Issues and Ideas

Strengthen our Educational System

While I know that we have primarily state based our educational system locally, I think we need to do more at the Federal level to support the state and local school systems to raise the bar. We need to do more to find ways of lowering the dropout rates and increase literacy rates. So many school districts have funding issues because they receive their funds from property taxes and with the housing market tanking; those funding sources have taken a serious hit. Over the years there have been teacher shortages in some places and layoffs in others. Teachers in some districts are paid incredibly low wages but more others. The inequity of the system across the nation is hurting our whole country. The only place where we can do something about leveling the playing field and raising the bar is at the Federal level. We need to incentivize teachers who are being hit with layoffs to move to places where there are shortages. We need to create national minimum standards for teachers and students, and use those standards to improve the individual students and teachers, not punish them.

Education beyond high school should be considered more of a necessity in the eyes of our nation. In order to compete and lead on a global scale, our workforce has to be well educated. College education is less and less affordable every year. For many career fields an appropriate college degree costs so much that the student loans are too expensive for anyone entering those fields to pay off and thus the students shy away from those industries. In Ireland, college is free…why not here? We need to study what they did and copy them. Not everyone is cut out to go to college. Some people choose careers that require vocational or technical schools. They should also be considered a necessity. If we a college or vocational-technical education as necessary, we would then put policies in place to make them affordable to anyone and incentivize attending to everyone. While our high school dropout rates have increased, other countries like India, China, and Ireland have been increasing their college graduation rates.

Medicare for All

Why didn't President Obama give Congress a fairly detailed outline of what he wanted to see in the health care reforms from the beginning? Why didn't we start negotiations and discussions with Medicare for All or single payer universal health care, instead of with a Public Option?

We already pay for the most expensive people in our society to have affordable health care, why not include everyone. Our governments (Federal, State, and Local) pay over $1.08 Trillion a year in health care on a portion of our population. As a nation, in both public and private plans, we spend over $2.2 Trillion a year.

Think about it. If everyone was covered and all of the doctors and hospitals were guaranteed payment for every patient, they could lower prices. They could tell people who came into the emergency room for the sniffles to go to their regular doctor. They wouldn't be treated by the most expensive treatment facilities, and then passing on the costs to the rest of us. Businesses wouldn't have to pay for health insurance premiums, and neither would individuals…well, not directly. The added profits for businesses and bigger take home pay for individuals would be taxable, helping to pay the medical bills for the country. If the businesses decided to invest that money in hiring more people or lower prices to compete, they could possibly grow their businesses. If state and local governments didn't have to pay employee health insurance costs or their share of Medicaid (which would be eliminated as not needed), their budgets would go from red to black ink. They could even lower state and local taxes.

Get us out of the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but do so properly

President Obama didn't start the wars but he is still responsible for cleaning up the mess of the previous administration. How do we pull out without leaving the countries we destroyed and have started to rebuild in such a mess that the Taliban and other extremists will just simply walk in and resume operations? We need to help the Afghani people to set up a stable and secure government. We need to make sure the people have a government that will protect and defend them against the extremists; something that has never been accomplished there before. I am not sure it can be done…but if we don't at least try to help, we will be thought of as destroyers for decades and generations to come.

Move the Prisoners out of GITMO

What do we do with the prisoners at GITMO? We need to close the facility but we need to deal with the prisoners held within. Since we the people don't know much about the prisoners, except that which the previous administration allowed us to know, we really don't know enough about them to make good decisions. We have to rely on the judgment of our elected officials to do the right thing, when previous office-holders weren't as reliable. I don't see a problem with bringing the prisoners to the United States and having trials in Military or Federal Courts. What's the problem with showing the rest of the world that we won't bend our ideals of liberty and justice, no matter what they throw at us.

Gut the portions of the Patriot Act that violate our rights

While we definitely needed to have additional protective measures in place after 9/11, I don't believe we needed to completely circumvent the Constitution and FISA Courts to do it. It's time we revisited the Patriot Act and gut the parts that violate our rights in the name of protecting us from terrorists. If we subvert our own Constitution and laws in the name of protecting us against terrorists, they win.

Increase Funding for NASA

One of my earliest memories was the first moon landing in the summer of 1969. I remember the family gathered around the television set on July 20, 1969.

I was too young to watch Star Trek back when it first aired, but watched it in re-runs throughout my teenage years. I have thoroughly enjoyed space exploration based science fiction for years, imagining the possibilities we have with our real-life space program. Like many young boys, I dreamed of being an astronaut. I studied math and science but knew that I would never by able to go into space because my eyesight is not perfect. I still dreamed of space exploration and working for NASA. Ultimately, my education and career moved towards business applications rather than scientific or engineering disciplines, but I remained a fan.

I could never understand why we did not put more resources into NASA. As I understand it, we get more out of it (financially) than we put into it; with all of the discoveries and inventions that came out of designing and developing the tools and equipment necessary to explore space.

