As an independent, conservative woman, I have been dismayed by the lack of leadership, the weak-willed actions and political gamesmanship played by both political parties, especially by those who claim to share my political values. If you've visited my page Jen In The News you know that, as a private citizen, I've put pen to paper and expressed my political views in 2007 in the Milwaukee Journal. You know where I stand.
I've put together a six-point platform of some of the toughest issues we face. These issues I believe that, if solved, America would regain her strength and credibility in the world. In addition, I've created a space for other issues that I intend to tackle in Washington.
HEALTH CARE
The path that health care is taking is leading America directly towards socialism. Our current Congress appears to be driven by ideology rather than the needs and will of those that they serve. At this point of writing (updated April 2010), Congress has signed into law a bill which will not only affect 1/6 of our economy, but will be the most intrusive and unconstitutional agenda item our government has implemented thus far. In their arrogance, many in Congress have not even read the bill that they have voted in favor of, or as our own Congresswoman put it in an August 2009 town hall, that in effect [she] “read the table of contents.” Now that the bill is law, the fight is far from over. There will be legal challenges, and ultimately, the bill could be overturned if deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
My solution for repairing health care is simple and does not require 2000-plus pages of one-size-fits-all, big brother, bureaucratic intrusiveness. I will work with my colleagues in Congress to introduce a bill for what I call Universal Private Insurance. The plan is simple: provide tax incentives to all private insurers to cover the demographics that politicians have used as pawns to manipulate Americans into believing we have a health care crisis: the uninsured due to income and the high-risk individual. While not mandatory to purchase, my plan offers an easier way for anyone that wishes to access insurance.
Insurance companies will be allowed tax credits to offset the cost to them for providing policies to the poor and high risk that are equal in coverage to those that can afford coverage and those that are low-risk. Furthermore, I will push for opening the sale of insurance policies across state line. Increased competition will lower the cost for everyone. In addition to interstate insurance purchasing, insurance would be portable for the policyholder, that is, the policy they buy is not dependent on the employer they keep. Individuals could hold onto the insurance company/policy of their choice, throughout their lifetime, adding and removing components as they see fit. I also envision health care legislation where individuals could purchase insurance policies similar to how other forms of insurance are purchased, as in investment that they pay for over a lifetime that they could tap into in their old age when the need arises. I believe that through this course of action, Medicaid and Medicare could eventually be phased out nationally, with individual states retaining the right to continue some form of public assistance if they so chose to do so.
RETIREMENT
Retirement should be a secure time for all Americans. No one should have to worry about whether or not their investments will disappear due to downturns in the market, or if their health care will be restricted due to rationing. Unfortunately, both of scenarios have become all too real for the majority of us, both young and old. I have a simple solution for providing current and future generations peace of mind during their golden years: Retirement Savings Accounts, or RSA's. An RSA is a savings program which could eventually replace Social Security. The fundamental difference between Social Security and an RSA is that an RSA is an individual's personal account, not a tax grab by the federal government. RSA's would be managed by private institutions outside the reach of the federal government, which means your money would be yours, not part of the government's coffers that they decide when you get it and how much you deserve of your own money. Furthermore, these private institutions must back all savings by gold. Yes, gold. While investing in the stock market via 401K's can be profitable, it can also be disastrous and the only safe solution, the only sound alternative to Social Security is to protect our futures with something tangible.
IMMIGRATION
As a nation of immigrants, Americans are acutely aware of their unique position in the world as the country that welcomes all that are willing to come here and be a part of the American Dream. In order to protect our sovereignty and way of life, we must ensure that our system of welcoming new citizens as well as guest workers is effective. Unfortunately, the system is beyond broken, which has resulted in millions of illegal immigrants that live in a perpetual limbo within our borders and an American public that is angry, frustrated and feels the government has failed once again.
My solution for repairing the biggest immigration problem—our open border with Mexico—is simple and it gives both sides a middle ground from which to re-build our immigration policy. I will propose a plan to build a 21st century immigrant processing center at our southern border, which I call La Isla Eliseo de la Sud, or the Ellis Island of the South.
This facility would work much like any immigration checkpoint, except this would be tailored to fit the needs of immigrant that is most likely to enter the US from Central America, those seeking entry-level employment in the US. The facility would provide dormitories and health care clinics to ensure the entrants are in good physical health while awaiting approval into the U.S. on a work visa. The facility would also provide, through private-public partnerships, legitimate employment opportunities and transportation to those opportunities around the country. In order to make this facility a success, the border fence must continue to be installed in its entirety. I believe this is essential in order to positively funnel immigrants towards the facility, as well as control criminal activity from drug gangs and “coyotes” that prey upon the immigrants. Just as important, the fence and processing center also protects Americans by reducing the flow of drugs into the country when we limit the entry points and effectively monitor who enters. America must become pro-active in controlling her southern border. This is a sound solution in achieving that goal.
TAXES, SPENDING AND DEBT
In order to live in a civilized, functioning society, we must pay some taxes. But the very nature of our Constitution provides the American people with limitations on how and why our government can collect and spend our money.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, “Progressives” in both parties have, under the guise of good governance, increased their reach into the private lives of ordinary Americans through taxation and increased spending. Spending has become an exercise not in restraint and prudence, but rather an expensive marketing tactic by our representatives, desperate to prove to voters that they’ve “done something” in Washington by purportedly bringing money back to the district.
The problem with that mindset of course is that if the money never left the wallets of the taxpayers to begin with, our lawmakers would not need to come up with new schemes to spend it in order that it makes its way back home.
