Jeff Vanke for Congress • Virginia 6th District

Integrity and Respect

1. Jeff Vanke’s first position is for integrity, civility, honesty, and common sense in politics. Even in sharp disagreement, he pledges to show respect for others, and to refrain from misrepresentation, personal attacks, and name-calling.

International Affairs and Defense

2. Jeff supports diplomacy in conjunction with effective national defense. For example, (i) The United States should complete its withdrawal from Iraq, leaving a residual force and advisors there if mutual terms are met, while securing Iraqi Kurds from human rights abuses such as they have endured in the past. (ii) In Afghanistan, we must continue transferring security responsibilities to Afghan forces and then proceed to drawing down our forces as in Iraq.

Health Care

3. Universal coverage by private-market providers (like the Dutch and Swiss systems) that is budget-neutral.  Jeff’s health plan limits insurance company revenues to 10 percent of premiums paid. For his eight-page detailed health coverage plan, click on “Health Care” above.

Immigration and its Consequences

4. The United States has reached its present strength and greatness on our long record of immigration of all kinds. It is in our interest to continue substantial immigration – but in a controlled, legal manner. Current illegal immigrants have done what many of us would have done in their position – they sought to improve their family’s conditions from near-starvation in a country with almost no opportunities to do so. In-between the extremes of full deportation on the one hand, and Reagan’s full amnesty on the other, Jeff advocates temporary work visas for current residents. Thereafter, those who remain in self-supporting households for at least three straight years will receive green cards. (As for many of our immigrant ancestors, households may be any size, within the same residence.) However, Congress must first enact the following two related measures.

5. English should be established as the national language, even as we encourage the study of foreign languages and continue to provide translations and translators for important services. El inglés debería ser establecido como la lengua nacional, en una enmienda Constitucional, justo cuando animemos el estudio de idiomas extranjeros y sigamos proporcionando traducciones y traductores para servicios importantes.

6. The United States should secure its entire southern border with extensions of effective existing fencing.

Federal Budgets and Taxes

7. Not only does Jeff support balanced budgets. He will annually propose a specific balanced budget.

8. Everyone should have a short-term stake in national balanced budgets. In years in which we have a Federal budget deficit and/or a debt (publicly held portion) over 60 percent of GDP, our national social contract for fiscal responsibility needs to include all incomes above poverty level paying income taxes (deductions, exemptions, and EITC notwithstanding), even if this is only a 1 percent tax rate for the first non-poverty dollars. In cases of annual deficits or total public debt over 60 percent of GDP, income tax rates should increase by 1 percent annually (except in recession years). When the debt goes below 60 percent of GDP and when the previous year’s budget was in surplus, every Federal income tax rate should be reduced by 1 percent annually. Under Obama and Pelosi, about 47 percent of American households will pay zero Federal income tax for 2009; this is unacceptable and dangerous for long-term national solidarity, prosperity, and solvency.

9. The Federal income tax system should be maintained, to include fewer deductions, more consistency, and lower taxes as soon as we control the debt. (a) We should have moderate caps on deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions (where “moderate” stands for the maximum sustainable by a median-income family of four with no savings). (b) Deductions for state and local taxes, and for education expenses, should be reduced or discontinued. (c) Trust funds should be taxed as are individuals, including proportional estate taxes when fractional beneficiaries pass away. (d) The maximum Federal income tax rate should be 39.6 percent (unless Federal debt over 60 percent of GDP kicks in individual tax increases of 1 percent for all income brackets, above 1993-2001 levels). (e) Capital gains should be inflation-adjusted downward for conversion into gross income, and then taxed at the individual’s marginal tax rate(s), with no other distinction for whether the investment was held for more or less than twelve months.

Jeff does not support a National Sales Tax (“Fair Tax”). For a conservative economist’s explanation of why that sales tax would have to be 35-45 percent or higher, look at the National Review Online here. Or see FactCheck.org.

Social Security

10. Social Security must be reformed in order to be preserved, to account for the substantial increase in life expectancy during the past two generations. (a) Combined Social Security – Medicare contributions should not exceed the current 7.65 percent of income (plus the same by the employer). (b) The Social Security eligibility age should be raised to 70 (also for Medicare), with the possibility of early retirement on lower benefits starting at age 67. (c) Full monthly benefits should remain the same as at present for median and lower incomes (if assets are less than $200,000), phased down to 50 percent of current monthly payments at the highest income levels. (d) Payments should be income-taxed, as the tax-deferred income that they are, but also eligible at the low end for current “Earned Income Tax” credits and subsidies.

Labor

11. Jeff maintains that workplace unionization be only by secret ballot elections, not by “card check” and not by arbitration. The Federal government should not impose closed-shop rules on the states nor on projects funded in part or in whole by the Federal government.

Financial and Economic Regulation and Stimulus

12. Financial regulation needs to include: (a) greater reserves holdings; (b) all de facto financial institutions regulated as such; (c) all trades including derivatives instantly reported to supervisory regulators monitoring for systemic risks; (d) corporate boards nominated and appointed only by shareholder votes, with timely and succinct summaries communicated at least electronically to all shareholders; (e) reform of stock-option compensation to draw out options redemptions over five years, redeemed in segments of no more than 10 percent per quarter (10 percent of eligible and ineligible vested stock options combined), in order to increase executives’ interests in long-term company performance.

