Drug use can and should be reduced. But a continuation of our current War on Drugs will not do it. Instead, the current policies have only helped increase drug use and foster violence across the country. California was able to cut teenage tobacco use in half with a straightforward ad campaign that was financed by a tax on cigarettes. Not a shot was fired.
The supporters of the drug war have only one solution to this debacle -- more money for law enforcement, more people, more power, more prisons -- with no end in sight. Of course, these happy drug warriors who justify their living hunting down drug users come on TV and promise us that they see light at the end of the tunnel. They promised us a drug-free America by 1995, and instead we see new and more exotic drugs constantly being added to the mix.
The shredding of our rights to privacy and property promoted by the Drug War is inconsistent with a free society. Criminalization of private or self-destructive behavior is not acceptable in a free nation.
The racism evident in the Drug War, and the clearly preferential treatment for offenders with connections, undermine our concept of a just society. Draconian prison sentences that dwarf those for violent crimes, like murder and rape, destroy respect for our laws.
The rampant corruption of the criminal justice system spawned by the $400 billion-a-year black market could be ended with the stroke of a pen. So also would be the wholesale devastation we have brought to other countries. Countries like Colombia, where we send billions of dollars of military aid and spray hundreds of thousands of acres of populated land with dangerous herbicides in a country with nearly a million displaced people. And each military campaign or spraying is like a squeezing a balloon; production merely shifts to another site or goes into a temporary hiatus.
Drug addiction is a medical and moral problem that should be treated by professionals, not dumped on the criminal justice system. Setting up a national commission of medical professionals to develop an intelligent program, based on the experience of drug experts from around the world, would be a first step. Allowing doctors to treat drug addiction humanely and intelligently, including the prescription of maintenance doses, would allow us to quickly eliminate most of the black market and much of the damage to a safe, free, and just America.
It is time for an honest dialogue on this issue. Time to stop the documented lies, half-truths, and propaganda that got us into this mess in the first place. It is time to face the facts!
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Unfortunately, current drug policy fails to take into account the lessons of Prohibition. The law regards all users as abusers, and the result has been the creation of an unnecessary class of lawbreakers. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, more than 734,000 individuals were arrested on marijuana charges in 2000. This number far exceeds the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Eighty-eight percent of those arrested were charged with possession only. Convicted marijuana offenders are denied federal financial student aid, welfare, and food stamps, and may be removed from public housing. In many cases, those convicted are automatically stripped of their driving privileges, even if the offense is not driving related. In several states, marijuana offenders may receive maximum sentences of life in prison. The cost to the taxpayer of enforcing marijuana prohibition is staggering -- over $10 billion annually.
The harsh nature of punishments for marijuana offenses is even more disturbing if one considers the racial bias of the war on drugs. According to data collected by the National Household Survey, on an annual basis the overall difference between drug use by blacks and whites is quite narrow. However, a recent national study found that African Americans are arrested for marijuana offenses at higher rates than whites in 90% of 700 U.S. counties investigated. In 64% of these counties, the African American arrest rate for marijuana violations was more than twice the arrest rate for whites. Questions of racial bias affect the integrity of investigations, arrests, and prosecutorial discretion. If we truly aspire to the ideal of "Justice for All," then these unjust racial disparities are unacceptable outcomes for the American justice system.
The rationale for continuing this draconian policy of marijuana prohibition is unclear. Statistical evidence shows that marijuana use follows a pattern very similar to that of alcohol. Most marijuana users do so responsibly, in a safe, recreational context. These people lead normal, productive lives -- pursuing careers, raising families, and participating in civic life. In addition, marijuana has proven benefits in the treatment of numerous diseases, such as providing a valuable means of pain management for terminally ill patients. In either of these contexts, there is no rational justification for criminally enforced prohibitions. These unnecessary arrests and incarcerations serve only to crowd prisons, backlog the judicial system, and distract law enforcement officials from pursuing terrorists and other violent criminals.
New Mexico's 2001 state-commissioned Drug Policy Advisory Group determined that marijuana decriminalization "will result in greater availability of resources to respond to more serious crimes without any increased risks to public safety." This finding is backed by the successful implementation of such policies in twelve states. The state governments of Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon approved these measures after the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended that Congress adopt a national policy of marijuana decriminalization. A recent CNN/Time magazine poll indicates overwhelming public support for this approach, with 72% of Americans favoring fines as a maximum penalty for minor marijuana offenses, and 80% approving of marijuana used for medical purposes.
