Why Should Social Security Recipients Pay Taxes on a Tax?

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Many on Social Security have to pay taxes on this tax. This, in and of itself, is wrong. People work for decades, paying into the Social Security Trust Fund, and then when it comes time to collect what they have paid into the system, they are taxed again. This makes no sense to me.

What's more, the threshold at which they must start paying taxes on their social security income has not changed since the 1980s. As a result, many elderly people actually have to pay into the system upon retirement, just at the time when their ability to pay takes a dramatic turn.

Any tax reform must address this problem.

Supply Side Economics Has Failed, Again and Again, and Again!

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Giving tax breaks to the rich does nothing to help those beneath. We need a comprehensive strategy to let people rise into the middle class.

The whole premise of supply side economics is flawed, because it presumes that if you give a tax break to the wealthy that they will actually allow any of it to trickle down to the masses.

The way to grow the economy is to put more money into the hands of those who drive the economy - the middle class. The middle class spends money when they have it to spend. This enhances the bottom line of the companies with which they do business, which, in turn, need to hire more people to keep up with expanding demand. 

Under this scenario, Bubble Up Economics, everyone benefits, not just the ultra-rich at the top 1 percent.

Enhance Education from Kindergarten through College

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I have worked in higher education since 2004. College students must be prepared for the rigors of advanced education, starting in K-12.

Simply affording people the opportunity to go to college to earn a degree is not enough. I have taught first-year college students all the way up to students at the end of their degree programs. I was shocked at how ill-prepared many students were upon entering college, as I needed to teach many of them skills I was fortunate to learn as early as elementary school. At first, I assumed these students had simply forgotten these lessons, but in time I realized that many of them had never learned the lessons in the first place.

The key to making sure college students are successful and can pay back the loans they take out while in college is to make sure they have the skills to succeed upon enrollment. Only then can we have hope that graduation rates will improve, and students can enter the workforce with the skill set employers require and need, and then repay their debts they incurred seeking their degrees.

Civil Rights Are Rights For All

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Civil Rights is no longer solely the focus on the color of a person's skin, but their sexual orientation and gender. I support equality for all people, just as the Founding Fathers intended when they declared that all men were created equal.

My philosophy on civil rights is simple. I was born a heterosexual white male. I did not choose to be white, I did not choose to be straight, and I did not choose to be a man. I was born this way. If I can be born this way, is it not equally possible that a person could be born gay, black, Latina, Asian, etc? Why should we treat anyone who is different than us differently when they have no control over these dynamics?

Civil rights legislation is a moral responsibility, and I will vote for laws that expand and protect the rights of all people, regardless of their gender, their sexual orientation, their religion, their nationality.

Protection for the Dreamers

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There is no easy solution, but deporting millions of people, many of whom are Dreamers whose only home is America, is not the answer.

Dreamers are the kind of immigrants the president claimed would have a place in American society. They contribute to the economy, they own businesses, they are students, and their only crime is being brought here illegally by their families when they were too young to have a say.

Sending such people to their country of origin is incredibly preposterous and Un-American. They should have protection in the law, not have their lives ruined by it.

Protecting the Central Florida Environment

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In Central Florida, protecting the environment is perhaps even more important than other locations, but it also presents unique challenges.

Being good stewards of our planet's natural resources and beauty is in everyone's interest, because we all live here. We all breathe the air and drink the water, so if these resources become compromised, we all suffer.

There are other ways we can suffer, too, such as economically. This district is situated close but not really close to the mega tourist attractions in Orlando area, and I don't see people going out of their way to stay in Citrus County, or Lake County, or Sumter County, or Marion County if they want to spend their vacations at Orlando area theme parks.

That's OK, though. We have natural assets tourists love too, such as campgrounds, fishing streams, lakes for boating, canoeing and kayaking opportunities. We have beloved manatees people can see up close.

These kinds of attractions bring different kinds of tourists, but they can still aid our local economies if we do our part to maintain our natural resources, keeping them safe and beautiful for permanent and transient residents alike.

The Importance of Healthcare

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I have been overweight nearly my entire adult life. I stopped growing upward when I was 17, topping out at 6'4", and in those days, I weighed a bit over 200 pounds.

Then came college, institutional food, lots of parties and beer. By the time I graduated in 1989, I weighed 240. I thought I was huge because I had added 6 inches to my waste while away in college.

By my late 20s, the weight was evident. I was walking 4 miles a day, and my weight seemed to plateau about 300 pounds. I was active, but I could not tell my taste buds to take a hike, so I seemed to feel like this was about where I should be, and I accepted it.

Then I got married, had kids, got separated, and generally got older. By my mid-30s, my primary care physician uttered those terrible words - you have diabetes. But then he told me that if I could lose a little weight, I probably wouldn't need Metformin and Glipizide to manage my blood sugar.

By age 49, I got sick and tired of being sick and tired. I hardly had energy to keep up with my kids, and I noticed that both of them who were living with me started gaining weight, much earlier in life than I ever did. The highest my weight ever got was 425 pounds, more than double the weight I carried at age 17. The diabetes was affecting my health in ways you really do not want to know. Seriously. You don't.

I knew the time had come to do something about my weight.

2017 would be the year. A friend of mine had undergone gastric bypass surgery and had lost 160 pounds in a little more than a year's time. He inspired me, and I found Dr. Juan C. Gutierrez, who was affiliated with the best hospital I have ever used for care, Munroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala, Florida.

My insurance company had lots of hoops for me to jump through. I thought I could do them all in 6 months. Instead, from start to finish, 11 months passed from my first visit with Dr. Gutierrez until October 6, 2017, when I finally went to Munroe Regional for the big surgery.

Dr. Gutierrez later told me the surgery lasted 4 hours. I had heard 2-3 hours was normal. He explained that because I am big (both tall and wide), it took longer because things were more spread out in there. 

I was just relieved the surgery was done, and in a matter of days it became evident that the timing was perfect. Less than a week after my surgery, the president of the United States signed an executive order giving insurance companies the right to discriminate against customers for having pre-existing conditions. As I write this, my greatest fear is that insurance companies will contend that morbid obesity is a pre-existing condition, and use that as a reason not to cover life-saving surgeries like mine for patients who have run out of other options. 

This is why I support Medicare for all. Healthcare is not just political - it is life!