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My Political Policy Unorganized

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Nov 4th, 2016
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  1.  
  2. Presidential Policies
  3. Privatize Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid but through a slow transition/Keep for Current Payers
  4. Label Substance Abuse as a Mental Illness not a Crime
  5. End Federal Reserve and End Fractional
  6. Reserve Banking
  7. Repeal NFA, GCA and NG Ban
  8. SPENDING:
  9. Cuts $1 trillion in spending during the rst year
of Ron Paul’s presidency, eliminating five cabinet departments (Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior, and Education), abolishing the Transportation Security Administration and returning responsibility for security to private property owners, abolishing corporate subsidies, stopping foreign aid, ending foreign wars, and returning most other spending to 2006 levels.
  10. ENTITLEMENTS:
  11. Honors our promise to our seniors and veterans, while allowing young workers to opt out. Block-grants Medicaid and other welfare programs to allow States the exibility and ingenuity they need to solve their own unique problems without harming those currently relying on the programs.
  12. CUTTING GOVERNMENT WASTE:
  13. Makes a 10% reduction in the federal workforce, slashes Congressional pay and perks, and curbs excessive federal travel. To stand with the American People, President Paul will take a salary of $39,336, approximately equal to the median personal income of the American worker.
  14. Taxes
  15. Lower Corporate Tax rate to 15% making America competitive in the global market. Allows American companies to repatriate capital without additional taxation, spurring trillions in new investment. Extends all Bush tax cuts. Abolishes the Death Tax. Ends taxes on personal savings, allowing families to build a nest egg.
  16. REGULATION:
  17. Repeals ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, and Sarbanes- Oxley. Mandates REINS-style requirements for thorough Congressional review and authorization before implementing any new regulations issued by bureaucrats. President Paul will also cancel all onerous regulations previously issued by Executive Order.
  18. MONETARY POLICY:
  19. Conducts a full audit of the Federal Reserve and implements competing currency legislation to strengthen the dollar and stabilize in ation.
  20.  
  21.  
  22. The Trump Tax Plan Achieves These Goals
  23.  
  24. 1. If you are single and earn less than $25,000, or married and jointly earn less than $50,000, you will not owe any income tax. That removes nearly 75 million households – over 50% – from the income tax rolls. They get a new one page form to send the IRS saying, “I win,” those who would otherwise owe income taxes will save an average of nearly $1,000 each.
  25. 2. All other Americans will get a simpler tax code with four brackets – 0%, 10%, 20% and 25% – instead of the current seven. This new tax code eliminates the marriage penalty and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) while providing the lowest tax rate since before World War II.
  26. 3. No business of any size, from a Fortune 500 to a mom and pop shop to a freelancer living job to job, will pay more than 15% of their business income in taxes. This lower rate makes corporate inversions unnecessary by making America’s tax rate one of the best in the world.
  27. 4. No family will have to pay the death tax. You earned and saved that money for your family, not the government. You paid taxes on it when you earned it.
  28.  
  29. The Trump Tax Plan Is Revenue Neutral
  30.  
  31. The Trump tax cuts are fully paid for by:
  32.  
  33. 1. Reducing or eliminating most deductions and loopholes available to the very rich.
  34. 2. A one-time deemed repatriation of corporate cash held overseas at a significantly discounted 10% tax rate, followed by an end to the deferral of taxes on corporate income earned abroad.
  35. 3. Reducing or eliminating corporate loopholes that cater to special interests, as well as deductions made unnecessary or redundant by the new lower tax rate on corporations and business income. We will also phase in a reasonable cap on the deductibility of business interest expenses.
  36.  
  37. 1. Completely repeal Obamacare. Our elected representatives must eliminate the individual mandate. No person should be required to buy insurance unless he or she wants to.
  38. 2. Modify existing law that inhibits the sale of health insurance across state lines. As long as the plan purchased complies with state requirements, any vendor ought to be able to offer insurance in any state. By allowing full competition in this market, insurance costs will go down and consumer satisfaction will go up.
  39. 3. Allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium payments from their tax returns under the current tax system. Businesses are allowed to take these deductions so why wouldn’t Congress allow individuals the same exemptions? As we allow the free market to provide insurance coverage opportunities to companies and individuals, we must also make sure that no one slips through the cracks simply because they cannot afford insurance. We must review basic options for Medicaid and work with states to ensure that those who want healthcare coverage can have it.
  40. 4. Allow individuals to use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Contributions into HSAs should be tax-free and should be allowed to accumulate. These accounts would become part of the estate of the individual and could be passed on to heirs without fear of any death penalty. These plans should be particularly attractive to young people who are healthy and can afford high-deductible insurance plans. These funds can be used by any member of a family without penalty. The flexibility and security provided by HSAs will be of great benefit to all who participate.
  41. 5. Require price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors and healthcare organizations like clinics and hospitals. Individuals should be able to shop to find the best prices for procedures, exams or any other medical-related procedure.
  42. 6. Block-grant Medicaid to the states. Nearly every state already offers benefits beyond what is required in the current Medicaid structure. The state governments know their people best and can manage the administration of Medicaid far better without federal overhead. States will have the incentives to seek out and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse to preserve our precious resources.
  43. 7. Remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper products. Congress will need the courage to step away from the special interests and do what is right for America. Though the pharmaceutical industry is in the private sector, drug companies provide a public service. Allowing consumers access to imported, safe and dependable drugs from overseas will bring more options to consumers
  44.  
  45. 1. Bring China to the bargaining table by immediately declaring it a currency manipulator.
  46. 2. Protect American ingenuity and investment by forcing China to uphold intellectual property laws and stop their unfair and unlawful practice of forcing U.S. companies to share proprietary technology with Chinese competitors as a condition of entry to China’s market.
  47. 3. Reclaim millions of American jobs and reviving American manufacturing by putting an end to China’s illegal export subsidies and lax labor and environmental standards
  48.  
  49. 4. Strengthen our negotiating position by lowering our corporate tax rate to keep American companies and jobs here at home, attacking our debt and deficit so China cannot use financial blackmail against us, and bolstering the U.S. military presence in the East and South China Seas to discourage Chinese adventurism.
  50. 1. Lower the corporate tax rate to 15% to unleash American ingenuity here at home and make us more globally competitive. This tax cut puts our rate 10 percentage points below China and 20 points below our current burdensome rate that pushes companies and jobs offshore.
  51.  
  52. 2. Attack our debt and deficit by vigorously eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in the Federal government, ending redundant government programs, and growing the economy to increase tax revenues. Closing the deficit and reducing our debt will mean China cannot blackmail us with our own Treasury bonds.
  53. 3. Strengthen the U.S. military and deploying it appropriately in the East and South China Seas. These actions will discourage Chinese adventurism that imperils American interests in Asia and shows our strength as we begin renegotiating our trading relationship with China. A strong military presence will be a clear signal to China and other nations in Asia and around the world that America is back in the global leadership business
  54.  
  55. 1. Increase funding for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury and suicide prevention services to address our veterans’ invisible wounds. Service members are five times more likely to develop depression than civilians. They are almost fifteen times more likely to develop PTSD than civilians. This funding will help provide more and better counseling and care. More funding will also support research on best practices and state of the art treatments to keep our veterans alive, healthy and whole. With these steps, the Trump plan will help the veteran community put the unnecessary stigma surrounding mental health behind them and instead encourage acceptance and treatment in our greater society. 

  56. 2. Increase funding for job training and placement services (including incentives for companies hiring veterans), educational support and business loans. All Americans agree that we must do everything we can to help put our service men and women on a path to success as they leave active duty by collaborating with the many successful non-profit organizations that are already helping. Service members have learned valuable skills in the military but many need help understanding how to apply those skills in civilian life. Others know how to apply those skills but need help connecting with good jobs to support their families. Still others have an entrepreneurial spirit and are ready to start creating jobs and growing the economy. The Trump plan will strengthen existing programs or replace them with more effective ones to address these needs and to get our veterans working. 

  57. 3. Transform the VA to meet the needs of 21st century service members. Today’s veterans have very different needs than those of the generations that came before them. The VA must adapt to meet the needs of this generation of younger, more diverse veterans. The Trump plan will expand VA services for female veterans and ensure the VA is providing the right support for this new generation of veterans. 

  58. 4. Better support our women veterans. The fact that many VA hospitals don’t permanently staff OBGYN doctors shows an utter lack of respect for the growing number female veterans. Under the Trump plan, every VA hospital in the country will be fully equipped with OBGYN and other women’s health services. In addition, women veterans can always choose a different OBGYN in their community using their veteran’s ID card. 

  59. 5. Fire the corrupt and incompetent VA executives that let our veterans down. Under a Trump Administration, there will be no job security for VA executives that enabled or overlooked corruption and incompetence. They’re fired. New leadership will focus the VA staff on delivering timely, top quality care and other services to our nation’s veterans. Under a Trump Administration, exposing and addressing the VA’s inefficiencies and shortcomings will be rewarded, not punished. 

  60. 6. End waste, fraud and abuse at the VA. The Trump plan will ensure the VA is spending its dollars wisely to provide the greatest impact for veterans and hold administrators accountable for irresponsible spending and abuse. The days of $6.3 million for statues and fountains at VA facilities and $300,000 for a manager to move 140 miles are over. The Trump plan will clean up the VA’s finances so the current VA budget provides more and better care than it does now. 

  61. 7. Modernize the VA. A VA with 20th century technology cannot serve 21st century service members and their needs. The VA has been promising to modernize for years without real results. The Trump plan will make it happen by accelerating and expanding investments in state of the art technology to deliver best-in-class care quickly and effectively. All veterans should be able to conveniently schedule appointments, communicate with their doctors, and view accurate wait times with the push of a button. 

  62. 8. Empower the caregivers to ensure our veterans receive quality care quickly. Caregivers should be able to easily streamline treatment plans across departments and utilize telehealth tools to better serve their patients. As we have seen from the private sector, the potential for new, innovative technology is endless. Abandoning the wasteful and archaic mindset of the public sector will give way to tremendously effective veteran healthcare. 

  63. 9. Hire more veterans to care for veterans. The more veterans we have working at the VA, the better the VA will be. They understand the unique challenges facing their community. To increase the number of veterans hired by the VA, this plan will add an additional 5 points to the qualifying scores of veterans applying for VA jobs. 

  64. 10. Embed satellite VA clinics in rural and other underserved areas. The Trump Administration will embed satellite VA clinics within hospitals and other care facilities in rural and other underserved areas. This step will ensure veterans have easy access to care and local hospitals and care facilities can handle the influx of patients without backlogs while tapping the specialized knowledge of VA health specialists. 

  65. Triple the number of ICE officers. As the President of the ICE Officers’ Council explained in Congressional testimony: “Only approximately 5,000 officers and agents within ICE perform the lion’s share of ICE’s immigration mission...Compare that to the Los Angeles Police Department at approximately 10,000 officers. Approximately 5,000 officers in ICE cover 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam, and are attempting to enforce immigration law against 11 million illegal aliens already in the interior of the United States. Since 9-11, the U.S. Border Patrol has tripled in size, while ICE’s immigration enforcement arm, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), has remained at relatively the same size.” This will be funded by accepting the recommendation of the Inspector General for Tax Administration and eliminating tax credit payments to illegal immigrants.
  66. · Nationwide e-verify. This simple measure will protect jobs for unemployed Americans.
  67. · Mandatory return of all criminal aliens. The Obama Administration has released 76,000 aliens from its custody with criminal convictions since 2013 alone. All criminal aliens must be returned to their home countries, a process which can be aided by canceling any visas to foreign countries which will not accept their own criminals, and making it a separate and additional crime to commit an offense while here illegally.