As a nation, we must work to implement a drug policy that removes responsible recreational users and medical users of marijuana from the criminal justice system, in order to redirect resources toward the following goals:
Some commentators have either misunderstood the Plan, or mischaracterized it. Here is what the plan is - and what it is not: 1. The Plan is not partition. In fact, it may be the only way to prevent a violent partition - which has already started -- and preserve a unified Iraq. We call for a strong central government, with clearly defined responsibilities for truly common interests like foreign policy and the distribution of oil revenues. Indeed, the Plan provides an agenda for that government, whose mere existence will not end sectarian violence. 2. The Plan is not a foreign imposition. To the contrary, it is consistent with Iraq's constitution, which already provides for Iraq's 18 provinces to join together in regions, with their own security forces, and control over most day-to-day issues. On October 11, Iraq's parliament approved legislation to implement the constitution's articles on federalism. Prior to the British colonial period and Saddam's military dictatorship, what is now Iraq functioned as three largely autonomous regions. But federalism alone is not enough. To ensure Sunni support, it is imperative that Iraqis also agree to an oil revenue sharing formula that guarantees the Sunni region economic viability. The United States should strongly promote such an agreement. The final decisions will be up to Iraqis, but if we do not help them arrange the necessary compromises, nothing will get done. At key junctures in the past, we have used our influence to shape political outcomes in Iraq, notably by convincing the Shiites and Kurds to accept a provision allowing for the constitution to be amended following its adoption, which was necessary to secure Sunni participation in the referendum. Using our influence is not the same as imposing our will. With 140,000 Americans at risk, we have a right and an obligation to make known our views.
3. The Plan is not an invitation to sectarian cleansing. Tragically, that invitation has been sent, received and acted upon. Since the Samarra mosque bombing in February, one quarter of a million Iraqis have fled their homes for fear of sectarian violence, at a rate now approaching 10,000 people a week. That does not include hundreds of thousands of Iraqis - many from the professional class - who have left Iraq since the war. Only a political settlement, as proposed in the Plan, has a chance to stop this downward spiral. 4. The Plan is the only idea on the table for dealing with the sectarian militia. It offers a realistic albeit interim solution. Realistic, because none of the major groups will give up their militia voluntarily in the absence of trust and confidence and neither we or the Iraqi government has the means to force them to do so. Once federalism is implemented, the militias are likely to retreat to their respective regions to protect their own and vie for power, instead of killing the members of other groups. But it is only an interim solution, because no nation can sustain itself peacefully with private armies. Over time, if a political settlement endures, the militia would be incorporated into regional and national forces, as is happening in Bosnia. 5. The Plan is an answer to the problem of mixed cities. Large cities with mixed populations present a challenge under any plan now being considered. The essence of the Plan is that mixed populations can only live together peacefully if their leadership is truly satisfied with the overall arrangement. If so, that leadership will help keep the peace in the cities. At the same time, we would make Baghdad a federal city, and buttress the protection of minorities there and in the other mixed cities with an international peacekeeping force. Right now, the prospect for raising such a force is small. But following a political settlement, an international conference and the establishment of a Contact Group, others are more likely to participate, including countries like Saudi Arabia which have offered peacekeepers in the past. 6. The Plan is in the self-interest of Iran. Iran likes it exactly as it is in Iraq - with the United States bogged down and bleeding. But the prospect of a civil war in Iraq is not in Tehran's interest: it could easily spill over Iraq's borders and turn into a regional war with neighbors intervening on opposing sides and exacerbating the Sunni-Shiite divide at a time Shiite Iran is trying to exert leadership in the Islamic world. Iran also would receive large refugee flows as Iraqis flee the fighting. Iran, like all of Iraq's neighbors, has an interest in Iraq remaining unified and not splitting into independent states. Iran does not want to see an independent Kurdistan emerge and serve as an example for its own restive 5 million Kurds. That's why Iran - and