The Pro American Party endorses the idea that having a working population is in the best interests of our country. We also support the idea of active citizenship and believe everyone needs to do their fair share. (Active citizenship will be discussed in future posts.)
In our view it is not in the best interests of the country for one segment of society to support the other in the form of welfare. Corporate welfare is therefore abolished immediately. Support for corporations will come in the form of a reduced tax rate should they abide by the tenets of this platform. In addition, American corporations may, if they choose, ask for specific help from the government as needed, provided that assistance shall directly benefit American workers in the form of greater employment and/or higher wages.
Welfare or other assistance for the needy shall be abolished for all but the most severely disabled and replaced with a government program that guarantees all adult persons not in school an opportunity to work full-time in their community. The wage for this work should be $12 an hour, with child care benefits and health care included at no cost. Yearly wage adjustments should be based on the same formula as social security increases/decreases. If a person is able to work, but chooses not to, he/she will not receive a wage or government benefits. Workers will pay into social security and receive social security benefits at retirement, but no other pension plan will be provided. Of note, the government shall provide suitable employment to the disabled, should their disability be able to be reasonably accommodated as specified in the ADA. It is noted that all workers must perform their work according to accepted and approved standards or risk losing this benefit.
The intent of this program is to ensure that all Americans can find work immediately if they lose employment in the private sector; such employment would remain available to each person until a new private sector job can be secured. The type of work that recipients perform would depend on the needs of the local, state and federal governments, who will decide what services are needed in their respective jurisdictions. The Department of Labor will coordinate this effort, and will assist state and local entities in developing work programs that meet federal requirements. As a result of this program, all other assistance programs will be eliminated as there will be no need for them.
Local businesses are eligible to use persons in this program for temporary workers. They would reimburse the program $25 per hour for every person provided, but the individual would continue to receive their normal wage and program health/child care benefits from the DOL. The costs of this program would also rise/fall using the aforementioned formula.
Students who are at least age 18 and attending a college, junior college or technical school may work up to 20 hours week. They will also be eligible for health and child care benefits.
This tenet is designed to ensure all Americans can find work should they choose. In addition, this tenet will require corporations to pay a competitive wage, because they will not get workers if they do not meet or exceed the government program. This tenet will also eliminate the ability of businesses to reduce wage/benefit/hours worked that harm American families. It should also be noted that having full employment will reduce social friction, crime and discrimination. There will no longer be one segment of society giving to another, as all persons will earn their wages with their labor.
The wage for a person working full-time would be $24,960 per year. This means that a household supported by only one wage earner would not be subject to federal income tax. Specific tax rates will be discussed in a future post.
If I Had The Power 