  68. · Detention—not catch-and-release. Illegal aliens apprehended crossing the border must be detained until they are sent home, no more catch-and-release.
  69. · Defund sanctuary cities. Cut-off federal grants to any city which refuses to cooperate with federal law enforcement.
  70. · Enhanced penalties for overstaying a visa. Millions of people come to the United States on temporary visas but refuse to leave, without consequence. This is a threat to national security. Individuals who refuse to leave at the time their visa expires should be subject to criminal penalties; this will also help give local jurisdictions the power to hold visa overstays until federal authorities
  71.  
  72. · Cooperate with local gang task forces. ICE officers should accompany local police departments conducting raids of violent street gangs like MS-13 and the 18th street gang, which have terrorized the country. All illegal aliens in gangs should be apprehended and deported. Again, quoting Chris Crane: “ICE Officers and Agents are forced to apply the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Directive, not to children in schools, but to adult inmates in jails. If an illegal-alien inmate simply claims eligibility, ICE is forced to release the alien back into the community. This includes serious criminals who have committed felonies, who have assaulted officers, and who prey on children...ICE officers should be required to place detainers on every illegal alien they encounter in jails and prisons, since these aliens not only violated immigration laws, but then went on to engage in activities that led to their arrest by police; ICE officers should be required to issue Notices to Appear to all illegal aliens with criminal convictions, DUI convictions, or a gang affiliation; ICE should be working with any state or local drug or gang task force that asks for such assistance.”
  73. · End birthright citizenship. This remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration. By a 2:1 margin, voters say it’s the wrong policy, including Harry Reid who said “no sane country” would give automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.
  74. Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs. We graduate two times more Americans with STEM degrees each year than find STEM jobs, yet as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program. More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program's lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percent for its bottom two. Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry- level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas. This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities.
  75. · Requirement to hire American workers first. Too many visas, like the H- 1B, have no such requirement. In the year 2015, with 92 million Americans outside the workforce and incomes collapsing, we need companies to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed. Petitions for workers should be mailed to the unemployment office, not USCIS.
  76. · End welfare State. Applicants for entry to the United States should be required to certify that they can pay for their own housing, healthcare and other needs before coming to the U.S.
  77. Jobs program for inner city youth. The J-1 visa jobs program for foreign youth will be terminated and replaced with a resume bank for inner city youth provided to all corporate subscribers to the J-1 visa program.
  78. · Refugee program for American children. Increase standards for the admission of refugees and asylum-seekers to crack down on abuses. Use the monies saved on expensive refugee programs to help place American children without parents in safer homes and communities, and to improve community safety in high crime neighborhoods in the United States.
  79. · Immigration moderation. Before any new green cards are issued to foreign workers abroad, there will be a pause where employers will have to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed immigrant and native workers. This will help reverse women's plummeting workplace participation rate, grow wages, and allow record immigration levels to subside to more moderate historical averages.
  80.  
  81. Training and Federalized Concealed Carry Handgun mandatory at Age 18
  82. Require 8 Year Military Service in your States National Guard for all Adult Males. Two Weekends a Month, 4 Weeks a Year
  83. Aspiring Farmers get their equipment and farm funded by government for free and are insured basic income
  84. Institute the United States of America Banking System. America’s Government Bank.
  85. * We don’t need a bank to hold our money, we’ll trust the government to hold it.
  86. Abolish the Federal Reserve Banking System and default on the 16 trillion debt.
  87. Abolish the Electoral College System
  88. Federalized conceal carry.  An armed society is a polite society.
  89. .Institute a federal internal affairs.  Putting an end to Police brutality and enforce body cameras on every Patrol Police Officer and let police officers elect the Police Chief not the Mayor
  90. Abolish the Drug Enforcement Agency
  91. Remove Federal Gas Tax
  92. Legalize and Tax Marijuana, Decriminalize all illegal drugs into fines instead of Court and Prison
  93. People with Mental Illnesses, No Fly Zone or on a Watch List are heavily monitored through Government Spying and you are assigned a Parole Officer
  94. National ID for every person starting at age 18, National ID required for Voting.
  95. Presidential Candidates have their campaigns tax funded, no outside influences except open donations.
  96. End Lobbying Groups.
  97. Introduce High Speed Rail connecting to every Metro City in USA
  98. Build State-Underground Bunkers for the populace to withstand any emergency
  99. End Land Reserves and Special Benefits for Native Americans
  100. Introduce State County(s) Bonuses during elections. Example: Chicago, Illinois being the most voters in the state and they all voted majority democrat. More counties in Illinois voted majority Republican. Those counties have bonuses that raise the amount of votes earned to either Dem or Republican.
  101. Introduce Term Limits for Congress, Senate and Representatives. Mandatory equal number of seats for all political parties
  102. Merge the DEA and ATF and other useless failure agencies into the FBI
  103. Release sanctions, embargoes and tarrifs on every country, stop Foreign Aid to other countries and relieve our military bases from every country until they develop their own military.
  104. 1. Abolish the welfare state. The incentive to take a job at whatever wage available must prevail.
  105. 2. Establish a generous visitor work program. Once we solve the economic crisis by introducing sound money, demand for domestic and immigrant labor will rise.
  106. 3. Enforce the laws on the books with more border guards.Allow states and landowners to enforce the law and provide security assistance.
  107. 4. Abolish birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. [Current U.S. citizens will not be affected. Instead, babies born to illegals after a future cutoff date will no longer gain automatic U.S. citizenship. They will still have citizenship in their parents’ home countries.]
  108. 5. End all federal mandates on the states to provide free education and medical care for illegal immigrants.
  109.  
  110. David Duke Policies
  111.  
  112. End the Fed-
  113. In 2008 the greatest criminal ponzi scheme in history came crashing down. While many of the leading banks who profited from the criminal scheme got away scott free, hundreds of millions of people and their families endured financial suffering from it in America and around the world.Millions of pension funds were annihilated, millions of homes lost.
  114. The mortgage crisis of 2008 which was created the criminal banks who rule over our economy – the Federal Reserve Bank – that created the crisis by its own policies then passed even more wealth to those already ungodly wealthy.
  115. Then when the doled out the staggering sum of 23.7 Trillion Dollars to their fellow international bankers.
  116. That’s according to the FED’s own internal auditor. and fully reported in the financial press such as Bloomberg.
  117. These unelected czars must no longer be allowed to control the American currency.
  118. It is time to give control of the American economy and currency to the American people, not the unelected oligarchs rule not only over the FED but with their unholy wealth over American politics
  119.  
  120. America First Foreign Policy-
  121. We must put America First!
  122. America has pursued a disastrous, in many ways treasonous foreign policy that has put the interests of foreign nations and globalists objectives over the most basic interests of the American people.
  123. A perfect example is the fact that the American Government was the original sponsor of al Qaeda and bin Laden which ultimately committed unspeakable terror upon America.
  124. Another is that the political leaders of this country have supported al Nusra which is an al Qaeda radical jihadist terror organization in Syria, and they sent your money to support the horrific rise of ISIS.
  125. The political sell-outs  tried to destroy the secular government in Syria which has protected the millions of Christians in that nation.
  126. They have led us into insane wars that have cost the American people trillions of our tax dollars and led to the injury and harm of hundreds of thousands of brave American warriors in wars that have not only betrayed them but directly led to the terror that we now face today.
  127. Today the globalists who control both the bosses of the media, banks and the Democratic and Republican Party are pursuing a reckless against Russia, which is the only Western Nation on Earth that defines itself openly Christian nation.
  128. We must have an America first policy, and have it now.
  129.  
  130. Term Limits/Campaign Reform-
  131. We need term limits and we need to limit the power of financial oligarchs in American politics.
  132. In all my campaigns I have never taken a penny of special interest PAC money nor will I in this race for Senate!
  133. We need total campaign reform..
  134. 1. We must choose our leaders not by how much money the special interests and the billionaire oligarchs can bribe them — but by their policies and abilities.
  135. 2. We must eliminate all special interest and PAC money in elections.
  136. 3. We must give every duly qualified candidate the opportunity to reach the public on a fair and equal basis so people select their leaders based on their principles not on million dollar psychological ad campaigns.
  137. 4. All qualified Candidates should get franking privileges to send their program to the voters of their districts and the FCC should require broadcast media to offer a portion of their broadcasting time for candidates to present their message so that people can choose their leaders based on principle not media psycho babble.
  138.  
  139. Discrimination-
  140. Although the media and political establishment constantly proclaims it condemns racism and racism discrimination and oppression, it supports massive racial discrimination. with the positive sounding term of affirmative action.
  141. White people face a massive institutionalized racial discrimination in hiring,and promotions on the local, state and federal level. Every one of the 500 largest corporations in America  have clear policies that discriminate against better qualified white people in favor of other races.
  142. White students with better academic records and far better qualifications and entrance exams face discrimination across the board in universities and all kinds of educational institutions
  143. They also face discrimination in both public and private scholarship funds.
  144. European Americans of European Christian heritage are approximately 70 percent of the highest performing students in America and yet are only 20 percent of the most elite universities in America which make up the Ivy League.
  145. Your future should be based on Merit
  146. Equal Rights for All — Special Privilege for none
  147.  
  148. Education-
  149. We must be honest about education in America. Public education is in crisis.
  150. American education was once at the pinnacle of academic achievement in the Western World.
  151. Now we are in last place in academics and our secondary education levels have fallen to closer to Third World levels than European and East Asian standards.
  152. This is despite the fact that we spend much more money on education than any other nation on earth.
  153. And the problem is not only that academic standards that have plummeted. Physical violence and criminality has spiraled out of control in many of our schools as it has in our major cities.
  154. Schools have actually become unsafe places for millions of children and young adults. Even teachers are increasingly victims of violence.
  155. In many ways some of the most powerful lessons our children are learning in schools are obscenity, sexual degeneracy and violence, drug and alcohol abuse and other behaviors that result in life outcomes that can be ultimately more destructive rather than constructive.
  156. Millions of hard-working middle class Americans pay financially crushing taxes to finance public education, but cannot dare to send their children to the schools their own taxes pay for.
  157. I believe in a 50 percent tax credit for parents who send their child to private or church school.
  158. The program is simple and a win win for both parents and for schools. Every child that goes to private education is one less student in public schools saving them the cost of educating the student and leaving more money for the costs of education.
  159. At the same time parents will find their costs of private or church school education cut in half.
  160. This is a practical program that is good for education, teachers, students and gives parents financial relief and greater options for their children.
  161.  
  162. End the IRS/Flat Tax-
  163. In the 1990 Senate Race, I  promoted a flat tax of around 10 percent that could be based on consumption and thus eliminate the income tax entirely — and the IRS.
  164. In this political season a number of Republican candidates have taken up my call of 25 years ago.
  165. It’s time for Republicans to do what they say rather than sell out to the special interests.
  166.  
  167. Secure Our Borders and Enforce Existing Immigration Laws.
  168. The United States has a long history of welcoming people from all over the world. Over time that tradition has yielded unprecedented opportunity to those who have chosen to make this their home. It’s also given us an incredibly interesting and textured culture. Like many other Americans, I want to see that history and tradition continue well into the future.
  169. But welcoming people into our country and turning a blind eye to serious risks posed to the United States and its citizens are two different things. When the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other U.S. intelligence organizations have more information on citizens like you and me than about people coming into our country from elsewhere, it’s clear we have a significant problem.
