America’s credit rating has been downgraded for the first time in our history and the stock market is in freefall. American citizens are suffering from the effects of a severe economic recession. We’ve been caught in a vice between high debt loads and lower asset values for our homes, savings accounts, and retirement accounts. Far too many of us are un- or under-employed, or have had to take painful pay cuts. Wall Street, one of the chief culprits behind the recession, was bailed out and is now doing great again. Where’s our bail-out, we’ve been asking ourselves.

One of the things that has slowed the economic recovery is that instead of increasing their spending, consumers have been paying down consumer debt and increasing their savings. That’s a good thing for consumers and for the economy in the long term, but in the short term, it’s a problem, since that money is then not available to be spent on goods and services.

American citizens need help, but many in Congress have resisted providing it, choosing instead to focus on reducing spending and cutting the deficit. Both of those are necessary in the long term, but in the short term, they can be damaging: spending cuts result in less government spending on goods and services provided by the private sector and fewer government workers (teachers, police, firefighters, nurses, safety inspectors, etc.). When those workers are fired, the economy doesn’t only lose their valuable services, it loses their purchasing power, and is the case with the private sector employees. Not only does an out-of-work employee not purchase many goods and services or pay taxes, but if he or she is forced to go on welfare, then that ends up costing the government even more money.

What the economy needs while we’re still in this recession is not spending cuts, but growth and jobs. And to provide those, the government will have to take action.

We therefore propose the following:

1.       Encourage the Super-Congress to come up with a balanced agreement that will both provide for long-term fiscal health and allow for significant job-creation activities to take place in the short term, with total deficit reduction above the $1.5 trillion target (read ​http://newsericks.com/bring-back-big for more details on that); a strong package could also have the additional potential benefit of getting the U.S. our AAA credit rating back;

2.       Remove repayment of interest and principle on the national debt as a political issue by creating a new independent trust fund, the Comprehensive Lockbox to Ensure Achievement of National Sustainable Liability Amortization Trust (CLEAN SLAT), into which special tax payments would be made. These revenues would be used for no other purpose (i.e., they would not fund current government spending), and would replace an equivalent amount of current federal income tax (e.g., federal income tax rates would be reduced by x percentage points, and x% would be paid into the CLEAN SLAT fund) such that total tax rates would not increase for most/all taxpayers (read ​http://newsericks.com/My-Plan-to-Solve-the-Debt-Crisis for more details on CLEAN SLAT);

3.       Implement the “Chris Matthews Jobs Plan” to create jobs by fixing our crumbling bridges, roads, schools, and other public infrastructure through creation of a new infrastructure bank which would be self-sustaining and require $0 in taxpayer subsidies (read ​http://newsericks.com/You-Can-Bank-on-It and ​http://newsericks.com/highway-to-economic-hell/ for more details on that);

4.       Provide additional funding to state and local governments to stop the hemorrhaging of jobs (a half million teachers, firefighters, police, and other state and local government employee jobs have been lost so far, and a million more are in danger of being lost this fiscal year). For people providing crucial public services to lose their jobs because of temporary shortages in state and local government revenue weakens local communities, costs taxpayers more in the long run, and undercuts our national recovery (read ​http://newsericks.com/First-Do-No-Harm for more on that);

5.       Adopt a zero-cost change in the tax law for people who have been forced to rent out their homes because of the soft housing market, giving them the option to defer any gain on sale for a longer period of time, so they’re not forced to sell when they don’t want to and depress the market further (read ​http://newsericks.com/a-modest-proposal for more details); and

6.       Create the American Consumer Credit Equitable Savings Support (ACCE$$) to address the crushing consumer debt load that is making it hard for Americans to make ends meet, and choking off economic recovery by reducing the amount of cash people have to spend.  Consumers wanting to “access” the fund would take their credit card statement(s) and a copy of their most recent pay stub (or statement of benefits if unemployed) to an authorized program administrator, where they’d fill out, sign, and submit the application. If the simple program criteria were met, the Treasury would then issue a check directly to the applicant’s credit card company, paying down the applicant’s debt in full or in part. The cost to the consumer (beyond a minimal processing fee) would be a 2% fee (comparable to bank balance transfer fees) added to the balance at the time of account creation, which (along with the original balance) would then either be paid off in full the next April 15, or through salary deductions over a multi-year period. The loan would be interest and payment free for a 6-8 month grace period, and ~5% interest thereafter. These payments would more than cover the interest paid by ACCE$$ to the Treasury, so the program would probably return a profit, leading to significant job creation and greater economic growth at no cost to the taxpayer (for more details on ACCE$$, read ​http://newsericks.com/Wheres-My-Bail-Out--Right-Here).

Please join us in supporting this effort by signing our petition, which will automatically send an email to the President, Vice President, your Congressperson, and your Senator expressing your support for these actions. If you support some but not all of the actions, feel free to edit your letter accordingly (please leave the links for each item, since these provide further details).

Thanks for your support, and God Bless the United States of America!