THE UNITED STATES AND ASIA:
President Obama’s recent trip to Asia is an important step in maintaining and developing a positive and beneficial relationship with this part of the world.
China’s population of 1.3 billion people is four times greater than the population of the United States. This means China should be a fertile market for our products.
China holds $800 billion of the United States' debt. We need to find a remedy to this situation. The United States and China share a number of mutual interests, and a rebalancing of trade must be one of them. As the leading power in the world, the United States must act now to leverage influence that will reduce our debt, increase our trade, and strengthen our relationship.
While China has become intensely capitalistic and competitive, it remains a communist and autocratic system. The Chinese people continue to suffer human rights violations at the hands of the government. The Chinese Government must know and understand that the United States will not do business as normal with a government that ignores the basic human rights of people.
UNEMPLOYMENT:
There are currently 15 million people jobless in the United States. It is unacceptable for our government to sit back and wait for the economy to correct itself. The government must act now to create a New Deal of programs that will put millions of people back to work rebuilding our infrastructure as well as repairing and improving our national monuments and national parks.
There is more than enough work to do, let us put the jobless to work doing it. We will not only stimulate our economy from the bottom up, but we will restore vitality to our infrastructure and national treasures.
HEALTH CARE:
With 43 million people in the United States without health care, this issue must be successfully resolved. We need universal health care for everyone. The plan should not be that difficult. If you have health care now, and you like your provider and service, then you should be allowed to keep your plan. If you do not have health care, then we need to create a National Health Insurance Exchange which includes a public option. A National Health Insurance Exchange along with a public option will increase competition, offer more choice, and drive health care costs down. People who can not afford health care or full coverage need help. It is part of our obligation to each other as one nation to see that all citizens of our great country have access to quality health care. Our goal must be universal health care based on a wellness program that will improve the quality of life for all our people.
AFGHANISTAN:
Recently, President Obama committed 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. I admire the President, but this is a bad idea. If President Kennedy were alive today, he would surely have advised the President to avoid being overly influenced by his military leaders. General McChrystal has wanted more troops for some time now. McChrystal has also said that the United States could be in Afghanistan until 2013 or longer. This is all unacceptable! We can and must protect our homeland without these military ventures that are so costly in the lives of our precious young soldiers, national treasures, and image as a global leader.
AGRICULTURE:
Our agrarian culture is the bedrock of our society. Yet today, modern equipment and technology have made farming a thing of the past unless you were fortunate enough to inherit the farm or you have become an employee of a corporate farm. We need an agricultural policy that supports and sustains our family farmers. We also need an agricultural policy that provides opportunity for young men and women to return to the farm.
We must halt the rise of corporate farms. We have seen all too clearly the destructive force of an unbridled corporate America. Our small towns and small businesses have all but vanished due to the impact of large corporations and big business. If we do not act now, farming will only occur as a feudal enterprise. This all has huge ramifications for our land, environment, and agrarian way of life.
We need an agricultural policy that provides a support system for new and emerging farmers. This support system must provide low interest loans for the purchase of land. This support system must provide a program for the cooping of equipment to work the land. This support system must encourage the establishment of small livestock herds. We must create a marketing safety net for a return on investment to assure food production and the success of new and emerging farmers. This is an investment in our small towns and rural way of life. An increase in young farmers will revitalize our small towns and small businesses so important to sustaining rural values and the agrarian way of life. We can and must do better!
~ Bill
