach to health care for all; Michael Calabrese’s plan for automatic 401(k) accounts open to anyone; Jacob Hacker’s proposal for universal insurance against devastating drops in income; Ray Boshara’s proposal to jump-start widespread asset building by establishing a matched savings account for every child at birth; and Michael Dannenberg’s description of a College Access Contract.

The challenge of sustainable and broadly shared economic growth is the other side of the coin, and several of our Big Ideas therefore focus on expanding the economy and extending its benefi ts. Sherle Schwenninger’s proposal to promote public investment through a federal capital budget, Maya MacGuineas’s plan to replace the burdensome and regressive payroll tax with a progressive tax on consumption, and Lisa Margonelli’s idea to reduce energy demand by trading effi ciency gains are all thoughtful and provocative components of a new growth agenda.

Finally, the 2006 elections demonstrated that the American people are demanding not just a change in what government does, but also how it does it. The American political process has created a vicious circle in which the absence of competitive elections, the role of money in politics, and the lack of transparency reinforce and compound one another. Fundamental reforms to the processes of representative democracy are a necessary step toward meeting the other challenges. Here Maya MacGuineas’s idea of bringing the vast expenditures hidden in the tax code into public light, and restructuring them so that hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue can be reprioritized and spent more wisely, is essential, as is Steven Hill’s proposal to make elections more open and more competitive through Instant Runoff Voting.

The emerging new era of American political life should not be a time of partisan politics, but an era of bipartisan creativity and accomplishment.

We offer these ideas in the hope that they can help point the way.

Ted Halstead
President & CEO, New America Foundation

Visit Ten Big Ideas for a New America Website

"We offer this collection of Big Ideas as fuel for an overdue bipartisan debate about how to update our national policies for the common good."

Mission (New America Foundation):

Powerful forces -- from technological change to demographic shifts, from economic globalization to the rise of new global powers -- are remaking America. Now, more than ever, our nation needs a robust public debate that does justice to the complex challenges and opportunities of this era. Instead, there is too often a dearth of new thinking on both sides of the political divide, and a lack of investment in developing the creative young minds most capable of crafting new public policy solutions.

The purpose of New America Foundation is to bring exceptionally promising new voices and new ideas to the fore of our nation’s public discourse. Relying on a venture capital approach, the Foundation invests in outstanding individuals and policy ideas that transcend the conventional political spectrum. Through its fellowships and issue-specific programs, the Foundation sponsors a wide range of research, writing, conferences and public outreach on the most important global and domestic issues of our time.

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit public policy institute that was established through the collaborative work of a diverse group of public intellectuals, civic leaders and business executives. Launched in 1999, the Foundation is guided by President and CEO Steve Coll, and an outstanding Board of Directors. New America is headquartered in our nation’s capital and also has a significant presence in California, the nation’s largest laboratory of democracy.

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