The Headline: Major Report Shows Nearly 150 Issues on Which Majorities of Republicans & Democrats Agree. Program for Public Consultation/School of Public Policy, University of Maryland August 7, 2020.  

An Excerpt:

“Defying conventional wisdom about a polarized electorate, a report based on in-depth surveys of more than 80,000 Americans shows that majorities from both parties agree on nearly 150 key policy positions across more than a dozen top policy areas. The research suggests that Americans are eager for their elected representatives to cross party lines to start tackling the nation’s toughest problems….

”In the surveys, respondents were given in-depth information about the policy issues and legislative proposals under consideration in Congress, and evaluated arguments for and against each policy option before coming to their conclusions.  The content was reviewed by experts at both ends of the spectrum of opinion on the issues.”

Now that’s the way to conduct a survey! Your run-of-the-mill surveys typically ask questions about issues about which respondents lack information or are simply misinformed and the poll takers make no effort to either gauge respondents’ knowledge about the issue or provide them with balanced, unbiased information prior to asking questions. Hence, we get news headlines like “Most Americans support Black Lives Matter”, which turned out to be based on a single question in a CBS News poll, “Do you agree or disagree with the ideas expressed by the Black Lives Matter movement?” without specifying which ideas were being referred to. Thanks for nothing, CBS News.

When done right, survey data contribute to the democratic process by being a reliable source of direction for policymakers. Case in point: the surveys referenced at the beginning of this post. These surveys were conducted by The Program for Public Consultation (PPC) at the University of Maryland, in collaboration with the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University. Consistent with their aim to “put respondents in the shoes of a policymaker”, PPC first makes sure the respondent is well-informed about the policy in question and then asks for their policy recommendations. Go to The Common Ground of the American People for more on PPC’s approach, as well as for the complete survey results.

Here are a few of the policy positions on which majorities of Republicans and Democrats agreed:

Social Security  

  • Raise the payroll tax rate from 6.2% to at least 6.6%* (reduces shortfall by 17%)

  • Raise the cap on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax cap from $117,000 to $215,000* (reduces shortfall by 27%)

  • Eliminate the cap on the Social Security payroll tax (reduces shortfall by 66%) 

Health Care Reform 

  • Offer a government-run public option open to all individuals option open to all individuals Allow people aged 55 years or older to purchase a Medicare plan

  • Change the ACA to allow insurance companies to offer low-premium, high deductible “copper plans” to people age 30 and over

  • Do NOT repeal the ACA requirement that insurance companies cannot consider pre-existing conditions when setting premiums

  • Allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices

  • Make changes to the patent system to allow generic drugs to get on to the market more quickly  

Immigration

  • Provide undocumented immigrants eligible for DACA status with full legal status and a path to citizenship

  • First-time violators of immigration laws should only be expelled, not subject to criminal punishment

  • Require that employers use the E-Verify system to establish the legal status of current employees and all new applicants 

  • Increase the number of available temporary non-farm work visas (H2B) from 66,000 to around 200,000 a year

  • Increase the number of visas for low-skilled workers to move to the US for industries that need them, like agriculture and services

  • Increase the number of visas for skilled workers to move to the US

  • Increase the number of employment-based visas for immigrants who have skills needed in the US labor market 

Poverty Reduction

  • Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides a benefit to more middle-class workers 

  • Create federal jobs programs to be deployed if economic conditions get worse and unemployment increases, including:

    — a conservation program in which US Forest Service would employ 100,000 young people and cost $250 million a year

    — a childcare and early education program that would employ 100,000 childcare workers and early education teachers and cost $3 billion a year

    — a school renovation program that would employ 650,000 construction and maintenance workers and cost $50 billion a year

    — a community projects program that would employ 750,000 people and cost $30 billion a year 

Environment

  • Adopt the goal of reducing US greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 2% a year

  • Commit to the 2014 Paris Agreement to combat climate change

  • Go beyond the Paris Agreement and aim for more significant cutbacks on greenhouse gas emissions Provide adjustment assistance to coal workers who lose their job as a result of the transition to cleaner forms of energy 

US Post Office Reform

  • Reduce the retirement pre-funding level from its current requirement of covering 100% of future costs down to covering 80%

  • Allow USPS to offer a wider range of products and services

  • Allow USPS to close up to 5% of its unprofitable post offices each year

  • Eliminate Saturday letter delivery 

Police Reform 

Make it a duty for officers to intervene in cases where another officer is using excessive force

Prohibit chokeholds and other neck restraints

Require officers to be trained in de-escalation and other alternative techniques, require such techniques be exhausted before using deadly force, and make officers criminally liable if they fail to do so.

Ban no-knock warrants, in which officers can enter a suspect’s house without warning 

Make it a duty for officers to intervene in cases where another officer is using excessive force

Prohibit chokeholds and other neck restraints

Require officers to be trained in de-escalation and other alternative techniques, require such techniques be exhausted before using deadly force, and make officers criminally liable if they fail to do so.

Ban no-knock warrants, in which officers can enter a suspect’s house without warning

There is hope for this nation yet.