Casey for Senate

Over the past 40 years United States literally exported 8 million jobs and 50 thousand factories to foreign countries. All in the insensible and uncontrolled appetite for cheap labor and cheap markets. Literally all selected industries disappeared from our country. As a result the middle class labor lost the major source of income from good jobs and was forced to accept mediocre menial jobs, often leading to serious financial family support issues resulting in family breakdowns and also in visible increase of crime. That is totally unacceptable and we must make every reasonable effort to bring the jobs back and/or create new ones by utilizing our innovative potential and the newest technologies available such as robotics, AI, and even quantum computing.

At one time our industrial dominance was the envy of the entire world. Not anymore! We can definitely reverse this dangerous course if our government, in cooperation with the private industries, can provide the necessary assistance and create suitable conditions to jump start literally entire brand new and modern industrial zones dedicated to very specific industrial/technological developments such as: for robotics, AI and quantum computing. Since some already exist in both the West and the East Coast already, therefore, our Midwest Region should be an obvious target region for the accelerated development of such projects on a massive scale.

One final note about jobs. The admission of China into the World Trade has crippled out job numbers. Beginning in 2001, it has severely accelerated the export of the US jobs overseas. Somebody at some point should have realized that 1,300 million of people entering into world job market will have detrimental consequences. It was a very serious mistake which compounded to the shrinkage of our jobs. Moreover, with China entering the world center stage we created perfect conditions and paved the way for stealing of intellectual property and exploiting of the non-tariff world order by a nation which does not follow any accepted norms of behavior.

Over the past 40 years United States literally exported 8 million jobs and 50 thousand factories to foreign countries. All in the insensible and uncontrolled appetite for cheap labor and cheap markets. Literally all selected industries disappeared from our country. As a result the middle class labor lost the major source of income from good jobs and was forced to accept mediocre menial jobs, often leading to serious financial family support issues resulting in family breakdowns and also in visible increase of crime. That is totally unacceptable and we must make every reasonable effort to bring the jobs back and/or create new ones by utilizing our innovative potential and the newest technologies available such as robotics, AI, and even quantum computing.

At one time our industrial dominance was the envy of the entire world. Not anymore! We can definitely reverse this dangerous course if our government, in cooperation with the private industries, can provide the necessary assistance and create suitable conditions to jump start literally entire brand new and modern industrial zones dedicated to very specific industrial/technological developments such as: for robotics, Internet of Things, AI and 5G technologies as well as quantum computing. Since some already exist in both the West and the East Coast already, therefore, our Midwest Region should be an obvious target region for the accelerated development of Illinois special economic zones on a massive scale.

One final note about jobs. The admission of China into the World Trade has crippled our job numbers. Beginning in 2001, it has severely accelerated the export of the US jobs overseas. Somebody at some point should have realized that 1,300 million of people entering into world job market will have detrimental consequences. It was a very serious mistake which compounded to the shrinkage of our jobs. Moreover, with China entering the world center stage we created perfect conditions and paved the way for stealing of intellectual property and exploiting of the non-tariff world order by a nation which does not follow any accepted norms of behavior.

Without any doubt, the subject of our huge and uncontrolled National Debt is the topic avoided by many even seasoned politicians. It is a very perilous topic and they would rather promise a train ride to the moon, they rather promise everybody all kinds of money which they do not have.

Currently, our National Debt stands at nearly 23 trillion dollars. In early 2009 it stood at 10, and in 2016 at 18 trillion. In just ten years we more than doubled our National Debt which we have accumulated as a country during the last 200 years. Our National Debt now outpaces our GDP percentage wise and it now stands at 106%.

That is totally unprecedented and it has reached alarming proportions. Any sane person will admit that such conditions cannot last forever and they will not cure our well-being as a prosperous country.

We must act quickly and decisively to stop this run away debt train. I think, that the very first order of business now it to initiate public debate about this issue and let the financial/economic experts to step in to offer possible solutions to  cure our national scourge.