all of Iraq's neighbors -- can and should be engaged to support a political settlement in Iraq. 7. The Plan is in the self-interest of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. The Sunnis increasingly understand they will not regain power in Iraq. Faced with the choice of being a permanent minority player in a central government dominated by Shiites or having the freedom to control their day-to-day lives in a Sunni region, they are likely to choose the latter provided they are guaranteed a fair share of oil revenues to make their region viable. The Shiites know they can dominate Iraq politically, but not defeat a Sunni insurgency, which can bleed Iraq for years. The Kurds may dream of independence, but fear the reaction of Turkey and Iran - their interest is to achieve as much autonomy as possible while keeping Iraq together. Why would Shiites and Kurds give up some oil revenues to the Sunnis? Because that is the price of peace and the only way to attract the massive foreign investment needed to maximize Iraqi oil production. The result will be to give Shiites and Kurds a smaller piece of a much larger oil pie and give all three groups an incentive to protect the oil infrastructure. ]]>
Tom Koos believe that even as we fight to build an America stronger at home and safer in the world, we should all take heed of what Robert Kennedy once said: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." ]]> Tom Koos will tap into the idealism and ingenuity of our national spirit and call on all Americans to work together to build a stronger America. Tom Koos will:
Engage 200,000 Americans A Year In "Service For College" Tom Koos will offer a simple deal to hundreds of thousands of America's young people: if you will serve for two years in one of America's toughest and most important jobs, we will cover four years of tuition at a typical public university. Engage 300,000 College Students A Year In Helping Our Children Learn Tom Koos will call on America's college students to join a national crusade to help America's children succeed in school and get to college. In return for their service, our young people will receive up to $2,000 per year to pay for college. Pay For College And Service By Letting The Market Set Rates For Loans Today's student loan program effectively guarantees billions in profits to banks at the expense of American taxpayers. Tom Koos will introduce market forces to overhaul guaranteed student loans, saving taxpayers billions without charging students a penny more. Their plan will reward lenders with low costs and high-quality service - not political clout.
Engage Seniors In Service To Build A Stronger America To help strengthen future generations of Americans, we need our seniors' help. Tom Koos support existing programs that offer avenues for senior volunteer service and they will support innovative new models that create even more opportunities for seniors to serve their communities. When seniors spend time tutoring they free up over-strained teachers to teach, and children get extra help learning. And older Americans can help other seniors in ways no other Americans can. ]]>
• Growing Reliance on Food Imports: Americans eat about 260 pounds of imported foods a year, on average, and the Food and Drug Administration inspects only 0.7 percent of imported food products. Following reports of tainted pet food, contaminated livestock feed and seafood, China recently admitted that 180 food processing facilities had been caught putting industrial additives into a range of food products. An investigation found 23,000 food-safety infractions. Unfortunately, the recent wave of tainted products from China is only the latest in a series of import-related crises over the last decade. Hundreds or more people became sick from Guatemalan raspberries in 1996, Mexican strawberries in 1997, Mexican cantaloupes in 2000, and Mexican green onions in 2003. [AP, 4/16/07; NY Times, 4/30/07; WSJ, 6/30/07; CSPI, 2007]
• Agribusinesses Blocking Country-of-Origin Labels and Other Food Safety Steps: Five years ago, Congress passed a law giving consumers the right to know where their meat, produce and nuts came from. However, implementation of the law has been repeatedly delayed by special interests. The USDA is now preparing to allow chickens raised, slaughtered, and cooked in China to be sold here without labels showing their origin. [Center for Food Safety, 2007; Boston Globe, 5/9/07]
Keeping Food Safe
To strengthen America's food safety, Koos will make sure that, with country-of-origin labels, consumers can discover the origin of their food. He will overhaul the jumble of agencies overseeing America's food safety by consolidating responsibility in the FDA and giving it the power to get unsafe food off the shelves. Finally, he will promote the safety of food imported into the U.S. by increasing inspections at ports and by working with other nations to strengthen their own inspection systems.
