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Six Key Issues
The Grand Bargain Project is designed to unite Americans around a practical plan to advance six objectives that 90+ percent of citizens see as critical to their future.
Boost economic mobility and growth
Reform education so students reach their potential
Make healthcare more effective and less costly
Curb the national debt
Promote more efficient, cleaner and reliable energy
Make the tax code fairer and simpler
Why We Need to Tackle These Six Issues Together
Ninety-six (96) percent of Americans hunger for major progress in one or more of these areas.
Yet in recent decades, whichever party has controlled the Administration or Capitol Hill, government has failed to deliver lasting progress, fueling much of the anger and discontent of recent years.
One reason government fails is that each law is enacted to satisfy some voters, interest groups and politicians — at one point in time.
Current policies thereby contradict one another, have consumed trillions of dollars and yet, on balance, have let our chronic problems grow worse.
This chronic failure has provoked enough anger and fear to tear our society apart.
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Systemic Remedy
To reunite the American people around a shared vision of our future – before it’s too late -- we are proposing common-sense reforms in the above six areas that, when combined, would vastly improve life for all.
To produce this package quickly, we started by seeking ideas from diverse former federal officials and think tank leaders, major stakeholders, and political activists. We then distilled those ideas into a 2300-word Grand Bargain Framework.
Proof of Concept
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Diverse audiences are consistently preferring the 2,500-word Grand Bargain Framework over the country’s current direction, including:
97% of attendees at our Braver Angels workshop in June
93% of major stakeholder organizations interviewed to date
92% of attendees at Young Presidents Organization meeting in August
85% deficit hawks, climate activists, liberals and libertarians interviewed
A growing list of supporters and organizations have thereby concluded that the six-issue Grand Bargain could serve as a roadmap for the future that would unite far more of the country than anything else can.
Building an Exponentially Growing Movement
Bridge Alliance, various Rotary Clubs, and other civic groups are working with us to incorporate the Grand Bargain into their community-building programs.
Braver Angels and others will host workshops in which participants deliberate over the evolving plan.
To facilitate nationwide dialogue, our Grand-Bargain-in-a-Box toolkit is enabling citizens to deliberate over the contents of the evolving plan — and will enable us to distill the results into a format that we will present to political leaders as representing the will of the American people.
To mobilize the 100+ million “exhausted majority” who hunger for a better future — but lack the tools to affect change — we will air digital-social media messages such as: If we unite into a movement supporting the Grand Bargain, we could at last exert influence proportional to our numbers.
To members of the new congressional majority most alarmed about our democracy, our disunity, the national debt or economic discontent, we will make a case that, In a Senate and House with majorities of three or less, if four or more of you unite into a Grand Bargain Working Group, you could become the gatekeepers — steering the agenda in a far more constructive direction than now.
Expected Outcomes
A critical mass of Americans, influencers and stakeholders will increasingly unite around the grand bargain, creating an exponentially growing movement to tackle our nation’s core challenges.
Braver Angels and others will host workshops in which participants deliberate over the evolving plan.
A Grand Bargain Working Group would then have strong incentives to make a case to fellow lawmakers and congressional leaders that: If we want to broaden our base of support, and show the public we can govern, we need to adopt this increasingly popular agreement as our roadmap for America’s future.
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An ambitious plan. But no one has shown us any other credible way to reunite America. Nor do we see any other way to induce policymakers to agree on how to boost economic mobility, curb the debt, minimize destructive weather, or attain the other key objectives.
Our country thereby needs the grand bargain if the American people and our democracy are to thrive.
Grand Bargain Articles
Join us in reuniting our country.
The Grand Bargain Project has gathered concrete evidence that common-sense reforms in all six of the above areas, if combined, would yield vast benefits to society — enough so that nearly every American would strongly prefer the total package over the country’s current direction.