Issues

Education

Our education system in Kentucky’s Fourth should be a top priority because at this time we are failing to prepare our next generation with the educational tools needed to compete in a global society. It is imperative that we go beyond outdated educational models and inject new philosophies, methods, and expectations for our nation’s students while eliminating both the practice of teaching to the test and the No Child Left Behind Act. Other ways we can improve education are:

Increase the utilization of hands-on learning

Emphasize the role of problem solving and critical thinking

Improve the development of social skills through group work

Emphasizing critical thinking and let teachers teach, instead of training for standardized testing

Increasing community service projects

Improving civic education with an emphasis on social responsibility and democracy

Focus more on varied learning resources versus relying solely on textbooks

Restoring our Middle Class and Providing Opportunity for America's Working Poor:

It is imperative we assess current free trade agreements and any that come in the future to ensure that American companies and our workers can compete on an even level with their global competitors. We also need to allow businesses a chance to compete by providing job hiring tax credits and freeing up credit.

I support labor 100% including legislation such as the Employee Free Choice Act, which will provide job security, increase pay, and provide much needed benefits.

Veterans:

I had the distinct honor to serve on the USS George Washington and was directly involved in Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom. Anyone who is willing to serve this country should be taken care of when they come home. I pledge to fight everyday to ensure that anyone who wears or has worn the uniform of the United States will be completely taken care of after they serve our great nation.

Energy and Environment:

America's national security demands that our nation become energy independent as soon as possible, so we are no longer held hostage by foreign oil. In many ways this is our generations Sputnik considering countries like China are way ahead of us by investing $10 million a day in alternative energy. For this reason, it is imperative that our nation starts investing in alternative energy, which calls for us to be the innovators and pioneers our nation has historically been. Tax credits and incentives should be expanded, which will create new jobs, and will finally allow our nation to be energy independent.

These incentives can take the form of a $2,000 tax benefit to consumers, which will provide Americans an incentive to reduce their energy consumption because the more energy you conserve the more money you will have in your pockets. This will be paid for by taxing energy producers who emit carbon dioxide into the air, which also will provide an incentive for energy companies to transition towards greener alternatives. This is a smart alternative to the cap and trade legislation proposed currently, which is creating a whole new trading scheme whereby corporations can ignore transitioning to green alternatives and pass on any costs to Americans.

Taxation:

The upside down tax-cutting policies of the last thirty years has created a system where the top 1 percent of earners in America pay 6.4 percent of their incomes in taxes, which in contrast the middle class now pay 9.4 percent and the nation's bottom 20% are paying 9.4 percent. I will push to advocate for a progressive tax code, which will provide equitable taxation for working families.

Refocusing our Foreign Policy to Better Serve our National Security:

I will rise in opposition to any additional measures that will cause our military to fight in unjust wars that do not serve the interests of our national security. Other measures that I will advocate for in order to refocus our foreign policy to better serve our national security includes:

Transitioning to a world free of nuclear weapons

Ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Eliminating the practice of preemptive warfare

Scrapping the inoperative missile defense program that has wasted $200 billion since 1950

Discontinuing multiple deployments in order to heal the damage to our military and our service members

Immigration

America is a sovereign nation and her borders should be protected unconditionally but at the same time, we need to consider why so many Latin Americans are coming to our nation in the first place and why they are staying. One of the primary reasons undocumented workers are coming here in droves is due to an unbalanced free trade policy that puts them at a financial disadvantage. Addressing this situation head on will require revamping our free trade policy to make it fair for all workers whether they are from America or Latin America.

Unfair trade policies have driven countless workers in Latin America into abject poverty and in turn driving them to the United States to survive. Therefore, with new trade policies geared towards protecting workers will remove the dire decision of bypassing our immigration laws and in turn they will emigrate here by choice much like our ancestors did in the past.

Secondly, many employers continually hire and exploit undocumented workers in order to pay less taxes. The end result of this is wages being driven down, which creates a dual situation where hardworking Americans are hurt as well as undocumented workers being exploited. It will be my stance to penalize any employer who knowingly hires and exploits undocumented workers. This will offer an opportunity to secure proper documentation in order to work with appropriate protection of the law. Providing both the immigrant and the American worker with equal access to decent wages will produce much needed unity to strive for a better future.

Reducing the Debt we Leave Future Generations

In these tough economic times, every American is trying to find ways to trim their budgets, which our government needs to start focusing on as well. Republicans complain about spending on new programs created to help us get our country back on her feet, yet they do not acknowledge their own responsibility for eight years of unprecedented spending and government growth in history.

I stand with Senator Russ Feingold in finding ways to reduce our deficit and eliminate government waste by supporting the Control Spending Now Act, which will reduce our deficit by over $500 billion. Some of the measures that we can reduce waste that is contributing to our nation’s deficit includes:

Ending the Wall Street bailout and saving the additional funds left over will save $244.5 billion

Considering many Americans are out of work and many more are not seeing pay raises or adequate hours, automatic raises given to members of congress should be abolished, which will save $80 million over 10 years

Lowering the cost of prescription drugs through drug reimportation will save $50 billion over 10 years

Redirecting Medicare prescription drug assistance to those who need it the most will save $10 billion over 10 years

Eliminating taxpayer subsidies for exporters will save $3.35 billion over 10 years

Helping small to mid-sized farmers by getting rid of farm subsidies for individuals with high incomes will save $1.036 billion over 10 years

Eliminating wasteful defense spending on the C-17 not needed by the Department of Defense and finding an alternative to the unsafe V-22 Osprey will save over $14 billion

Restoring Control of our Government

For far too long our representatives in government have set the needs of voters aside because of the pay to play campaign finance system currently in place. We can put the power of government back in the hands of citizens with comprehensive campaign finance reform and creating a public finance system.

As your Congressman, I will fight for the Fair Elections Now Act, which will require a Congressional candidate to raise $50,000 via a limit of $100 maximum donations and a minimum of 1500 donors within the candidate’s state for an exchange of $900,000 in public financing. This will finally put our government back in the hands of Americans and out of the hands of the special interest lobbyists who have a stranglehold on Washington D.C.