CENTER FOR COLLABORATIVE DEMOCRACY

Grand Bargain Project Framework Agreement

Last revised July 22, 2025

In our efforts to reunite America, the Grand Bargain Project has found that a practical plan to advance six objectives can unite far more of the country than any alternative. The six goals:

Greater economic opportunity & growth 
Schools that enable our kids to reach their potential 
Effective & affordable healthcare 
Spending efficiently to lower the national debt 
Dependable, clean & affordable energy 
A fairer, simpler tax code

To find reforms that Americans would far prefer over where they are now, we enlisted various former federal officials, think tank leaders, stakeholders and political activists to offer ideas that would benefit far more Americans, and at lower costs, than current policies in these six areas.

To refine the initial recommendations, we held workshops and focus groups among diverse citizens left, right, and center; coastal and heartland; young and old. By now, 90+ percent who see the evolving Framework Agreement say the total package would be better than the status quo — for them, their families, members of their organizations, and the country.

As we engage each congressional district across the country, we expect that initial 90 percent figure to decline but still remain above 75 percent. To win over the highest percentage possible, we will conduct online and community workshops in which we invite participants to rate each reform from:

a) Critical to me, my family and/or the country

b) Good idea

c) Not Sure

d) Dislike it

e) Hate it.

We will then ask: “Can you imagine any Congress and Administration enacting the parts you most like?” (From June 2024 through April 2025, nearly everyone has answered “no.”)

Then “To get the parts you see as critical, could you accept the parts you would otherwise oppose?” (Based on the pattern thus far, we expect 75 to 90 percent to say “yes.”)

The rest of the workshop will consist of the people saying yes negotiating with those saying no. The purpose: explore what changes would induce the no’s to get on board — without losing any yes’s.

We will incorporate that feedback into the evolving Framework, so that we can tell political leaders:

This represents the voice and will of the American people. If you want them to believe you’re acting in their interests, this is a better roadmap than any other.

The current proposals and rationales are:

THE PROBLEM: 77% of Americans believe the economy benefits powerful interests at their expense. People on the bottom half of the ladder have indeed been losing relative ground for decades.

THE OVERALL PROPOSAL: Provide low-paid workers with the skills to move up the economic ladder. Incentivize underemployed Americans to more fully participate in the workforce. Promote basic research and entrepreneurship. End obstacles to building new affordable housing.

The individual proposals to meet these needs are:

Provide community colleges, employers, unions and other programs with incentives to train workers for higher paying jobs, particularly in fast-growing industries
Reduce regulations that restrict construction of new affordable housing and infrastructure
Support rural communities and low-income urban areas with education, training, broadband access, and investment incentives to promote entrepreneurship and job creation.
Increase child-care subsidies to low-income families so parents can choose whether to work or stay home with young children
Expand the earned income tax credit and other earning subsidies to low-wage workers
Support workers’ rights to form, join and contribute to unions, and their rights not to.
Double federal spending on basic research to $200 billion a year, and improve the pipeline from publicly funded research to commercialization.

THE PROBLEM: Our educational attainment has long been among the worst in the developed world. Since Covid, academic achievement has fallen further.

THE OVERALL PROPOSAL: Provide teachers with the training and resources to significantly boost their students’ learning. Hold teachers and schools to account for producing results. Incentivize parents to support their children’s education.

The individual proposals are to:

Revise educational goals and standards to include both academic and life skills, such as teamwork and resilience.
Reform teacher training and professional development to boost teachers’ performance.
Increase teacher and school accountability for students’ performance.
Significantly increase pay for more effective teachers.
Develop programs to increase lower-income parents’ support for their children’s learning.
Expand family choice among public and charter schools.
Increase per-student support for under-resourced schools.
Provide adequate funding for school facilities and universal broadband.
Help state and local education agencies build up their evaluation and research capabilities.

THE PROBLEM: The US spends 18% of GDP on healthcare. Other developed countries spend 10%. Yet our health is the worst in the developed world.

We thereby squander at least $2.3 trillion each year - which boosts the national debt; and shortchanges long-term investments in education, skills training and economic opportunity.

THE OVERALL PROPOSAL: Stop paying doctors and other providers for the volume of tests and procedures they perform and, instead, pay for improving health outcomes at lower cost. Incentivize Americans to eat healthy foods.

