It is time we insisted we have a government that is of the people and
for the people for a change. I am calling for a
21st century economy and 21st century social values that
respect the rights and lives of all citizens, not just those of a narrow
religious view or the largest corporate donors.
-mikel
Administrative Priorities
(If Elected I Pledge to Work on Legislation to Advance
These Issues)
1. Reshape Immigration
Policies to a) provide safe, controlled ports of entry for undocumented
immigrants; b) coordinate the identification and registration of foreign
nationals already in the country so they may be documented and taxed; & c)
strengthen existing rules regarding the exploitation of undocumented workers,
both immigrant and national.
2. Investigate Wall
Street fraud and bank/mortgage fraud which created so much misery in our
country, along with the regulators who were supposed to protect us from those
folks. Any houses not currently occupied should be returned to their rightful
owners. Call for reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, tighter regulation of the
derivatives market and greater executive accountability for corporate abuses.
3. End cannabis
prohibition, establish a taxation system for its production and sale,
Pardon and rehabilitate non-violent prisoners in jail for possession. Promote
medical research.
4. Vastly Increase Education
Spending for smaller class sizes, improved school infrastructure, increased
arts ed and special services.
5. Create TVA-style
Solar and Wind Power generating networks to reduce dependence on petroleum/gas/coal-based
technologies.
6. Federal Campaign
Finance Reform to eliminate corporate funding of candidates and establish
public funding for all elections. In addition, I would call for a federal
challenge to recent state-level voter suppression laws.
7. Develop a program for the government acquisitions of all private/for-profit correctional
facilities at the national level and offer incentives for state compliance
as well. Review all government contracts that privatize government services to
evaluate ways to return those jobs to the public sector.
8. Revamp highway and
internet infrastructures to improve equality of access for all Americans
and get America building again.
9. Review & Revive previously successful government
programs already cut as “tax-savings measures” to evaluate for reviving.
10. Federally end gender-inequality, including instating full marriage and adoption rights for LGBT
Americans.
On The Issues
Afghanistan:
We need to get out of the business of ruining other
countries for business interests. Our role in Afghanistan is poorly defined and
counter-productive. It squanders cash and good will, aids Karzai narcotics
trafficking, the Uni-Cal pipeline and fattens defense contractors while
violating basic American values. I call for a timetable for withdrawal from
this quagmire and an investigation into the profiteers who have bilked our
government’s good will for billions.
Budget:
While I support the idea of balancing the federal budget, I
am not going to wreck good programs for the sake of arbitrary, largely symbolic
cuts in spending. For example when I call for a reduction of defense spending,
I am not calling for a reduction of our military personnel; but a reduction in
the monies paid to military contractors for over-priced, often unnecessary
weapons systems.
I am also calling for a return to sensible taxation. The GOP
Slash & Burn budgetary practices of the past two decades have destroyed or
badly damaged many of our country’s most important functions: safeguarding our resources,
wallets and fellow workers from abusive business practices; protecting the
public from all enemies both foreign and domestic; and creating an
infrastructure to aid all Americans in pursuing our life, liberty &
happiness; and perpetuating the freedoms. These are the main goals of the government
and we will only get the quality of government we are willing to pay for. Right
now our government works best for its wealthiest. I say it’s time they paid
their fair share. It’s time we stopped paying for their tax cuts off of the
back of the public.
While supporting the idea of balancing a budget, solving the
current financial crisis is a first priority and it requires a Keynesian New
Deal public sector infusion of gov't spending through infrastructure jobs, not
further austerity to further dampen consumer spending. Social investment and
robust consumer spending and restored confidence due to improved quality of
life will help pay down the debt the right way. It is time to improve our way
into the 21st century and build our better America now.
Campaign Finance:
I support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions
from corporations and unions, and call for a nation-wide "clean
elections"-style program for all state and federal elections as a way to
get money out of politics and get the focus of elections onto the public and
not on a money chase. In fact, one of my campaign issues is to say that if
corporations are privileged with citizenship rights; then they should be
subject to citizenship spending limits in elections.
Cannabis (Marijuana):
The 80 year “War on Drugs” has been a catastrophic failure,
a horrific social and economic injustice and must be brought to an immediate
halt. Cannabis has a 7000 year documented history of safe positive recreational
and medicinal use and the prohibition we have suffered under has only enriched
the criminals and the jailers. A properly operated and regulated cannabis
market can dramatically reshape consumer spending, yielding billions in state
and federal revenues. And, the return of the hemp market to the US can be an
stimulus to our struggling agri-industry as well. Legalization will cripple
drug cartel influence and help reduce our border violence. It will also go a
long way towards improving the attitudes of millions of Americans when they
stop having to fear their government sees them only as criminals. It is time to
admit our mistakes, end the war on Americans.