  170. Paul Ryan has irresponsibly refused to recognize what are now glaring threats resulting from an utter failure to properly vet massive numbers of people coming into our country. In fact, Ryan is actually exacerbating those risks by funding many of President Obama’s most dangerous immigration policies—those that let the greatest number of individuals in with the least screening.
  171. Should we really be letting people in when we can’t effectively determine who poses a threat to us and who doesn’t? Should we really be exposing American citizens to this kind of unnecessary risk?
  172. I say no.
  173. Show less
  174. End the Abuse of Visa Programs.
  175. Not only does bad immigration policy pose security risks; it exposes us to multiple economic threats, including the loss of American jobs and employment. With the granting of unlimited student visas and huge numbers of H1B and H2B visas, our own citizens are being squeezed out of education opportunities and jobs across the entire employment spectrum, from high- to low-skilled labor.
  176.  
  177. How is it acceptable that American citizens are put in the position of having to train cheaper, foreign replacements before being let go by American companies? Shouldn’t our own citizens be getting a fair shake on jobs and a future?
  178. Yet, Paul Ryan has fully supported vast expansion of visa programs that give our own citizens—and ultimately our economy—short shrift. This abuse must end. In addition, proper economic measures must be taken to make hiring of American workers the trend once again.
  179. Show less
  180. ON BUDGETS AND SPENDING
  181. Why are we continuing to spend ourselves into oblivion?
  182. Stop the Irresponsible Spending.
  183. Are any of us comfortable with the amount of money being spent in Washington? I’m deeply troubled by our national debt and deficit. Both represent a threat to our ability to thrive—to remain strong and independent as a nation.
  184. Yet, Paul Ryan seems unconcerned.
  185. Just after becoming the Speaker of the U.S. House, Ryan pushed through Congress yet another gargantuan Omnibus package that includes more federal spending than any previous Speaker of the House has ever dared to pass. He shepherded this $2 TRILLION spending fest through Congress without any fight at all.
  186. It’s not just the amount of spending that’s troubling. It’s the damaging and unprincipled programs that Paul Ryan seems perfectly comfortable spending the money on. The Omnibus bill gave President Obama everything he wanted, including funding for sanctuary cities, visa expansion, Obamacare, and a wheelbarrow full of other damaging and unprincipled programs.
  187. Show less
  188. Make Budgets about Accountability Again.
  189. Budgets should mean accountability. But in Washington today, they’re little more than a trigger for appropriations and spending.
  190.  
  191. Paul Ryan’s proposed “budget” was no better than his Omnibus spending bill. He was unwilling, for example, even to hold the line on discretionary spending. Discretionary spending, though a small percentage of our federal budget, should have been an easy place to begin making small but significant cuts. Ryan has the power of the purse in his grasp. But instead of using it to check uncontrolled spending, he’s using it to spend even more money that we no longer have.
  192. Where’s the accountability to you and me, the people that foot the bill?
  193. It’s well past time to restore that accountability and to put spending back on the rails of fiscal sanity.
  194. Show less
  195. ON THE U.S. ECONOMY
  196. Who’s best equipped to make decisions about what our economy looks like—you and me, or crony politicians, serving private interests? Shouldn’t investors and business be responsible for their own choices? Isn’t it wrong to use public policy to expose the American people to risks they did not chose?
  197. Stop Pretending That Captured Markets Are ‘Free’ Markets.
  198. One of the greatest travesties ever to happen in this country is the theft and co-option of the terms “free trade” and “free market.”
  199.  
  200. Free trade—real free trade—is nothing more than a simple, exchange of goods and services. If you have a product or service to sell, and I think it’s worth some of my hard-earned money, we make a trade. You and I, as the people making that exchange, decide on mutually agreeable terms.
  201. A free market is simply one comprised of many such voluntary, cooperative agreements. It’s you and me getting to make our own choices about what we want and how we’re going to achieve it.
  202. What Washington, D.C., calls “free trade” and “free markets” today is mostly just plain cronyism. Government force is leveraged to create managed and private markets. These controlled markets aren’t constructed to benefit average citizens. Instead, they benefit big banks, corporate monopolies, and public-private partners who have their own agendas.
  203. Guess who else benefits from managed and private markets…
  204. Paul Ryan has personally enriched his campaign coffers by supporting captured markets. And he’s done so at great expense to you and me—to our freedoms, our pocketbooks, and our jobs.
  205. I refuse to call trade and markets “free” when they are clearly centrally planned—captured and controlled.
  206. It’s time to stop the abuse of language coming from the Washington spin machine. And it’s time to derail Paul Ryan’s gravy train.
  207. Show less
  208. Reject Corrupt International Trade Agreements.
  209. Massive international “trade” deals are a hallmark of the centrally planned markets described above. These so-called deals benefit big banks, big law firms, and other special interests, while hurting the rest of us. We all saw the manufacturing and jobs exodus that NAFTA brought us in the 1990s. We’ve seen others since. These agreements are never structured favorably for American manufacturing, industry, or jobs. They foster monopolies, cater to cheap labor, and crush small businesses.
  210.  
  211. Why, then, has Paul Ryan become a prominent spokesmen for the biggest and most corrupt international trade agreement yet—fast-track Trade Promotion Authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPA/TPP)?
  212. Drafted in secret, TPA/TPP is more than 5,000 pages long.
  213. For weeks, our own legislators in Washington were only permitted to review this monster of a bill within the confines of a locked room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center. Moreover, our representatives were:
  214. * Ÿ  PROHIBITED from viewing more than one section of this proposal at a time;
  215. * Ÿ  FORBIDDEN to make any notes or take photos to carry out of the room; and
  216. * Ÿ  BARRED from discussing the bill’s content with anyone, including staffers and constituents.
  217. Does it sound to you like a good “deal” that’s unfolding for the people of Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District or the people of the United States?
  218. You and I know—because we’ve seen it before—that when Washington tells us it has to pass a bill before we can know what’s in it, we’re about to get the pointy, short end of a very ugly stick.
  219. TPA/TPP isn’t just another bad trade deal. It is NAFTA and CAFTA on steroids. It will decimate manufacturing and industry in Wisconsin’s 1st District and across the U.S. It won’t just lead to a massive flight of manufacturing and jobs from our shores. It will also result in massive numbers of workers being imported here from across our borders and overseas. In many cases, shamefully, those imported workers will be housed in closed compounds where they will be little more than slave labor or indentured servants on our own shores.
  220. These are not values I can, in good conscience embrace.
  221. Didn’t we fight a war to eliminate slavery in the United States?
  222. Paul Ryan’s betrayal on TPA/TPP was the personal tipping point for me in deciding to mount this campaign. I’m a manufacturing guy. Have been my whole life. My love of manufacturing and industry is a big part of why I’ve chosen to live and work in Wisconsin’s 1st district. I could not—I cannot—sit by and watch Paul Ryan sell us out on the very things that should allow this district and this country to thrive and prosper.
  223. TPA/TPP must be stopped. And that means Paul Ryan must be stopped.
  224. Show less
  225. End bailouts, Insist on Responsibility, and Prevent Moral Hazard
  226. Paul Ryan and other Washington elites are content to put American taxpayers on the hook again and again and again, while they bail out their friends in the Big Donor class. What’s more, they want to redefine language in a way that they mistakenly believe will hoodwink the rest of us.
  227. In particular, Paul Ryan wants to define bailout in very narrow terms. He would have us believe that if Washington doesn’t provide federal funds directly to irresponsible investors, no bailout has occurred.
  228. Hogwash.
  229. Financial rescue is only a byproduct of what bailouts really do:
  230. 1. Undermine or eradicate PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
  231. 2. Encourage MORAL HAZARD
  232. What’s moral hazard…?
  233. It’s when an individual or a corporate investor makes a risky bet without the ability to cover potential losses.
  234. Elected lawmakers increase moral hazard when they implement or use public policy in a way that invites or encourages such irresponsible behavior.
  235. Bailout is the name of the game in Washington today, and Paul Ryan has a prominent history of using his influence to create, pass, and leverage unethical policies that have ensured a vicious cycle of bad behavior. Bailouts may come in the form of direct cash payments. They may occur through loopholes, waivers, special bankruptcy laws, or via other means. Regardless of form, you and I know that a bailout will always spell more trouble for you and me.
  236. Aside from the corrupt investors, in fact, the only people who ever benefit from a bailout are crony politicians. Working folks and families get what…? A crushing pile of other people’s messes.
  237. This cycle repeats every day in our nation’s Capitol.
  238. Every. Single. Day.
  239. It’s happening with the Puerto Rico bailout right now, for instance. Paul Ryan’s ‘plan’ would help out a few Big Donors with major investments in the island territory. But it would ultimately make it much harder for Puerto Rico to learn from its mistakes, recover quickly, and escape dependence. And—big surprise—it would open the door to a massive wave of further bailouts in several U.S. states that currently stand on the brink of financial collapse, including Illinois, our neighbor to the south. It’s not a wise path to take.
  240. Personal responsibility should not be negotiable. American taxpayers should not be exposed to risks that they did not themselves take. So, the only logical path is to stand against bailouts in whatever form they take.
  241. Show less
  242. ON CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
  243. What is a right?  What is a natural right? Is it government’s job to protect us? What exactly should government be doing? Why does government need to stay as limited as possible to keep us free? Who gets to determine the value of your life—you or government?
  244. Safeguard Natural Rights
  245. The word ‘right’ gets tossed around a lot these days. So, we better know what we mean when we use it.
  246.  
  247. Definitions
  248. A right is something that belongs to you without having to seek permission. It can be moral or legal.
  249. The first ten amendments to the Constitution—our Bill of Rights—are all rooted in natural rights. What’s a natural right…? That’s a birthright that literally can’t be separated from you. It’s a condition of your humanity.
  250. Natural rights relate to three key things: life, liberty, and property. In fact, you could say that life and liberty are your two most important personal possessions—or property. If you don’t own your life, if you can’t exercise the freedoms you were born with, then guess what? You’re no longer your own property. You’re someone else’s—a slave.
  251. A natural right does not empower you to take from someone else—their labor, money they’veearned, property they own, or, most importantly, their life and liberty. Instead, it gives you the freedom to safeguard your own life, freedom, and property, and to enhance them via honest opportunities that you identify or create.
  252. Rights versus Privileges
  253. If you have to seek permission to do something, it’s not a right. Or, at least, someone—whether you, another person, or the government—is not treating it like one. Having to seek permission implies a privilege. Privileges can be granted. But privileges can also be removed.
  254. And there’s the problem.
  255.  
  256.  
  257. Restore and Strengthen the 2nd Amendment
  258. Who gets to determine the value of your life?
  259. It’s the most important question that you can ask.
  260. All Individuals Are Created Equal
  261. The Founders asserted that we were all created equal by God in our individual right to be free.
  262. If we agree with them, then, as law-abiding citizens, we shouldn’t have to ask permission from government to defend the things that makeus free individuals—our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and any other property we might honestly acquire.
  263. So, in order to access valuable tools that enable you to protect and defend your rights, you shouldn’t need anything more than the 2nd Amendment, regardless of what state you live in. In fact, the 2nd Amendment is crystal clear: “[T]he right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
  264. That doesn’t mean “do not infringe in a few states.” That means do not infringe anywhere within the boundaries of the United States.
  265. Government Continually Infringes Anyway
  266. For decades, the Feds have eroded our 2nd Amendment rights. The National Firearms Act of 1934, the Gun Control Act of 1968, the government’s current regulatory war on lead—these are just three of many prominent avenues by which government has worked to restrict your access to tools that allow you to protect the most important things you have—again, your life, your liberty, and your property.
