ISSUES COVERED:
(You can scroll through the entire document or jump to an issue with the following links)
Abortion
Affirmative Action
Campaign Finance & Electoral Reform
CIA
Conservative/Liberal Division
Constitutional Government
Crime
Cuba
Death Penalty
Defense Spending
Drug Policy
Education
Environment
Evolution
Farm Issues
Foreign Policy
Gun Control
Health Care
Homosexual Rights
Iraq
Korea
Labor Issues
Libya
Moral Issues
National Missile Defense
New World Order
Prayer in School
Race Relations
School of the Americas
Social Security
Tax Policy
Trade Issues
Veterans
Welfare
Yugoslavia
Zero

Abortion: I am both pro-life and pro-choice. As the father of seven children, I am pro-life.  I intend to be the most pro-life, pro-family president this country has ever had.  The government can play a role in minimizing abortions by eliminating the social conditions that drive women toward abortions in the first place -- lack of financial security, lack of health care, and irresponsible men who get women pregnant and then disappear.  Government can eliminate the homelessness faced by the working poor.  Government can provide universal health care and guarantee a living wage.  Government can educate young men, including teaching them that impregnating a girl is not the way to prove their manhood, but the way to incur an 18 year financial commitment.  Government can also give women real choices, and make sure they are aware of their options. We can prohibit most late-term abortions, require notification of a parent or responsible adult, and discourage abortions for convenience.   But then, having given women choices, government must respect the choices they make. There can be no return to the back alley.  The people of this country, with their diverse beliefs will probably never agree on whether or not to criminalize abortion.   Extremist positions are divisive and non-productive.  With policies which truly support families, we can be pro-choice and still make huge reductions in the number of abortions; and we can be pro-life, building a society which nurtures life at every stage, without violating a woman's right to choose.

Affirmative Action: I favor affirmative action. The effects of hundreds of years of slavery and discrimination have not yet been undone. Destructive welfare policies still emasculate black men and separate families. "Negative Action" must be stopped.

Campaign Finance & Electoral Reform: I strongly favor campaign finance reform. Corporations are not people, and money is not speech. There is no first amendment right for special interests to buy elections and politicians. Eventually, we must make it possible for people of modest means to run for office without selling themselves to the big money interests. This means public financing of campaigns and equal free air time to all qualified candidates. But more is required. Electoral reform demands proportional representation, preference voting (instant runoff), easy ballot access for third parties, and media reform (reinstitution of equal time rules, the fairness doctrine, and rules against media monopolies). If we are to have a government which serves people and not multinational corporations and banks, we must sever the connection between big money and political power.  Most importantly, we must make sure that every citizen has the opportunity to vote and that every vote results in a paper ballot which can be counted, recounted, and audited as necessary.

CIA: We have several intelligence-gathering agencies in the Pentagon. They are more than adequate to the task. The Central Intelligence Agency has caused the death of millions of people with its covert actions and the resulting wars. It has caused the United States to be hated and to become the target of terrorists. The CIA should be abolished.

Conservative/Liberal Division: The terms "Conservative" and "Liberal" are time-honored labels that have unfortunately lost most of their meaning today. The Corporate media portray a Conservative as an Ebenezer Scrooge before his Christmas Eve ghostly visitors, consigning the poor to the prisons and workhouses. Likewise, they show a Liberal as a Fagan, picking the pockets of the deserving wealthy, corrupting the morals of our youth, and exhibiting not the slightest hint of conscience or self-control. Neither of these Dickensian caricatures is true. The corporate ruling class and their media have artificially divided the American people and turned us against each other because they don’t want us to know who our real oppressors are. Well, no more. It’s time we the people came together and took back our country.  Conservatives and liberals have BOTH been alienated, manipulated, ridiculed, and ignored by the ruling elite (I call them the radical centrists) who have no ideology at all, but serve only money and power.  What I learned from my 2000 campaign was that conservatives and liberals agree on the vast majority of the issues.   They just use different words.  Both want a government that follows the Constitution and serves the interests of ordinary Americans.  Both want an end to wars of conquest and empire on behalf of the financial interests of multinational corporations.  Both love their country but fear and distrust their government.   Both are correct.  Both will have their interests served by a new American government freed from the control of big-money interests.