13. Jeff is skeptical about any further stimulus and bail-out commitments, especially those which take tax dollars from (or piles debt upon) modest-income earners in order to prop up higher wages and salaries for similar work elsewhere. Most prominently, GM and Chrysler have not made successful cases for their $81 billion Federal bailouts, most of which has not been paid back (June 2010).

Housing

14. As the housing crisis subsides (which it has not yet), the Federal government should withdraw from all direct and indirect house-ownership subsidies, in order to avoid future bubbles and in order not to put those with low incomes in situations where they face occasional necessary major repairs but with no funds to finance these repairs.

Trade

15. To avoid future economic crises, and to keep life affordable for American workers, the United States must remain competitive in “mostly free” international trade. One reason that the 2008 financial crisis did not melt down into a Great Depression is because of the GATT-WTO system founded in the 1940s. This was designed to prevent another 1930s catastrophe, and it worked. The WTO is imperfect, but no country can thrive in economic isolation.

Energy and the Environment

16. The United States needs an immediate, well funded, Manhattan-Project-style push for energy independence, especially in renewable energies.  Under present circumstances, the United States cannot remain economically competitive under a cap and trade regime.  We need to pursue the halfway steps available to us.  For example, an electric car charged by coal-fired electricity is responsible for far fewer carbon emissions than is an oil-gasoline-powered car.  (Coal is not “clean,” but gasoline combustion engines are very inefficient, much more so than battery-powered engines, making the latter the less unclean.)  At the same time, we need stricter regulations on toxic emissions and solid-waste toxins, especially mercury, a growing presence in the food chain, including human bodies.  We need to promote rail access and use and electrification.  We should require that all newly licensed trucks carry transmodal containers.  We should promote carbon-capture through large-scale reforestation, from unused farmland to suburban yards and cities.

Race and Poverty

17. Jeff supports affirmative action by family and neighborhood incomes, but not by race or ethnicity. For example, states may decide to spend more per pupil for bottom-quintile income families and districts. The Obamas might be the first to concede that children like theirs should not get extra advantages for the color of their skin.

Education

18. Publicly funded charter schools are public schools. Jeff supports unlimited numbers of charters for charter schools, where each charter school admits at least 50 percent of its students by lottery across district lines in its state. This should also have the effect of reversing long-term residential segregation based on schools.

Agriculture

19. Agriculture subsidies must be reduced from current highs to historic lows, with a primary focus on the net national long-term availability of arable land with access to freshwater and to efficient national transportation networks.

Social-Cultural Divisive Issues

20. Jeff personally opposes abortion, but his policy position is for a woman’s right to choose while the fetus is not viable outside the womb, including all cases up to 20 weeks into pregnancy, and late-term abortions after that, when the fetus becomes viable outside the womb, only in cases of danger to the mother’s life. However, where the U.S. House of Representatives has the greatest authority on abortion, Jeff opposes any Federal funding (here or overseas) for any abortions other than those involving rape or danger to the mother’s life.

21. Jeff supports equal rights for, and non-discrimination against, unions of same-sex couples, and considers the term “marriage” of same-sex couples as a matter for each state to decide for itself.

Natural Disasters

22. The United States needs better preparation for natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. We must acknowledge that we are not the masters of the creation around us, that no amount of technology and powerful government can fully protect us from the tides of weather and geology. As Benjamin Franklin saw that fire insurance would increase safety, we need to enlist markets to help disaster preparation by privatizing especially flood insurance, with no direct or indirect government subsidies, while providing food and shelter to disaster victims who need them.

Guns

23. The right of law-abiding citizens in this country to keep and bear arms is inviolable. At the same time, gun manufacturers must ensure that retail sales of new weapons are only to background-checked individuals. All gun sales, new or used, must involve background checks. Just as we would not extend Second Amendment rights to atomic weapons, and as just about every police officer advocates, private ownership of automatic weapons should not be permitted.

Reform of the Political System

24. All balloting should take place on paper, whether or not electronic tabulation precedes the printed record for voter review, to be approved with a check mark or the equivalent (yet counted if not) and cast with other printed ballots in order for voting to be complete. Any recounts should involve only printed records produced at the moment of voting.

25. Jeff opposes gerrymandering of any kind as contrary to the principle of geographic representation. Districts should be drawn (a) to respect local government lines as much as possible; (b) with no regard for incumbent addresses; and (c) to minimize the combined district circumference lengths within each state.

26. Jeff advocates reasonable ballot access rules and multi-candidate instant runoff voting for all final-round elections. (Voters rank their candidates, and ballots with the lowest-ranking first choice move to the second choice for the second round of ballot tallying, etc.) Winners must receive a majority of votes, not just a plurality. (Parties wishing to choose their candidates by party primary election are free to associate and do so, prior to the general instant-runoff ballot.)

27. The Electoral College system dates to an era when only a minority of the minority could vote – in many cases, only those white males with substantial property. (a) The Electoral College should be replaced with the principle of one voter, one vote, nationwide. (b) Presidential election primaries should be non-partisan, multi-candidate, and instant-runoff (for tabulation after the final primary round). The primaries should run the course of 18 weeks, with approximately 10 percent of the U.S. population voting by state every two weeks; every four years, the states should take turns going first, last, and middle in this 18-week schedule. Presidential primaries should run from the first week of April in an election year, until complete (July 29 – August 4, depending on the year). The top five vote-getters should then appear on an instant-runoff ballot in the November election.

Jeff looks forward to serving the combined interests of all of our western Virginia Sixth District.