  267. Elitists in Washington continually muddy the issue. They talk about whether it’s safe to allow citizens to own firearms, which citizens should or should not have firearms, and where firearms should and shouldn’t be allowed.
  268. But Remember that Central Question…
  269. Who gets to determine the value of your life?
  270. You and God…? Or government?
  271. Are there other questions worth considering? Sure.
  272. For example, what happens when you need help and the police are 10 or 30 or more minutes away? A criminal can take seconds to change your life forever or just extinguish it completely.
  273. But to be very clear, the 2nd Amendment is, first and foremost, about containing the totalitarian impulses of government.
  274. Because Government Is Ultimately Force, Not Your Friend
  275. Government’s tendency to exercise excessive power over the lives of individuals is the rule, not the exception. More than one modern society has unwittingly made the mistake of giving government too much authority, only to watch citizens be silenced, disarmed, persecuted, wrongly imprisoned, and even killed en masse. The former U.S.S.R., Cambodia, Nazi Germany, North Korea, China, Cuba, Chile under Pinochet, Turkey’s slaughter of Armenians—the list is virtually endless.
  276. Think it can’t happen here? It can, and it has. John Adams’ imprisonment of citizens under the Sedition Act, the Fugitive Slave Act, Woodrow Wilson’s goon squads, FDR’s Japanese internment camps, and current mass surveillance of law-abiding citizens—these are just a few instances in which the U.S. government has turned on its own citizens—and those it should have been treating as citizens but didn’t.
  277. The more government insists on ‘protecting’ you by restricting your access to firearms, the more likely it is to rob you of your rights, downgrade the value of your life, compromise your liberty, and leave you vulnerable to its often dangerous and unconstitutional whims.
  278. Not if I have anything to say about it.
  279. We can and should take solid practical steps
  280. Restoring and strengthening our 2nd Amendment rights starts by continually returning to that central question and making sure that the government is increasingly in pursuance of the Constitution on these matters, not in violation of it.
  281. For example, there are current efforts by some in Washington to ensure that if you have a concealed-carry permit in one state, it would be valid in any state. I support those efforts. We also need to chip away at existing, unconstitutional laws that infringe on the 2nd Amendment—laws that should never have gone on the books in the first place, a handful of which I’ve already mentioned.
  282. We won’t get back to where we need to be overnight. But the 2nd Amendment is a matter on which I refuse to compromise. 
  283.  
  284.  
  285. ON IMMIGRATION
  286. Shouldn’t we make an effort to know who’s coming across our borders? And shouldn’t we give American citizens a fair shake on jobs?
  287. Secure Our Borders and Enforce Existing Immigration Laws.
  288. The United States has a long history of welcoming people from all over the world. Over time that tradition has yielded unprecedented opportunity to those who have chosen to make this their home. It’s also given us an incredibly interesting and textured culture. Like many other Americans, I want to see that history and tradition continue well into the future.
  289. But welcoming people into our country and turning a blind eye to serious risks posed to the United States and its citizens are two different things. When the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other U.S. intelligence organizations have more information on citizens like you and me than about people coming into our country from elsewhere, it’s clear we have a significant problem.
  290. Paul Ryan has irresponsibly refused to recognize what are now glaring threats resulting from an utter failure to properly vet massive numbers of people coming into our country. In fact, Ryan is actually exacerbating those risks by funding many of President Obama’s most dangerous immigration policies—those that let the greatest number of individuals in with the least screening.
  291. Should we really be letting people in when we can’t effectively determine who poses a threat to us and who doesn’t? Should we really be exposing American citizens to this kind of unnecessary risk?
  292. I say no.
  293. Show less
  294. End the Abuse of Visa Programs.
  295. Not only does bad immigration policy pose security risks; it exposes us to multiple economic threats, including the loss of American jobs and employment. With the granting of unlimited student visas and huge numbers of H1B and H2B visas, our own citizens are being squeezed out of education opportunities and jobs across the entire employment spectrum, from high- to low-skilled labor.
  296.  
  297. How is it acceptable that American citizens are put in the position of having to train cheaper, foreign replacements before being let go by American companies? Shouldn’t our own citizens be getting a fair shake on jobs and a future?
  298. Yet, Paul Ryan has fully supported vast expansion of visa programs that give our own citizens—and ultimately our economy—short shrift. This abuse must end. In addition, proper economic measures must be taken to make hiring of American workers the trend once again.
  299. Show less
  300. ON BUDGETS AND SPENDING
  301. Why are we continuing to spend ourselves into oblivion?
  302. Stop the Irresponsible Spending.
  303. Are any of us comfortable with the amount of money being spent in Washington? I’m deeply troubled by our national debt and deficit. Both represent a threat to our ability to thrive—to remain strong and independent as a nation.
  304. Yet, Paul Ryan seems unconcerned.
  305. Just after becoming the Speaker of the U.S. House, Ryan pushed through Congress yet another gargantuan Omnibus package that includes more federal spending than any previous Speaker of the House has ever dared to pass. He shepherded this $2 TRILLION spending fest through Congress without any fight at all.
  306. It’s not just the amount of spending that’s troubling. It’s the damaging and unprincipled programs that Paul Ryan seems perfectly comfortable spending the money on. The Omnibus bill gave President Obama everything he wanted, including funding for sanctuary cities, visa expansion, Obamacare, and a wheelbarrow full of other damaging and unprincipled programs.
  307. Show less
  308. Make Budgets about Accountability Again.
  309. Budgets should mean accountability. But in Washington today, they’re little more than a trigger for appropriations and spending.
  310.  
  311. Paul Ryan’s proposed “budget” was no better than his Omnibus spending bill. He was unwilling, for example, even to hold the line on discretionary spending. Discretionary spending, though a small percentage of our federal budget, should have been an easy place to begin making small but significant cuts. Ryan has the power of the purse in his grasp. But instead of using it to check uncontrolled spending, he’s using it to spend even more money that we no longer have.
  312. Where’s the accountability to you and me, the people that foot the bill?
  313. It’s well past time to restore that accountability and to put spending back on the rails of fiscal sanity.
  314. Show less
  315. ON THE U.S. ECONOMY
  316. Who’s best equipped to make decisions about what our economy looks like—you and me, or crony politicians, serving private interests? Shouldn’t investors and business be responsible for their own choices? Isn’t it wrong to use public policy to expose the American people to risks they did not chose?
  317. Stop Pretending That Captured Markets Are ‘Free’ Markets.
  318. One of the greatest travesties ever to happen in this country is the theft and co-option of the terms “free trade” and “free market.”
  319.  
  320. Free trade—real free trade—is nothing more than a simple, exchange of goods and services. If you have a product or service to sell, and I think it’s worth some of my hard-earned money, we make a trade. You and I, as the people making that exchange, decide on mutually agreeable terms.
  321. A free market is simply one comprised of many such voluntary, cooperative agreements. It’s you and me getting to make our own choices about what we want and how we’re going to achieve it.
  322. What Washington, D.C., calls “free trade” and “free markets” today is mostly just plain cronyism. Government force is leveraged to create managed and private markets. These controlled markets aren’t constructed to benefit average citizens. Instead, they benefit big banks, corporate monopolies, and public-private partners who have their own agendas.
  323. Guess who else benefits from managed and private markets…
  324. Paul Ryan has personally enriched his campaign coffers by supporting captured markets. And he’s done so at great expense to you and me—to our freedoms, our pocketbooks, and our jobs.
  325. I refuse to call trade and markets “free” when they are clearly centrally planned—captured and controlled.
  326. It’s time to stop the abuse of language coming from the Washington spin machine. And it’s time to derail Paul Ryan’s gravy train.
  327. Show less
  328. Reject Corrupt International Trade Agreements.
  329. Massive international “trade” deals are a hallmark of the centrally planned markets described above. These so-called deals benefit big banks, big law firms, and other special interests, while hurting the rest of us. We all saw the manufacturing and jobs exodus that NAFTA brought us in the 1990s. We’ve seen others since. These agreements are never structured favorably for American manufacturing, industry, or jobs. They foster monopolies, cater to cheap labor, and crush small businesses.
  330.  
  331. Why, then, has Paul Ryan become a prominent spokesmen for the biggest and most corrupt international trade agreement yet—fast-track Trade Promotion Authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPA/TPP)?
  332. Drafted in secret, TPA/TPP is more than 5,000 pages long.
  333. For weeks, our own legislators in Washington were only permitted to review this monster of a bill within the confines of a locked room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center. Moreover, our representatives were:
  334. * Ÿ  PROHIBITED from viewing more than one section of this proposal at a time;
  335. * Ÿ  FORBIDDEN to make any notes or take photos to carry out of the room; and
  336. * Ÿ  BARRED from discussing the bill’s content with anyone, including staffers and constituents.
  337. Does it sound to you like a good “deal” that’s unfolding for the people of Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District or the people of the United States?
  338. You and I know—because we’ve seen it before—that when Washington tells us it has to pass a bill before we can know what’s in it, we’re about to get the pointy, short end of a very ugly stick.
  339. TPA/TPP isn’t just another bad trade deal. It is NAFTA and CAFTA on steroids. It will decimate manufacturing and industry in Wisconsin’s 1st District and across the U.S. It won’t just lead to a massive flight of manufacturing and jobs from our shores. It will also result in massive numbers of workers being imported here from across our borders and overseas. In many cases, shamefully, those imported workers will be housed in closed compounds where they will be little more than slave labor or indentured servants on our own shores.
  340. These are not values I can, in good conscience embrace.
  341. Didn’t we fight a war to eliminate slavery in the United States?
  342. Paul Ryan’s betrayal on TPA/TPP was the personal tipping point for me in deciding to mount this campaign. I’m a manufacturing guy. Have been my whole life. My love of manufacturing and industry is a big part of why I’ve chosen to live and work in Wisconsin’s 1st district. I could not—I cannot—sit by and watch Paul Ryan sell us out on the very things that should allow this district and this country to thrive and prosper.
  343. TPA/TPP must be stopped. And that means Paul Ryan must be stopped.
  344. Show less
  345. End bailouts, Insist on Responsibility, and Prevent Moral Hazard
  346. Paul Ryan and other Washington elites are content to put American taxpayers on the hook again and again and again, while they bail out their friends in the Big Donor class. What’s more, they want to redefine language in a way that they mistakenly believe will hoodwink the rest of us.
  347. In particular, Paul Ryan wants to define bailout in very narrow terms. He would have us believe that if Washington doesn’t provide federal funds directly to irresponsible investors, no bailout has occurred.
  348. Hogwash.
  349. Financial rescue is only a byproduct of what bailouts really do:
  350. 1. Undermine or eradicate PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
  351. 2. Encourage MORAL HAZARD
  352. What’s moral hazard…?
  353. It’s when an individual or a corporate investor makes a risky bet without the ability to cover potential losses.
  354. Elected lawmakers increase moral hazard when they implement or use public policy in a way that invites or encourages such irresponsible behavior.
  355. Bailout is the name of the game in Washington today, and Paul Ryan has a prominent history of using his influence to create, pass, and leverage unethical policies that have ensured a vicious cycle of bad behavior. Bailouts may come in the form of direct cash payments. They may occur through loopholes, waivers, special bankruptcy laws, or via other means. Regardless of form, you and I know that a bailout will always spell more trouble for you and me.
  356. Aside from the corrupt investors, in fact, the only people who ever benefit from a bailout are crony politicians. Working folks and families get what…? A crushing pile of other people’s messes.
