Where We Stand
Real problems deserve real solutions. Here is what we're for — drawn from years of thinking captured in the book Righting the Ship, distilled into the ideas at the heart of this movement.
These are starting points, not the last word. Each reflects a simple test: does it bring government closer to the people, protect Americans, and invest in our shared future? We’ll keep refining them together — but here’s where we begin.
Power Closer to Home
Flip the tax balance toward the states
Most of our tax dollars flow to the level of government we can reach least — and influence least.
Our approach: Shift the majority of taxes to the states and localities that are closest and most responsive to us. When most of what we pay stays near home, we can actually see it work — and hold it accountable.
A federal government focused on the essentials
A government that tries to do everything does little of it well.
Our approach: Keep the federal government to four core jobs — foreign policy and the border, services that must move with us (like Social Security), stewardship of national resources, and regulations that protect Americans — and trust the states with the rest.
Return local research and funding to the states
When Washington controls niche and local funding, a single budget fight can freeze work that whole communities depend on.
Our approach: A simple test — if a service wouldn't change for you by moving from one state to another, the federal government can fund it. If it would, return that responsibility, and its tax dollars, to the states.
Living Within Our Means
Right-size military spending — honestly
Defense is by far our largest discretionary expense, its true cost is split across budgets to look smaller, and too often it doubles as a jobs program rather than a tool to keep us safe.
Our approach: Account for defense honestly, stop subsidizing the defense of wealthy allies who can pay their share, and modernize toward smart, affordable technology — so a strong military strengthens the country instead of straining it.
Balance the budget and tame the debt
Our greatest threat is a debt we keep handing to our children, with interest payments that buy us nothing.
Our approach: Adopt the discipline 49 states already live by — borrow to build, never to merely exist. Give the watchdogs who already find waste the power to see it cut by default unless Congress votes to keep it.
End procurement waste and "jobs-program" contracts
Contracts that pay for cost overruns and accept unfinished work reward failure with taxpayer money.
Our approach: Pay for results, not excuses. Hold contractors to fixed prices and full delivery — no final payment for products that don't do what was promised.
Investing in America
Make infrastructure a true priority
We spend a fraction on the roads, transit, water, and grid that hold our economy together, then pay far more cleaning up the failures.
Our approach: Treat infrastructure as the operating system of our economy and protect its funding so it can't be quietly raided. A dollar of upkeep saves many dollars of disaster.
Build cities for people, not just cars
Outside a handful of regions, our communities are engineered around parking and traffic — which pushes everything apart, raises the cost of living, and forces every family into two cars.
Our approach: Let towns end forced parking minimums and build places where you can reach what you need within a short walk or ride. Walkable communities mean lower costs, stronger local businesses, and neighbors who actually meet.
Let engineers — not politicians — design our infrastructure
We've become the most expensive country in the world to build in, largely because elected officials micromanage projects that professionals should be running.
Our approach: Have elected leaders set the budget and the goals, then let skilled, accountable engineers choose and deliver the projects — free from political interference and endless redesign.
A 90-day deadline on government approvals
Permits and reviews can drag on for years, driving up costs for taxpayers and families and stalling work that's ready to begin.
Our approach: Require federal agencies to decide within 90 days — or publicly justify the delay and set a new deadline. Government should act promptly or explain itself.
A Fair Shot for Families
Secure Social Security for good — the simple fix
Social Security is on track to fall short within the next decade, threatening the promise an entire generation paid into.
Our approach: Lift the cap and apply payroll contributions to all income, not just the first slice of wages. This one change keeps the program solvent for the long term and keeps the retirement age where it is — no benefit cuts, no broken promises.
A hand up, with dignity
Today's safety net too often traps people instead of lifting them, and quietly subsidizes employers who underpay.
Our approach: Offer a guaranteed opportunity to work and serve in our own communities — directed by local leaders, building real skills and a real paycheck — so support becomes a two-way handshake and a path upward, while we still care for the elderly and those who truly cannot work.
Bring housing back within reach
Distant investors and speculative vacancies have turned homes into trading chips, pricing families out of their own communities.
Our approach: Make it costly to leave homes empty and tilt smaller residential and farm ownership back toward Americans and local owners — so housing serves the people who actually live there.
Lower the cost of care
Americans pay the world's highest prices for healthcare and medicine, often without knowing what anything truly costs.
Our approach: Put medical decisions back with doctors and patients, publish honest prices, offer an affordable nonprofit public option run by the states, and refuse to let Americans be charged more for the same medicine than people in other countries pay.
Fair markets that serve people
When a handful of giant companies dominate a market — groceries, housing, banking — prices climb, choices shrink, and the small local businesses that anchor our communities can't compete.
Our approach: Keep markets genuinely competitive — rein in predatory pricing and runaway consolidation, and give small and local businesses room to thrive. Government's job isn't to pick winners; it's to keep the playing field fair for the people who buy and the neighbors who build.
Rebalance property taxes toward the value of land
Today's property taxes punish people for improving their homes and reward those who sit on idle, underused land.
Our approach: Shift property taxes toward the value of the land itself rather than the buildings on it — with thoughtful exceptions for farms and working agricultural land — so families aren't taxed for fixing up their homes, and our communities are encouraged to put land to good use. (This idea is a proposal of our movement, expanding on the book's housing ideas.)
Responsibility & Fairness Under Law
Common-sense legal reform
Runaway lawsuits and jackpot awards raise the price of nearly everything — insurance, goods, and services — and breed a culture of blame over responsibility.
Our approach: Tie awards to real, demonstrable harm, screen out cases a reasonable person would dismiss before anyone is dragged into court, and restore personal responsibility — while keeping the courthouse open to every legitimate grievance.
Justice that restores
Mass incarceration is expensive and too often returns people to society worse off, while fines let the wealthy buy their way out.
Our approach: Reserve prison for those who are truly dangerous; for non-violent offenses, use community service measured fairly and real reentry programs — job training, housing, and support — so people can rebuild and give back.
Honest Elections
Elect the leaders the people actually want
Our winner-take-all system forces "lesser evil" choices, punishes new voices as "spoilers," and too often elevates the loudest faction over the broadest agreement.
Our approach: Adopt Condorcet (head-to-head) voting — choose the candidate who could beat every other candidate one-on-one. It ends the wasted vote, welcomes independents, and rewards leaders who build consensus. We can start in our own cities and states, no constitutional amendment required.
Pull back the curtain on money in politics
Enormous sums flow through layers of groups designed to keep donors hidden from the voters they're trying to influence.
Our approach: Full, plain-language disclosure — if you want to buy the megaphone, you have to introduce yourself first — and trace donations through every layer so voters can see who is really behind the message.
Break the gatekeeping of committee chairs
A handful of committee chairs quietly decide what laws live or die, making them the easiest target for lobbyists.
Our approach: Rotate chairmanships so no single person can bottle up the people's business or trade long-term favors. Democratize the gears of government, not just the names on the ballot.
Undo corrupt deals and close the revolving door
Backroom bargains can bind communities for generations, and officials too often cash in right after the vote.
Our approach: Give the public the power to unwind deals tainted by self-dealing, and treat the delayed payoff — the board seat, the consulting gig — as exactly what it is. Honest businesses have nothing to fear from honest government.
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