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• Integrating Food Safety Rules and Enforcement: Fifteen different agencies are charged with regulating some part of our food supply, enforcing 35 different laws. Different agencies regulate meat lasagna and vegetable lasagna. An open-faced ham-and-cheese sandwich is inspected by the USDA while a closed-face ham-and-cheese sandwich is inspected by the FDA. The USDA and FDA inspect imported food at 18 U.S. ports, sometimes in separate facilities and generally without sharing assets. President Bush's solution—a "czar" with the bureaucratic rank of assistant commissioner—is not nearly enough. Koos will strengthen the FDA and rebuild our food inspection system within the beefed-up agency, giving one regulatory body clear responsibility for ensuring the security and safety of the food we eat. [National Academy of Sciences, 1998; GAO, 2007; CSPI, 2007; Government Executive, 6/19/07]
• Getting Unsafe Food off the Shelves: Unlike the Consumer Products Safety Commission, neither the USDA nor the FDA has the power to order mandatory recalls of the food products they inspect. The agencies are not even equipped to monitor how well companies carry out voluntary recalls. Koos will establish the power to order mandatory recalls and provide the resources to make sure they are quickly carried out. [GAO, 2007]
• Increasing Inspections of Imports: Less than 1 percent of imported food is inspected, down from 8 percent in 1992. Eighty percent of imported food automatically bypasses inspection. Following the recent wave of tainted imports, big corporations are scaling up their inspections of Chinese products, but American families have no choice to rely on an under-resourced and neglected government agency. Koos will provide the resources for the FDA to do its job. [NY Times, 5/16/07; NY Times, 7/1/07; GAO, 1998]
• Requiring Safety Systems Abroad: The U.S. cannot put inspectors in all of the 130 countries that sell us food, but we can insist that these nations take their responsibilities seriously. Koos will require countries exporting food to the U.S. to have safety systems certified by the FDA as equivalent to our own. This level of protection is now given only to meat, poultry and egg products. This added protection will supplement, not replace, inspections by U.S. officials at ports of entry. [CSM, 5/807; GAO, 2004]
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Koos believes that ending poverty should be a goal our nation actively pursues. A national goal will rally support for the cause and help us measure our progress. In 1999, Tony Blair announced a 20-year goal to end child poverty in Great Britain and he has already reduced child poverty by 17 percent.
Today, Koos is calling for a national effort to:
Cut poverty by one third within a decade, lifting 12 million Americans out of poverty by 2016.
End poverty within 30 years, lifting 37 million Americans out of poverty by 2036. [Census Bureau, 2007]
Cut poverty by one third within a decade, lifting 12 million Americans out of poverty by 2016.
End poverty within 30 years, lifting 37 million Americans out of poverty by 2036. [Census Bureau, 2007]
Reform the Poverty Measure: The poverty measure excludes necessities like taxes, health care, child care and transportation. It also fails to count some forms of aid including tax credits, food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing. The National Academy of Science has recommended improvements that would increase the count of people in poverty by more than 1 million. Koos believes we need to measure poverty honestly, evaluate our performance, and hold politicians accountable for policies that change the number of people suffering hardship. He
supports revisions along the lines recommended by NAS. [Census Bureau, 2005; NAS, 1995] Creating a Working Society Koos has outlined a Working Society initiative to lift 12 million Americans out of poverty in a decade and beat poverty over the next 30 years. In the Working Society, everyone who is able to work hard will be expected to work and, in turn, be rewarded for it. The initiative includes major new policies in the areas of work, housing, education, debt and savings, and family responsibility.
Rewarding Work: • Make Work Pay: Koos will increase the reward to working by raising the minimum wage to at $9.50 an hour by 2012 and then indexing it, tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for adults without children and cutting the EITC marriage penalty. In 2001, a $1 increase in the minimum wage alone would have lifted an estimated 900,000 people out of poverty. [Sawhill and Thomas, 2001]
• Create One Million Stepping Stone Jobs: Every American should have the chance to work their way out of poverty, but some willing workers cannot find jobs because of where they live, a lack of experience or skills, or other obstacles like a criminal record. Koos will create a million short-term jobs to help individuals move into permanent work.
• Create Opportunity in Rural America: Nearly 90 percent of America's poorest counties are rural. Koos will invest more in rural community colleges, link training to actual business needs, and support rural small business centers. [Rural Poverty Research Center, 2006]
• Strengthen Labor Laws: Union membership can be the difference between a poverty-wage job and middle-class security. Federal law promises workers the right to choose a union, but the law is poorly enforced, full of loopholes, and routinely violated by employers. Koos supports the Employee Free Choice Act to give workers a real choice in whether to form a union.