  357. This cycle repeats every day in our nation’s Capitol.
  358. Every. Single. Day.
  359. It’s happening with the Puerto Rico bailout right now, for instance. Paul Ryan’s ‘plan’ would help out a few Big Donors with major investments in the island territory. But it would ultimately make it much harder for Puerto Rico to learn from its mistakes, recover quickly, and escape dependence. And—big surprise—it would open the door to a massive wave of further bailouts in several U.S. states that currently stand on the brink of financial collapse, including Illinois, our neighbor to the south. It’s not a wise path to take.
  360. Personal responsibility should not be negotiable. American taxpayers should not be exposed to risks that they did not themselves take. So, the only logical path is to stand against bailouts in whatever form they take.
  361. Show less
  362. ON CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
  363. What is a right?  What is a natural right? Is it government’s job to protect us? What exactly should government be doing? Why does government need to stay as limited as possible to keep us free? Who gets to determine the value of your life—you or government?
  364. Safeguard Natural Rights
  365. The word ‘right’ gets tossed around a lot these days. So, we better know what we mean when we use it.
  366.  
  367. Definitions
  368. A right is something that belongs to you without having to seek permission. It can be moral or legal.
  369. The first ten amendments to the Constitution—our Bill of Rights—are all rooted in natural rights. What’s a natural right…? That’s a birthright that literally can’t be separated from you. It’s a condition of your humanity.
  370. Natural rights relate to three key things: life, liberty, and property. In fact, you could say that life and liberty are your two most important personal possessions—or property. If you don’t own your life, if you can’t exercise the freedoms you were born with, then guess what? You’re no longer your own property. You’re someone else’s—a slave.
  371. A natural right does not empower you to take from someone else—their labor, money they’veearned, property they own, or, most importantly, their life and liberty. Instead, it gives you the freedom to safeguard your own life, freedom, and property, and to enhance them via honest opportunities that you identify or create.
  372. Rights versus Privileges
  373. If you have to seek permission to do something, it’s not a right. Or, at least, someone—whether you, another person, or the government—is not treating it like one. Having to seek permission implies a privilege. Privileges can be granted. But privileges can also be removed.
  374. And there’s the problem.
  375. Paul Ryan’s Poor Record on Constitutional and Civil Rights
  376. Paul Ryan and other Big Government politicians pay one ton of lip service to our Bill of Rights, our humanity, and our equality. But Paul Ryan’s voting record exposes how he really thinks about you and me.
  377. * In 2012, Ryan voted for HR 347, which chips away at your 1st Amendment right to peaceably assemble.
  378. * In 2012, Paul Ryan also voted yes on the National Defense Authorization Act, which, incredibly, allowed for the imprisonment of American citizens without habaeus corpus or due process. Ryan’s voted to renew the NDAA every year since. What happens if the government decides any of us are inconvenient? What if it wants to lock up you or me and throw away the key? Now it can, with Paul Ryan’s blessing.
  379. * Right up to the present day, Paul Ryan has consistently voted for pretty much any legislation that expands the federal government’s unconstitutional authority to surveil American citizens without a warrant.
  380. So, there you have it. Paul Ryan isn’t all that wild about the constitutional protections our Founders fought and died to guarantee for us. Like a little king, Ryan thinks we should be managed by him and his fellow D.C. elitists.
  381. Protecting Us versus Protecting Our Rights
  382. Ryan and other D.C. overseers always say the policies they push on us will protect us. But, in fact, they strip us of our proper authority over them. In fact, it’s not government’s job to protect us. Instead, those in government—whether politicians, law enforcement officers, or judges—have a mandate to safeguard our rights.
  383. The larger government gets, the more it abandons its true, limited responsibilities and violates exactly the rights it was intended to protect. That trend puts your life, your liberty, and your property in increasing danger.
  384. The more power we allow government to have over us, the more it will use that power in ways it shouldn’t. That’s another big reason Paul Ryan has to go. It’s time to take real action to make government smaller. It has gained far too much control over you and me already.
  385. Show less
  386.  
  387. Restore and Strengthen the 2nd Amendment
  388. Who gets to determine the value of your life?
  389. It’s the most important question that you can ask.
  390. All Individuals Are Created Equal
  391. The Founders asserted that we were all created equal by God in our individual right to be free.
  392. If we agree with them, then, as law-abiding citizens, we shouldn’t have to ask permission from government to defend the things that makeus free individuals—our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and any other property we might honestly acquire.
  393. So, in order to access valuable tools that enable you to protect and defend your rights, you shouldn’t need anything more than the 2nd Amendment, regardless of what state you live in. In fact, the 2nd Amendment is crystal clear: “[T]he right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
  394. That doesn’t mean “do not infringe in a few states.” That means do not infringe anywhere within the boundaries of the United States.
  395. Government Continually Infringes Anyway
  396. For decades, the Feds have eroded our 2nd Amendment rights. The National Firearms Act of 1934, the Gun Control Act of 1968, the government’s current regulatory war on lead—these are just three of many prominent avenues by which government has worked to restrict your access to tools that allow you to protect the most important things you have—again, your life, your liberty, and your property.
  397. Elitists in Washington continually muddy the issue. They talk about whether it’s safe to allow citizens to own firearms, which citizens should or should not have firearms, and where firearms should and shouldn’t be allowed.
  398. But Remember that Central Question…
  399. Who gets to determine the value of your life?
  400. You and God…? Or government?
  401. Are there other questions worth considering? Sure.
  402. For example, what happens when you need help and the police are 10 or 30 or more minutes away? A criminal can take seconds to change your life forever or just extinguish it completely.
  403. But to be very clear, the 2nd Amendment is, first and foremost, about containing the totalitarian impulses of government.
  404. Because Government Is Ultimately Force, Not Your Friend
  405. Government’s tendency to exercise excessive power over the lives of individuals is the rule, not the exception. More than one modern society has unwittingly made the mistake of giving government too much authority, only to watch citizens be silenced, disarmed, persecuted, wrongly imprisoned, and even killed en masse. The former U.S.S.R., Cambodia, Nazi Germany, North Korea, China, Cuba, Chile under Pinochet, Turkey’s slaughter of Armenians—the list is virtually endless.
  406. Think it can’t happen here? It can, and it has. John Adams’ imprisonment of citizens under the Sedition Act, the Fugitive Slave Act, Woodrow Wilson’s goon squads, FDR’s Japanese internment camps, and current mass surveillance of law-abiding citizens—these are just a few instances in which the U.S. government has turned on its own citizens—and those it should have been treating as citizens but didn’t.
  407. The more government insists on ‘protecting’ you by restricting your access to firearms, the more likely it is to rob you of your rights, downgrade the value of your life, compromise your liberty, and leave you vulnerable to its often dangerous and unconstitutional whims.
  408. Not if I have anything to say about it.
  409. We can and should take solid practical steps
  410. Restoring and strengthening our 2nd Amendment rights starts by continually returning to that central question and making sure that the government is increasingly in pursuance of the Constitution on these matters, not in violation of it.
  411. For example, there are current efforts by some in Washington to ensure that if you have a concealed-carry permit in one state, it would be valid in any state. I support those efforts. We also need to chip away at existing, unconstitutional laws that infringe on the 2nd Amendment—laws that should never have gone on the books in the first place, a handful of which I’ve already mentioned.
  412. We won’t get back to where we need to be overnight. But the 2nd Amendment is a matter on which I refuse to compromise. 
  413. Show less
  414.  
  415. ON EDUCATION
  416. Why are we still letting the federal government control policy over which it has no constitutional authority? Do centralization and standardization honor the individuality of our children? Don’t parents have the right to protect their children from federal intrusion? Don’t parents have the right to make decisions about the kind of education their child should receive? Shouldn’t we let teachers actually teach?
  417.  
  418. Show less
  419. End Centralized Education and Restore True Local Control
  420. Who on earth thinks Washington educrats know better for your kids than you do?
  421. Paul Ryan, that’s who.
  422. Late last year, Ryan went all-in for centrally planned education. While we celebrated the holidays, Speaker Ryan was busy shoving through a massive, federal education bill with a misleading title—the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Ryan not only shredded local control, he also sold out parents, teachers, taxpayers, and, most of all, our kids.
  423. Over 1,100 pages long, ESSA was cobbled together behind closed doors by crony politicians and corrupt corporate interests, who stand to make billions on the backs of our children through the control of education and students’ personal data. In fact, the Obama administration has already gutted student-data protections over the past 8 years. So anyone who wants our children’s personally identifiable information can now obtain it—anyone, that is, but the parents and students to whom that data actually belongs.
  424. Paul Ryan gave our representatives just 3 days to review ESSA. Like other establishment leaders before him, he couldn’t risk you and me understanding what ESSA really does until it was too late to stop it.
  425. And what does ESSA do…? For starters, it:
  426. ENTRENCHES the controversial Common Core standards
  427. INCREASES standardized testing at the expense of actual learning time
  428. FACILITATES more collection and exploitation of personally identifiable student data
  429. EXPANDS one-size-fits-all, factory-style education
  430. COMPELS states to bully local school districts and enforce Washington mandates
  431. How did we ever arrive at this place, when the federal government doesn’t even have any constitutional authority over education?
  432. We need to roll back central planning—starting with ESSA—and advance true local control of education.
  433. Local control provides the best opportunity to honor the uniqueness of each child. Local control empowers parents, who best understand their children’s needs. Local control best allows creativity and ingenuity to flourish on the part of classroom teachers, who want their students to succeed. And local control respects taxpayers, who are tired of paying for failed education policies dictated from Washington, D.C. and having their pockets picked by the crony corporations who make money from bad policy.
  434.  
  435. Show less
  436. Let Children Learn
  437. When crony politicians in Washington team up with corrupt corporations to coerce the adoption of de facto national standards, the outcome will never be to benefit or improve our children’s education.
  438. National standards are a bad idea. They attempt to fit all children into the same mold under the guise of a misguided efficiency and a false equality.
  439. I’m a manufacturing guy to my core. I love factories. I love fine-tuning equipment to put out top-notch, reliable product. But let’s be clear…
  440. Classrooms are not factories. And kids are notproduct.
  441. Each of our children is a unique human being. Not a widget.
  442. Is it really efficient to force kids into pre-determined molds that don’t fit them?
  443. Where is the equality in pretending that all kids are the same? Think the same? Act the same? Learn the same?
  444. Where will we find critical thinking, creativity, and innovation to help us thrive as a nation if we’re churning out an endless stream of identical cogs?
  445. Kids should be who they are and learn in the way that best suits them. Anything else only harms and shortchanges everyone from our most challenged kids all the way to our most gifted.
  446. I’m a parent. I know that every single kid deals with a different set of circumstances and tools. Every kid learns a bit differently, develops at his or her own pace, has particular strengths and weaknesses, develops individual interests and dreams. And over time—as they grow and mature—each child’s individual life experiences suggest and inspire the pathways that will allow them to choose and build a future of their own making.
  447. Our children’s personalities are their own. Their thoughts and ideas are their own. Their successes and failures are their own. That’s what makes them human…and free. 
  448. For these reasons, I reject the Common Core State Standards and many of the initiatives that are paired with it. That includes the deceptively named Competency-Based Education and Individual Based Learning, both of which only further corporatize education and exploit children at the hands of government, corporations, or both.
  449. It’s time we finally started matching federal education policy to the reality of our children’s individuality. That’s why, in Washington, I will be a reliable vote to halt centrally planned, assembly-line education and curtail the federal agencies and corrupt partnerships that promote it. That’s why I will also consistently vote to restore and boost local control of education. It is at the local level that parents and classroom teachers can best honor our children’s individual and specific educational needs.
  450.  
