Profit has no role in healthcare; healthcare is a human right.  We need single-payer healthcare. Without it, insurance companies are profiting off of the health tragedies of others.  Driven by the pharmaceutical industry, drug prices are out of control and need to be reigned in. Significant regulatory oversight needs to be implemented in order to prevent price fixing. People all over the U.S. are sick and need help but cant get it because they live in poverty. Medicare for all is the solution to these problems. 

I support Bernie Sanders’ proposed bill for Medicare for All. Medicare for All is a healthcare system that eliminates private health insurance and replaces it with a single payer nonprofit health insurance system. The biggest difference is that Medicare for All covers more and costs less. How could that be? The middleman, aka insurance companies, have become overwhelmed with greed. People are seeing drug prices skyrocket and hospital trips are causing bankruptcy all around the country. Private insurance companies have only one goal, to maximize profit. Medicare for All eliminates the middleman, which is why private health insurance is so expensive compared to Medicare for All.

Medicare for All is essentially a public insurance company with the goal of making everyone healthy, both physically and mentally. Most doctors agree with this implementation of a health system. Doctors are spending excessive time and resources having to keep track of hundreds of insurance companies and how to get paid by each one. Medicare for All is a single system which eliminates this excessive bureaucratic overhead. People would no longer experience the hassle of switching insurance companies or worrying about if a doctor is out of network. Price will not be a concern when discussing medical treatment with your doctor.

Educating citizens is the best investment a government can make for its future. We must allow people to find their passion in life and education will allow them to do so. Far too often children and young adults continue the cycle of poverty because they lack a proper education. I support free college tuition and eliminating student loan debt. 

Nevada consistently ranks last in public education within the United States. The U.S. is ranked 38th in the world with respect to education. We have fallen behind, with no existing plan to catch back up. I propose Nevada be bold and lead the nation on this issue by changing our K-12 education standard to a Pre-K-16 standard. The Pre-K-16 standard includes a pre-kindergarten class which allows children to be in a beneficial social learning environment at a young age. Pre-K-16 includes four years of education after high school which would be provided by tuition free public colleges. In addition, we must provide support to our teachers by paying a living wage and, most importantly, listening to their ideas and needs for improving educational outcomes.

The United States represents approximately 4.5% of the world’s population, yet we house 23% of the world’s prison population. Concepts like the war on drugs and private prisons are to blame. Everyone agrees that violent crimes call for severe punishment, but most people are incarcerated for small, non-violent crimes. In fact, there are Americans serving life in prison for petty offenses like selling weed. Not only is this inhumane but it is very expensive.

The U.S., and Nevada, must re-evaluate its prison industry. The first step is to eliminate and replace private prisons and services. No person or corporation should be profiting from locking up our citizens. Most inmates are in poverty, yet they are paying exorbitant amounts for basic services and goods. In Carson City it costs inmates more than 20 cents per minute for phone calls. The company providing the call service plays a commercial advertising itself during each phone call. There is also a fee to put money into an inmate’s account, currently it costs $8 to deposit $20. People not in prison have a hard time paying these high prices, let alone the incarcerated population.

The experience of going to jail or prison has a life changing impact, and we have an opportunity to help people change and become productive members of society through this experience. I truly believe we can break the cycle of recidivism, through rehabilitation not incarceration.  Inmates should be trained and educated to become skilled workers if they choose. We should offer them a variety of paths to success, letting them choose the path of best fit. We should be encouraging inmates to communicate with loved ones as frequently as possible. Currently, jails and prisons give inmates reason to feel hopeless and angry, which creates a hostile environment for everyone involved. 

Prison guards and staff are also being directly impacted by how bad inmates are treated. We pay our front line prison staff far too little, giving them minimal financial incentive to care about these issues.  We must listen to the people with the most knowledge about these problems and those people are the prison staff and the inmates themselves. We want people to come out of prison with new skills and a new outlook/appreciation for life. We can transform the prison system drastically by treating inmates humanely, eliminating private prisons and services, and providing rehabilitative services to Nevada’s inmates.