Constitutional Government: The debate should not be about how big government should be, but whom it should serve. One of the legitimate functions given the federal government by the Constitution is to provide for the common defense. Americans are now under attack, along with the several States and the nation itself, not by other nations, but by transnational corporations and banks and their stooges — in particular the World Trade Organization. It can overrule laws made by the American people and confiscate our property. We need a federal government big enough and strong enough to protect us from these enemies. Instead, the Republicans want to weaken and dismantle the government ... and the Democrats want to keep it powerful, but use its power on behalf of our enemies. Both parties serve big business interests. It wasn’t always thus. The two Roosevelts (one from each party) both used the government to protect people from the power of big business. We need such a government again. Recently, presidents of both parties have waged unconstitutional wars on behalf of the giant money interests making up the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderburgers. They have used America’s youth as cannon fodder for corporate profits. They have committed impeachible offenses by violating our founding document. It’s time for a president who gives more than lip service to his oath of office and who treats the Constitution like it matters.

Crime: Like everyone else, I am against crime. But too many politicians are doing evil in the name of fighting crime. This country's fastest-growing industry is locking people up. We have a quarter of all the prisoners in the whole world in this country. As president, I would pardon thousands of nonviolent offenders and political prisoners.

Cuba: We should end the embargo of Cuba and establish normalized relations immediately.

Death Penalty: Unlike the majority of Americans, I firmly oppose the death penalty. It has been proven that it does not deter, but promotes violence, vengeance, and disrespect for human life. It is applied mainly against the poor and, all too often, the innocent.  It is barbaric, anachronistic, and counter-productive.  As a pro-life president, I will seek to abolish the death penalty.

Defense Spending: As a career military officer, with 101 combat missions in Vietnam, I support a military strong enough to protect the people of this country. But I oppose using the military to protect the financial interests of multinational corporations and banks. After 60 years, there is no reason for us to still be occupying Germany and Japan. I would bring home our troops. This change in mission and deployment would allow the defense budget to be reduced substantially. We now have a trillion dollars in new weapons on the books for future procurement -- useless nukes and unneeded cold war weapons. At the same time, we have over thirteen thousand soldiers and their families on food stamps. Our priorities must change. The defense budget no longer bears any relationship to our national security. It has become little more than corporate welfare for the weapons manufacturers Eisenhower warned us about and a subsidy for the transnational financial interests our military protects. I believe defense spending can be cut by more than 50% while increasing our national security.

Drug Policy: Our "War on Drugs" is a disaster. It's an excuse for violating human rights at home and protecting right-wing dictators abroad. Military aid for Colombia will only result in more human rights violations against the people of Colombia. It should be halted immediately. Here at home, I would pardon all those imprisoned for possession or use of small amounts of marijuana. For users of cocaine, heroine, and other highly-addictive drugs, treatment should replace incarceration. Prison should be saved for the importers and distributors of illegal drugs -- including the CIA. I support industrial hemp and the medical use of marijuana.

Education: I have long advocated doubling the pay of teachers. But in listening to teachers I have found that good schools are the result of financially secure, involved parents. So the way to improve education is not to throw money at schools, but to throw money at families. When every American family is financially secure, with only one parent having to work, then every school will be a good school. I support home schooling, cooperative home schooling, and groups of parents joining together to hire teachers to help educate their children. (That used to be called a public school. Now it is called a private school.) But not every family is financially secure. So government must help by providing schools for those who cannot afford private schools. Or by providing the financial means for poor parents to afford private schools. That is the theory behind vouchers. Unfortunately, no voucher scheme yet proposed really does that. GW Bush's $1500/yr voucher would be a great help to already affluent parents. But it would allow the working poor to send their child to school for maybe three months. Let's face it. For now, we need public schools, adequately financed and locally controlled. Higher education should be free in exchange for service to the community or nation.  One of the fundamental requirements for good schools is discipline.   Without it, nothing else matters.  Private schools spend less money by far than public schools.  Their teachers are often less experienced.  But they have discipline, and that is why they tend to be better.  We MUST find a way to help public school teachers maintain discipline in the classroom and provide a real learning environment to their students.