When we were in a race to the moon with the Soviet Union, our nation put an emphasis on math and science education, which probably lead to the technology boom associated with the computer industry. All those math and science geeks (like me) went into engineering jobs and spawned many completely new industries. One of the few things that I agree with former President Bush about is setting a major goal for the next phase of space exploration. I am disappointed that the goal was set so far in the future, but we need such goals, and competitors to spur on further exploration. We have become apathetic and need to change the attitude of our nation. If we had continued at the level of progress we were making back in the 1970’s, we probably already would have had a permanently manned outpost on the moon and Mar’s by now. We may have even ventured out to explore moons of other planets farther out in the solar system. That is why I believe we need to increase our support and funding of NASA and set higher and higher goals. Then we need to turn around and call upon the nation to educate our young people into math and science disciplines to reach those lofty goals.

The Corporate Bailouts

I don't like the fact that we had to bailout any corporations, but something needed to be done. I don't like the fact that we weren't really given a chance to participate in the hurried discussions before Congress and the former President passed the legislation. I especially don't like the fact that the legislation passed had so little oversight to it that we really don't know much about where the money went. When they got around to the next round of bailouts, loans, or corporate assistance, they harped on the automobile manufacturer CEO's for flying in on their corporate jets simply to get a few sound bites out of the hearings for partisan gains. They bailed out the financial and auto companies by loaning them money and taking warrants and stock, but what happened to the workers? Financial Executives got limits on their pay but still got bonuses, while the lower level workers got the boot. Auto Executives got limits on their pay and some got the boot, but the union workers got lower salaries, the boot, and the blame. The workers just build the cars that the executives dream up and market. They didn't drive the industry into the ground, yet they lost their jobs by the hundreds of thousands. What are they going to do now? We need to find ways to retrain them for other industries. As we get back our loans with interest and are able to sell our stock in the companies we helped, we need to turn that money back around and help the people who were hurt by this whole mess. Supposedly, two thirds of our economy is based on our own consumption. Just how much consumption can go on when so many are out of work and those that are still employed are worried about losing their jobs too?

The Economy and the Stimulus Package

I hear every day someone complain about how the stimulus package isn't working and was such a waste of money and in the next breath how the administration is so slow about spending the money. One third of the stimulus money is set aside for extending unemployment benefits as well as helping unemployed people continue their insurance through COBRA. The other two thirds of the stimulus are supposed to be spent over time as projects are ready to use it. Critics of the stimulus didn't want to spend anything, even for those unfortunate people who lost their jobs. We haven't given the stimulus a chance to work. It has only been a few months since the stimulus was passed.

The Partisan Divide

The elected officials in Washington specifically, and the nation in general is caught in this polarize partisan divide. It has gotten so that everyone is basing all of their opinions on who comes up with an idea rather than the idea itself. If the idea came from someone of the opposite party, it must be no good. The cable news network's are feeding on this divide and doing everything they can to increase it. It used to be that the news organizations would question authority to get at the truth because we as individuals could not all be there to ask the questions. Now days, the truth is just an opinion that could be different for one set of people than another. It isn't the truth that has changed, but the opinionated perceptions of the truth that is put in between us and the truth. We all seem to sit down and pay attention to the reporters that agree with our positions because we can't stand the opposition's reporters. The reporters themselves have become the news and often spend as much time reporting on each other than the news stories. Anytime a reporter does come up with a legitimate truthful news story, the story is questioned through the partisan lens without first considering if the story is true or not.

The Budget and Taxes

We need to balance the budget. We need to make the budget so that we are actually paying down the national debt. There are no ifs ands or buts about it. We just need to do it. This nation cannot survive without it. The question then remains, how to do it. In family budgets and corporate budgets, we have different categories of items. There are items that are meant to invest in the future, and those that are necessary operational expenses, and some things that are discretionary. The revenue to pay for all types of spending by our government comes from many different types of taxes. I have had disagreements with my conservative and sometimes libertarian friends that don't believe government should pay for many things that it does. They don't believe it is government's place to provide services or even provide the infrastructure we need for the economy to continue or grow. I believe our biggest asset is our people and we need to do everything we can as a nation to make sure every one of our assets have the opportunity to grow and be as productive as possible.

American Jobs, Offshore Outsourcing, H1B Visas, and Immigration

We all understand that fact that everyone works to provide for his or her family. We all have to do it…well, most of us do. Unless we are Native Americans, we all have someone in our family that came here to make a better life for themselves and their families. We all agree that when here in the United States, we should all have a fair chance at jobs that we are qualified to perform.

The problems arise when people and companies violate the laws of the land. We have immigration laws that many people have adhered to while others haven't. To be fair, those that have adhered to the laws should not suffer because others haven't obeyed those very same laws. That is true of immigrants coming across the border illegally, as well as those that have overstayed their visas. If I were to go to another country illegally or stayed beyond my visa, I wouldn't expect to be able to get a job. When employers hire people illegally, it is just as unfair to the legal workers as it is to the company's competitors that are obeying the law. When employers are looking to hire a worker they are required to first try to find a legal US citizen or resident alien (green card holder) before asking for a visa for a foreign worker. If they are unable to find a citizen or legal resident when trying to fill a position, then they are allowed to request a visa for a foreign worker. If they hire a foreign worker, who requires a visa, the employer is required to hire them at the prevailing wage of citizens and other legal residents. Those are the laws of the land, yet there are many cases when they weren't obeyed.

