Priority Briefing Books

The Big Tent community is coming together around seven economic challenges where common ground across the political spectrum has been confirmed in poll after poll. They are all crucial to this nation’s future – and substantial progress on even one could be transformative. Unfortunately, too little progress is being made on any of them right now. However, if enough citizens stand up, come together and speak out there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

These Briefing Books are the critical first step in changing our toxic political climate by defining and celebrating authentic common ground on major issues like education and job creation. Making this happen doesn’t require you to wade into policy minutiae – we just need you to help confirm the nature of the problems we face and the stakes involved. Our current political process is dominated by partisans and special interests selling “solutions” and attacking anything the other side is pitching. That’s not how we work at Big Tent Nation – we focus on identifying win-win opportunities and exploring pragmatic ways to pursue them. That’s why each Briefing Books is structured around six fundamental and straightforward questions. We’ve taken the first pass at addressing them, but need your feedback and insights to get it right. To get started pick a topic that interests you and tell us what you think. It just takes five minutes – and will make a real difference!

Priorities

Below you'll find a very brief description of each Priority area. To visit a Priority's Briefing Book, click on the associated tile at left.

Ace K-12 Education

Ensure primary and secondary education in the U.S. is top tier and prepares our children for successful and rewarding lives.

Fix Our Crumbling Infrastructure

Ensure the physical and technological infrastructure is in place for this nation to remain prosperous and to compete globally. This includes world class transportation and telecommunications capabilities.

Ensure US Workers Seize the Future

Support American workers in becoming efficient, effective and creative enough to both compete with other nations and enhance their standard of living.

Unleash American Ingenuity

Ensure all the pieces are in place for this nation to remain a leader in economic innovation. This is the very foundation of future job creation and requires making sure our educational system, regulatory frameworks, legal system and capital markets are all aligned to support rather than undermine creativity and entrepreneurship.

Govern for Prosperity

Ensure the U.S. governance process at the national level is focused on creating the environment necessary to sustain our economic strength and prosperity. This includes better performance from Congress and the White House, but extends far beyond that. Effective governance also requires bureaucratic efficiency, fiscal responsibility, legal and regulatory reforms and deeper engagement from both the private sector and individual citizens.

Make Global Trade a Win-Win

Foreign relations should not be pursued as if our success can only come at the expense of the nations with which we compete. The history of economic growth has been defined more by cooperation than zero-sum competition. But to realize these benefits going forward we need to do a better job seizing authentic win-win opportunities as well as making sure the playing field is leveled where things aren’t fair and above board.

Forge Common Ground on the Big Issues

There are many challenges critical to America’s economic future that citizens right, left and center agree need to be addressed. We’ve drafted Briefing Books for 7 of them to help get us all on the same page. We need you to check them out and make sure we’re on the right track!”

Embrace the Core Prosperity Driver – Teamwork

American citizens have diverse opinions and perspectives on a wide variety of economic and social issues. This is not a problem to be solved, but a fact to be celebrated and a strength to be leveraged. Yet there is also much that we can and do agree on. In the current political environment there’s just too much focus on what divides us and too little on where we stand together. This category is about making what we share more explicit and actionable, i.e., defining where it is that we can and will work together to ensure this nation’s future is as extraordinary as its past.