Environment: As a scientist, I find overwhelming evidence for global warming and other hazards of unfettered human activity like the burning of fossil fuels. I also see ways to protect the environment while spurring the economy, like the development of electric, hydrogen-powered, fuel cell, or hybrid automobiles, nonpolluting mass transit and intercity transportation, and the development of renewable power sources like solar and wind. I support the Kyoto accords. Complying with them will not damage the economy -- only the financial interests of some of the old, entrenched corporations. Like the blacksmiths and buggymakers of a century ago, they must change or disappear. We cannot afford to rape our environment in order to keep them in business.

Evolution: Truth is truth. There is no conflict between science and scripture -- as long as both are properly understood. Much of evolution is scientific fact. Other aspects are still unproven theory. None of it proves that there is no God. The big bang theory of the origin of the universe is very much in accord with the creation of the universe out of nothing by God. The orderliness of creation suggests an extremely intelligent force was behind it.  Nothing in the facts of evolution conflicts with the message of Genesis.  To say that God used evolution to develop the animal kingdom is not to deny the special creation of humankind. The only religionists who should be upset by the correct teaching of evolution are the "young-earth creationists" who misunderstand scripture and believe that the universe is only six thousand years old and that all the scientific evidence to the contrary is the result of a gigantic hoax God is playing upon us. They must be ignored. The public schools must teach evolution, must present it scientifically, must admit that much of it is unproven theory, and must refrain from inferring from it either the presence or the absence of a God. Interpreting the facts of evolution and their religious significance must be left to the churches.

Farm Issues: Like other small businesses, American family farmers are becoming an endangered species. They are falling victim to globalization and the giant agribusiness transnational corporations. Farm subsidies should only go to family farms. They are a vital national resource and must be protected and encouraged to develop new methods of sustainable agriculture. Dairymen and farmers are getting a smaller and smaller share of each dollar we spend in the supermarket. The lion’s share goes to giant processors and packagers. This trend must be reversed.

Foreign Policy: Foreign policy must be conducted in the interest of the American people and (when not in conflict with this) the interest of the people of the world. It must NOT be conducted in the interest of transnational organizations and their owners. The world's billionaires must no longer be allowed to dictate policies through the IMF, the World Bank, the G-8, the WTO, and their hired hands in the Republican and Democratic parties. They must NOT be able to use our sons and daughters as hired killers for the multinational corporations and banks. The greatest threat we face is nuclear terrorism. "Star Wars" is no help. I directed all the "Star Wars" programs under presidents Ford and Carter and I know. No "Star Wars" weapon will do any good against a terrorist with a rental truck. We are the target of terrorists because our government is feared and hated -- and for good reason. It is hated because it has done hateful things to people all around the world. It has deposed elected leaders and supported brutal dictators who sell out their own people to the multinational corporations. More recently, our government has been responsible for the death of over half a million children in Iraq and for the rape of Yugoslavia.  Under the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush administration, foreign policy has been abandoned altogether in favor of empire-building through illegal, unconstitutional wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.  This has further increased the fear and hatred directed against us.  It has provided thousands of new recruits for Osama bin Laden.  It has increased the terrorist threat to this country. The only way to free the American people from the threat of nuclear terrorism is to get control of our government and stop it from doing hateful things in our name. As President, I will use the men and women of our armed forces to protect our borders, not the financial interests of Folgers, Chiquita Banana, Exxon, and Halliburton. We must end the embargo of Cuba, end the sanctions against Iraq, end the occupation of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and end gunboat diplomacy altogether.   We must refrain from arrogant unilateralism.  Instead, we must use diplomacy and humility to regain a respected place in the family of nations.

