Intro
My name is Herb Robinson, I am running for the United States House of Representatives in 2012 as a Democrat from the Massachusetts 4th Congressional District. I am not a professional politician, I am an Engineer with more than 30 years experience at creative problem solving in private industry. If you want to change the way Washington does business, I am your best bet.
I have worked as a dishwasher, a mason's helper and a farm laborer. I was a member of Local 132 of the American Federation of Musicians while I was at Cornell.
My priorities are to
- fix our economy and put America back to work.
- change our energy infrastructure so dependence on foreign oil doesn't break the economy just when it starts to recover.
- do that safely.
I also believe that universal health care and education are import, because Americans are the most important resource America has.
I am socially liberal and fiscally responsible. I want to say no to big government without saying goodbye to humanity!
So how does the fiscally responsible engineer go about fixing the economy?
- Tax cuts for the wealthy? Well, we've had tax cuts for the wealthy for the past 12 years and they haven't done anything.
- What about cutting government spending? Let's see... 1.2 trillion in tax cuts is an 8 million person layoff. In other words 15% unemployment! That's not going to fix the economy.
Engineers prefer to use proven technology and there is one proven way to fix our economy: Stimulus spending. The best way to do this is with FDR style direct government spending, but directed tax cuts can work, too. So how do we pay for stimulus spending? The one thing the Republicans are right about is that the deficit is too high. The only thing left is to increase taxes on the people who can afford to pay.
I propose something called Bottom Line Regulation which provides increased income for stimulus spending during hard times by taxing million dollar incomes -- BUT -- the extra tax is backed off as soon as the economy recovers. And I even want to see the tax go below current levels when the economy gets really good. I also propose reforming Capital Gains tax so we only provide reduced capital gains tax for things that will help stimulate the economy: Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) for American companies and American Factories. Both of these plans are compromises, by the way, because they both increase and decrease taxes -- in a way designed to boost the economy!
Our country is facing a long term economic downslide that will not be resolved without an all hands on deck effort to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. A lot is already being done in this area, but I believe we are missing an important step to make that happen (and provide green energy jobs): I want to see no capital gains tax at all on IPOs for American renewable energy projects.
This is a unique period in history and it is important that our elected representatives be capable of understanding technology. We need at least some representation with the ability to understand when technology is dangerous and stop it from happening -- You just can't legislate the laws of physics and you can't negotiate the rules of mathematics!
For example, if we attempt to use dangerous technology, it's only a matter of time until we have a catastrophe in the United States. The Chernobyl nuclear accident has killed between 9000 and 900,000 people over 20 years (it's hard to figure out exactly how many -- the experts disagree wildly) and will continue to kill at a similar rate for the next 400 to 500 years. The Fukushima Daiichi accident is in the same class and has the potential for as many long term casualties.
Who do you want making the decisions that will affect the safety and health of your children, grandchildren and the thousands of generations that come after them: Some photogenic showboat or an Engineer who actually understands the difference between hairspray and nuclear fallout?