If one currently watches the Democratic Presidential Candidates what kind of tax solution they offer to improve the economic well-being of our country, one can be totally confused at the magnitude of their plans for the solution “How to steal from Paul to pay Peter”. That is exactly what they do.  No one can deny that this very seriously impacts the middle class, since the middle class which should be the key to our solution of improving the economy. Personally, it hard even for me to judge how effective is the current tax system, if the corporate giant such as Amazon reported a profit once in their existence. It would seem reasonable to assume that if they report losses, they pay no taxes. Forever business expansion without paying any taxes! Along the same lines, we must bring back into the US all expatriate income tax due from companies during business aboard by giving the companies a special onetime  deduction.

Despite of serious efforts of economy minded Presidents such as the late President Reagan or President Trump, something indeed must be done, if our desire is the wish to expand our economy to ensure continued prosperity to our country. We must eliminate all existing loopholes in the tax system but above simplify the tax code.

Currently for the 2019-2020 they are seven Federal Income Tax brackets, from the lowest 10% to the highest 37%.  It is a high time to look around the word for some possible alternative solutions which paved the way to the success of the country.

My desire that my approach will generate a public debate which with the assistance of our experts will come an agreement on the right course. Again, I would follow a slow introduction of new programs without shock waves of adopting the final form too quickly.

When looking around the world for the very successful countries with very high per Capita GDP and also being the richest, one will quickly notice that the country       remove the blank line below

of Singapore has on the highest GDP  of  $90,000($60,000 for US)  and at the same time enjoys one of the lowest tax rates in the world with 17% for corporate and 22% individual income tax rate. Needless to say they are also number one in the PISA test scores for 2015. This example cannot be ignored although Singapore has only 6 million population as opposed to 330 million in the US, but their many other countries which use effectively low tax rates to the benefit of their own economies.

The idea of 17% corporate tax was floating around during the Reagan administration did not come to fruition, but the reduction of taxes he adopted was highly effective and it stimulated the US economy immensely.

A hidden form of non-discrete taxation, are also the rules and regulations with which our citizens and institutions are harassed every day to generate additional revenues for Local, State or Federal Governments. We must fight to remove all such regulations when socialist-minded willing executioners using their agenda out of the Alinsky’s playbook to find yet another expensive regulation to punish you for being a cooperative citizen. I do hope that the president Trump during his 2^nd term will double down his efforts to remove all such regulations.

The key to all of our tax reforms should remain in sight with our ultimate goal, which to restore and expand our ever shrinking middle class of America today. The wealth of every nation is always measured by the high percentage of the middle class in the country, not otherwise. In the 50’s and 60’s we enjoyed a very healthy middle class growth and we must restore it now. If we are to prosper as a country, it is our duty to restore yet again. To that end, any lowering of our corporate taxes should always be mandated by the increase of the job employment, not otherwise.

The bottom line is this, if we wish to expand our economy, we should look very hard for lowering the tax rates rather than increasing them without the end in sight.

For many decades the people of the United States and, for that matter, of the entire World have worked very hard to adopt social programs which all of us benefit today. As a country, the USA, has provided examples for many others to follow, and to be fair, we have learnt from others as well.  It is therefore our responsibility, to make every reasonable effort to maintain such high social standards. To continue our social net, we must be very careful not to overspend our appetite to live beyond our limited capacities. After all as the popular adage says – “the money does not grow on trees”. Currently, we are on board of a runaway train that is accelerating at a rapid pace when it comes to living beyond our means. We are generating the unstoppable national debt to live today at the cost of our future generations. We must make every effort in our powers to reverse this dangerous trend by overhauling, re-examining of many a program to eliminate wasteful spending, duplication and sometimes squander or even outright fraud.  I think that it is almost criminal when our Senior Citizens and/or Veterans are left in neglect and without sufficient social support. We should vigilant and proactive to check on their well-being before it reaches scandalous levels, e.g. admissions of veterans their government run hospitals.

Similarly, our younger generations which enter the job market, must be protected as well. We have to insure that young families can establish their families without worry about the job consequences, therefore, we must mandate and guarantee them maternity leaves for extended period of time, as it is done in many countries of the World with Europe at the forefront. Along the very same lines, each employer with 25 or more employees should provide adequate health insurance coverage.

It should be our solemn duty of this and the next generation of the workforce to protect them at all costs regardless of any prevailing infatuation with socialism, or any other “ism”, even capitalism. Before any attempts are made to save all, even those that have not yet stepped on our soil, it must remain our moral obligation to place an umbrella of protection support over them during their most precious moments in their Own and their family lives.

