Money in Politics

Bribery & Lobbying

• Redefine Lobbying, and Corporate Spending on Elections, regardless of direct or indirect coordination as Bribery if those funds come from entities that generate over $100,000 in profits per year

• Lobbying shall be limited to special interest groups that do not generate over $100,000 in profits per year or affiliated with business entities that do

• Unions, and 501( c ) 3 NPO’s are exempt from this rule

Government Employees Stock Trading

• Punishments for insider trading, shall be the maximum penalty under the law

• All elected officials must divest from all stock portfolios upon assuming office

• All appointed officials must divest from all stock portfolios upon assuming office

• All government officials involved in government contracts, or policy writing, lobbying, or similar activities must divest from all stock portfolios

Corporate Ethics

Political Activities

• Business entities shall not engage in lobbying, or political spending activities that: receive government subsidies, government contracts, hire veterans, receive tax credits, receive tax abatements, are considered tax exempt, generate over $100,000 in profits per year, or any combination of the above

• Business entities shall not endorse, support, or publicly coordinate with any candidates, or public officials outside of standard business practices such as during contract negotiations, contract work, or similar

Worker’s Rights

• Business entities shall abide by the Worker’s Bill of Rights

Whistleblowing

• Whistleblowing activities shall be defined as follows:

• An employee who brings up ethical, safety, health or legal concerns to their leadership, verbally, or in writing, and is ignored, denied, reprised, or retaliated against, whether verbally, writing, or another recorded format

• Whistleblowing activities shall be reported to the Department of Labor, and may be anonymous, but must include detailed information of the ethical, safety, health or legal concerns

• Reports of ethical, safety, health or legal concerns, submitted to the DoL must be investigated within 30 days of receipt

• Investigations shall be unannounced

• Investigations shall be thorough

• Investigations shall prove or disprove ethical, safety, health or legal concerns in a reasonable amount of time

• Instigators cannot be denied access to documents, procedures, blue prints, or other official records during their investigation’

• Investigations may use evidence found of additional wrong doing to take further action against business entities, without incurring ex post facto provisions

Legal Action

• Employees of any business entity may file, or seek to file lawsuits against their employer whether or not they are directly impacted by the ethical, safety, health or legal concerns

• The plaintiff may seek damages and compensation for filing legal action in addition to any other remedies that the lawsuit may offer or involve

• Business entities may place employees who are filing legal action against them, on a paid administrative leave, however, they may not hinder, nor deny access to information they would normally have had access to in pursuit of their case.

• The employee shall be accompanied by their legal representative, and a legal representative of the business entity when accessing these records, documents, or other media

• This may be done in addition to any discovery actions taken during the legal process

Wage Caps

• Corporations shall not pay any employee greater than 20x the lowest earning employee, including bonuses, benefits packages, or salary

Customer Data Collection, and Sale

• Effective immediately all customer data collected by any individual or entity shall remain under the control, and confidence of the collecting party, or temporary

• Failure to protect private data shall result in espionage charges

• Sale of personal data shall result in espionage charges, violation of privacy charges, and violation of HIPAA

Warranty and Returns

• All products and services shall be warrantied for a period of 12 months, or less with sufficient evidence that products or services have a lesser lifespan such as industrial wear parts, products that undergo extreme pressure or heat, etc.

• Warranty Returns of goods shall always be at the expense of the industry

• Warranty Returned Goods shall restart the warranty period of the newly received good upon receipt of the product

• Warranty Returned Goods must be new, and not refurbished

• Warranty Claims shall include a full refund in lieu of exchange for the duration of the Warranty period, without requiring the consumer to provide any reason or detail beyond proof of function if good has been used

Manufactured Obsolescence, Quality of Goods and Services

• Industry standards for product development shall immediately cease manufactured obsolescence in their business strategy

• This policy does not mandate continuous quality improvement, but does render illegal the act of manufacturing inefficiencies, weaknesses, or other deficiencies into a product with the express intent of capitalizing off of them

• This policy does not insinuate that genuine advancement in technology or process will not show significant improvements over time

• All Industries shall seek to achieve a minimum lifespan of goods and services for a period of 12 months where those goods and services are not under extreme conditions

• Goods and services that are dedicated to dealing with extreme conditions shall seek continuous improvement to a preferred minimum of 12 months of guaranteed lifespan

Anti-Trust Enforcement

• No US Industry shall be allowed to control more than 20% of a given market share at the national, state, or local level

• Those that currently do shall be split apart and turned into S corps to ensure a lesser risk of re-monopolization

• Hostile Takeovers, deliberate undercutting of local businesses shall be illegal

Price Gouging Prevention

• All products and services shall not exceed a 50% markup regardless of supply

• All pharmaceuticals, and medical devices shall not exceed a 1% markup, regardless of supply

• Any efforts to manipulate supply, or create artificial scarcity shall be treated Market Manipulation, Manipulating the value of the Dollar, and related charges

• Any and all violations of unfair, or deceptive trade practices law shall be redefined as criminal rather than civil charges and shall be the top priority of related law enforcement, and regulating agencies to enforce

Term Limits

Federal Term Limits

Executive Branch

• POTUS Term Limits shall remain at 2 consecutive terms, with the following provision:

• Any POTUS who has served 2 consecutive terms, may be reelected for additional terms, so long as all votes are write in votes and meet all other requirements for becoming the lawfully elected POTUS

• The 2 term or longer POTUS, may not actively campaign, promote their candidacy, or otherwise insinuate their interest in consecutive terms other than acknowledging the following: “If the American People deem, I should be POTUS for another term I shall to the best of my ability carry out the duties and responsibilities of the office of President of the United States.”