• Enforce Workplace Protections: To help protect workers, Koos will create a new Labor taskforce to target the industries with the worst abuses of minimum wage and overtime laws. He will step up enforcement of the misclassification of employees as independent contractors and strengthen workplace safety rules.
Overhaul Housing Policy: • Create a Million New Housing Vouchers: Our current housing policies concentrate low-income families together, isolating willing workers from entry-level jobs and children from good schools. Koos will create a million vouchers over five years to help low-income families move to better neighborhoods. At the same time, he will phase out housing projects that tie families to certain locations and are often lower quality and more expensive than private sector alternatives.
• Revitalize Devastated Neighborhoods: Koos believes that it is better to invest in struggling neighborhoods than abandon them. He will reform and expand the HOPE VI program to replace dilapidated housing in areas of concentrated poverty.
Fight Abusive Lenders and Help Working Families Save:
• Create New Work Bonds: Koos proposed a new tax credit to help low-income, working Americans save for the future. The credit would match savings up to $500 per year.
• Expand Access to Bank Accounts: As many as 28 million Americans don't have bank accounts. Koos will subsidize bank accounts for working families. [Federal Reserve, 2007]
• Defend Homeowners against Predatory Mortgages and Foreclosure: Koos will pass a strong national law to prohibit the worst abuses in the mortgage market. The law will strengthen underwriting standards to ensure that borrowers receive affordable loans suited to their means and reach non-bank lenders and mortgage brokers. To help the estimated 2.2 million families already facing foreclosure, Koos will create a Home Rescue Fund to help families get into more affordable mortgages and let families shed excess mortgage debt that exceeds their home's value through bankruptcy. [Center for Responsible Lending, 2007; New America Foundation, 2007]
• Protect Families from Abusive Financial Products: Families need someone on their side to help them get a fair deal from lenders and investment companies. Koos will create a new Family Savings and Credit Commission to protect consumers. It will review all financial services products marketed to consumers and oversee all types of financial institutions, whether chartered under federal or state law. [Warren, 2007]
• Limiting Irresponsible Credit Card Practices: Koos will restore balance in the credit card market through a Borrower's Security Act that creates a late payment grace period, limits penalty interest rates to new purchases, and ends the practice of universal default. [Demos, 2003; GAO, 2006]
• Banning the Most Abusive Payday Loans: After the Pentagon concluded that exploitive payday loans undermined military readiness, Congress capped interest rates on payday and other loans to military families at 36 percent, a cutoff that many states use to prevent loan sharking. Koos will extend this cap to all payday loans, which now average over 300 percent APR. He will also encourage states, local non-profits and responsible lenders to offer low- or no-interest emergency loans. [Center for Responsible Lending, 2006]
Strengthening Our Schools:
• Strengthen Public Schools: Koos will propose expanding access to preschool programs, investing more in teacher pay and training to attract good teachers where we need them most, and strengthening high schools with a more challenging curriculum.
• Promote Economic Diversity: Our nation has two school systems, segregated by race and economic status. While not a substitute either for racial integration or improving schools in every neighborhood, Koos will promote economic diversity within school districts and across district lines by giving bonuses to middle-class schools enrolling low-income students and double current federal magnet schools funding to attract middle-class suburban students to high-poverty urban neighborhoods.
• Create Second-Chance Schools for High School Dropouts: As many as one-third of all students drop out of school, and the rates are even worse for poor and minority students. Large majorities of recent dropouts regret their decision. Koos will create second-chance schools to help former dropouts get back on track. [Civic Enterprises, 2006; Manhattan Institute, 2006]
• Expand College Opportunity: Koos will enact a College for Everyone program to pay public-college tuition, books and fees for students who agree to work part-time during their first year at a school. Additional student aid can make the greatest difference in the first year of college. [Dynarski, 1999]
Support Responsible Families:
• Encourage and Reward Responsibility from Fathers: Welfare reform required mothers to work and helps them find jobs, but it failed to do the same for fathers. Koos will help fathers find work, require them to help support their children, and increase child support collections by more than $8 billion over the next decade and use those payments to benefit children.