Guns were created for the sole purpose of killing. The second amendment was adopted in 1791. At this point in history our nation had no standing army, guns were mostly used to hunt for food, and slavery was accepted as common practice. My point being that times have changed and America has drastically evolved into the most advanced civilization in history. Weapon technology has evolved at the same pace. There are guns which fire thousands of rounds per minute and use ammunition designed to penetrate virtually any target. Yet our country uses a rule established in 1791 as the basis for weapon regulation.

Universal background checks are supported by more than 90% of Americans, yet we fail to make this law. Right here in Nevada, in the Las Vegas massacre, 58 innocent lives were taken and 422 others were wounded. The shooter fired over 1,100 rounds of ammunition from an assault rifle equipped with a bump stock and a 100 round ammunition drum. The assault rifle itself and its components were all designed for war. Weapons like this should be regulated and made illegal upon creation.  Yet here we are, two years later, and nothing has changed.

Not only do we need immediate gun regulation to be put in place, but as new weapon technologies emerge we must evolve with them in order to maintain a safe environment. Of course, there are still legitimate reasons for guns, such as hunting, competitive marksmanship, home defence, and military or law enforcement. One could make a legitimate argument for guns using any of these reasons, which is why we need to use common sense and statistical evidence in our decision making with respect to gun laws.

The United States is known as the strongest most powerful nation in the world. We are powerful because we are diverse. We must welcome and nurture humans from all walks of life, for these people are the leaders of tomorrow. The U.S. should attract great minds from around the world with promises of love, health and peace. 

When migrant caravans travel over 2,500 miles on foot, fleeing from death and war, we must welcome them with open arms. Making the small investment of shelter, food, healthcare and education to immigrants will yield great returns that benefit everybody in the United States. Imagine a world where immigrants like Albert Einstein were turned away and fought against Americans instead of with us.

The mainstream media infers a negative connotation when discussing immigration. They are often blatantly racist and portray hatred towards immigrants or portray immigrants as violent terrorists. This kind of fear mongering has been used time and time again throughout history to control the masses. The rich and powerful try to pit us against one another and we get nothing accomplished. 

Mainstream media targets people like Ilhan Omar, the first black muslim woman in congress, saying that she is anti-semitic and is going to share critical U.S. intelligence with our enemies, yet they have zero evidence to back the claims they make. Eventually people started sending death threats to Ilhan Omar. Our president then spread these same lies, even after the death threats were revealed, showing his true character. Ilhan Omar fights the good fight and her actions show it. 

Border security is necessary for trade and immigration processing. Both which should be accomplished in a way that strengthens our country and protects it from harm. We should treat everyone humanly, with open arms, providing all with basic human rights. The immigrants we invest in today will be the border security of tomorrow causing a positive cycle of strength for the United States.

Childcare is one of the best ways to make the world a better place. We need to invest in our children today because they will always be the leaders of tomorrow. I envision a world where no child is sick or hungry despite their socioeconomic status. We need to show every child love and compassion so that they will do the same when the time comes. Once again, we are presented with an investment opportunity which will yield ample returns for everyone but we need to act immediately.  In order to do this, we can start with investing in paid maternity leave. 

Pregnancy is by far the most amazing and magical event that anyone can experience. Yet pregnancy is often a burden too. We need to minimize this burden and give women everything they deserve during this time. The U.S. has yet to properly address this issue. 

Pregnant women need financial stability and at least 6+ months of paid maternity leave. The first year of life is crucial for child development. Women shouldn’t be obligated to choose between work and caring for their newborn. Many families struggle to find a viable path back into the workforce after childbirth. The cost of childcare is so high that it makes employment seem pointless. Why go to work when your entire paycheck will be spent on childcare? Why not just quit work and stay at home with your child? The problem is that both choices often leave the family in poverty.

I propose an addition to our current public school system. One that focuses both on caring for and educating our young children. This system will allow women to return to work after maternity leave without the insane financial downfalls that they currently experience. New child care related jobs will be created and possibly filled by the mothers themselves. This will help our economy and most of all the working class.