The individual proposals are:

Expand community support systems for overall health, especially in distressed and rural areas, where private providers lack incentives to provide services.
Coordinate public education for healthier lifestyles and prevention, especially about obesity and nutrition, and increase funding for good nutrition through existing Federal programs.
Require each Medicare and Medicaid plan to - measurably - reduce costs and improve their patients’ health outcomes, and stop paying providers for each test and procedure they perform.
Expand support for public and private Accountable Care Organizations (e.g., Kaiser Permanente), which provide services to patients based on which yield better health outcomes at lower cost.
Expand free meals to low-income schools, including in the summer, to ensure that low-income children have access to nutritious foods.
Prevent any business from buying up a monopoly of health care providers in any region
Expand the use of federal price negotiations to manage the cost of pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs.

THE PROBLEM: The federal government subsidizes both fossil fuels and renewables, which wastes hundreds of billions of dollars annually. America thereby fritters away valuable resources, while allowing extreme weather to injure millions of families by harming their environment and weakening the economy.

THE OVERALL PROPOSAL: Encourage businesses, families, state governments and other countries to use energy efficiently by ending wasteful subsidies, mandates and regulations. Reduce extreme droughts, floods, hurricanes, blizzards and wildfires by taxing carbon emissions. Transmit energy in ways that minimize the costs to consumers.

The individual proposals are:

Repeal energy subsidies, regulations and legislation whose costs exceed the benefits.
Place a price on carbon emissions of at least $51 per ton, and cut income taxes accordingly on low-income and rural families.
To level the playing field with countries that do not put a price on carbon emissions, create a $51 per ton tariff on their products.
To reduce methane emissions, support reuse technologies and hold current and former owners of abandoned fossil fuel wells liable for capping those wells.
To send energy across the country efficiently, increase Federal agencies’ authority to plan and issue permits for transmission lines and other energy infrastructure across state lines.

THE PROBLEM: The US government spends $6 per senior for every $1 on a child under 18; favors consumption over investing in the future; and gives tax breaks to favored interests. This puts the federal debt on track to reach 130% of GDP by 2036, which would send interest rates soaring and hobble our economy. Yet both political parties have let the problem grow steadily worse for decades.

THE OVERALL PROPOSAL: To keep the debt at or below 100% of GDP, the government needs to boost revenue and/or cut spending by about $800 billion a year. To that end:

1) The reforms in the Healthcare section would boost productivity, yielding $200 billion in annual savings
2) Our proposal to end wasteful energy subsidies would save $200 billion yearly
3) The 5% VAT and market-based carbon pricing would yield $400 billion in revenue

And to pay for new investments in mobility, education and preventive care, our proposal to slash tax deductions for the well-off would provide $500 billion a year.

THE PROBLEM: Politicians from both parties routinely provide their strongest supporters with tax breaks, which boost the national debt and reward wasteful investments.

THE OVERALL PROPOSAL: To pay for the benefits in health, education and economic opportunity described in earlier sections, raise taxes on those who can most afford it.

Eliminate complexity that invites tax evasion. Reward businesses for investing in assets that will increase productivity and future income. Make entitlement spending more efficient.

The individual proposals are:

Sharply reduce deductions, exclusions and credits that mostly help high-income families
To encourage investment, allow businesses to deduct all expenses, including in capital assets, but excluding interest, in the year paid
To reduce evasion and promote exports, tax the value added by each producer in the supply chain — at the rate of 5% — and rebate this value-added tax (VAT) to low-income consumers
Make Social Security more cost-effective by raising benefits for low earners; reducing growth of benefits for high earners; and raising the retirement age, but only for those who can work
End taxation distinctions between corporate and non-corporate businesses.
Tax the gains on capital assets when they are inherited, ending the ability to avoid such taxes
Lower the size of estates exempt from tax (currently $27 million per couple)

The reforms that you rated positively have been around for years. Congress has enacted none of them.

The reason: Most Congresspeople blame the other party for our country’s ills and offer sound bites as remedies, instead of working together on genuine solutions.

To fix this situation, we the American people need to find a total package that 75% or more of us support.

In July, 77% of voters using our WebApp and rating these reforms saw the benefits as valuable enough to accept the drawbacks.

Our goal is to empower you — so that you and your allies can tell lawmakers from both parties:

These reforms will advance the aspirations that Americans all share.

Make this package a priority – or we'll elect someone who will.

So, which would you prefer: Telling members of Congress to work on this evolving Grand Bargain – or leave it up to them to decide your future?

If you see value in our work, please join with others who feel the same way by endorsing our project.

Join us today

ENDORSE THE GRAND BARGAIN

If you support the process of refining the Grand Bargain to reflect the will of the American people to spur the administration and Congress to embrace the result as the roadmap for our future.

Reforms