While there are immigration and work visa laws that I would change, I would still expect the current laws to be enforced and obeyed until they are changed. The first change I would make would be to eliminate the part of the law that says an H1B visa holder can't switch jobs while still on the same visa. This one clause makes it possible for employers to take advantage of H1B workers; such as paying them lower wages because they know that the employee can't leave without having to go back to their country of origin. That is tantamount to indentured servitude.

There are plenty of out of work citizens and resident aliens that need jobs. I would like to institute a database of those workers and their skills that employers would have to search and interview from before asking for a visa for a foreign worker. Some people would consider this protectionist; I consider it a mechanism or system that aid in enforcing existing laws. If the employer did request a visa for a foreign worker and decided to hire someone from another country, they should have to prove that person is more qualified than anyone in the out-of-work workers list.

Undocumented workers, or as some call them…illegal immigrants, are here because they can't support their families back home. I don't have a problem with them. If we have as many undocumented workers as we have been told, finding them all and sending them home is going to be logistically, nearly impossible. We need to find a way to accomplish our goal without breaking the bank. We need to locate them and make them legal or send them home, and punish the employers for hiring them, without declaring amnesty. I believe offering those workers work visas and getting them documented, while fining the employers for hiring them illegally would be possible. If all of those workers were legal, they would be paid legal taxable wages. We could also require those employers to search the out-of-work worker list (above). Once we have full employment, even the economist's full-employment rate of 95%, we can then afford to hire foreign workers. When we are all employed, the economy rolls along nicely and grows well, but when we aren't all employed the economy tanks.

Next, I would like to have a plan to consider companies that have more employees overseas than they do here as a foreign company. We probably would have to set up some sort of classification that puts them into a separate category from companies that have a majority of their workers here in the U.S. and separate from companies that are headquartered elsewhere. I am not sure what these classifications would affect but I am betting that foreign companies aren't allowed to have certain kinds of contracts with the government when national security is involved. I do not know if this would stop off-shoring of American jobs, but it might draw attention to companies that do follow the practice.

Why do I care about these things? I care, because American workers care about these things. I care, because I once lost my job due to offshore outsourcing. I care, because I have seen many cities and towns in the Midwest seriously hurt by plant closures. Some of my views may be more conservative than some would like, while others probably won't think they are conservative enough. I just want to make it fair for the people of the United States.

Public Transportation South of Houston

Just one drive to work from Pearland up 288 into Houston will make you agree that we need to something about the transportation systems South of Houston. On the Southwest and Southeast there are high-occupancy lanes and bus lines stretching miles outside of Houston city limits. Pearland didn't grow when Missouri City, Sugar Land, Pasadena, Clear Lake, and Webster did. But have you seen the growth in the 288 corridor lately. Pearland is close to, if not over, 100,000 people now. A decade ago it was a small town, but not anymore. Many of those people work in the Medical Center and downtown Houston and drive 288 twice a day. Even with the added lanes, 288 can't handle the traffic. Cullen is being expanded but that too will not be able to handle the additional traffic. The last stop on the Metro-Rail is at Fannin and Belfort, miles away from a majority of the commuters. I will support getting Federal matching funds to bring that train all the way down to Pearland and beyond. I will also support adding bus lines and park & ride facilities in Pearland and points beyond. My Congressional district doesn't go much beyond Pearland, but I don't see a reason why the train shouldn't go all the way down to the southern-most parts of Brazoria County, with bus lines that reach out East and West to the small towns along the way. I also don't see why the train stops at the North end at the University of Houston downtown. I know the history and why it was built to those 2 ends near the stadiums and the U of H facilities, but the commuters that would utilize the trains are out beyond the beltways. There is an effort underway to create an East-West track. I believe that track should extend out to Katy with bus lines stretching out from every station. The better and more extensive the public transportation system is the more it will be used.

Gay and Lesbian Rights

Just how will a gay or lesbian couple getting married hurt anyone in a heterosexual marriage? If it doesn't sit well with someone's religious beliefs, go look up our freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights. Maybe that homosexual couple doesn't have the same religious doctorine preventing their vows of marriage. My wife and I weren't married in a church, does that make us not married? Our Constitution has been changed over the centuries to allow more people to have more freedoms, not less. Don't spoil the progress with amendments to the Constitution or laws that would restrict freedoms.

There have been thousands of highly trained, experienced, and honorably serving soldiers, sailor, airmen, and marines kicked out of their service to our country for no other reason than being homosexual. We can't afford to lose these patriots' skills and experience, especially during a time of war. Stop the madness of kicking them out and invite those kicked out back. We need them.

Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice

I can't say I am part of the Pro-Life or Pro-Choice movement. No one is pro-abortion, regardless of what the Pro-Life crowd says. I just don't see it as my place or that of the government to force beliefs on someone else. That kind of decision is private and belongs between the patient, her family, and her doctor. So, if I had to make a choice between those two labels, I would say I am Pro-Choice. The social conservative groups are always saying how they want the government to stay out of their personal lives. I guess that isn't true for this issue.