Top Issues - Steve Carlson v. Betty McCollum record on...
1. Free elections
* Betty McCollum benefits from gender voting requirements that ensure a woman majority in every voting delegation including endorsement of the CD4 Democrat nominee for the U.S. House.
* McCollum has actively defended this unconstitutional practice (it violates the 19th amendment, which says the right to vote shall not be abridged or denied on the basis of sex) in court challenges, saying her party is not subject to the regulation of the U.S. Constitution because it is supposedly a private association.
* Steve Carlson opposes and voting quotas for the House position or any elected position and believes candidates should be nominated and elected based solely on merit and on a vigorous discussion of their record, qualifications and positions.
* Carlson believes McCollum’s record would not justify her election, but she is repeatedly chosen just because she is a woman, and the system is rigged to increase the number of women.
2. Economic Policy
* Betty McCollum has no economic policy, except to consistently back “the president’s jobs program”, which is a package of “stimulus programs” for infrastructure programs where the federal government controls and spends taxpayer dollars for local projects.
* A good example of McCollum’s approach is the disastrous “Central Corridor” light-rail train linking St. Paul and Minneapolis,
* Steve Carlson wants to reverse the federal debt by planfully stopping federal programs and agencies and returning the power and the resources back to Minnesota and the 50 states.
* Steve Carlson wants to amend the National Bank Act to allow Minnesota to enforce our usury laws for consumer borrowing, reducing household debt and stimulate purchase of needed goods and services which can be provided by Minnesota businesses, thus stimulating creation or expansion of Minnesota businesses and jobs.
* All of Steve Carlson’s policies are intended to create economic growth and opportunity.
* Betty’s Central Corridor has resulted in destroying scores of businesses which have not been replaced. The “stimulus” effect on Minnesota’s economy has been negligible, a temporary blip in employment, mostly from outside CD4. Now state, federal and property taxpayers are stuck with a huge bill.
* Betty’s Central Corridor project was designed not to stimulate downtown St. Paul business but to destroy them. In addition, it is not safe to cross the street where the light-rail runs and the elderly and disabled take their lives in their hands when they try. There have been a number of deaths.
3. Immigration and national security
* As Representative, Betty McCollum has allied herself with IL Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who demands amnesty and open borders. She argues “There are an estimated 12 million persons currently residing here who are undocumented. The truth is that most foreign-born persons in America are law-abiding, documented, tax-paying residents.” She concludes Congress must “establish a strict legal process for qualifying immigrants to earn legal status.” In other words, more amnesty for virtually all 12 million illegal immigrants!
* Steve Carlson has been a leader in addressing this issue in a way that is great for everyone, and Donald Trump’s ideas are consistent with this overall approach to developing a great Mexican border.
* Steve Carlson’s approach is based on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which created that border in 1848. Under that treaty, the two nations, Mexico and the United States would not only abide by that treaty, but pursue good neighbor relations.
* The Carlson approach, introduced in 2010, is to have bilateral security and human rights, and also cooperative economic development on both sides of the border. A wall can be designed to accommodate all these goals.
* Carlson also believes that it is necessary to increase the legalization, lower the number of illegal aliens under the treaty, so we can normalize mutual relations. Because Mexico is violating the treaty by failing to control illegal migration, they need to undertake to build that wall.
4. Education
* Betty McCollum is a former teacher and claims that “All students need to graduate with a well-rounded education ready for a career or college, and schools need to provide counselors who will give guidance for both paths. Higher education must be accessible and affordable for all students who choose to further their studies.” But this is a fantasy.
* In St. Paul, the heart of the CD4 Congressional District, graduation from high school is under 50%, and it is worse in Minneapolis. Higher education is out of the question. And it’s not affordable to be a full-time post-secondary student. To make America great we need much more than night school.
* Steve Carlson wrote the nation’s first cultural pluralism requirement, that the University of Minnesota develop and teach an authentic curriculum in Chicano Studies, American Indian Studies, African American Studies and East Asian Studies, and Women’s Studies, and that to graduate CLA each student take at least two of these classes as a requirement.
* Nowhere does Betty McCollum mention the word “internet”, “on-line”, or “private school”, “charter school” or “school choice.” In 2016, these omissions are unacceptable.
* Steve Carlson has developed a plan and a strategy make make higher education free, and not just take money from taxpayers to help students whose parents make below $125,000, as Hillary Clinton required in her deal with Bernie Sanders.
* Steve Carlson’s plan for free higher education begins with Minnesota’s Constitution, which REQUIRES free tuition at the University of Minnesota for all residents of the territory when in the opinion of the regents the general fund will allow. Minnesota like many states can use the land grant endowment to reduce the tuition to zero, especially by developing internet-based education. Creating new land-grant universities will create more jobs for teachers, while drastically reducing the cost of higher education.
* Steve Carlson wrote the nation’s first tuition student union to bargain collectively with the Regents to bring tuition down by examining the state of the general fund and the need for student payments to attain a quality higher education. It passed with 80% of the voting students approving it.
5. Budget, including ObamaCare
* Betty McCollum, as a member of the powerful appropriations and budget committees, and helping Nancy Pelosi as her senior whip, took the bizarre position that it didn’t matter if the House didn’t pass a budget because “a budget’s just a piece of paper, totally no-binding.” Utter incompetence and irresponsibility.
* Betty McCollum supports Barack Obama, who imposed sequestration on the nation, imposing doomsday unacceptable cuts on all federal programs, seriously impairing our defense capabilities and putting our security interests, INCLUDING our homeland at great risk. This is unacceptable.
* Betty McCollum voted for ObamaCare without reading it. It now severely impacts the state of Minnesota, including wildly skyrocketing premiums and deductibles causing insurance companies to drop out. Needless to say this hurts healthcare and any badly needed attempt to improve it.
* Steve Carlson says the money and power need to come back to Minnesota and the 50 states. He will work in Congress to transition this back and to get a sense of Congress that we are going to reverse the debt and deficit.
* Carlson says it is not enough that burgeoning federal spending be acceptable as a supposed portion of the gross national product. That is irresponsible and foolish. While this approach may aid survival in the short term, it harms our prosperity and opportunity for all Americans, imposes severe burdens on taxpayers, disenfranchises the states and the people, and in the long-term spells doom. A vote for McCollum is a vote for doom.
