The United States needs to actively promote peace internationally and at home by approving The Peace Building Act of 2021, HR Bill 1111, which would cut in half, and use the "Peace Dividend" to address "the root causes of domestic and international violence and promote policies to create a sustainable, peaceful world." https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1111

Presently, the U.S. military budget for 2024 is $884 billion, and the U.S. has 800 bases in 80 countries across the globe compared to Russia's 11 and China's 5, respectively. In 2019, the U.S. spent $732 billion compared to China's $229 billion and Russia's $65 billion. The US is the world aggressor regarding military spending, and we cannot continue with this policy of world domination at the expense of domestic wellbeing. Although the wars are not fought on U.S. soil, this violent war ideology can be seen in our communities, where people no longer feel safe. With 100 Americans dying from gun violence every day, it is evident that we need to address the underlying causes of violence and war, not just the symptoms. We also need to demand that our representatives sponsor H.R. 77, the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons.

According to statistics, well over 1/3 of Americans are poor or near poor. Many families struggle to recover since losing their jobs and homes in the pandemic. Since then, several plans to cut Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP) are putting millions of families at risk. We must come together as a nation to assist the less fortunate and realize that the well-being of all in our society makes for a healthier nation.

To end poverty, we need to address the following issues: raise the federal minimum wage to $25, ensure some form of universal rent control and prohibition of rental deposits, fund social housing to end homelessness, address prison reform, address voting rights issues, restrict the banking systems predatory practices, protect worker's rights and the right to unionize if they choose. Furthermore, we must ban the use of pesticides which are deadly to farmworkers and cause cancer to those living near fields (known as environmental racism). Also, place fair taxes on the wealthy and corporations and reduce taxes on the working class, explicitly repealing the 2017 tax breaks for the rich.

Our healthcare system needs to be gravely reformed! Presently, 66.5% of all bankruptcies are caused by medical debt. No one should have to go into debt because of health insurance premiums or health-related bills. Our healthcare system needs to focus on a more holistic preventative approach to illness rather than just treating symptoms. We need to target wellness through the socio-economic factors that cause many chronic illnesses, such as cancer, diabetes, stroke, and heart disease, that are the leading cause of death in America today. Also, big pharmaceutical companies must not be allowed to donate and fund lobbyists in Washington to promote their corporate greed (this also comes under campaign finance reform).

First and foremost, we as a country need to agree that there is a Climate Crisis and then address how to transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to one based on renewable energy. We must present the facts and show the American people the need to unite and change our way of being in the world. We can no longer consume and use the earth's resources like they are infinite.

When I hear politicians saying that we need to continue investing in oil and bringing back coal to have a robust domestic economy, I realize that politics are being used to feed the companies that profit from a fossil fuel economy. We must transition from a dirty economy to a clean economy, learn to live with less and conserve more, invest in renewable energy such as solar and wind, move to regenerative farming practices, and transition away from fossil fuel economies that Washington has subsidized for far too long.

Our youth realizes the dire situation at hand. Still, it is up to the adults to make the policy changes to save the planet from our continued negligence and shortsightedness of profits over the planet's health.

Education is the key to democracy and a more socially just society. As an educator, I have seen how the public education system is geared towards those with money to pay for education. We are the only country in the world that funds public education through property taxes, ensuring that students in poorer neighborhoods receive less than those in wealthier neighborhoods. I taught in an "inner city" high school where the first-year class was 1,500, and four years later, the graduating class was about 750. If 50% of the students weren't graduating in a wealthy district, would it be happening? We must ensure that all children have access to quality education because education inequality is directly tied to income inequality. We need to reform and revitalize education so that teaching to the test is no longer how the curriculum is determined. Education should meet the needs and desires of the student. Imagine a child centered education much like Montessori or Waldorf pedagogies.

Furthermore, we must forgive ALL federal and privately held student debt that individuals struggle to pay daily. We could do this and invest in ALL our educational systems, including universities and tradeschools, without spending billions on the military.