  451. Show less
  452. Let Parents Decide
  453. How can a federal agency possibly know your child better than you?
  454. Can a politician or an educrat in distant Washington, D.C., know better than you how to educate your child?
  455. The answer to both questions: No, they can’t.
  456. Washington should simply be out of your education “business.” 
  457. Yet both parties have buddied up with unprincipled corporations and private foundations to seize massive quantities of personally identifiable student data in order to “know” our kids and make decisions about their lives—decisions that belong to us alone.
  458. For years, standardized assessments were Washington’s primary means of collecting all kinds of information on our children. But today digital technology, despite its advantages, has made it possible to capture nearly everything that happens in a physical classroom or via a school-issued computing device. Homework assignments, daily tests, reporting on your child’s personal conduct—it’s all being collected, permanently stored, and shared. Such data can be abused in limitless ways.
  459. How do you opt your kid out of everything? Without pulling them out of school, you can’t.
  460. What’s more, the Obama administration has gutted student-data protections. In 2014, the White House even hosted an event called Datapalooza. Anyone who wants your child’s personal data—public agencies, private researchers, and corporations—can now obtain it. Anyone, that is, except you and your child, the people to whom the data actually belongs.
  461. Of course, Washington insiders don’t have to worry. Most of them send their children to private schools that aren’t subject to the same controls or intrusions. They get a choice.
  462. Most of us aren’t so lucky.
  463. In addition to the right to protect their children’s data, parents should also have access to real educational options for their children—and the ability to exercise those options.
  464. However, when federal dollars follow the child, so do federal mandates and data intrusion.
  465. If Americans could simply start keeping more of their own money, parents would have greater resources to spend on better educational pathways for their children. That may be a private or religious school, an independent virtual school, or a home school. There are many options. Parents should decide, based on their children’s specific needs, learning styles, and In Washington, I’ll work hard to empower parents in this way.
  466.  
  467. Show more
  468. Let Teachers Teach
  469. Paul Ryan and his buddies in Washington, D.C., have been testing our kids to death.
  470. In doing so, they’ve also preventing classroom teachers from actually teaching our kids.
  471. Prior to 2002, a student in our public school system spent approximately 12 hours, or 1.5 days, taking federally mandated standardized tests over the course of an entire K-12 career.
  472. During the George W. Bush administration, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) nearly tripled mandated testing to 34 hours over a students K-12 experience, or 4.25 days.
  473. Under President Obama’s watch, the amount of testing has more than tripled the already excessive NCLB levels. A child is now subjected to federally mandated testing at nearly every grade level, for a total of 110 hours, or 13.75 days.
  474. The Every Student Succeeds Act, which Paul Ryan rammed through Congress shortly after becoming speaker of the House, supposedly reduced the amount of testing but actually cemented more of the same.
  475. There are three further disturbing facts about the current assessments.
  476. First, despite all claims to the contrary, these Common Core-aligned assessments have no demonstrated validity and remain completely experimental in nature. In fact, Jason Zimba, chief architect of the Common Core math standards, admitted as much in February 2013, more than two years after Common Core’s adoption by most states.
  477. Second, and just as alarmingly, the cut scores for these assessments—the lines that determine passing versus failing—have been purposely set to fail up to 70 percent of the students who take them.
  478. Third—and here’s the kicker—to enforce Common Core, the federal government pressures states to hold classroom teachers, schools, and school districts accountable for student performance on these invalid, rigged assessments.
  479. It’s enough to make any teacher crazy. But if they don’t comply—if teachers can’t get enough students successfully through the assessments—they can lose out on merit pay, be placed on probation, or even lose their jobs.
  480. Is it any wonder teachers end up teaching to the test? Is it any wonder that substantive instruction time is plummeting while teachers spend hours and hours on test prep? Is it any wonder that teachers are becoming demoralized and leaving the profession?
  481. It’s totally upside-down to teach our children less in order to test them more. The testing madness has to stop. Teachers want to teach. We ought to let them.
  482.  
  483. Show more
  484. Stop Gathering and Using Student Data inappropriately
  485. You and I know that Washington already wrongly uses federal funding to control our children’s education. In fact, federal funding always comes with strings attached. Some of those strings currently tie to:
  486. MANDATED ADOPTION of controversial standards
  487. MANDATED ADMINISTRATION of endless standardized assessments
  488. MANDATED COLLECTION of massive quantities of personally identifiable student data
  489. In fact, where most data collection used to occur through standardized assessments, the trend is now to collect data on nearly everything that happens in the classroom, from information provided in daily homework assignments and quizzes to behavioral data.
  490. Make no mistake: A permanent file is being collected on your child, and the information in that file is being used to make decisions about various aspects of your child’s future, including “suitable” academic and career paths for them. For example, as part of workforce development initiatives pushed from the federal level, Wisconsin has now ensured that children as young as the 6th grade will be writing academic and career plans. What 6th-grader to you know with the life experience and maturity to determine what they could be happy doing for a lifetime? Yet, at this early age, with prodding from the federal government, we’re already pushing children to make choices that will narrow their learning and career options.
  491. I don’t know a single parent who wants some nameless, faceless educrat in Washington pre-determining their child’s future.
  492. I don’t know a single classroom teacher who wants to help educrats limit the learning pathways available to children.
  493. I don’t know any student who wants to be stuck in a soul-crushing career that the data said was “right” but that a kid—and the parents who know that kid best—is all wrong. 
  494. Educrats in Washington should not have the ability to play god with our kids’ lives. Nor should the crony corporations with whom government regularly partners. But that’s increasingly what’s happening. In fact, just enrolling your child in a public school is generally considered “permission” to collect and access your child’s personally identifiable student data. In most cases, parents aren’t even informed of what information about their child is being collected via the classroom.
  495. Where I come from, that’s called exploitation.
  496. That’s precisely why the people taking your child’s data don’t want to ask you for it. They’ve already guessed that you’d say no if you knew what they were collecting and how they might use it.
  497. We used to have laws that protected children’s data. Those laws have been gutted. Now, with the degree of data collection literally exploding, our kids are increasingly vulnerable to control at the hands of government and a host of corporations that also now have easy access to your child’s information.
  498. One of the best and most immediate things we could do to end the mass collection of personally identifiable student data is to insist on policies that require parents to opt their child in to data collection—rather than out of it. Revealing to parents what data the government, third-party researchers, or private corporations want to collect via the classroom would put a great deal more information and control back in the hands of parents and enable them to better protect their children.
  499. The data exploitation in education must end. When it comes to our children’s personal information, it should be up to you and me as parents to determine what is reasonable or unreasonable for others to have—what is and is not in the best interests of our children.
  500.  
  501. there needs to be major reform in how we do the electoral college.
  502.  
  503. Either we need more people on the ballot,
  504.  
  505. Or the rest of the 48 states have to follow Maine/Nebraska, and reward delegates per district.
  506.  
  507. Also, see attached, because it's always useful.
  508.  
  509. He favors the United States withdrawing from the NATO, TPP, NAFTA, CAFTA, ending the Federal Reserve.[9]
  510. Leave the UN
  511. I believe that the United States (U.S.) should regain its sovereignty and chart its own course. This is not isolationism. The U.S. cannot remain isolated from the forces agitating today’s world, which is so interrelated in trade, finance, instantaneous communications, etc.
  512. How does America deal with other nations while keeping our sovereignty, our freedom, and our independence intact? Can the U.S. keep its own laws and Constitution, set its own policies, or do we surrender to the decisions and dictates of an international collective of nations?
  513. Many people, including many in our own government, would love to see American nationhood fade into history. They fear not only the power of America, but also the ideas that still make us the most powerful nation on earth. Those ideas serve as a contradiction to the way the rest of the world operates, and would serve us even more if we were once again an independent nation.
  514. The overwhelming success of the U.S. politically, economically, and culturally, depends upon a set of ideas–religious, political, and legal that set us free to worship, think, and act as free Americans. Those ideas have never been replicated anywhere else on earth. Material prosperity springs from that freedom and it is a renewable resource as long as freedom remains.
  515. The ideas of America are not compatible with membership in the United Nations (U.N.). The U.N. is world headquarters for the church of unbelieving humanism. The fundamental doctrine of the U.N. is that the world should be a global collective, redistributing shares of material prosperity to every human on earth. That is a religious and not a political idea. Faith in God is replaced by faith in Humanity. The U.N. is the sanctuary of the idolatry of Man. To U.N. believers its very name is sacred, inspiring awe and devotion. The earth is the great mother who produces some resources but not enough so rationing is the result. Some have to be taxed so rationing can occur and provide equal shares. Injuring the earth is the crime of injuring the great mother. This thought process takes them back to ancient pagan days of gods thought to be mythical but are in reality satanic. When the U.N. headquarters was built in 1946, a meditation room was included in which the only object is a rectangular black rock symbol of the underworld thrust up from the world below. The ideas of the U.N. are in direct opposition to the ideas of America.
  516. Collective action is the U.N. Globalist strategy to weaken and isolate America. We are, therefore, more isolated in the U.N. than we would be out of it. It is intended to isolate the U.S. a little bit at a time lest we awaken from our slumber and withdraw. Little by little the Lilliputian strands are woven tighter and tighter.
  517. The very existence of the U.N. is an affront to liberty and human dignity. Many of the inherent rights in the US Constitution are superseded by the United Nations Charter, including the right of self-defense. We must free ourselves from the notion that the U.N. is vital to U.S. interests. It is not. If the American people do not understand these things, then it is imperative that we educate them
  518. End Federal Reseve
  519. I would end the Federal Reserve’s control of the United States’ monetary system by repealing the Federal Reserve Act. Interest rates would no longer be tampered with, as lenders and borrowers would set their own rates.
  520. I would remind the banks that there would no longer be a Federal Reserve to lend to them in an emergency so if a bank gets in trouble, it’s on its own.
  521. Then I would let the American people know that they are now free to use whatever currency they want. The dollar would again be exchangeable for a fixed quantity of gold and the U.S. Treasury would now accept any major currency, including bitcoin, in payment of taxes. As a result, the country would return to a traditional and sensible money system so people could decide for themselves what kind of money they wanted to use. They could save it, spend it, or put any price they wanted on it if they wanted to lend it out
  522. Agenda 21
  523. Private property rights are under assault in communities and rural areas across the nation as state and federal authorities move to enforce new planning development programs, particularly under the labels of Sustainable Development or Local Visioning.
  524. Local elected representatives are being overshadowed by the establishment of non-elected boards, councils, planning commissions and regional governments. These non-elected organizations are taking government further away from the people as they are unseen and unapproachable. While totally unaccountable to the people, they enforce policy that affects property rights, tax rates, etc.
  525. Across the nation communities are being pressured by federal agencies to accept grants for local sustainable projects that affect property rights and destroy local control. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
  526. I would withdraw the federal government from such international, sovereignty destroying legislation. I would stop the federal government from manipulating local communities with handouts, and begin the process of handing control of their lives and property back to the local people.
  527.  
  528. * Delete subsidies for all energy sources and increase military spending
  529. * Protect our public lands, water supplies, biological diversity, parks, and pollinators. Ban neonicotinoids and other pesticides that threaten the survival of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.
  530. * Support organic and regenerative agriculture, permaculture, and sustainable forestry.
  531. * Reform public assistance to be a true safety net that empowers participants and provides a decent standard of living.
  532. * Free universal child care or Affordable Child Care
  533. * Avoid chronic diseases by investing in essential community health infrastructure such as local, fresh, organic food systems, and active transportation such as bike paths and safe sidewalks that dovetail with public transiting the National Health Institute
  534.  
  535. * Increase federal funding of public schools to equalize public school funding.    
  536. * Break up “too-big-to-fail” banks and democratize the Federal Reserve.