Gun Control: I wish guns could be done away with, but they can't. Restrictions and buy-backs only affect the law-abiding citizens, not the crooks. Until we can disarm the crooks -- and the FBI and the DEA and the IRS and the INS and the CIA and the military -- we MUST allow citizens to bear arms to protect themselves against tyranny. That's what the second amendment is all about. It has nothing to do with hunting. In too many nations, people live in fear of a hated national police. Usually armed, paid, and trained by the US government, these agencies shoot first and ask questions later. They tell us it can't happen here. But recent events with respect to Waco, Ruby Ridge, Little Havana, and Pine Ridge must give us pause. We are not supposed to have a national police force. The FBI is supposed to be an investigative body. If we can't get these federal agencies under control, we should disarm them completely. Personally, I preach nonviolent resistance. I feel it is a more effective response to tyranny. (All those weapons didn't help the Branch Davidians.) But many disagree with me. So I must nonviolently put my body on the line to protect their right to their guns.  Having said that, I support all reasonable efforts to prevent crooks, psychopaths, and domestic abusers from purchasing firearms.

Health Care: The Republicans ignore the health care crisis. The Democrats argue about who has the better band-aid for the system. But what the system needs is radical surgery. The insurance companies take about half of every healthcare dollar. That money never gets to the doctors and nurses who take care of us. We must kick the blood-sucking insurance companies out of the healthcare business completely, and break the stranglehold of the HMOs and for-profit hospital conglomerates. We must finally join the rest of the civilized world with a doctor-run single-payer national health system.

Homosexual Rights: I support human rights; and the last time I checked, homosexuals were human beings. So by definition I support homosexual rights. They should have the same rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as anyone else, and that includes the right to be free from discrimination and harrassment. From a moral and societal point of view, we should all oppose promiscuity, whether gay or straight. We tell our straight teenagers to "Save it for marriage." But what do we tell our gay teenagers to save it for? Now, many people are uptight about the word "marriage." They want it used exclusively for the union of a man and a woman. OK. So let's call a monogamous commitment between gays or lesbians "pairage." But for goodness sakes, we must encourage it, whatever it is called. We can no longer doom homosexuals to a lifetime of celibacy, closeted deceit, or promiscuity. We must hold out the hope of being able to live in a lifelong relationship, and to have that relationship recognized by society and given all the legal rights, responsibilities, and privileges that accrue to married heterosexual couples.

Iraq: Having already killed half a million Iraqi children with our sanctions, we should end them and assist Iraq in rebuilding its infrastructure which we destroyed in the first Gulf War.  Instead, we have prosecuted a war of aggression against Iraq, this time under George II.  Saddam Hussein, as bad as he was (he was, after all, a CIA hireling) had nothing to do with Al Qaeda or 9/11.  His secular Ba'athist state was hated by fundamentalist Muslims.  By kicking him out under the false pretext of his "weapons of mass destruction," we have angered Arabs throughout the region, empowered Shi'ite Muslim fanatics who want to make Iraq an Islamic state, and greatly worsened the terrorist threat to the United States and its citizens.   Can't anyone in the White House spell "quagmire"???  The problem with Vietnam was that we were fighting against the majority of the people who live there.   If we allow our military occupation to become guerrilla warfare, we will be doomed to the same kind of defeat in Iraq that we suffered in Vietnam.

Korea: We should pay North Korea to dismantle its missile programs, bring our troops home, and let the two Koreas negotiate reunification on their own.

Labor Issues: American workers are earning less now than they did forty years ago. In the 1950s, most workers supported their families with one job. Today it takes three. Both husband and wife must work, and one of them has two jobs. Meanwhile, productivity has soared. Workers create more wealth now than ever. Where does it go? To the CEOs and investors. Labor has been emasculated by the Taft-Hartley Law, by deregulation which has legalized corporate monopoly power, and by Reagan’s destruction of the Air Traffic Controllers union. Things must be brought back into balance. If the government is going to exercise its muscle, it should be on behalf of workers, not investors. Forget the Minimum Wage. Everyone should get a Livable Wage. There is no excuse for hunger, homelessness, and poverty in America today. This is the 21st century, not the 19th.

Libya: American-educated Qaddafi is a natural ally. We should quit hounding him and make peace.

