“Who Can We Trust Anymore?”
By Pat Racimora on January 28, 2010 at 11:00 AM in Current Affairs
I’m not at all happy with politicians these days. But there are a few I trust to be courageous and sincere, even if I don’t always agree with all of their positions. Joe Sestak (D-PA) is one of them. He is taking on Arlen “I-was-Republican-until I realized I couldn’t win another term-so-I-became-a-Democrat” Specter in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania.
I liked his press release from yesterday. It is readily comprehensible with a lot of down-home common sense. We don’t see enough of that these days. What do you think?
In anticipation of the President Obama’s State of the Union Address, Joe Sestak issued the following statement:
“In 2008, America voted for change. Not just a change of parties or policies, but for a fundamental change in politics and the way we do business in Washington. America voted to end the systemic lack of oversight, transparency and accountability — both in Congress and the previous Administration — that brought about the crises we face today. This was not a mandate, but an opportunity — a chance to put our principles over politics as usual, to restore faith in our nation’s leaders and public institutions. Congress has not delivered. Too many in Washington have strayed from principled compromise to a compromise of principles. Too many have forgotten that it is jobs for American workers that matters, not our own. Tonight, the President has an opportunity to put our country back on a path of real change by declaring a renewed commitment to transparency and accountability and putting our focus back on America’s working families.
“First and foremost, the President must make job growth and long-term financial security our top priorities. Only then can we improve the economic, health, education, environmental/energy, and defense security of our families. To rein in deficit and debt spending while ensuring quality job creation with real income growth, we must:
• Implement a statutory “pay-as-you-go” (PAYGO) rule that requires an offset for all new government spending and expand PAYGO to cover all spending — both mandatory and discretionary.
• Immediately restore our economic growth and stability by implementing a job creation plan that strengthens small business hiring, implements job share programs, saves jobs by closing state budget deficits and ensuring consumer confidence by providing relief to job seekers. Doing so could support 10.9 million jobs over the next two years — 582,000 jobs each month — as America did in the 1950s under President Truman.
• Address entitlement spending by reining in health care costs to prevent the federal debt from reaching 279 percent of GDP in 2050, from 46 percent of GDP at the end of fiscal year 2009.
• Close tax loopholes that ship jobs overseas by preventing corporations from deferring taxes on income earned by foreign subsidiaries as long as it stays off the company’s U.S. books.
• End the Bush tax cuts that went to the top 1% of income earners. This includes reforming the capital gains tax rate and adjusting the marginal tax rate to the level it was under President Clinton for those earning more than $1 million.
• End the earmark system and gradually replace it with an objective, competitive grant process that removes political influence and ensures that all projects stand on their merits
Beyond the immediate urgency of restoring our long-term financial security, the President’s agenda must focus on the five pillars of security outlined above. These include:
Defense
• Recently, President Obama made the difficult commitment to deploy an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. As a former Admiral, I supported this measured increase, because the status quo in Afghanistan was sliding backward and would never have produced conditions for us to securely withdraw, particularly because of the situation in Pakistan and the safe haven Al-Qaeda has secured there.
• However, I look forward to hearing the President’s details on how he will define our ultimate success, and the outline of an exit strategy that gives us benchmarks for measuring success or failure-because this cannot be an open-ended commitment-so that we can leave behind conditions in Afghanistan which will prevent the return of Al-Qaeda.
• This week, the President announced his plan to freeze discretionary spending in a number of areas. Defense spending was not included. However, the President’s agenda must provide assurances to the American taxpayers that we will focus our defense budget on quality rather than quantity of acquisitions. Last year was a model of such “smart spending,” with an ambitious reform budget proposed by Secretary Gates which concentrated on requirements in the field and passage by Congress of the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009.
• Finally, the President’s agenda must improve our response to bioterrorism attacks and public heath threats, the need for which was recently highlighted by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.
Health
• With as many as 14,000 individuals losing their health insurance every day and as much as $130 billion of economic productivity lost every year because of the uninsured, we need a clear path forward to implement urgently needed reforms for our health care system. The President should have a firm hand on the tiller and propose a legislative plan for improving consumer protections, expanding competition in the insurance market and a reducing in the number of uninsured Americans.
Education
• With 60 percent of all new jobs requiring some form of post-secondary education and the U.S. estimated to fall 16 million college degrees short of workforce needs in 2025, access to higher education is essential to continued economic success. Ensuring that we can meet these needs will require strong leadership from President Obama on expanding access to high quality early education programs, improving the way we hold teachers and schools accountable for the education of our nation’s children, and making college more affordable. Ensuring children coming to school ready to learn and enforcing realistic accountability for our nation’s teachers will allow the U.S. economy the opportunity to rebound.
Energy, Environment and Transportation
• We need to continue to move toward a competitive and sustainable economy with the passage of meaningful comprehensive energy legislation that contains a strong national renewable energy standard, provides incentives for the development of the next generation of energy generation and efficiency technology, and restores the United States to a position of global leadership in creating a clean, unlimited energy supply.
• We must ensure that as we take the necessary steps to rebuild our economy and return people to work, that we do not do so in a way that degrades our recent progress in protecting and preserving our environment and health. As we retool our economy for global success, we must rededicate ourselves to national and regional transportation planning that fosters economic growth and meets the needs of the future, not just transportation spending for spending’s sake. We should create more regional airport systems and first-class ports connected by quality high-speed rail systems. We need an integrated and well-designed road transportation system that not only moves people more effectively, but also minimize accidents and integrates all modes of transportation. And we must do it in a way that brings all the players together in an open and transparent process.
Joe Sestak was elected to Congress in 2006 after a distinguished 31-year career in the United States Navy, and he is honored to represent the Southeastern Pennsylvania district where he was born and raised. He is a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat from Pennsylvania. During his Navy career, Joe attained the rank of 3-star Admiral, served in the White House as Director for Defense Policy on President Clinton’s National Security Council, served in the Pentagon as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, and led a series of operational commands at sea, culminating in command of the USS George Washington Aircraft Carrier Battle Group (30 ships, 100 aircraft, and 15,000 sailors/marines/aviators/SEALs) during combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In our nation’s time of crisis in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the Navy turned to Joe Sestak to serve as the first Director of “Deep Blue,” the Navy anti-terrorism unit formed in response to the attacks. Joe is the highest-ranking former military officer ever elected to either branch of Congress. He graduated second in his class from the U.S. Naval Academy and holds a Master’s in Public Administration and a PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. Joe lives in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Susan, and daughter, Alex, and proudly represents the 7th District, where his mother and many of his seven siblings still reside.
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