My opponent Chuck Schumer is the poster child for the corrupt, permanent political class in Washington. He has been a career politician since he graduated from college and law school, holding public office for over 40 years.
He epitomizes everything that is wrong with the Washington Establishment, most notably in his corrupt relationships with the special interests who fill his campaign coffers with $27 million in exchange for the official and legislative actions he takes to further their financial interests.
These include the big Wall Street banks, the private equity firms and hedge funds, the big drug companies and group purchasing organizations, and the foreign and corporate interests who profit from trade in certain visas and who generally benefit from immigration to the United States, both legal and illegal.
Chuck Schumer is not the only member of Congress and the U.S. Senate who participates in this corrupt, pay-for-play system. So, in addition to defeating him, I have pledged to take certain steps myself to regain the public trust in this Senate seat and to combat institutional corruption in the future:
- Term Limits: I have limited myself to two terms maximum, if I should be elected. I would then voluntarily step aside to allow another citizen legislator to serve. In addition, I would introduce and push term limit legislation in Congress.
- Salary of Senators and Congressmen: I would introduce legislation tying every member of Congress’s salary to the median household income in the United States for the prior year.
- Pensions: I would introduce legislation repealing pensions for Senators and Congressmen.
- Lobbying: I would introduce a lifetime ban on lobbying for profit after one has served in Congress.
- Campaign donations: Donors to my campaign must sign a disclosure that they will get no favors from me and that they don’t expect any. I would revise federal campaign finance law to require incumbent Senators and Congressman to file quarterly reports disclosing all actions they took to financially benefit their campaign donors.