Moral issues: Let's get one thing straight. Morality has very little to do with sex and a great deal to do with money and power. It has to do with how we treat one another. It is immoral for the big money interests to force government to serve their greed instead of serving the people's need. I do agree that public servants need to set a high moral standard for themselves, as an example. As Presiding Archbishop of the United Catholic Church, I'm used to having to do that. And I favored the impeachment of Bill Clinton -- but for the right reason. Not over poor Monica. I would have impeached him for the bombing of Baghdad and the rape of Yugoslavia.  There are indeed huge moral issues facing us today.  Waging wars of aggression is a moral issue.  Poverty in the midst of wealth is a moral issue.  The treatment of widows and orphans is a moral issue.  (It was in Jesus' day, and it still is.)   Health care is a moral issue.  Let the churches worry about who is sleeping with whom.  The government has bigger fish to fry.  Government should concern itself with morality in the board room and the war room, not the bedroom.

National Missile Defense: The threat used to justify it is bogus. It will destroy arms control and the drive to abolish nuclear weapons. The July 8th, 2000, test failure is irrelevant. Even if it worked, Clinton’s "Star Wars Lite" would be of no use against nuclear terrorists, but would only heighten the legitimate hatred and fear which underlie the danger. The program should be scrapped permanently.   George W. Bush's resurrected "Star Wars" is even worse.  The only believable military use for most of these weapons is to help an aggressor win.  Their offensive uses dwarf their "defensive" capabilities.   Even their meager "defensive" capabilities are only believable in the hands of an aggressor trying to protect himself from retaliation after his first strike.   Their only deterrent value is to deter another country (like China) from interfering in U.S. gunboat diplomacy and wars of aggression.  For more on NMD see www.rmbowman.com/ssn for updates.

New World Order: The New World Order got its start with Charlie Wilson (chairman of General Motors and later Secretary of Defense) and Krupp Industries in Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s. It got a big push from David Rockefeller in 1960 with the Trilateral Commission, and reached its fruition under George H. W. Bush. It incorporates the IMF, the World Bank, the G-8, and the WTO. It rules the world on behalf of the billionaire industrialists and bankers. It is global capitalism run amok. It manipulates public opinion through its corporate media monopolies. If we can’t take back America, there’s not much hope for the rest of the world.

Prayer In School: The Constitution forbids the government to establish a state religion. The courts are correct in protecting minorities from having the religion of the majority forced on them. But we must see that Atheism does not become a state religion forced on the majority. Common sense must prevail. After all, the Constitution also forbids the government from interfering in the free exercise of religion.

Race Relations: First, we should stop using this phrase. Call it Ethnic Relations or something. All of us — black, brown, white, yellow, red — are part of the Human Race. To suggest that blacks belong to a different race is to open the door to the belief that they are somehow inferior. There is still discrimination against people of color, and it results in them having less opportunity, less education, lower income, poorer health, mistreatment in our courts, shorter lives, heartbreak, resentment, and anger. When working people are shortchanged by the big money interests, people of color suffer the most. The struggle for real equality is far from over. We belong with them in the front lines.

School of the Americas: The House has voted to change its name, but not its mission. It will still train death squads in the techniques of torture, intimidation, and assassination. It must be closed and not reopened under any name.

Social Security: There's a very easy way to make the Social Security system solvent forever -- do away with the cap on earnings subject to the FICA tax. Right now, this is by far our most regressive tax. It is a heavy burden on workers and small businesses; but it is a free ride for the wealthy. Tax all income at the same rate. Make FICA a flat tax. That will bring in so much money the government won't know what to do with it. The current ceiling could be replaced with a floor. Nobody would have to pay FICA tax on the first $40,000 per year, but they would get credit as if they had. All income above that would be taxed at the current rate. Benefits could be raised, and there would still be more than enough to handle the baby boomers.

