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.
In a nutshell, I am socially liberal and fiscally responsible. That means I believe in supporting Main Street, not Wall Street. It also means that I believe the government must live within its means and that large government programs are often the worst way to accomplish good deeds -- no matter how well meaning the intent.
I am not a politician, I am an Engineer with more than 30 years experience solving problems in private industry. If you want to change the way Washington does business, I am your best bet. My first priorities are
- Fix the economy for Main Street America.
- Fix our energy infrastructure so the economy stays fixed.
- Do it safely for all of us.
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. Blanket tax cuts for the wealthy don't work -- we've tried that for that last 12 years and it hasn't done anything except make 1% of us very wealthy. Tax cuts for lower income workers help some as we have seen with the payroll tax reduction. Cuts to government spending have the opposite effect: They kill the economy! A 1.2 trillion dollar budget cut translates into a roughly 8 million person layoff. In other words 15% unemployment! That's not going to fix the economy.
So what will fix it? 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. I believe that the fastest step we can take to make that happen, and provide jobs, is to reduce the taxes on long term capital gains. I want to see no capital gains tax on IPOs for American renewable energy startups.
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 way mathematics works!
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?
Remember, revolutions in American politics happen one vote at a time. That would be you! Please sign up to help out. You don't have to do a lot, I have a 4 hour task for you that will make all the difference.