We need a new focus on quality of life and on social justice. I believe America becomes stronger when all Americans are treated fairly, with respect, and are able to participate in the economy. The American ideals of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness apply to all Americans. However, the establishment parties have promoted and deepened social divisions along the lines of wealth, age, gender, and race. Divide and conquer is the method of the establishment parties. Their goal is to exploit the public for the benefit of their sponsors. Extreme income inequality.is one area where we see the result. As a few become wealthy, the working class becomes poor. As the aged are exploited by the healthcare corporations, the young are indentured by student debt and Obamacare. As social conditions deteriorate and poverty increases, wedge issues are promoted and racial tensions are inflamed to deflect anger away from the establishment.

The Republican and Democrat politicians have made many poor choices. This results from the fallacy that they can serve both their sponsors and the public. In fact, the public interest is sacrificed for the sponsor’s gain.

The choice to load debt onto young people going to college is a poor choice. Student debt favors the banking cartel and corporate interests and is responsible for inflated college costs. Education and future success cannot be borrowed and opportunity cannot be sent overseas. The establishment politicians forgot their primary responsibility in education policy is to the students.

The choice to continue the war on drugs, a disastrous and crime-promoting policy, is a choice to bow to organized crime and to serve narrow corporate interests in the pharmaceutical, prison, chemical, and agriculture sectors. Every problem we face due to drug use is better addressed with other policy choices.

The choice to give corporations control of health care is a poor choice. Corporations are given the power to hold our health hostage for ransom. Services are limited, access is restricted, and prices are raised higher and higher. We pay the highest prices for a second rate system.

The choice to subsidize the fossil fuel industry is a poor choice. The Republicans and Democrats are so busy serving their sponsors, they forget that we live here in the environment, and we have no place else to go. Now the environmental damage is blatantly obvious, but they persist in denial and greenwash hoping for a miracle to save their polluted system. The favoritism is seen in the tax code, in lax environmental regulations, in the transportation system, in industrial agriculture, and other places too numerous to list. As the fossil fuel industry becomes less and less economic, they seek to extend and increase subsidies and regulatory favors to their sponsors. In the past, one could say fossil fuels promoted prosperity, but that is no longer true as the costs now exceed the benefits. Resources have been depleted, extraction costs have risen, quality has declined, fossil fuel infrastructure has deteriorated, and environmental damage reaches disaster levels. But since there are so many subsidies for fossil fuels, it is necessary to subsidize alternatives just to even the playing field. The Republicans and Democrats have made poor choices with respect to energy and they have no way to straighten things out because they must serve their sponsors.

The choice to bail out, subsidize, and protect the financial oligarchs is a poor choice. The Republican and Democrat politicians lost the respect and confidence of the American people when they chose to bail out the irresponsible and manipulative financial oligarchs and to condone the corporate welfare and favoritism policy of quantitative easing. Rather than face the fact of the bankrupt financial system, the establishment politicians try to paper over the faults and delay the inevitable. Meaningful and thorough reform of the money system is absolutely necessary, but it will never happen with the Republicans and Democrats.

The Green Party plan is the policy proposal of the Green Party and presidential candidate Jill Stein. This policy is future oriented and designed to serve all Americans. The Green Party places people, planet, and peace over profit. The main reason we currently have such emphasis on corporate profit and control is because the corporate interests have gained power over the two establishment parties. Yet, business can succeed and thrive even in a society that has human values. I believe the public makes better decisions and is more responsible than the elites and their politicians. We can and we should fulfill the concept of a government of, by, and for the people. The ideals of America – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – are human ideals and it is time to complete the revolution begun over two hundred years ago.

Positions:

• A healthy environment is a requirement for any sort of hopeful future and equitable society. Economics and social programs without a healthy environment are an empty illusion.
• The root cause of much social inequity is the debt based money system. It gives a few people an advantage over the vast majority because the few (close to the banking cartel) have the advantage of controlling money and profiting from debt while the vast majority scramble to pay the debt. Where does our money come from? We needlessly create social conflict by tying money issuance to bank profits, so only the creditworthy are allowed resources, while too many are forced into manipulative welfare programs or denied resources altogether. Creating a more equitable and beneficial money system should be a top priority. I encourage you to learn about the money system and possible alternatives. See Positive Money, International Reform efforts, American Monetary Institute
• Adopt a single payer healthcare system for all Americans, treating solo and small practice medical providers fairly and allowing proven alternative methods to ensure competition and higher quality health care.
• Eliminate student debt by retiring student loans and having fully paid or low cost state college tuition.
• End the “war on drugs” because it has been a failure, only serving to enrich organized crime, destroy society in the U.S. and in Latin America, and create vast numbers of “criminals” who actually are no threat to others or our society.
• Greatly expand public transportation with a priority of serving the public. Expand and connect cycling and walking paths. Restore passenger rail and remove burdensome regulations on long distance bus services. Most importantly, create urban bus systems that provide a practical means to get around in cities. Transportation is a vital need and yet most people have no realistic choice in their mode of transportation. The current focus on highway construction is misplaced. The highway system is complete, but the use is not being adapted to our needs. We spend more on highway construction than we would spend on expanding public transportation. Today, public transportation is a better economic value.
• Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, has proposed a plan for moving from the greed and exploitation of corporatism to a human-centered economy that puts people, planet and peace over profit. This plan is designed to provide jobs and move America forward into a more healthy and hopeful future. I support Jill Stein and would work to adopt these policies in Congress.