It did not take long to realize that the highly acclaimed  Obama Care program based on the socialist ideas proved to be a trap for the poorest and the youngest who are now being punished if they do not join the plan, or to find  out later(in the execution of the plan) that their government mandated insurance prohibitively expensive. They find now that they cannot afford the plan because of the astronomically high deductibles which many times exceeds $10,000 a year. Just remember that is pure socialism at work in its final execution of a plan which very beautiful and appealing at first.

Any new social program introduced should be very carefully examined and we should look into the private enterprises to underwrite the costs associated with such programs. This is our new and real challenge, our moral duty and obligation to our next generations if we want to maintain good living standards today and tomorrow for all of our citizens.

Despite of our elite universities, generally, our education systems show many symptoms of structural deficiencies when comparing our test/achievement scores with many countries of the world. The 2015 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test average scores for mathematics, science and reading shows United States in the 31^st place and the China is in the 10^th.  More importantly, the math scores only, puts the United States in the 39^th place and the China is in the 6^th place. The test scores for 2108 when released will be probably be quite similar if not worse. Does that really answer the obvious question – why is China dominating today the world industrial competition?  If we do not improve our educational systems I am afraid in time we will lose the competitive advantage which we once held.  Our educational system is in a dire status and it needs to be repaired and improved to compete more effectively not just domestically but primarily with the rest of the world.

The delusionary policies of “No one is left behind” which sound so beautiful and so promising have resulted in its execution in a state of affairs where everybody is left behind. We must allow the private education to flourish to speed up the process. And yes, we must create a suitable environment for the selected few who exhibit an extraordinary intellectual propensity to be tutored within their own groups at their own momentum, otherwise, we are just wasting their enormous potential and talents. Also, we must stress the engineering curricula once again (before we reach the Mars this time), since today many an employer cannot find qualified technical personnel to work in the new advanced technologies.

To be honest, not all jobs require university or college degrees, therefore, we must expand our vocational school training system with 1-year and/or 2-year job training programs for the most popular trades to allow our youth for a quick entry into the job market.

If you listen to the news media buzz today, you will learn that our civilization is doomed to extinct in ten years or maybe even sooner. Why, because of the man generated unsustainable CO2 emissions, which are they claim is at astronomical levels which leads to the global warming and to the inevitable death of the planet earth.

Did these climate experts and/or alarmists bothered to verify that during the course

of life on our planet, the earth’s climate went thru numerous cycles of warming and cooling, and most recently warming occurred in XV and XVIII centuries and cooling in in XVII and XIX centuries. No one can challenge the fact that during these periods of time all emissions were not made by the man’s activity but due other natural phenomena totally beyond the man’s control. Simply put, our earth’s climate goes thru such cycles and this time is no different.

On the balance, it does not mean that we should not curb the CO2 emissions, but we must be very careful and cautious when addressing the issue since there is no magic bullet. Principally and under no circumstances we should not jeopardize our own job markets to solve the problems of the entire world. Moreover, let’s be realistic and look at the real culprits, e.g. China annually emitting nearly 10,000 tons of CO2 whereas the US emits half of that. And let’s be blunt, China has no desire to curb their jobs in their own polluting industries. In fact, when we ourselves eliminate environment sensitive jobs, China quickly moves in to fill the gap and create new jobs in their air polluting industries. Oh yes, they will quickly sign each and every international agreement calling for reductions of the emission levels. That is China for you – preaching the world one thing and doing yet something totally different.

Not only that China has a total disregard for the air pollutions controls but during the last forty(40) years they managed also to pollute their own river systems. Moa Tse Tung in his young years could safely swim in the Yangtze river then, but one will dare to repeat the same feat today, since the Yangtze river has become literally a sewer system.  This is what I was told by many local villagers during my trip to China some years ago.

All of the well-meaning environmentalists should take a very close look at the world polluters to recognize the obvious, the United States, and Western Europe are the environmental leaders of the World, are they are very conscious and sensitive with respect to the environment controls with myriads of  laws in the books to punish polluters. I find it ridiculous that we rush to close our coal mines and leave tens of thousands of people without any dignity for their work ethics of many a generation. Any planned reductions of jobs under any circumstances should always be phased in over a long period of time without disturbing the livelihood of the working people such is it currently implemented in Germany.