• Fight Teen Pregnancy: The U.S. has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the industrialized world. Koos believes we should have more support for teenagers struggling to beat the odds.
• Home Visits for New Parents: Home visits improve prenatal health and the quality of care-giving after birth. Children receiving nurse visits are cognitively more advanced, have fewer behavioral problems, and are less likely to be abused or neglected. John Koos will invest in home visits by registered nurses to low-income new parents, providing matching grants to states to serve 50,000 families. [AAP, 2004; RJWF, 2006; NFP, 2006]
• Invest in Family Literacy: Thirty million American adults have very limited literacy skills; the children of functionally illiterate parents are twice as likely to be illiterate themselves. John Koos will restore funding for family literacy programs, which address the educational needs of both parents and children, and give them the support they deserve. [National Center for Family Literacy, Undated; National Even Start Association, 2007]
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Since then, several events have reminded us that we cannot afford to ignore these failing grades. A proposal to sell our ports to a Dubai company called attention to the fact that we do not screen all cargo on ships and commercial airlines. Terrorist attacks on rail systems in Mumbai, following similar attacks in London and Madrid, killed hundreds of innocent civilians. Our British allies disrupted a plot to blow up airliners bound to the United States underscoring our vulnerability in the sky.
]]> Our ports, chemical plants, railways and other critical infrastructure are not secure. Our local police agencies are stretched too thin, and our first responders still cannot talk to each other in the event of an emergency of natural disaster.
This Administration and the Republican led Congress have refused to make the necessary investment. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has even argued that shortchanging homeland defense is justified because Al Qaeda's strategy is to weaken America by forcing us to invest in futile homeland security efforts.
The real question we should be asking is: what does it take to make all of America safer? The 9/11 Commission gave us a blue print. To be sure, implementing it will cost more. But we can easily afford it - if we change our priorities. This year, the budget for the Department of Homeland Security is $35 billion; at $60 billion, the tax cut for millionaires is nearly double that amount.
President Koos would take back one year of the tax cuts for Americans who make over a million dollars a year, and put this money in a dedicated Homeland Security and Public Safety Trust Fund to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations and invest in law enforcement.
For $10 billion a year over the next five years we could:
• screen 100 percent of cargo containers coming into our ports,
• better protect our chemical facilities,
• improve air cargo screening,
• make sure that our first responders can talk to one another in emergencies,
• hire 1,000 more FBI agents,
• hire 50,000 more local cops, and
• create local counter-terrorism units in our large cities to stop home-grown plots
The Bush administration slashed billions in federal assistance for state and local law enforcement and completely eliminated the COPS hiring program -- and crime rates went up. The most recent reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show a continuation in the upward swing in violent crimes first reported last year when after years of steady declines, violent crime jumped 2.5 percent --- the largest increase in 15 years.
If these statistics show one thing, it is that we need to re-order our homeland and domestic security priorities − now - before the crime rates get worse. ]]>
While the tax code favors wealth over work, regular families struggle to save and pay for necessities like child care. Only 27 percent of households within 20 years of retirement have adequate retirement savings. Child care costs more than a rent for a family with two children. A single worker at the poverty line pays more than $800 in federal income and payroll taxes. [Koos will overhaul the tax code with new tax breaks to strengthen the middle-class pillars of saving, work, and family:
• Savings: A new "Get Ahead" tax credit to match up to $500 a year in savings for families earning up to $75,000 – that could be used for retirement, college education, buying a home, investing in a small business or during a financial or medical emergency, and new "Work Bonds" to offer additional targeted savings incentives for low-income families.
• Families: Expand the Child Care Credit to pay up to 50 percent of child and dependent care expenses up to $5,000 and make it partially refundable, and allow stay-at-home parents to help pay for child care for newborn infants.
• Work: Triple the Earned Income Tax Credit for single adults and cut the marriage penalty.
Reverse the "War On Work"<p> Nothing better reflects the problems with our tax code than the lower tax rates for capital gains. As Warren Buffett says, there is something wrong when he pays taxes at a lower rate than his secretary. As president, Koos will:
• Raise the tax rate on capital gains to 28 percent for the most fortunate taxpayers – taxing the investment income of the wealthiest Americans similarly to the wages of the middle class.
• Repeal the Bush tax cuts for the highest-income households and keep the tax on very large estates (above $4 million for couples).
