An Agenda for our Next President

Throughout our country’s history, we have offered opportunity and hope to all our citizens who are
willing to work hard to attain a better life for themselves and their family. My working career spanned
the period 1950 to 2000 and I had great opportunities, took everyone of them, worked hard and
attained a life many times better than my parent’s and my early childhood life. Based on my good GPA
in high school, I received an all-expense paid Junior College Scholarship for the first 2 years of college.
When drafted into the Army, I scored well enough on the Army Aptitude Test to apply for Officer
Candidate Training. I was accepted and received my officer commission. Twenty-two years later, I
retired from the Active Army Reserve with the rank of LTC. After my military duty, I earned a Bachelor of
Industrial Engineering degree on the GI bill. With that degree, I had a successful 45-year career and
retired as an oil refinery plant manager. I now have a very comfortable retirement with my pension and
investment savings.

I propose the following agenda to accomplish that for others. For our first 300 years, until about 1900,
we offered free land to those willing to clear it, farm it, and build a home. After 1900, the free land was
all claimed, but we had a thriving industrial economy with high skill, good paying wages. Since 1990 our
Presidents and Congress have opened out boarders tariff free to low wage counties and many of our
high skill high wage manufacturing jobs have been offshored. As a result, our middle class has shrunk
from 60 percent to barely 50 percent. That 10 percent dropped from middle class to poor. That is tragic
and must change! The following is my agenda for our next President and Congress to do that.

1. The federal government cannot create high skill, high wage jobs for our workers; however, it can
adopt policies that encourage and help our competitive free market businesses to do so, and
they will. The next President and Congress should levy a tariff on all imported manufactured
goods that completely offsets the low wage advantage that country has compared to
comparable wages for US workers with the same skill level. Foreign governments should not be
allowed to subsidize their exports to the US in any way such as cash subsidies, tax breaks,
government grants or low interest loans. US companies that manufacture products or product
components in foreign low wage countries and import them into the US should be subject to the
same tariffs.

2. The federal government should provide free high skill job training for all workers willing to work
hard for a better living. That should include reasonable living expenses while in training.

3. The federal government should provide free college education for all citizens who maintain an
average GPA of B or better during high school. That should include reasonable living expenses
while in school. Free college should continue if the student maintains a C or better college GPA.
Advanced degrees should also be included where required, such as for medical doctors and
research scientists.