  537. * Support development of worker and community cooperatives and small businesses.
  538. * Make Wall Street, and the rich pay their fair share of taxes.
  539. * Create democratically-run public banks and utilities.
  540. * Expand women’s rights, including equal pay and reproductive freedom. Pass the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment).
  541. * Protect LGBTQIA+ people from discrimination.
  542. * Improve economic and social conditions abroad to reduce the flow of immigrant refugees, in part by repealing NAFTA, ending the failed drug wars, and halting CIA and military interventions against democratically elected governments.
  543. * Protect the free Internet. Oppose the Online Piracy Act and all other legislation that would undermine freedom and equality on the Internet.
  544. * End the failed war on drugs. Replace drug prohibition with harm reduction. Legalize marijuana/hemp. Treat substance abuse as a health problem, not a criminal offense.
  545. * Release nonviolent drug offenders from prison, removing such offenses from their records, and provide them with both pre- and post-release support.
  546. * Enact laws to require independent outside legal representatives to investigate and prosecute any killing or brutality  by the police rather than prosecutors involved in the local criminal justice system.
  547. * Eliminate harsh  mandatory sentencing requirements which often result in unjustified sentences.
  548. * Terminate unconstitutional surveillance and unwarranted spying, , and repeal indefinite detention without charge or trial. Repeal the unconstitutional provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act that give the president the power to indefinitely imprison and even assassinate American citizens without due process.
  549. * America's youth should not be put in jail for offenses they commit.
  550. * Repeal the Patriot Act that violates our constitutional right to privacy and protection against unreasonable search and seizure
  551. * Increase military spending and close the 700+ foreign military bases
  552. * Stop U.S. financial and military support to human rights abusers. Barring substantial changes in their policies, this would include Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt.
  553. * End the destructive US economic and military intervention into the affairs of sovereign nations. Such intervention serve the interests of multinational corporations and  global capitalism over the interests of the vast majority of the citizens of those nations. 
  554. * Freeze the bank accounts of countries that are funding terrorism, including the Saudi royal family.
  555. * End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, withdrawing troops and military contractors.
  556. * Join 159 other nations in signing the Ottawa treaty banning the use of anti-personnel land mines.      
  557. * Rejoin the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which the US dropped out of in 2002 when it installed missiles and missile bases in Turkey, Romania, and Poland.
  558. * Remove US nuclear weapons in Germany, Belgium, Turkey, Italy and the Netherlands.  
  559. *  Support Russia and China’s joint effort to open negotiations on a treaty to ban weapons in space.
  560. * Enact electoral reforms that break the big money stranglehold and create truly representative democracy: full public election financing, ranked-choice voting, proportional representation, and open debates.
  561. * Attack Voter Fraud and illegal immigration by requiring National ID. National ID will be used for when buying goods, drivers liscences similar to Military IDs
  562. * Abolish the Electoral College and directly elect the President using a national popular vote with ranked-choice voting..
  563. * Replace partisan oversight of elections with non-partisan election commissions
  564. >Reinstall Glass-Steagall act
  565. Citizens United: overturn Citizens United, a “disastrous Supreme Court decision” which allows unlimited sums of money to be funneled into electoral politics.
  566. DISCLOSE Act: enact legislation to protect the integrity and transparency of federal elections by establishing disclosure requirements for all contributions.
  567. Public Funding of Elections: wants to move towards public funding of elections to promote a more even playing field where all Americans can participate.
  568.  
  569.  
  570. BEST tap water you can have. Its not fluoridated & calcificated. Basically most cities treat their water with ultraviolet germicidal irradiation.
  571.  
  572. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_germicidal_irradiation
  573.  
  574. Balance the Budget
  575.  
  576. Lower Military Spending, Launch Bernie Sanders Rebuild America Act, pool funding into Education, National Health Institute and Space Industry/NASA
  577.  
  578. Medicare is a waste of money in its current state. It can't allow to negotiate for prescription costs or services. Doctors don't even want it because their reimbursements aren't "fair." In other words, medicare doesn't reimbursement an orthopedic surgeon 15k for that knee surgery, like he charges every other sap. Medicare needs to be expanded to all.
  579.  
  580. SS needs entitlement reform.
  581.  
  582. >Marshall plan on Middle East
  583. >End Welfare State and Social Programs, Raise Military Spending to develop a strong military and triple the number of Immigration Officers and deport all illegal immigrants
  584.  
  585. Relocate ALL Polar Bears to the Last Ice Area: Only one Arctic region is expected to retain its summer sea ice until 2050: this is the Last Ice Area.
  586.  
  587. This region in the high Arctic of Canada and Greenland was identified using cutting-edge sea ice models, and it’s projected to be the last stronghold of summer sea ice as the Earth continues to warm due to climate change. In the coming years, it will be essential as an enduring home for wildlife, and therefore for the communities that depend on those species
  588.  
  589. Nationalize US Currency and End Federal Reserve/National Bank
  590.  
  591. Strip Commercial Banks the right to produce money and require banks to back their loans with 100% reserves. The idea is to deprive banks from giving out loans they are unable to back up which will end the Economic Bubble System.
  592.  
  593. Abortions only allowed in cases of rape, harm to mother, disabled child or incest
  594.  
  595. * Make college affordable by ending subsidies and mandates and Abolish college aid after a transition period.
  596. * No compulsory collective bargaining. (Nov 2014)
  597. * Union activity by choice only. (Jul 2000)
  598. * No welfare & no restrictions on work. (Jul 2000)
  599. * Increase Fines on Indecent Broadcasting
  600. * When prisoners become Senior Citizens (65), they are automatically released from prison
  601. * Encourage homeschooling & private school via tax writeoff.
  602. * Replace Medicaid with volunteer pro-bono medical care. (Apr 2008)
  603. * Mandated wages & unions hurt unprotected workers. Right to organize; but no special benefits for unions.
  604. * End EPA
  605. * Make School voluntary for Special ED Kids and have separate classrooms
  606. * End Administrative Tenure like in Schools
  607. * Increase Salaries for Teachers to make it more competitive
  608. * Make Burning or Defaming the Flag treason
  609. * Create criminal records for corrupt white collar criminals.
  610. * Supreme Court Justices elected by people not appointed
  611. * Privatize Social Security
  612. * Cut Medicare for Obese, Smokers
  613. * End charity-foundation tax loophole
  614. * FBI-CIA-NSA also has to investigate corruption in government, bribes and lobbying which is now illegal
  615. * Equal Divorce Laws
  616. * Shut down US Freedom Of Navigation Patrols
  617.  
  618. Tax reform—
  619. * Simplify taxes for everyone and streamline deductions. Biggest tax reform since Reagan.
  620. * Lower taxes for everyone, making raising a family more affordable for working families.
  621. * Reduce dramatically the income tax.
  622. * We will simplify the income tax from 7 brackets to 3 brackets.
  623. * Exclude childcare expenses from taxation.
  624. * Limit taxation of business income to 15% for every business.
  625. * Make our corporate tax globally competitive and the United States the most attractive place to invest in the world.
  626. * End the death tax.
  627.  
  628. 2. Regulatory reform—
  629. * A temporary pause on new regulations and a review of previous regulations to see which need to be scrapped.
  630. * Require each federal agency to prepare a list of all of the regulations they impose on American business, and rank them from most critical to health and safety to least critical. Least critical regulations will receive priority consideration for repeal.
  631. * Remove bureaucrats who only know how to kill jobs; replace them with experts who know how to create jobs.
  632. * Targeted review for regulations that inhibit hiring. These include:
  633. * The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, which forces investment in renewable energy at the expense of coal and natural gas, raising electricity rates;
  634. * The EPA’s Waters of the United States rule, which gives the EPA the ability to regulate the smallest streams on private land, limiting land use; and
  635. * The Department of Interior’s moratorium on coal mining permits, which put tens of thousands of coal miners out of work.
  636. * Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as 2 trillion dollars a year, and we will end it.
  637.  
  638. 3. Trade reform—
  639. * Appoint trade negotiators whose goal will be to win for America: narrowing our trade deficit, increasing domestic production, and getting a fair deal for our workers.
  640. * Renegotiate NAFTA.
  641. * Withdraw from the TPP.
  642. * Bring trade relief cases to the world trade organization.
  643. * Label China a currency manipulator.
  644. * Apply tariffs and duties to countries that cheat.
  645. * Direct the Commerce Department to use all legal tools to respond to trade violations.
  646.  
  647. 4. Energy reform—
  648. * Rescind all the job-destroying Obama executive actions including the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule.
  649. * Save the coal industry and other industries threatened by Hillary Clinton’s extremist agenda.
  650. * Ask Trans Canada to renew its permit application for the Keystone Pipeline.
  651. * Make land in the Outer Continental Shelf available to produce oil and natural gas.
  652. * Cancel the Paris Climate Agreement (limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius) and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.
  653. * Lift restrictions on American energy to increase:
  654. * Economic output by $700 billion annually over the next 30 years,
  655. * Wages by $30 billion annually over the next 7 years,
  656. * GDP by more than $20 trillion over the next four decades, and
  657. * Tax revenues by an additional $6 trillion over 40 years.
  658.  
  659. Empower Parents and Achieve the Following Goals:
  660.  
  661. 1. Help every family with the costs of childcare and eldercare.
  662. 2. Empower families to choose the care that is right for their family.
  663. 3. Create a new, dynamic market for family-based and community-based solutions.
  664. 4. Incentivize employers to provide childcare at the workplace.
  665. 5. Provide 6 weeks of paid leave to new mothers before returning to work.
  666.  
  667. Exclude the costs of child and elder care from tax
  668.  
  669. Create Child Care Savings Accounts
  670.  
  671. Native American Rights:
  672. * Recognize All Native American Languages of all tribes and reservations and make English not compulsory effectively reviving the Native American Language and Anti-English sentiments
  673. * Grant all Native Americans Free Healthcare, Free Higher Education, No Interest on Loans
  674. * Supporting Tribal Sovereignty and Tribal Jurisdiction: Tribes must have the ability to prosecute non-Native people who commit crimes on tribal land, and have greater jurisdiction over prosecuting all crimes, including family disputes.
  675. * Upholding the Trust Responsibility: We must honor the treaties and federal statutes that are the foundation of the trust relationship. Bernie will maintain a White House Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs to ensure that tribal issues are consistently addressed and coordinated throughout the federal government. Bernie will also create a position within the Office of Management Budget to ensure adequate subject matter expertise and sufficient coordination between federal agencies. Bernie will appoint senior level tribal appointees with access to executive agency leaders to promote meaningful consultation with Native Americans. 
  676. 1. Improving Housing: Bernie will fight for increased local control over the administration and operation of tribal housing programs. He will also fight for full funding of the Indian Housing Block Grant Program.
  677. * Strengthening Education: In order to create economic opportunities, we must invest in education from early childhood through higher education. Bernie will fight to fully fund the Bureau of Indian Education and strengthen self-determination to enable culturally tailored learning, unique to each tribal nation, and help to retain qualified teachers for Native youth
  678. 1. Restoring Tribal Lands: All tribes must have the right to protect and restore their lands. Bernie will fight to streamline the land-into-trust process and work to reverse the Carcieri Supreme Court decision that resulted in an unjust two-tier system of tribes.
  679. 2. Expanding Consultation: Bernie will reexamine Executive Order 13175 “Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments,” to ensure that consultation means more than mere listening sessions.  Moreover, all voices — tribal leadership and grassroots alike — must be heard.  Bernie will expand the annual White House Tribal Nations Conference that brings tribal leaders, cabinet members and the White House together to find solutions to common problems.