There were 604 mass shootings in 2023, with 43 already documented in Januay of 2024 . A mass shooting is described as an incident in which four or more people are wounded or killed with guns.   Even though I live in a small community, when I hear the loud sound of multiple gunshots popping nearby,  I wonder if that could be the next mass shooting. As a teacher, I  prepared my innocent kindergartners for an active shooter with our quarterly “cougar on campus” drills; in high school, we held active shooter on campus emergency drills. I wish for a time when drills were only for fires or earthquakes. 

I am a strong advocate for gun reform legislation, including expanding background checks, preventing people convicted of domestic abuse from owning a gun, allowing for the removal of guns from individuals who might be a threat to themselves or others, and making it a crime to own semi-automatic assault weapons or large-capacity ammunition feeding devices. These were the types of guns used in the Uvalde, Texas shooting, where an 18-year-old killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School. When the founding fathers included the “right to bear arms” in the Constitution, they never imagined that assault weapons would exist. We also need to provide more funds that support mental health issues along with conflict resolution skills to help prevent violence in our communities, starting in elementary schools.

The U.S. must respect the election results of other countries instead of changing the outcome of their elections so that it suits the U.S.’s political and economic interests. Since the end of WWII, the U.S. has been involved in approximately 60 regime changes (coups) throughout the world. In 1953, the U.S. and U.K.’s covert actions replaced Iran’s elected prime minister, Mossadegh’s, with the CIA-backed Shah. The Shah’s repressive regime lasted until 1979 when 98% of Iranian voters approved Iran’s shift to an Islamic republic.  It was the U.S. support of the Shah that created the reactionary Islamic republic that is governing Iran to this day.

The U.S. must also end trade sanctions and embargoes it has in place in Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela. These policies are ineffective in changing domestic policies and impose hardships on the civilians of those countries, who are already struggling to survive.  In fact, in the case of Venezuela, the use of sanctions has completely backfired and forced the people to leave their homeland and come to the U.S. for asylum. In 2023 from January to July, some 472,000 Venezuelas crossed our borders from seeking asylum. The U.S. must have a foreign policy that focuses on human rights and peace and accounts for all of the war crimes and illegal interventions of the past.

We need to take the absurd amounts of money being spent on campaigns OUT of the election process.  Under the laws of the Federal Elections Committee (FEC), it states:  “The individual may not accept money from foreign nationals, federal government contractors, corporations or labor organizations. (However, funds from a separate segregated fund—also called a PAC— established by a corporation or labor organization are permissible.)” It clearly states that one may NOT accept money from corporations, but then in the following sentence, it states that a corporate PAC (Public Action Committee) is permissible.  We need to get the lobbyists (PACs) out of politics so that politicians have to answer to the people they represent, not the pharmaceutical, oil, and gun lobbyists, or special interests funding their campaigns. 

The 2010  Supreme Court ruling for Citizens United changed the rules of the game, allowing corporations and unions to directly support candidates with NO LIMITS, under the protection of freedom of speech.  According to Berkeley Professor Robert Reich, in the 2016 elections, congress members received $3.5 billion in campaign contributions or $5.9 million per member of Congress.  There needs to be limits placed on campaign spending. It is criminal to spend so much money while there are so many pressing social needs in the U.S.  Laws MUST be changed.  We the people need to demand that the government be for the people, not just for the corporate interests who put profits over people.  

The US deficit is $1.7 Trillion. We need to stop spending $885 Billion on the Military every year to begin dealing with the debt.  We also need to raise government revenue by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporate entities that have been earning high returns for the past 20 years.  In 2022,  corporations in the US made around $3.5 Trillion dollars in profits, which is a significant growth from 2020 when their profits totaled $786 billion. In addition, we pay $879 billion of interest payments on the US Government’s debt of $33 trillion, $8 trillion of which was from the Afghanistan war.

I support the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which passed the House in July 2022.  This bill would reject the Supreme Court’s ruling of Roe vs. Wade and would codify abortion rights into federal law.  I also support repealing the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from being used to cover abortion care, denying healthcare to millions of low-income families.