To add insult to injury, the altruistic narrative pushed by our lawmakers as why we need to spend—war on poverty, for example—almost never produces measurable results favorable to the taxpayer, or the recipient of the service for that matter. Instead new problems and new programs pop up and the taxpayer is squeezed for a few more dollars. And when Congress cannot find ways get more money from the taxpayers, they spend anyways and borrow the money from our “friends” like China, putting us further into debt.
While many of our leaders applaud themselves when they achieve a series of tax cuts, they don’t often speak of another truth: federal spending has not gone down. It is one thing to celebrate a victory for tax cuts, but it is a hollow victory when government spending does not decrease as well. My common sense solution is something most Americans are familiar with and what I call a Tithe Tax. For those of you unfamiliar with the term tithe, a tithe is the contribution given to a house of worship by its members. A tithe is 10% of an individuals’ income.
The concept is simple: I would introduce a bill which, if made into law, would require every department of the federal government to reduce spending by 10 percent every year, for the next 10 years. The idea is that every department in government should give 10% back to the American people. In turn, this money would go towards reducing not only our tax burden, but our present and future debt. And at the rate we are going, our debt may bankrupt the U.S. and/or put extreme financial duress on future generations. My plan to reduce spending is something that is practical, reasonable and a long overdue breather for the American people.
Quite frankly, I believe this could be achieved though the elimination of pork-barrel projects, redundancies, waste and fraud. The claims that would ensue such as the reductions in services to the needy are quite simply lies. If government was forced to stop throwing away money, to effectively monitor spending, to do with less, we could continue to maintain the social safety nets that we provide for people in need while protecting the rights of the taxpayer. For far too long Americans have been emotionally bullied by demands for more spending by the Feds as a means to solve every crisis the government can identify, and my solution can stop the bleed.
ENVIRONMENT
No one party or ideology owns the cause of good environmental stewardship. All of us want clean water, air and land, and it is possible to find middle ground for common sense solutions for a better environment without sacrificing our economic well-being.
The one area of environmental stewardship that I am passionate about is the Great Lakes. The protection of the Great Lakes is something nearly everyone can agree upon, from the avid sport fisherman to the hippie activist. I will work to strengthen protections of the Great Lakes, including introducing a bill that closes access to the Great Lakes through artificial canals, namely the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Chicago Sanitary Canal. I do not believe the legislation we currently have goes far enough to protect or ecosystem or the industries that rely on the vitality of the lakes.
I find it to be ironic that our current president is from Illinois, the same state that is the biggest obstacle to closing the canal and protecting our Great Lakes with its most threatening invader yet, the Asian carp. Our quality of life in Wisconsin in particular, and the region as a whole, is tied to lakes that are thriving. Unfortunately, the health of the Great Lakes continues to be under assault. Invasive species are doing ecological damage which could, by some estimates, decimate native fish species to the point of extinction. This would not only be ecologically disastrous, but financially devastating to the region as well. The tens of millions taxpayers must pay every year in the clean-up of our waterways and restocking fish populations that are hurt by the invasive species are not balanced by the industries that are serviced by transoceanic ships.
It is important to maintain an active shipping industry in our lakes. To remedy the obvious harm that will be done to Great Lakes ports due to the closure of the St. Lawrence Seaway, I would further propose a transit port at the point of cut-off where ocean-bound ships would transfer their loads to ships that only sail the Great Lakes. I do not believe the livelihoods of port employees need be disregarded in order to achieve a better stewardship of the Great Lakes. We can achieve a balance in the two through my plan, and the investment in a transfer facility would, in the long run, save taxpayers untold billions that we are throwing at what seems in the present to be a losing battle.
ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY
It goes without saying that energy is the engine that drives our economy. It not only drives our economy, but it provides America with stability, security and allows us to determine our own destiny. And in order for our economy to grow, and for Americans and investors to have faith in the growth of our economy, America must tap into all resources of energy. I find the "new" technologies, be it solar, geothermal and others, to be exciting. But we should not be forced nor can we be encumbered by scare tactics. We should employ and maximize all current energy sources—natural gas, oil and nuclear power—while developing the aforementioned clean energies that will one day meet the demand our nation requires. If we are to remain a world superpower, our economy must reflect the strength and independence befitting the title. I believe that government's role should be to encourage 21st century technologies.
I will work with my fellow Congressmen to put forth legislation which will free up resources of energy currently impeded by so-called environmental protections. While I am a strong believer in good environmental stewardship, such as my stance on the Great Lakes, I believe that much of what passes as protection of the environment is designed to stifle the growth of America. I will go to Washington to stop the manipulation of our energy policy. America will one day be technologically advanced to the point of no longer needing sources such as oil and gas. However, we are not yet there and we should not create and/or live by policies that hurt Americans economically and have little proven benefit to the environment. I will also work towards expanding and increasing the tax credits available to both residential and commerical property owners in order to encourage the sort of development and investment in the clean technologies we should be working towards. My research finds that the current structure of the programs, as well as the rebates available to the average American, to be convoluted in the rules and paltry in the rewards.
ADDITIONAL PLATFORM IDEAS:
VETERANS
The state of many of our veteran's hospitals is far below the standard of what we should be providing our returning heroes. As the only candidate that has worked in the business side of government, I have the experience and knowledge to propose the following: all of America's veteran's hospitals would be run through private-public partnerships. I worked as an accountant for over three years on Jones Island for the former operator, United Water, and I saw firsthand the successful operation of our wastewater treatment plant. In fact, the primary problems relating to our treatment was not due to UW's operational capacity, but rather the design of the system related to the size and the combined sewers. Taxpayers have benefitted from PPP's, not only locally but around the country as well. I believe that by combining our veteran's hospitals with the state-of-the-art resources of major hospital operators, our vets will get the service they derserve and have earned.