  680.  
  681. Native Hawaiian Rights
  682. * Recognize the Hawaiian Language and make English not compulsory
  683. * Improve or repeal the Jones Act
  684. *
  685.  
  686.  
  687. Apply Congressional District Method from Maine and Nebraska to replace the current Electoral College
  688.  
  689.  
  690. Make Supreme Court Justices elected by the people
  691.  
  692. Referendums have to be held for USA to engage in trade deals like TPP/NAFTA or to declare war
  693.  
  694.  
  695. * Reduce Tax Rates. Our corporate income tax rate, currently the second highest in the developed world, must be cut to restore U.S. competitiveness. The corporate tax rate should be set at or below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 26% to eliminate the incentive for businesses and jobs to move overseas. We should also stop taxing businesses as individuals, but rather reduce rates to 25%, which would help business to grow and create jobs. The U.S. needs lower, flatter taxes without multiple layers of taxation on personal savings and investment and other forms of capital. A reduction of the overall tax burden on Americans to a level consistent with or lower than world average tax levels would improve fiscal freedom.
  696. * Spend Less and Devolve Responsibilities.Congress should enact a firm cap on the annual increase in total government spending, limited to inflation plus population growth. Lawmakers should exert all effort to keep overall federal spending to less than 20% of U.S. GDP, the historical post–World War II average for federal spending.Congress should take entitlement spending off autopilot and subject it to the discipline of the budgetary process through long-term budgets that Congress regularly reviews. This would force entitlement spending to compete politically with other spending priorities. The responsibilities of federal agencies for transportation, agriculture, and education should be devolved to the states. The new health care bill that centralizes so much decision-making and funding in Washington must be repealed. State and local governments can tailor programs to make them more efficient and can experiment with new approaches to reduce the overall cost of government.
  697.  
  698.  
  699.  
  700. * Unwind Government Intervention. The government should end the interventions it has made since 2008, starting with abolition of the TARP program. It should then abolish Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and repeal all U.S. government regulatory measures that interfere with mortgage markets. Congress should also repeal the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, which discriminates against small firms and reduces competition. Companies should be allowed to fail, and laws and regulations should create no expectation of a future bailout.
  701. * Reduce Government Involvement in Commercial Decision-making. Congress must eliminate the insidious practice of earmarking, which corrupts the legislative process. The government needs to divest itself of all assets acquired in connection with the financial crisis and recession and refrain from interfering in bankruptcy cases. These reforms, like the others, would both complement and reinforce the overall restoration of America’s economic freedom.
  702.  
  703. About Audit the Fed
  704. Currently the GAO is prohibited by law from auditing four areas of the Federal Reserve:
  705. 1. Transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or no private international financing organization;
  706. 2.  Deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations;
  707. 3. Transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or
  708. 4.  a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)–(3) of this subsection.
  709. Audit the Fed removes these four exemptions and is supported by nearly 75 percent of the American people.
  710.  
  711.  
  712. 1. Take the power to create money away from the banks, and return it to a democratic transparent and accountable process
  713. History has shown that when banks have the power to create money, they create too much in the good times, causing financial crises, and then create too little money in the bad times, making recessions and unemployment even worse. They put most of the money that they create into house price bubbles and speculation on financial markets, and only put a small amount into businesses outside the financial sector. We simply don’t think that banks, with all their incentives and need to maximise their profits, can be trusted with something as powerful as the ability to create money. And it’s not enough to regulate them, because regulators have already failed to keep them under control, and there’s no reason why they should get it right this time around. We need to stop banks being able to create money. Instead, we want to see the power to create money transferred to a democratic, accountable and transparent process, where everyone knows:
  714. 1. who has the power to create money,
  715. 2. how much money they create, and
  716. 3. how that money will be used.
  717. However this process is set up – whether it’s the Bank of England or a new committee that decides whether to create money – it must be accountable to Parliament and protected from abuse by vested interests. We also want to see safeguards that ensure that the right amount of money is created: not too much (causing bubbles and a financial crisis) and not too little (causing a recession).
  718. 2. Create money free of debt
  719. Currently, banks create money when they make loans, which means that for every pound in your bank account, someone somewhere else will be a pound in debt. It means that almost all the money in the economy is effectively ‘on loan’ from the banking sector, and interest must be paid nearly every pound that exists. If we try to reduce our debts, money disappears from the economy, making it harder for others to repay their own debts. Instead, money should be created by the state, in the public interest, without anyone else having to go further into debt. This money would be spent into the economy through government budgets instead of being lent into the economy by banks, so it would stimulate the real economy, create jobs, and make it possible for ordinary people to start reducing their own debts.
  720. 3. Put new money into the real economy rather than financial markets and property bubbles
  721. Most of the money that banks create goes straight into the property and financial markets, pushing up house prices and increasing inequality. This money doesn’t create jobs – it simply makes life more expensive and unstable for people. Instead, any newly-created money should be used to fund public spending, reduce taxes, or be distributed directly to citizens to spend as they choose. This means that the money will start its life in the real (non-financial) economy instead of getting trapped in financial and property markets. This will help the economy grow, creating jobs in the process.
  722.  
  723. 1. Break up the Banks. Since the crisis there have been several proposals to break up the banks. Among the most notable is the 21st Century Glass–Steagall Act, introduced in 2013 by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Angus King (I-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA). This bill would reverse the impact of Gramm–Leach–Bliley and once again separate commercial banking (deposit taking) and investment banking (securities operations), as well as place a cap on bank size. It would also address practices that were not around in 1933 when Glass–Steagall was enacted. For example, traditional deposit-taking banks would be banned from hedge fund activities and dealing in swaps (a type of derivative that pays out if a certain event occurs, such as credit default swaps, which allow the swap buyer to bet that some other company will default or go bankrupt). Such a law would have the advantage of avoiding the seemingly neverending efforts to carve out exceptions to new bank regulations.
  724. Support for simplifying banks has come from reformers, regulators, and even industry veterans, including former Citigroup CEO John Reed, who presided over Citi before and after the Glass–Steagall separation between traditional and investment banking was abolished. In a letter to the New York Times in 2009, Reed wrote: “[S]ome kind of separation between institutions that deal primarily in the capital markets and those involved in more traditional deposit-taking and working-capital finance makes sense.”
  725.  
  726. 2. Boost Capital Cushions. Leverage (the use of debt to buy assets) should be reduced throughout the financial system—at bank holding companies, traditional banks, broker-dealers, and less regulated entities such as hedge funds and other private pools of capital. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and David Vitter (R-LA) have proposed a bill that would require banks with more than $500 billion in assets to have at least 15 percent equity capital, meaning borrowing no more than $85 for every $100 in total assets. Mid-size banks with between $50 billion and $500 billion could borrow a bit more, with a requirement of 8 percent equity relative to total assets.
  727. 3. Reduce Bank Dependence on Short-Term Wholesale Financing. Unlike during the Great Depression (before there was deposit insurance), when retail depositors lined up outside banks to pull their money, in the 2008 crisis it was big institutions like money market mutual funds that took their money and ran. Money market funds and other cash-rich investors pulled their cash from Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, causing them to collapse. Before it failed, Lehman Brothers relied on $200 billion in overnight loans to finance longer-term assets, including the mortgage-backed securities in its portfolio.
  728. The problem with these uninsured short-term “wholesale” loans (as opposed to more old-fashioned sources of financing, including FDIC-insured deposits) is that if there is a panic, or if confidence in a bank diminishes, the uninsured wholesale lenders run. When they pull their money, the bank will have to sell collateral (usually securities in its portfolio) in order to come up with the cash, or the lender will demand the collateral back. Either way, this type of “fire sale” can result in bank insolvency—and because banks hold similar assets and other banks may be forced to mark their values down or sell at low prices, this can be contagious. The Fed remains concerned about these fire sale risks and is expected to address these risks with new rules. However, there is a legislative fix. As recommended by legal scholars Stephen Lubben and David Skeel, and as proposed by Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) in 2010, the Bankruptcy Code should be amended to roll back the special treatment given to short-term, wholesale lenders when there is a bankruptcy. If the special protections were removed, these lenders would be much less likely to lend against speculative collateral in the first place.
  729. 4. Create a Pre-paid Risk Fund. We need to create disincentives for growing too big to fail. One important step toward this goal is to require TBTF banks to pay an assessment into a fund based on their risk factors such as size, leverage, and reliance on short-term funding. Then, if one of them is put through an “orderly resolution,” this fund could be tapped by the FDIC so that taxpayers would not have to front the expenses. This could also create incentives for banks to better police each other. Requiring banks to pay such an up-front assessment was included when Dodd–Frank was in progress but, under pressure from the banks, was removed before the law was enacted. It is still an idea with support. Former FDIC chair Sheila Bair endorsed the fund in her recent book Bull by the Horns.
  730. 5. Impose a Financial Transactions Tax. The growing risk of high-frequency trading, which sometimes involves detecting other investors’ orders so as to trade ahead of them and gain a price advantage, undermines faith in the system. Computerized trading of this type has led to sudden crashes, such as the May 6, 2010 “flash crash,” in which the failure of computer systems resulted in the stock market dropping in value by about 10 percent in just a few minutes. Imposing a financial transactions tax would discourage this disruptive behavior. Several countries already have a financial transactions tax, and as economist Dean Baker has suggested, it may be “the best means” for “reducing the size of the financial sector.”
  731. 6. Protect Consumers and Homeowners. Both as a matter of fairness and to discourage false appraisals and predatory loan–based housing bubbles, Congress should amend the Bankruptcy Code to allow homeowners to restructure their underwater mortgages through the bankruptcy courts. We should also enhance the powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It was the consumer and housing advocates who saw, well in advance of the regulators, the risk to safety and soundness that predatory and abusive practices presented.
  732. 7. Explore Alternatives. We should experiment with alternatives to complement our banking system. One example might be postal banking. The Inspector General of the U.S. Postal Service issued a white paper in early 2014 promoting the concept. Postal banking would involve an expansion of the money-order services that the post office already provides to also include taking deposits, making small loans, and providing bill payment services. Legal scholar Mehrsa Baradaran suggested postal banking several years ago and has recently explored this idea in great detail. Baradaran contends that such a system would help serve the 38 percent of the population that lacks access to mainstream banks and therefore relies on high-cost fringe banking services such as payday lending.
  733. The crash of 2008 has its roots in the deregulation of the early 1980s. Over several decades the systems devised during the New Deal for controlling and policing financial markets were dismantled. New financial innovations were developed without adequate government oversight, and banks were permitted to expand their offerings and grow in size and scope beyond the ability of their own management teams. Implementing reforms like the ones I’ve suggested will be difficult. These proposals challenge entrenched financial interests. But without financial reform, the cycle of speculative excess, bank failures, and public bailouts will only continue. Our country tamed finance once before. We must do it again.
  734.  
  735.  
  736. Have congress come up with a plan to privatize social security for future generations. Possibly assign a dollar value to everyone who has paid into social security already, pay them what they're owed over X amount of time and if you are below a certain age you are no longer eligible for government social security and have the option to pay into your own private corporation social security programs from a wide array of private company offerings. Huge upfront costs but over the long term it would be a huge gain to unburden ourselves from this dying bloated program.
  737.  
  738. Medicare-for-all single payer, eliminate Medicaid and ACA marketplaces as they stand
  739.  
  740. Abolish ▪ The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (allowing similar banks to merge and set any interest rate).
  741. * The Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 (allowing Adjustable-rate mortgages).
  742. * The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999 (allowing commercial and investment banks to merge).
  743.  
  744. Get rid of Affordable Housing and GSEs
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