• Declare war on offshore tax havens by cracking down on tax shelter promoters, cooperating with allies to fight tax havens, and closing the "tax gap" by improving IRS customer service, simplifying tax filing, auditing more large corporations and high-income individuals and requiring more third-party reporting.
• Close unfair loopholes like the tax breaks for hedge funds and private equity fund managers and unlimited executive pensions. ]]>
]]> Guaranteeing Quality Health Care for Veterans<p> Health care has been a cornerstone of our nation's commitment to our heroes since the first states undertook responsibility for caring for Continental Army veterans. Today, we are falling short on our historic commitment. Veterans report long delays for appointments at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities, which have done valiant work under difficult circumstances. The Bush Administration has consistently underfunded the VA and his budget cuts veterans' health in future years, while shifting burdens to beneficiaries. A review of 1,400 veterans' health facilities has turned up more than 1,000 reports of substandard conditions. [DVA, 2007; Washington Post, 10/13/06; PVA, 2007; DAV, 2006]
The changing nature of warfare has created a new class of injuries and a new set of needs for troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Body armor and other technologies have protected men and women from injuries that would have killed them 10 years ago. But they still suffer extreme injuries from explosive blasts, including burns and an unprecedented number of traumatic brain injuries. These brain injuries often lead to epilepsy, related seizures, and other disabling conditions. Nonetheless, this year the Pentagon cut the request for the vital Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center by 50 percent. The true cost of the war in Iraq includes substantial mental health issues. Nearly one out of every three veterans coming home are diagnosed with mental health issues. When they do get treatment, it is often poor; many are simply prescribed antidepressants or sleep aids. The vacancy rate in some services for active duty psychologists is nearly 40 percent, and many psychologists are not trained to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). [House Committee on Veterans Affairs; New England Journal of Medicine, 5/19/05; Epilepsy Foundation, 2007; Archives of Internal Medicine, 3/12/07; Truman National Security Project, 2007]
As president, Tom Koos will: • Fully Fund Veterans Health Care: The VA has already seen over 200,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. We must do everything we can to properly care for these brave men and women and help them get timely access to care by fully funding veterans' health care. Koos is committed to providing the funding the VA needs to care for those who have sacrificed for the rest of us. [Washington Post, 10/13/06; DVA, 2007; VFW 2007]
• Prevent Another Walter Reed: Tom Koos is committed to helping the military medical establishment continue to deliver the best quality medicine in the world by properly funding all aspects of medical care, including maintaining the facilities and expediting boards and dispositions of the injured service members. As president, he will order a stem-to-stern review of military hospitals to ensure that our service members are getting the excellent care they deserve. He will also reject the Bush Administration's ideological drive to outsource federal jobs; a questionable decision to hire contractors to manage Walter Reed facilities contributed to the shocking conditions there. [Mattera, 2007]
• Dedicate Resources to the Signature Injuries of Today's Wounded Warriors: The VA's prosthetics programs and polytrauma centers need increased resources. Traumatic brain injuries have been described by the Veterans of Foreign Wars as the "signature wound of this war." Rather than addressing these problems, the Bush Administration is pretending they don't exist. As president, Koos will increase the research and treatment of these injuries and the conditions that follow from them. [VFW, 2007]
• Provide a "Plan for Coming Home" for Every Service Man and Woman: As a nation, America did not deal well with the care and reintegration of veterans after the Vietnam War, leaving thousands of veterans without the care they desperately needed. We need to admit our mistakes and learn from them. As president, Koos will require that all service members returning to the U.S. or leaving the military be provided with a new "Homefront Redeployment Plan," including thorough PTSD screenings, benefits information and seamless transfer of medical records. [VFA, 2007; PAV, 2007]
• Create a National "Chain of Care," with Improved Treatment of PTSD: Once our service members become veterans, we have to make sure the system doesn't fail them. As president, Koos will create a new national chain of care to ensure that no veteran again falls through the cracks. Because many veterans receive treatment outside the VA system, this chain will coordinate treatment and benefits in outreach centers and clinics in every county where a veteran resides, both within and outside the VA network. Koos will also improve training for health personnel to recognize and treat PTSD; establish uniform standards for mental health care to address the wide range of quality of care; increase counseling resources within TRICARE and VA networks and permit access outside of the networks; and ensure that outreach is extended to family members who can help recognize symptoms. Caring for the newest generation of veterans must be accomplished without neglecting the continuing needs of veterans from previous generations.
