12 THINGS THAT WILL GET MY VOTE
12 THINGS WILL GET MY VOTE!
PROGRAMS,TO GENERATE NEW DEVELOPMENT, NEW JOBS, NEW STABILITY FOR OUR NATION. WE AREN'T ASKING FOR WELFARE, JUST A CHANCE TO WORK AND PROSPER!
A few years ago I was in the Himalayas of Nepal. There were two young boys at the top of a mountain observation tower. They saw me and my wife carrying our bags, cameras and paraphernalia. One of them said; "Just give us a chance." He wasn't begging for a hand out, just asking for an opportunity to work, to earn money, to gain a first step out of the prison of poverty.
Well, Mr. President and all of you politicians running for office, here is your chance to get my vote, and millions of others. Just give us a chance! Not a hand out...a hand up! Here is our list:
1. Government incentives to make the banks start lending to small business. Americans have walked away from banks, because of a perception, that banks, especially the big boys such as Citi, Chase and Bank of America, have not been there for them. Perhaps it will take the government, to encourage bankers to save themselves, by requiring that banks actually recognize their fiduciary duty to their communities and their customers. To actually start making good loans to good, deserving people and businesses. We suggest a program setting standards for lending, with incentives to banks for new loans that have * good collateral *good sources of repayment *to people of good reputation. Good banks should be heralded, praised, given recognition, and even cash bonus awards for "yeoman's service" to their communities.
2. Government penalties to banks that simply sit on the sidelines while consumers and business gasp for capital, loans and lines of credit. (We are told that many lenders have said that they would not lend into this economy for political reasons...perhaps because they don't like one or another candidate). Politics should never enter into bank lending decisions. If a bank has assets, and refuses to make loans available to a community that needs assets, there should be a system to balance and encourage a correct response.
3. Penalties to those who manipulate "credit scores" as a means of charging maximum interest rates, at the very time when consumers and business need reasonable credit the most. The worst offender is Citi Group, which has millions of Americans on rates of 29% (and this is after passage of the credit card protection act that was intended to stop this kind of predatory lending).
4. Revamp the credit scoring system for the 60,000,000 Americans who have lost their credit ratings in this worst recession of 40 years. Let's give credible people, who can give us a reasonable chance of repayment, a new start, a clean slate. I met a U.S. Marine who came back wounded, and his income and credit score both went down while he was disabled. Today, he cannot buy a car, because the American banking system will not finance a car to this hero who fought and was wounded for his nation. He is the kind of man who will pay his loans back...he has character. Somehow, this credit scoring system has no place for good people who were ruined due to no cause of their own. We need to bring them back into our mainstream economic system. That means the credit scoring system as it now stands, must go.
5. More incentives for "food production", "renewable energy" and "water issues" such as desalination, drip irrigation, grey water recycling. Food, Water and Energy are three big elements for our future survival.
6. More incentives for new "Made in USA" factories, manufacturing. Reward companies and individuals with tax breaks or incentive grants based upon the number of new jobs that they create. We need liberal financing for new manufacturing, liberal tax laws and a great effort to bring jobs back to the USA. Remember when WalMart had a policy of selling goods "Made in America". How about trying it again? How about, we give any company a waiver of sales tax or capital gains on any item "Made in America"?
7. Penalties to giant chains who move into communities, and in the process put local businesses out of business. I would suggest that if a "Walmart" or "Marriott" goes into a community, that they must put aside in a special reserve fund, 5%or 10% of their earnings from that town, back into that community development fund, to be used to support local business, make loans or investments to support local community entities that they compete with.
8. A regulatory waiver on small business...for example, any business under $10,000,000 in assets to be either be provided assistance to handle regulatory filings or a flat exemption from many regulatory filings.
9. Added home health care for seniors, disabled, women, single mothers and children. A woman recently had to be checked for breast cancer, and at $800 per snapshot, she told me that it was simply prohibitive for many women. Her insurance has a deductible of $3,500, and that is money that millions of young women, or poor people simply do not have. Provide broader use of "doctor and nurse house calls". Let people live on their own terms, in their own homes, and live and die with greater dignity, instead of institutionalizing them.
10. Greater grants, incentives, community development grants to rebuild heartland America. Small towns, farm communities, towns under 100,000 population have struggled with drought, depression, financial loss, and brain drain. We need to invest in these communities as a nation, give doctors, CPA's, community banks, retail business, schools and hospitals low interest loans, grants, or tax incentives to invest, to stay, to create jobs and opportunities to encourage young people to stay and build lives there. It will take pressure off of our over crowded cities and preserve the homeland culture so important to our nation.
11. Steps to tackle the issue of "Concentrations of Power". We once called them monopolies. Somehow through tax policy we must correct this distortion of our free enterprise system. We must understand that these concentrations increase economic and social instability and stunt potential new small businesses to emerge. How are our young people supposed to develop when they are "slaves" to an economic machine so big and so powerful that they will never know the joy of local business, local communities, and loyalty to cultural treasures, instead of greed economics.
12. Give us a sincere and genuine President, House and Senate. We don't need a handsome face, or someone constantly looking at polls. We don't need another billionaire who is out of touch with real people's lives and who wants another trophy for the display case. We need someone with nitty gritty integrity and strength to lead us to do what is right. Perhaps another Harry Truman, Tedi Roosevelt, or LBJ. Give us someone who is not a right wing crazy or a left wing radical. Give us a solid man, with good experience, good judgement, good instincts and some experience and knowledge in business. Give us someone with the courage to lead, take the arrows in the back, and keep on leading.
Give us these twelve things and we will have a better nation. Give us these 12 things and we will vote for you. We don't care if you are black, pink, purple or even blue blooded. Give us a man (or woman) most likely to provide these 12 things and we will give you the keys to the White House and the keys to the House and Senate.