The approach which we should be as follows – First, to create a new job, or find replacement for the job before you eliminate one.

Let’s be very honest, if the environmentalists are really concerned about the issue of our environment, first and foremost, they should put the world on the notice to eliminate plastic packaging, bottles and other mass produced plastic utility items first to save the planet, since not just rivers, but also our oceans show the scourge of the plastic pollution which results in the destruction of the marine life.

Save the planet yes, but first, save the United States. Let the others to do their own homework as well! Our mission is limited and we cannot save the entire world.

Today, the immigration issue is the most divisive and controversial topic in the US. The actually is an ongoing controversy since 1924 when the first immigration laws were adopted by the US government.

To effective resolve this issue first and foremost we are in a dire need to overhaul the entire immigration which we follow today. As a general immigration policy we should agree that it should work in concert with our own economy.

Currently, the whole world is in the turmoil of migratory movements with over 250 million people on the worldwide move today literally to find a new home.

Despite of the utopian vision that we should lead or better yet, save the entire world from existing imminent dangers. Simply put, it is unrealistic, we cannot save the entire world, but we must in a controlled manner adopt our policies especially with respect to the immigration policies which should serve our national interest goals. If I were to suggest the first change we should adopt, it is to get rid of the illusionary ‘Visa Lottery’ program which invites immigration verification nightmare and seriously undermines our qualification criteria.  The new immigration policies should be designed very careful to allow for a controlled and legal admissions of new immigrants. We all should agree that we must be in control of our immigration goals and as required by our industrial needs.

Also, I believe that our mission should be first and foremost recognize the fact that our neighboring countries, Mexico and Canada, should be treated in a preferential manner based on the nearly two century old Monroe doctrine – “America for Americans”.  No one, no one, should have a right to demand that we apply universally policies to the entire world when our own neighbors are first in the line. The preferential treatment of our neighboring countries should be also adopted to our economic policies as well.  Let’s be clear on one issue, if we adopted more cordial treatment of our southern counties over the last forty years instead of relying totally on the China’s card, we most probably would never need to go thru the tariffs wars and genuine economic and military threats we face today from China today. Fact is, that before we can absorb additional wave of migration we must create economic conditions for such outcome. Therefore, our first order of business is to create suitable economic conditions, and if bring back the 50,000 factories exported to China and elsewhere we will be on the way to better accommodation for our own citizens and our new immigrants.

Would our economy be able to absorb the additional millions of immigrants.  Well, the facts are that the most recent stats show the United States has nearly 14% population of immigrants, Canada 22% and Australia 28%. Without any doubt, if other developed word countries did absorb higher percentages of immigrants, the United States can do the same. Most importantly, Let’s first work very hard together with the President Trump to create better economic conditions and opportunities for the United States in the coming years. It can be done! Let’s make it happen to the satisfaction of us all!

Today, the immigration issue is the most divisive and controversial topic in the US. The actually is an ongoing controversy since 1924 when the first immigration laws were adopted by the US government.

To effective resolve this issue first and foremost we are in a dire need to overhaul the entire immigration which we follow today. As a general immigration policy we should agree that it should work in concert with our own economy.

Currently, the whole world is in the turmoil of migratory movements with over 250 million people on the worldwide move today literally  to find a new home.

Despite of the utopian vision that we should lead or better yet, save the entire world from existing imminent dangers. Simply put, it is unrealistic, we cannot save the entire world, but we must in a controlled manner adopt our policies especially with respect to the immigration policies which should serve our national goals. If I were to suggest the first change we should adopt,  it is to get rid of the illusionary ‘Visa Lottery’ program.  The new immigration policies should be designed very careful to allow for a controlled and legal admissions of new immigrants. We all should agree that we must be in control of our immigration goals and as required by our industrial and our service industry needs.