Supporting Military Families
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have put our military and their families under incredible pressure through frequent extended tours and an unsustainable operations tempo. Army management policies aim for at least two years at home between deployments for active-duty personnel and mobilization of Guards members and Reservists no more than once every five or six years. But today we are sending some troops back with even less than a year's rest and recently extended Army tours from 12 to 15 months. On top of everything else, health care coverage for families of mobilized Guards members and Reservists is often disrupted or becomes costly if they wish to keep their civilian coverage. [MOAA 2007] As president, Tom Koos will:
• Close the Gap Between Military and Civilian Pay: After 30 years, it's time to finally close the gap between military and civilian pay. The White House's recent decision to "strongly oppose" improved pay and benefits as "unnecessary" is part and parcel of this Administration's neglect of our troops and their families. Koos believes we need to do everything we can to better stand by those who stand by us, starting with a commitment to closing the pay gap, and strongly supports legislation now in Congress to do just that. [MOAA, 2007]
• Enable Guard and Reserve Families to Continue Health Care Coverage: When Guards members and Reservists are mobilized, health care coverage for their families is often disrupted. Koos has proposed a specific plan to guarantee health care for every man, woman and child in America. Under Koos' plan, Guard and Reserve families will be given the choice of receiving military health care or receiving help to continue their families' existing health care coverage. [MOAA, 2007] • Give Military Families a Voice in Family Policies: As president, Koos will create a Military Families Advisory Board within the Department of Defense to give family members a voice in considering how to adjust family policies -- such as separation allowances, life insurance and savings rules -- based on operational needs.
• New Respect and More Resources for Family Readiness Groups: Currently, it is difficult for Family Readiness Groups (FRGs) to raise sufficient funds to support their activities. FRGs are critical to maintaining a sense of community among military families during deployments, and providing crucial services. Koos believes FRGs play an invaluable role supporting families under stress and deserve more resources and respect.
Providing Education and Economic Opportunities for Civilian Life<p> The final cornerstone of the sacred contract with our military and veterans community is ensuring that returning troops have access to the educational and economic opportunities to succeed in civilian life. Our armed forces and the way they are used have changed, and our policies must adapt. The original GI Bill put 13 million returning American service members through college after World War II and helped build the middle class. Today, our armed forces are smaller, but the need for higher education to succeed in civilian life is even greater. College graduates can expect to earn $1 million more over their lifetimes than high school graduates, and their children are almost twice as likely to attend college themselves. [College Summit, 2007]
Guard and Reserves members comprise half of our force in Iraq. One quarter of Guard members and Reservists are college students, and many more are graduates with student loans. When these patriots fight for our country overseas, they continue to pay interest on their student loans at home -- as much as $1,400 a year for the average service man and woman with loans.
While service men and women gain valuable training while serving, their experience often goes unrecognized when they go look for a job. The unemployment rate among young returning veterans aged 18-24 today is 15 percent, compared to 8 percent for Americans of the same age who did not serve. [American Legion, 2006] As president, Tom Koos will:
• Modernize the GI Bill: Koos will enact a new Total Force GI Bill that meets the needs of all of today's military and veterans, including Guards members and Reservists. It would give members of the Guards and Reserve benefits proportionate to the service they perform. It would also expand benefits for all eligible personnel and veterans, including job training education for high tech jobs and other growth sectors of the economy.
• Provide Student Loan Relief for Mobilized Guard and Reserves Troops: No one should return to civilian life in deep debt because they served their country. However, under current law, interest on federal student loans continues to accrue. As president, Koos would make sure our troops do not pay interest on their loans while defending our country.
• Restore Vocational Training for Disabled and Occupationally Challenged Veterans: The Bush administration terminated the well-regarded program at the Department of Labor that offers skill training and job placement for veterans whose military specialties are not easily transferable to the civilian workforce and disabled veterans. Koos would renew the program to help meet the post-Iraq needs of large numbers of military personnel returning from active duty. [American Legion, 2005] ]]>