Tax Policy: Corporations "tax" workers 45 times as much as the government does. The average worker creates well over $100 worth of new wealth each hour. But his take home pay is only $8. The government takes $2 in taxes, and the corporation takes $90 for overhead and profit, including obscene CEO salaries. This is the "tax" we need to reduce. Even failed CEOs are given hundreds of millions of dollars when they are fired. CEO salaries now exceed 500 times the salary of their workers. And these gigantic compensation packages are tax-deductible expenses for the corporation. We taxpayers are subsidizing their salaries! We should limit the corporate tax deduction for executive compensation to 20 times the salary of their lowest paid worker. We must also close the loopholes that allow the multinationals to avoid taxation altogether. We could probably eliminate income taxes for workers and small businesses making less than $50,000 per year if we made sure the multinationals who use foreign suppliers, foreign slave labor, and offshore bank accounts are told, "If you want to sell your stuff in this country, you're going to pay your fair share of taxes." We should also consider a small tax on financial transactions. Currency speculation and day-trading is not investment. It is gambling. Tax it. The objective of our tax policy should be to allow the economy to function while slowing the enormous transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the superwealthy.  The Center for American Progress has put forth some modest proposals for improving our tax system.  They would end preferential treatment for income from capital over income from work by setting capital gains and dividend tax rates equal to those on ordinary income.  They would eliminate the employee side of the FICA tax and remove the cap (currently $90,000/yr) on income subject to corporate FICA contributions.  They would return the top tax rate to 39.6% for those earning more than $120,000 per year.  They would eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).  They would replace the regressive retirement savings deduction with a flat 25% refundable credit for retirement savings.  They would eliminate loopholes and retain a reformed estate tax  on estates above $2.5 million (or $5 million for a couple).  I support these changes, although I would add a few more, such as indexing capital gains for inflation.

Trade issues: I support trade; but it should be fair trade, not free trade. I oppose NAFTA and the World Trade Organization (WTO). They are not really about free trade, but free investment. Everything about them favors the billionaire investors. NAFTA created 20 new billionaires in Mexico (and a bunch in the US). But it decreased the standard of living for workers on BOTH sides of the Rio Grande. Rather than raise the standard of living in the third world to match ours, these agreements are decreasing our standards to match those in poor countries. The newly created transnational organizations (like the WTO) are run by and for the giant multinationals and banks, with no public accountability, no minutes of their meetings, no reasons for their decisions, no input from workers or their elected representatives, and no loyalty to any nation. They overrule our laws, ignore our courts, and force our workers to compete with Chinese slave labor. They destroy the quality of life everywhere except Wall Street.  Now we have CAFTA, too.  Enough is enough.  There should be no trade agreements without protection for workers and the environment.

Veterans: The government has broken its word to our retired combat veterans. They were promised free health care for life for themselves and their families in exchange for 20 years of service. Now they are kicked back and forth between the VA, Medicare, and Medicaid, and often wind up paying their own way or going without proper care. Our veterans have been lied to about exposure to nuclear tests, about Agent Orange, and about Gulf War Syndrome.  Tens of thousands have been disabled by Depleted Uranium.    They are not given the respect they deserve. They deserve better.  Tricare for life is a good step toward keeping our promises to veterans, but it's not enough.  It requires a veteran and his spouse to pay $116 or more per month toward Medicare, and it still doesn't cover dental care or glasses, and only covers prescriptions partially.  Many of us now know that we were lied to.  We were sent to fight in wars that had nothing to do with American security.  The best thing our government can do for its veterans is to quit making more of them.

Welfare: Government welfare programs (including corporate welfare) should be eliminated. They should be replaced with a series of rights for all citizens, including the right to health care (including preventive care and long-term care), the right to a job at a living wage, the right to education (through college or higher for those who can hack it), and the right to a basic subsistence income. The latter can be achieved through an expansion of the Earned Income Credit (EIC) into a full-blown Negative Income Tax. With such programs in place, welfare will not be necessary. No longer will people be trapped into poverty by "benefits" they lose if they get a job.

Yugoslavia: The illegal bombing of Serbia and Kosovo had nothing to do with ethnic cleansing, but money. We should end our occupation. See Kosovo article on www.rmbowman.com/ssn for much more.

Zero: The number of new combat veterans we should create with foreign wars having nothing to do with our national security.

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