JOBS & THE ECONOMY
The only thing that matters now is kick starting our economy so that jobs are created and people get back to work!
Unfortunately, there is little that state government can do to create jobs at the level and pace necessary to turn things around. What we can and must do, is create an environment that is conducive to business expansion and growth. However, we cannot do this at the expense of selling out our character - of protecting those most vulnerable among us.
We excel at biotech and green technology, at health care and education and we must do everything in our power to maintain that edge over other states and other countries without harming our workers, their benefits and necessary protections. We all, including organized labor, must make sacrifices if our state and country are to prosper once again. It cannot and must not however, be a one sided negotiation, a take it or leave it scenario. Nobody wins in that case – we all suffer.
SENIORS
I recently read an article in the Globe that addressed our weak economy in terms other than job creation. It spoke to it in terms of the personal, emotional, and financial toll things are taking on our seniors (or soon to be), particularly the baby boomers (77 million born between 1946 and 1964). It stated, “So much for kicking back at the lake house, long afternoons of golf or pretty much anything baby boomers had dreamed about in retirement. For many, the plan now calls for logging more hours at the office and renewed worries about money.
The Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll found a baby boom generation planning to work into retirement years — with 73 percent planning to work past retirement while a majority of boomers are also shaky about their nest eggs. In all, 53 percent of boomers polled said they do not feel confident they’ll be able to afford a comfortable retirement.
In the poll, 41 percent of boomers said they are expecting to have to scale back their lifestyle in some way in retirement and 31 percent believe they will struggle financially. Almost one-quarter of boomers in the poll — 23 percent — said retirement will mean they’ll have to move.
If all of this negative news is compounded by efforts to trim and balance our budget on the backs of seniors by CHANGING MEDICARE, the costs of prescription drugs and a senior’s ability to maintain their independence – it will catastrophic! I WILL DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER AS YOUR SENATOR TO STOP THIS EFFORT.
VETERANS:
Veterans deserve our gratitude, honor, and respect. They are the few that sacrifice for the many - so that we may live the lives we lead, free from fear.
We have more than an obligation…we have a SACRED DUTY to care and provide for our veterans after they return from the field of combat. They have sacrificed so much, family, careers, etc. for us and for our freedom – that is the least we must do.
There are those among us including entrenched career politicians that do not feel that sense of duty and responsibility to those that maintain our freedom. They would balance the budget by cutting critical veterans services. These are the same entrenched career politicians who believe that we should abandon our safety net programs for seniors and vulnerable citizens. They say that everyone must suffer if we are to ‘fix’ our economy. Yet these same elected officials refuse to end taxpayer subsidies to big oil companies – the same companies that gouge us at the pump and make billions in profit every 3 months (yes that is billions with a b). How is that fair, just and equitable?
I joined the service because I felt it was my duty to fight for and defend my country and all the freedoms we have been given. I believed that I fought to preserve a culture of freedom…a culture of all for one and one for all where we looked out for those less fortunate than ourselves. Our government has a significant role not the least of which is to be a safety net for the most vulnerable among us, particularly our seniors. I am troubled that that is changing and we are becoming a nation of immediate gratification and blame.
That the tens of thousands of veterans returning to a difficult job market, one that is only expected to get tougher following the pullout of US troops from Iraq this year and from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, have been left to their own devices is disturbing. In Massachusetts alone, the number of veterans seeking help in finding civilian jobs is expected to increase by as much as 75 percent by the middle of next year, according to state career services officials. Nationally, the jobless rate for all post-9/11 veterans has risen nearly 2 percentage points, to 12.1 percent, over the past year, even as overall unemployment has declined to 9 percent. The unemployment rate for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan is even higher - 14.3 percent.
As defined in a Boston Globe editorial of Nov. 11, “The Commonwealth offers some of the nations most generous financial payments and medical reimbursements…but thousands of veterans and their families who are eligible for aid, aren’t receiving it – either because they don’t know the benefits exist, or because they don’t know how to get them…by one estimate, as many as 20,000 low-income veterans and their dependents are needlessly forfeiting aid that they’ve earned.”
When elected, I will file legislation to require a full-time veteran’s agent in each town (or require that those without an agent and in dire financial straits) share an agent. Furthermore, there needs to be a minimum level of outreach and number of contacts to ensure that everything that can be done to educate and inform those eligible, is being done.
WORKING MEN, WOMEN, AND FAMILES WITH CHILDREN (THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY)
While I do not believe government has all the answers (nor should it), I do believe a lean, smart, and strong government that works in partnership with business is the key to a prosperous future. That is certainly not beyond our control!
Equally important still, is a government that provides a safety net for those who are incapable of taking care of themselves – yes there are those among us. That my friends is about our values and the kind of state and country we want to be a part of, live in, and leave to our children!
What we have to work towards today and tomorrow and the next day, is a shared sacrifice. What is a shared sacrifice – it is not blaming one group or one industry for our problems. It is not trying to fix our problems on the backs of any one group.
Shared sacrifice is everyone being willing to ‘give up and give back’ for the good of our country and each other. That is what I stand for and what I will work towards when elected as you next senator.
More Issues will be added regularly.
