On Saturday, December 13, 2008 I hosted a Victory Now Change house party at my home. While I only had 5 guest, we had a very good discussion on a broad range of issue that we felt will have the greatest impact on our community and our country.
We discussed reaching out to our Republican counterparts during future house meetings since the issues being discussed affect all Americans and not just Democrats. We also believe it may be wise to join forces with the members of house party groups in our surrounding area to add emphasis of like type issues.
Our top 4 issues include:
i. We believe that the federal and state government to should limit new home construction if there is more than a certain percentage of available houses in the area. Continued building is causing the market to be oversaturated and is driving down the value of existing homes. New homes could still be built if the construction would replace an existing home.
ii. We believe that banks should be encouraged to loans in default to extend the loan term and set a fixed interest rate. An entry should be made on the borrower’s credit reporting to reflect this renegotiation of terms.
iii. We would also like to ask that these borrowers who are in default be required to have their finances reviewed by a non-profit credit counseling agency prior to being considered for restructuring to see if the default is as a result of bad lending or poor personal financial management.
i. Americans who can afford it should be provided additional options to pay for an upgrade to their coverage which would include addition service.
ii. We think there should be a not for profit organization designated to oversee this universal healthcare program. As long as for profit insurance companies are involved medical care in America will continue to deteriorate.
iii. We would like to see these benefits limited to citizens who are paying their far share (taxes) to support the needs of our country. We cannot continue to provide people (non-resident and non-tax paying Americans) a free ride.
iv. We would like to see an overhaul of the Medicare/Medicaid that would streamline the program and provide patients with the proper treatment for their doctor’s diagnosis.
v. We would like to see oversight to speed the implementation of online medical record that would speed patient treatment and reduce cost.
i. Period of Transition from deployed troops from Combat to Civilian
ii. Medical care
iii. Job Training and Placement
iv. Housing Assistance
i. Need to inventory and replace inadequate, worn and outdated equipment
1. Provide the manufacture of MRAPs assistance to speed production and deployment of MRAPs to combat zones to replace the outdated and inadequate HUMVEEs.
a. Perhaps as a condition of an auto industry bailout the big 3 auto makers could be enlisted to improve production
ii. Need to immediately return all National Guard troops to the U.S. These troops are designed to protect and defend our homeland.
1. Many of our troops currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan have been over-utilized and need to be replaced.
2. Need to consider at least a limited draft that would require young men to serve a period of two years in what could be called a non-deployable ready reserve. At least a percentage of these draftees would elect to re-enlist and would then be deployable. The others would incur a 5 year inactive reserve commitment.
a. In return we should offer them a 4-year college education at one of their state’s universities.
i. Home or neighborhood officing
1. Using broadband to perform administrative duties from home or community office.
2. Create jobs converting uninhabited buildings that are available in nearly all communities to be used as individual office space with IT support and an office environment.
a. Worker or employer would basically rent an office space within the community.
3. Reduce daily commute times from 2 or more hours to just a few minutes.
a. Reduce carbon emissions
b. Reduce Fuel Consumption
c. Reduce Highway and public transportation congestion.
d. Reduce employee stress
e. Increase involvement in the family and community
ii. Four day work weeks
iii. Limiting businesses and retail to 6-day weeks
i. Mandatory conversion of truck stops with in window power/heat/air and communications.
ii. Change from Interstate trucking to Regional trucking using increased rail transportation of goods.
iii. Development of more efficient trucks
As a group we agreed that during this holiday season that it would be difficult to develop and conduct a public service project other than those we are already involved in. We did discuss contacting our respective cities to see what committees or boards have openings and submitting an application to serve on one or more of these committees.
· Salvation Army Angel Tree
· Operation Care Dallas – Christmas Gift 2008(Worlds Largest Homeless Christmas party) http://www.operationcaredallas.org/
· Projected for 2009
o MS Walk in Fort Worth – Team Txnerd
o Salvation Army
o Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure
Comments are closed for this post.