Capital Punishment & Corrections:
I do NOT support capital punishment and oppose the
prevailing punitive trends that perpetuate as many social problems as they aim
to solve. Our criminal justice system is a shambles and has led to our country
veering towards becoming a prison state. Our economic imbalances lead to unjust
imprisonments and fuel the oppression of the poor and minorities. We must do
better. I want a review of all death-row cases w pending DNA evidence and a
suspension of the expansion of the private prison industry. Further I call for
the full restoration of all former prisoners’ citizenship rights (including
voting) once they have served their time. In conjunction with my efforts on
cannabis reform, I also call for a review of all federal cannabis possession
cases and pardons or reductions of sentences for all non-violent convictions.
Choice:
Planned families are happier, healthier & more stable
and impose fewer burdens on society over time. Modern medicine gives women the
choice to decide their destiny. I strongly support a woman’s access to family
planning measures of all kinds and resent the Pro-"Life" movement’s push
to erode Roe V Wade as an encroachment on our national
First Amendment religious freedom.
Economy:
I support the concept of federal spending, especially spending
on infrastructure projects, as a means of promoting economic growth. Government
spending and government workers improve society both through their own consumer
spending and by the good work their departments do.
I do not support providing tax incentives to businesses for
the purpose of job creation. Tax cuts do not increase revenue, they cut
services. Isn't it time we stopped selling our country out to the public
impulse to be cheap and greedy? I want my country to be healthy and strong and
it needs to be respected and supported, not short-changed at every turn because
someone wants to be penny-wise and pound foolish. Can't we start caring about
our country again and not just ourselves?
Economic Development in Rural
Arizona:
The economy of Western/Rural Arizona is as diverse as the regions
this unique Congressional District (AZ-04) encompasses. Along the Colorado,
tourism and agribusiness dominate, manufacturing and transportation issues,
drive the economy along our interstate corridors. Mining and forest management
are major factors in the central highlands; and sustainable urban development
and quality of life are primary concerns in the extreme-suburban areas of
Maricopa and Pinal Counties and in the booming Yavapai communities of Prescott
& Prescott Valley. Each area has its own issues and needs specific support,
not a “one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter” quick fix. Promoting tourism and
improving our transportation corridors is an approach that provides support
throughout the region. Sensible mineral management policies that protect the
environment and worker rights provide long-range stability for the people of
rural Arizona and can still provide the US w our precious raw materials.
Arizona has jeopardized our water quality and public health for far too many years
for short-sighted business interests and our Bureau of Land Management
routinely mismanages the lands we entrust to it and starve the counties’ PLT
funds (Payment in Lieu of Taxes—the way the federal government compensates
counties for land the national government holds and takes out of the local tax
base) instead of contributing a fair share to local economies.
Our lives in rural AZ will always be rugged. That’s why we
came here, but the federal government is supposed to be our friend and becoming
a partner in our economic survival would be a great place to start.
Education:
NCLB and "Race to the Top" are disasters, outrages
and destroying our schools. The powerful are gutting public education and
enriching themselves. Time to drop high stakes testing, unfunded mandates, and
teaching to the test. Time to invest in arts education, smaller class sizes,
critical thinking skills and supportive social services. America is falling
apart and can only be saved through education. We have GOT to start seeing
education as a service again, and start investing in the quality of education
our children deserve. In today’s crushing economy, many of America’s poorest
have come to need our public schools for the social services they have come to
provide. It is time we stop constantly trying to underfund these services and
start honestly attempting to address the struggles our students and their
families face.
Energy:
America has got to move past the petro-chemical model that
has dominated our energy strategies and our economy in general for the past 150
yrs or so. I call for intensive support of alternative energy sources on the
consumer and on the industrial level and hope we can put a stop to endangering
the American public for the profit of our oil & coal moguls. I do not
support continuing our national subsidies to the oil and gas industries. I further
do not support lowering our protections from the slipshod predatory practices
of energy companies. Diablo Canyon, Hinckley, CA, Love Canal, Times Beach,
Exxon Valdez, Deep Water Horizon, these are real events, real cases where
America has suffered because company errors, neglect, greed, or deceit. We need
more protection, not less.
Environment:
Human activity is contributing to climate change. We have
seriously devastated the planet’s climate and bio-systems and MUST address this
runaway pollution problem before we imperil the whole planet. I support the
federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, federal funded research for
alternative energy applications and pollution mitigation measures. I do not
support indulging the Right’s War on Science. Do we still have to go through
this? I would rather talk reality than oil company propaganda.
Guns:
I am opposed to making gun safety an issue in my campaign.
That said, as a Christian, I no longer own guns myself. I support gun rights,
but believe in the "a well regulated militia" part of the 2nd
Amendment as well. I don't want 4 year-olds with bazookas, do you? All men are
not angels. Some folks are criminals, some are fools, some folks are nuts.
Criminals, fools and nuts with guns kill people. Let's be reasonable.
Health Care:
Flawed or not, I support improving, not repealing, the 2010
Affordable Care Act. I avidly call for single payer/universal health care for
my long-term goal. But in the here and now, as long as we exist in a outdated,
over-priced for-profit healthcare model, people will need health insurance to
pay for their outrageously priced, comparatively sub-standard medical care in
America. In some cases that means that some individuals will have to be required
to purchase health insurance, as mandated in the 2010 Affordable Care Act. And
it further means that we need strong safeguards to protect Americans from the
heartless abuses of the health insurance industry, who all too often equate
success, not with improved quality of care, or the health of the patient, but
profits gotten from denial of care.
