Key Campaign Issues

By Beth Rogers

Support the President's programs to improve Homeland Security and modernize our military. We need to increase our vigilance while preserving our open society.

Improve education by transforming federal dollars into block grants that can be spent on the most critical needs determined in each district by the teachers and parents working together. Federal programs only provide about 4% of our education dollars, but they can be used more effectively if we reduce the cost and time now wasted by our School Districts in applying for a multitude of federal programs. Priorities should be set in each community, with teachers and parents working together.

Improve education by using federal education dollars to reinvigorate our technical training programs. Congress spends endless debate on what the minimum wage should be when our kids graduate school. The real debate should be on how we prepare our kids so they do not become stuck in a minimum wage job. We need to rebuild the strong technical training system that once was available to everyone--regardless of income--in our junior highs, high schools, and community colleges.

Our tax policies should reward work and make it possible for families that depend on both partners having jobs to care for their children and other dependents. The same tax code that allows deductions for business lunches should fully deduct child and senior care and give credits when one partner has to stay at home and take care of the family's dependents.

Continue progress of the last decade to reduce crime and strengthen respect for family, community, and property. Parents should not have to wait in fear when their sons and daughters go out at night.

Improve the economy through reasonable tax policies that encourage investments to provide jobs, reducing red tape and agency gridlock, and expanding our markets through agreements that assure free and fair trade.

Make health care affordable for families. Good health care is available at the top for people who can afford it on their own or through their employer, and at the bottom through government welfare programs. Working families in the middle need affordable health care as well.

Our environmental programs have made tremendous successes in safeguarding our water, air, and coast. But too many environmental dollars now are wasted in conflict and not enough goes into direct cleanup and protection. We need to reduce the time and cost of making agency decisions, and return those funds to protecting the public's health.