My Plan: Unleashing American Innovation
Re-iMAGINE government
re-invest in american ingenuity
Re-iMAGINE government
- Overhaul the tax code, simplify to have 3 deductions (charity, home buying and investing in your business) and 5 brackets: under $50k (5%), under $150k (10%), under $250k (25%), under $10 million (35%) and the rest taxed at 75%.
- Improve the Health Care System - Get it out of HR Departments and into the hands of Doctors and Nurses. Foster competition thorugh expansion of insurance options, including the federal level. Transparency in billing and investments in wellness, mental health and prevention.
- Educate the Whole Child - teach the whole child, not just one part of the brain. Trust teachers to teach, don't ban books.
- Keep Communities Safe - Studies show that putting more police in high crime areas works. Ban assault weapons and make it harder for the mentally ill to buy guns. Ban the federal death penalty (inspired by my work with James Tillman).
- Reorganize federal agencies for the AI era, reimagining the role and scope of the federal government.
- An independent, non partisan, impartial judiciary / system of justice. From Biden's pardons to Trump's Exec. Orders, it's out of control. Let's clean it up. Is this too much to ask for?
Restore trust
re-invest in american ingenuity
Re-iMAGINE government
- Ban Members of Congress from investing in stock or anything related to a matter before Congress while in office; raise staff pay to attract top talent.
- Every American deserves dignity, due process and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - gay, straight, however one defines their existence. That includes marriage, banking, trusts, wills and all aspects of life.
- Overhaul the campaign finance system - ban PACS, corporate and dark money, make the process fully transparent, eliminate limits on personal donations to ensure more time is spent on policy.
- Establish 18-year term limits for the Supreme Court and Members of Congress
- Take on the Oligarchs. We don't have a free-market capitalist economy - we're run by an oligarchy: big banks, big pharma, big medicine. Just one bank made a PROFIT of $58 BILLION last year. I don't begrudge them their profit, but where is the investment in working people? In our communities? Do you know how hard it is to get a loan? We should restore Glass-Stegal and let banks be banks again. Let Wall Street run on clear, transparent rules with firm boundaries, banning things like derivatives - you want to invest, great, but have we learned nothing from the financial crisis?
re-invest in american ingenuity
re-invest in american ingenuity
re-invest in american ingenuity
- America's greatness is rooted in our ingenuity and the belief that every person has an opportunity to reach their amazing potential.
- Learn from the past. Too many rural and urban communities were not prepared for the transition from the industrial to the internet age, and now we find ourselves in the era of AI. Like it or not, AI is here (and while I use it, I do recognize it's very dangerous and an ethical black hole). So what are we doing to prepare our children and our country? In calling for more manufacturing in America, Trump was solving the wrong problem. He's right about the need to invest, but the 1980s called and they want their spandex, big hair and outdated ideas back.
- We need to invest in the real AI: American Ingenuity - even when America didn't live up to her promise, that's what made America great, and drew so many to our shores. I have a bold vision:
- Invest 10x more in innovation, R&D and cutting-edge ideas
- Investments in innovation are fully tax deductible - just like charitable donations (investments in charitiable innovation gets you a 2x deduction).
- Create opportunity trusts in low income communities where residents can buy into permanent housing, making it affordable while building credit.
A born fighter, not a professional politician, who knows wha
"Girls, I'm sorry to tell you, your Mother died..."
Politicians say they'll fight for people like us. Why not just elect one of us? Someone who knows the value of hard work, what it's like to struggle, who has spent his career fighting on behalf of children with cancer, grieving children and those needing support to reach their amazing potential?
Like you, I have dealt with my fair share of losses, and I have struggled mightily through them, at times directly with the meaning of my own existence.
My experience with loss began at 26, when my best friend John unexpectedly died of a rare heart disease. It continued in my late 30s when my wife, only grandparent, father, mother, dear friend and 9-year old niece Susan died. Being with my brother and sister-in-law when Susan died was the most difficult experience of my life.
For most politicians, issues are used to move people to vote or give money. To me, it's personal. My wife got her first cancer due to contaminated water in Massachusetts. The lack of regulations at the time meant she and many others were part of a cancer cluster, written off as expendable.
A health care system so messed up that my wife's second cancer went undiagnosed for years, costing her precious time for treatment that could have extended her life.
I'll fight like hell to make sure our story isn't repeated.
I've had my worst day - I have nothing left to lose, and live my life with immense gratitude. I don't know how to give up.
I have lost jobs, seen zeroes in my bank account too many times and even sold silverware I inherited from my mother to make ends meet. Times have been tough.
But I'm a lucky guy - in fact I'm the richest person you will ever meet, because I have two amazing daughters (they're a lot like their Mom), a great supportive family and friends... and two dogs who are like my children.
I live to help others, and prefer to do so without fanfare - I'm kind of a throwback who believes in humility and hates self promotion - it's kind of gross and the thing I like least about running for office.
I have been blessed to be the beneficiary of random acts of kindness, and I live to pay it forward. I don't want to be known for what I've lost, but how I live and love.
I pride myself of being kind and considerate, but don't mistake that for being soft - I'm the most relentlessly determined person you will ever meet, ignited on the day of Elyse's third birthday party, when I had to tell the girls their mother died.
I've turned more laundry pink than any man should, made enough chicken nuggets to start my own franchise, sent my girls to school looking like linebackers far too often, all while working in nonprofits to support the most vulnerable among us: the working poor, children, the sick, hungry and vulnerable.
I believe in the power and promise of every single person. I don't have much faith in the institutions that seek to leverage money and power to control us.
We don't need more political voices in Washington, we need more authentic ones - we need someone who knows what it's like to fight to make ends meet rather than just talk about it and who doesn't conform comfortably to any label, except Dad. I'm a proud Progressive in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, Paul Wellstone and Bobby Kennedy, but I also believe that small business drives our economy, that taxes are too high and too complex and that what government does it should do well, but it's not the answer to everything.
I've got nothing left to lose, I fear nothing, and I ain't giving up...
Innovator and nonprofit entrepreneur
Check out my LinkedIn bio to learn more about my professional background as a nonprofit innovator on behalf of the most vulnerable among us. I'm a change-agent who loves figuring things out, setting a clear strategy and plan, hiring really good people, supporting them, and getting out of the way :)
Resilient, creative & Kinda FUNNY
I've been writing and painting for years. To make the Opposition Research easier, you can find all my work online. It's pretty absurd, but you know what: so is losing the love of your life at age 38.
I swear (a lot), hate wearing ties (a lot), abhor pretense in any form, love music (Bruce Hornsby, Radiohead, Robert Glaspar), art (Philp Guston), sketch comedy and improv, I swim every morning, walk my dogs, eat healthy and hardly ever drink.