IDEAS MATTER
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Ideas matter


This election cycle, more than any other cycle before, people are not just voting for the establish candidate.  They're paying attention to people's ideas.  Not just redgeric and not just talking about a problem but how are the candidates actually going to fix those problems?  Does the candidate have any ideas on exactly how to solve problems?  This is why ideas matter!

I have ideas on how exactly we can solve some of the problems that we are facing.


First, gridlock in Congress!

Congress currently has one of the lowest approval ratings in our history.  This is because people in Congress are paying more attention to what benefits their special interest groups rather than what benefits America.  Why is it that people can agree on an issue or a solution but when they find out that proposal is being presented by someone in the opposite party they suddenly are against that solution?  What can we do to get around this gridlock in Congress?

I propose we change the way that we introduce bills!  Currently, when a bill is introduced it says who is sponsoring the bill and/or cosponsoring the bill.  Sometimes it indicates what committee it's coming out of and so forth.  This proposed change would allow the first introduction of a bill to be anonymous.  After the bill is submitted without its sponsor's names, it would be distributed to all the members to look at the bill and everyone would have the opportunity to give their non-binding opinion on if they would support the bill or not.  After this initial reading of the bill by all the members, then the bill will proceed forward in the normal fashion.

This would lead to two different positive outcomes.

1st, Obviously if someone truly in their heart believes that a proposal is wrong then they should know that without seeing what party has presented it.  So on the areas that there is disagreement, there will still be disagreement but this would help identify the areas in which we have common ground so that we can move forward with doing the jobs that we have been sent there to do.  It's time for Congress to get back to work.

2nd,  If a Republican indicates that he or she would support an idea and then after finding out that it was presented by a Democrat, decides to not support that idea, then we have solid grounds to call them out on their hypocrisy.

Let's add some accountability and some integrity to the way that our Congress operates.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/ar_drc.html

Social Security

We need to protect Social Security while at the same time making improvements so that we can guarantee that when our seniors need it, Social Security will be there for them.

Currently the program has strong penalties in place for the people that desperately need to use it.  If a senior withdraws Social Security early they have to pay a penalty and they'll continue to pay the penalty for the rest of their lives in cut benefits.

On the other side, if a senior does not need Social Security there is very little incentive to not collect when they reach retirement age.

The current system of cutting benefits and raising retirement age do nothing but hurt the people that need it the most.  First thing we should do is reduce the penalties placed on those who desperately need Social Security.  But the big idea that can help ensure that Social Security stays viable is to create a real reward system.  If a senior citizen reach his retirement age and they do not need to collect Social Security then let's provide a reward system if they choose to wait before collecting.  It's the exact opposite of the punishment we do for those who have to collect early because they are in need.  By putting in place a reward for waiting, seniors can make the choice on their own if they can afford to wait.  A certain percentage of people will be able to make this choice.  This will result in more funds being available for those who cannot wait to collect and extends the life of the program.  All of this can be done without harming existing seniors and without further penalizing our future seniors.



Military contracts

Our government through our military, spends many billions of dollars every year in military contracts.  Some people may be surprised to learn that many of these contracts are given to overseas companies.  Because these contracts are in the billions of dollars, the combination of all of the contracts to overseas companies can add up to trillions of dollars.

 

In regards to this issue, I propose a two-part solution.

The first part is pretty simple.  We change the law and say that all military contracts have to be given to companies who reside in the US!  This would have several benefits.

The first is simple and that is security.  When our intelligence systems and weapon systems are being manufactured overseas it is much harder to keep the details and information about that equipment secure.

The second is a big part and that is jobs and our economy!

This move would create hundreds of thousands of jobs here in the US that would be high-paying jobs.  This would be great for the economy, because it is not only helpful to the people who get those jobs but those people then have money to spend on buying other products which helps other people and businesses make more money.  All of this money that would be moving around in our economy is money that we are currently getting nothing for, because were allowing it to go overseas.  It should also be noted that as this money moves around there is taxes on it that goes back to the government, and when it goes overseas the government gets no money back from that either.

The second part should be an incentive to hire veterans first!

Who better to build a plane than someone who has experience working around that plane?  Who better to build a gun than someone who has experience operating that gun?  Who better to build a tank than someone who has experience working in tanks?  Veterans are a natural best choice and should be given the opportunity to work these good paying jobs.







Elect Brandon Casutt to Assembly district 12.