• Any overt statements of interest in candidacy will result in 25th Amendment Actions being taken against the POTUS and charges of Treason to be filed

• Once a 2 term POTUS has made the above statement once, no further inquiries shall be allowed by media, interviewers, or pundits to the 2 term POTUS

• The 2 term POTUS may participate in debates during the General Election Cycle so that their policies can be compared and contrasted fairly with other candidates

Legislative Branch

• The House of Representatives shall have a total term limit allowance of 6 terms

• The United States Senate shall have a total term limit of 2 terms

Judicial Branch

• Article III of the Constitution states that these judicial officers are appointed for a life term, however, shall accept mandatory retirement after 12 years of service
  

State Term Limits

Executive Branch

• States that do not currently have term limits for their Executive Branch shall institute a 2 term limit as a minimum

Legislative Branch

• States that do not currently have term limits for their Legislative Branch shall institute a combined 12 years of service as a minimum term limit

Judicial Branch

• States that do not currently have term limits for their Judicial Branch shall institute a combined 12 years of service as a minimum term limit

County and Local Term Limits

Executive Branch

• Counties, and Local Governments that do not currently have term limits for their Executive Branch shall institute a 2 term limit as a minimum

Legislative Branch

• Counties, and Local Governments that do not currently have term limits for their Legislative Branch shall institute a combined 12 years of service as a minimum term limit

Judicial Branch

• Counties, and Local Governments that do not currently have term limits for their Judicial Branch shall institute a combined 12 years of service as a minimum term limit

Elected Official Retirement, Benefits, etc.

• No elected or appointed official may receive retirement funds, regardless of time served

• Elected and appointed officials, must receive similar benefits as their constituents

• Elected officials and appointed officials shall be expected to work the same amount of days and hours as general citizens, excluding paid federal holidays, and allowing for PTO and sick time

Auditing Government Programs, and Spending

The Office of the Inspector General will be expanded to audit all government agencies on a semi annual basis, however, especial considerations are made for the following departments

Military, Intelligence, Law Enforcement

• The office of the Inspector General of the DoD shall have subordinate offices conducting quarterly audits at each military facility globally

• This may include the need to create a specific career field across the branches for the position of Auditor, and support positions within the Finance Department

• Bloated military spending in the form of no-bid contracts shall be summarily revoked

• Military contracts for new weapons systems, personnel equipment, base upgrades, etc. must provide a clause that includes: “Failure to fulfill contract obligations shall alleviate capital fulfillment of terms”. Specifically, weapons systems like the F-35 that have failed to be mission ready despite trillions in investment do not burden the US Taxpayer

• The Office of the Inspector General will audit all intelligence agencies, and law enforcement agencies quarterly

IRS

• The IRS will receive a budget increase sufficient to meet the personnel requirements needed to carry out financial audits of wealthy citizens, and highly profitable businesses

• The Office of the Inspector General will audit the IRS quarterly

US Department of Commerce, and the US Department of the Interior

• The Office of the Inspector General will audit the US Department of Commerce the US Department of the Interior quarterly

• The Department of Commerce will receive a budget increase to meet the personnel requirements needed to monitor the nations infrastructure and make quarterly recommendations as to which areas require priority resources

• All reports, and determinations shall be made available to the public, searchable by areas of interest, and state

• These reports shall supersede any spending in the Federal Budget

US Department of State

• The Office of the Inspector General will audit the US Department of State quarterly

• All foreign aid, arms deals, treaties or trade deals must be traceable, and made publicly available

Election Integrity

• Universal voter registration shall begin at every citizen’s 18th birthday

• Felony convictions shall not bar a citizen’s right to vote

• Lack of participation in voting shall not cause a citizen’s registration to lapse, expire or otherwise be considered not in effect

• Voter registration will take into consideration: SSN, DoB, registered address, and certificates of death

• Citizens will be able to create unique 2FA features for their voter registration which shall coincide with whichever method of voting the citizen chooses to use

• One option to improve this process would be the issuance, at no cost to the citizen, a government voter card that will serve as official Government Identification, and a voter registration card.

• All registered voters shall receive a mail in ballot 30 days prior to any election, or voting on issues, proposals, or other similar activities

• The Federal Government will invest sufficient funding to create a secure, encrypted, online accessible digital voting system with 3rd party oversight to ensure system integrity

• Election day shall be extended to the entire week in which Election Day occurs.

• Employers must grant employees a minimum of 2 hours paid time, to vote in person if that is their wish

• In person voting locations shall be free of campaign material, intimidation by citizens exercising their right to protest, or other disruptive activities that could coerce a voter

• Partisan elections, known as primaries, shall be beholden to all federal election regulations, including these reforms.

• Violation of election integrity laws, including selecting candidates, influencing election results, or similar activities will be treated with the maximum penalty under the law, in edition to the charges of treason, and conspiracy