After health care reform, what do you want to see next?

In terms of large structural changes of nation-wide institutions?

Personally I choose primary and secondary education. How about you?

The nation is in bad enough shape already. We need solutions, not posturing, partisan politics, and pandering.

And definitely no "education reform" with Pirate Arnie in charge.

will be reformed if the senate bill passes in house.
Then the health insurance industry gets 30 million more customers and
the other 280 million have to live with no restrictions on how high
their premiums will be jacked up by the for profit insurers.

We really really need a public option. Without it, the private insurers
have no competition.

giving work to folks who need it, while doing work that improves our towns and parks

outlook by heavy subsidies for environmentally beneficial or benign projects. Including energy upgrades for schools and other public buildings.

Funded by an end to fossil fuel subsidies and increased taxes on the wealthy and corporations that outsource services or move manufacturing abroad.

The Climate Change bill will end up including many other issues...something progressives have long noted.

The end of the War in Iraq and the end of the War in Afghanistan.

Without those two changes, we will keep being held hostage by corporate America and even the global corporate community.

Nothing of any real importance will be accomplished until the influence of corporate money is removed.

start with firing every single executive

Yes yes I know I'm way out front with this one. But it has to happen, or?

For that matter, Senator Kerry was for working to eliminate nuclear weapons when he ran in 1984.

Health Care Reform

being worked on.

Financial reform is the most important in my opinion.

There are at least 14 Democratic coal state Senators that are concerned of the major increase in energy costs if coal, which is cheap but dirty. In addition, the well funded campaign to smear the climate scientists. Kerry has done a great making the national security and the jobs case for doing it and pulling in many business people to support it. In fact, last summer, before the Kerry/Graham op-ed, it was called dead - that it has any life at all is due to huge efforts by Graham, Lieberman, and especially Kerry.

It's my biggest issue so I'm gearing up for a big fight. I live in a coal state and frequently call my Senators about it. This one we HAVE to win!

on the issues of both coal states and manufacturing. It seems clear that the legislation needs to have something that compensates the regions that would see the greatest economic cost to switching from coal. Just adding research dollars to "clean coal" doesn't do that - though it is worthwhile to a reasonable level, because if scientists found something that worked it would be a game changer - though in one SFRC hearing on climate change, Kerry spoke of most scientists expressing huge doubts.

It might be that any money collected under any carbon pricing might be allocated to states based on their actual increase costs. That would then minimize the difference between using the cheap, but dirty energy and using the cleaner fuel. This would make the right choice have a lower cost than it would otherwise. (I have heard no one suggest something like this - the Cantwell proposal actually spreads it evenly, which is a bonanza to areas that already have clean energy (like WA with their large amount of hydroelectric energy) while coal states would still see a large net increase in cost even after they got their dividends.

They will frak it up just like they did health care reform.

(It'll end up mandating average citizens to contribute some part of their incomes to subsidize the lobbying firm of their choice. Everyone knows lobbies are the problem in DC -- soon enough, Max Baucus et al will convince their fellow-Congressmen that the REAL problem is that average Joe citizens don't even BOTHER to throw a couple bucks over to K-Street, so who can BLAME Gucci Gulch for favoring the sleek corporate special interests? What we REALLY need to do if FORCE no-account Joe Schmoe deadbeats to retain some political PR, then it will all balance out.)

Democracy saved!

I would hope they wouldn't try to "reform" anything else.

because if you're looking to education reform from this crop of politicians that's exactly what you're going to get.

instead of the insurance reform we're being offered.

beyond that, a focus on the economy would be a good thing, with a real focus on directly creating jobs through federal action, rather than the same old trickle down bullshit that they've tried so far.

You know CCC, WPA, stuff like that.

I doubt we'll see much other than the dog and pony show we've been seeing so far, though.

for real

That would really get the Pukes fired up.

On second though, maybe not. We'll end up with a Senate bill that will attempt to neutralize fat cats' undue K-Street influence by MANDATING the average American to pony up a few thousand each year to retain a lobbying firm. See, if ALL of us paid something to lobbyists, and stopped being such skeezy FREE-RIDERS, there would be no problem! It's all our fault, after all -- you and me DON'T retain lobbyists personally (fucking skinflints), and just wait until something REALLY bothers us, then we write a letter or two or call our Congressman Right Fucking Now -- there's NO way we should be allowed to do this anymore. For example, if someone writes a couple of letters opposing the first Gulf War, and then pops up over a DECADE later to write a couple of letters opposing Afghanistan/Iraq, how should that even be permitted?!?! That kind of anti-war sentiment is CLEARLY a pre-existing political condition -- if we want to exercise the privilege to COMPLAIN about the same thing, the LEAST we should be required to do would be to have lobbyists on permanent retainer from the get-go!

which nearly toppled the world economy and required hundreds of billions in bailouts from the federal government?

Hey, no need to rush on doing anything about that.

Unemployment is over 20%. Jobs are the only concern and should be the only concern. The government should undertake dramatic measures to reduce real unemployment to less than 10% within the time span of 9 months. As long as unemployment stays high our economy and the American spirit will be suffocated.

and a ban on any campaign events in which the wealthy get "access" to the candidates for a five-figure donation to the party.