Where I Stand On National Issues
U.S. financial support for the UN
We should continue financial support for the United Nations (UN) because the UN does amazing work, and without the support of the United States, it would be incredibly weakened. What is the UN doing exactly? It is promoting peace and security, protecting human rights and the environment, upholding international law, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict. Specifically, the UN provides millions of people food, humanitarian aid and vaccines, assists elections and millions of refugees, combats climate change and poverty, protects human rights, and promotes maternal health which saves over 30 million women a year. Economically, the U.S. funds 22% of the UN budget, the highest of any other country. This gives the U.S. a lot of influence, while still spending less than 0.1% of our federal budget. Without financial support from the U.S., the UN's ability to make the world a better place would be severely damaged which negatively impacts our ability to advance our agenda at the UN. It's true that other countries need to chip in more, but we can find ways to incentivise that without cutting our own vital funding. The mandatory labeling of foods containing GMOs Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are safe, not new, keep food prices low, and protects our environment. Scientists, including the USDA, AMA, WHO, and NAS, agree that GMO ingredients are safe for human consumption. GMOs are not new, they have been around for decades, and over 70% of the food we eat today contain GMO ingredients. GMO ingredients require fewer pesticides and less water, which results in lower production costs. This has helped reduce the price of crops used for food, such as corn, soybeans and sugar beets by as much as 15-30%. GMOs help the environment because they use fewer chemicals and allow farmers to use more environmentally friendly planting techniques that cut down on soil erosion, greenhouse gas emissions, and water use. I fully support transparency when it comes to food, but putting a label on our food that indicates it contains GMO ingredients is not useful to the consumer. We have scientific evidence that fat content matters, we don't have scientific evidence that GMO ingredients make a difference. Therefore, labeling foods GMO will only intensify the misconception that GMO foods endanger people's health. In other words, it would cloud consumer's judgment and actually result in less transparency. Furthermore, the inevitable resulting GMO boycott would devastate the companies that produce GMO products, forcing them to produce non-GMO foods that will be more expensive to the consumer, limit consumer options, and damage our economy. The presence of 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. I support providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants via the bipartisan (sponsored by Old Man Hatch) Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM Act). The DREAM Act would grant conditional resident status to people who entered the United States before the age of 16, who graduate from a U.S. high school and meet a few other requirements. Those who additionally serve in the U.S. military or attend college or university for at least two years could be eligible to receive permanent resident status. Children of illegal immigrants should not be deported, and if they are well behaving and productive members of society, they should have a path towards permanent citizenship. Republican ideas of deporting all illegal immigrants or self-deportation are draconian, infeasible, immoral, and damaging to our economy. The DREAM Act on the other hand, will actually benefit the economy. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the 2010 version of the DREAM Act would reduce federal deficits by about $1.4 billion and increase federal government revenues by $2.3 billion over the next 10 years. It will also create 1.4 million jobs and have a total positive economic impact of $329 billion dollars. The DREAM Act is both the moral and economic solution to our problem of illegal immigrants in this country. |