Of necessity, the ACA has some strong mechanisms in place to
ensure participation; but it unfortunately needs those as has been amply
demonstrated by the greed-driven HMO practices of the past and the
short-sighted health care decisions of many Americans. Thus the mandate. The
American public ends up having to pay the health care costs of those who refuse
to purchase health insurance when they are faced w catastrophic injury or
illness anyway. The ACA’s mandate reduces the burden on the rest of us by
guaranteeing more Americans participate. We have to buy all sorts of things
that are good for us under penalty of law. Parents must feed and clothe their
children under penalty of law. Drivers must buy IDs, insurance, safe cars, we
all pay taxes, etc. So that's all I have to say about that angle.
However, I further want to note that gutting the ACA
instantly hurts tens of millions of Americans. The GOP doesn't care about that.
They're after a talking point to sway the greedy and uninformed. I believe the
right’s battle over the central philosophy behind the ACA is their greatest
shame: to insist that a government is not responsible to ensure, protect and
promote the quality of life of its citizens is to harbor a cruel vision of our
country. It is not Christian and borders on Un-American. When they cry they don’t
want a country that cares for its people, I wonder what it is they do want? Ultimately
I want universal health care, but the ACA is a key step in that direction.
Immigration:
American Immigration policies are an outrage and one of the
most frustrating human rights embarrassments in America today. Our country has
long made a shameful practice of exploiting our immigrant population from the
indentured servants of colonial times, the Irish, the Asians, and Southern and the
Eastern Europeans of a century ago, right up to today’s demonization of Hispanic
immigrants and our government’s blind eye to the creation of an invisible
slave-class: the undocumented immigrant, who is exploited by small businesses
and multi-national corporations alike. I reject our administration’s policies and
practices by and large and hold that the recently scuttled “Comprehensive
Immigration Reform” was not the change we need.
That said, I do NOT support requiring illegal immigrants to
return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship, or the
enforcement of federal immigration law by state and local police. And I do
support allowing DREAMers, undocumented immigrants, who were brought to the
United States as minors, to pursue citizenship without returning to their
country of origin. Our immigration laws create injustice for both the
documented and the undocumented immigrant alike. They perpetuate a second class
underground human being and a culture of fear, racism and disrespect, and need
to be reformed. People who are already in the US need to be brought into the
system. Talented and or well-off immigrants need to not be penalized due to
government ineptitude. Economic refugees need a path to immigration legally,
not a path through the desert. If you want to stop illegal immigration, make
immigration legal. And the exploitation of American workers, citizens or no,
has got to stop.
Marriage:
I support full-citizenship rights for our LGBT community
including marriage equality as a minimum expectation for a country that claims
to be about liberty and justice for all. Again this is a matter of a violation
of my religious freedoms by homophobic theocrats legislating their prejudices
on my marriage rights. No one is free while others are oppressed. Our American
humanity depends on how we treat all people. Marriage, adoption, health care,
family property, the list goes on. Is this really a still a question in
America? Why?
National Security:
America can never attain security by threatening the rest of
the world into submitting to our will. It is not our freedoms that our enemies
hate, it’s our oppressions. We have got to review our priorities in a world
where the US sphere of influence is only part of the larger interwoven mosaic.
American might was meant for defense. If we made more friends we’d have fewer
enemies.
Social Security:
I am so sick of the Right’s attack on Social Security and
reject any schemes they have to restructure social security to their own
liking, including suggestions that individuals divert a portion of their Social
Security taxes into personal retirement accounts. This is a recipe for disaster
and SO predatory it verges on Un-American. This anti-American boondoggle is
criminal in intent and needs to be widely discredited. It will only enrich the
powerful, impoverish the public, and destroy our entire social service network.
Whoever promotes this should be tried for crimes against humanity.
Spending and Taxes:
Spending: Yeses
& No’s:
Increase Arts Spending
Decrease Defense Contractor Spending
Greatly Increase Education
Decrease Homeland Security
Maintain International Aid Spending
Greatly Increase Medical Research
Greatly Increase Scientific Research
Maintain United Nations
Increase Social Services
Taxes: Yeses and No’s
Increase Capital Gains Taxes
Maintain Corporate Taxes
Slightly Increase Excise taxes (alcohol)
Slightly Increase Excise taxes (cigarettes)
Maintain Excise taxes (transportation fuel)
Maintain Income taxes (low-income families)
Maintain Income taxes (middle-income families)
Increase Income taxes (high-income families)
Increase High-End Inheritance taxes
Maintain Payroll Taxes
Also:
Legalized and Tax
Cannabis and Cannabis Products,
End Social Security Pay-In
Cap for Those Earning Over $105,000
Create the
Transaction Fee for Brokers for Electronic Trading
Increase Taxes for
Businesses With Offshore Tax Shelters
Enforce White Collar
Fines for Tax Cheats
Adjust Taxes for
Those Earning Over $250,000 to 35%
THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST
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