Political transparency is the basis for a non corrupt government. I believe that politicians should be focused on communicating with all of their constituents regardless of money. I have lived in Nevada my entire life, and Carson City for over a decade. During this time, my political representatives have never asked my opinion on any political issue. 

Politicians currently take money from corporations and then tell you it doesn’t influence their vote. Then they meet with these same corporations behind closed doors without blinking an eye. This is legal bribery and needs to be made illegal immediately. Bernie Sanders has shown that plenty of money can be raised through individual donations. We want politicians to engage with voters before and after an election. Instead you have corrupt politicians begging corporations for money and once they get elected you never hear from them again. I pledge to only take small individual donations and I will fix the voter communication problem.

We landed on the moon 50 years ago, yet we don’t have a system for voters to give input on issues to their representatives. I am not talking about an online voting system. This system would be a simple communication tool used by both Nevada representatives and Nevada citizens. The system will be non partisan will use multi level authentication. This system is only intended to improve communication with our politicians.

Imagine an online system where I can ask my voters what issues matter most to them. All of the voters can then answer the question or up-vote someone else’s answer. I can then see the exact issue most important to people. We can then start fixing the issue by asking the voters for ideas and solutions. Again you can give a solution or upvote another person’s solution. This system will allow everyone’s input to be heard.

To fix education problems we need to first hear out the teachers and students problems along with their proposed solutions. To fix our healthcare problems we must first hear from doctors and patients. To fix working class problems we must first hear from the working class. These people experience the problems everyday and I am willing to bet they have great ideas and solutions.

U.S. infrastructure is currently scored as D+ and is continuing to degrade everyday. We have cities with undrinkable water, schools without heat, and roads crumbling beneath us. So how do we solve this problem? The green new deal is how we solve the problem. The general concept is simple, instead of failing to repair our infrastructure for decades we need to focus on building a world class energy efficient infrastructure. The U.S. should be leading the world instead of always playing catch up. 

Fossil fuels are finite sources of energy and emit large amounts of carbon and byproduct. This causes environmental damage which negatively affects us all. For example smog that all the residents must breathe or undrinkable tap water in a city. Nobody is trying to get rid of fossil fuels overnight but we are trying to use new energy efficient technology when we can. We must move towards solar power, wind power, and all other forms of renewable energy technology.

The green new deal would create, repair and replace current infrastructure with green technology of the future. Moving away from fossil fuels and leading the world in renewable energy technologies is the goal. The green new deal will create an abundance of jobs while giving a natural boost to our economy, all while improving our current failing infrastructure. We need to become the world’s leading experts in green technology and we need to hold corporations responsible for their environmental destruction.

Abortion is a unique topic and just to be clear we should start with the simple oxford definition.

Abortion – The deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy.

The definition itself is pretty straightforward yet it presents me with feelings of negativity when read. This is because no matter what the circumstance, a woman undergoing an abortion is a tragedy. Propaganda often portrays women and doctors as if they are intentionally performing abortions out of hatred or mal intent but this is not the case.

Every abortion situation is unique and must be evaluated on an individual basis. Making abortion illegal is an ignorant decision and is frankly just lazy and disrespectful to women. There are many situations in which an abortion is medically necessary to save the woman’s life. Situations where the fetus is clearly not medically viable and a lack of an abortion will cause serious pain and suffering for the mother. When a rape occurs and the mother does not want to birth her rapists baby, which includes the responsibility of motherhood for life. All of these situations require the option of abortion and all of these situations are clearly justifiable. Yet a few states in the U.S. have made abortion illegal, which is devastating news to all women.

Then we have the case of a woman that willingly had sex, gets pregnant with a healthy baby and seeks an abortion. Aborting a healthy baby does bring about moral issues for everyone. I have no solution to this dilemma and I recognize that the woman is the only person that can make the decision that is correct for her.

People often use religious values as the reason to make abortion illegal but where do these values go after birth? Women and children are in poverty all over the United States. We often turn women and children away when they arrive at our borders running from war and famine. Maybe we can reduce abortions by fixing these problems and making the world a better place. Pregnant women might reconsider an abortion if they know that we will help them every step of the way.