Also, I believe that our mission should be first and foremost recognize the fact that our neighboring countries, Mexico and Canada, should be treated in a preferential manner based on the nearly two century old Monroe doctrine – “America for Americans”.  No one, no one, should have a right to demand that we apply universally policies to the entire world when our own neighbors are first in the line. The preferential treatment of our neighboring countries should be also adopted to our economic policies as well.  Let’s be clear on one issue, if we adopted more cordial treatment of our southern counties over the last forty years instead of relying totally on the China’s card, we most probably would never need to go thru the tariffs wars and genuine economic and military threats we face today from China today. Fact is, that before we can absorb additional wave of migration we must create economic conditions for such outcome. Therefore, our first order of business is to create suitable economic conditions, and if bring back the 50,000 factories exported to China and elsewhere we will be on the way to better accommodation for our own citizens and our new immigrants.

Would our economy be able to absorb the wave of the additional millions of immigrants.  Well, the facts are that the most recent stats show the United States has nearly 14% population of immigrants, Canada 22% and Australia 28%. Without any doubt, if other developed word countries did absorb higher percentages of immigrants, the United States can do the same. Most importantly, Let’s first work very hard together with the President Trump to create better economic conditions and opportunities for the United States in the coming years. It can be done! Let’s make it happen to the satisfaction of us all!

During the course of various human civilizations, one must observe emergence of powerful states basically due to their military and economic power which insured their survival of many years. In quite similar fashion, United States, in particular after the World War II, has become the dominant player in the world stage. In order to support our power, we created a vest worldwide network of military bases to project our influence. Currently, In addition to the 1,100,000 soldiers in the contiguous United States, we deploy also over 165,000 soldiers in more than 150 counties across the world to control our national interests.

Also, as the world history shows that such state of affairs cannot last forever without straining the resources of the country which in many cases leads to a collapse the country’s power status. The United States is no different, and currently our worldwide overreach of the military is most definitely impacting

our available resources. The question is, how long can we afford to be the world policeman and what is the price we are willing to pay for such a privileged status.

To reduce the strain on our available resources, the easiest way is to reduce the military under command. No doubt, that we can pursue such course of action due to the fact our military is the most advanced technologically and we continue very successfully to weaponize each fighting soldier, therefore, we can do much more with a smaller force. But in the end, it seems that we must also alter our strategies of conflict resolution and eliminating of existing and new threats. A classic example is the development of new entrepreneurial military strategy of A2/AD (Anti-Access/Area Denial) where technological innovations create low cost solutions to engage our adversaries. Also, the usage of the drone technology should be exploited to its fullest potential. President Obama started to use the drone technologies very effectively to eliminate the Al-Qaeda threat, without using our ground forces. Such effective solutions can most definitely help us to maintain our world power status.

We must also push to the limits our intelligence and surveillance capabilities before we send new soldiers into far away places.

The final note to make, is that in order to influence our interests elsewhere, we can achieve  not just by keeping our soldiers in foreign lands but by conquering economically the countries of interest and by offering them cooperation of variety non-military programs and soft diplomatic solutions.  I believe that this is the most effective solution before we follow the strategy of “conquer and divide”.

When the survival of our young republic was at stake, in 1776, our forefathers had adopted the Declaration of Independence. Today, I think we find ourselves in somewhat similar situation where our global power and economic superiority is under stress by other dominant players on the world stage. In order to maintain the status the world greatest power, which the United States have enjoyed for the most of the 20^th century, it also undeniably important to maintain the status of the world economic power. Perhaps therefore, it is a high time to adopt today a new declaration of independence – National Declaration of Financial Independence. The purpose of such a national clarion call would be to insure that the rest of the world still looks at the United States as a model not just for civic rule but also for economic leadership in the world. Although there may be many key ideas toward such a goal but curbing the National Debt should be our #1 national priority. It does not need to overemphasized that securing the dominant position of the US dollar, which it still enjoys in the world commerce, is also key to our future and our Financial Independence. Hopefully, we can still correct the wrongs of our recent past and put our course on a new trajectory to remain the world’s beacon of good governance.

If we diligently and patiently implement the above re-making of the American agenda, by all measures, we will then indeed be well in the next  beyond the current phase of  the President Trump today’s clarion call to “Make America Great Again”, and we will most definitely awake in the American people the pride and the spirit to

“MAKE AMERICA PROUD AGAIN”