District 13 — U.S. House of Representatives

The biggest difference between us and our opponents in this race is that we are Independents. We are independent of influence from Republican and Democrat party leaders and bosses. The only people who influence our campaign are the constituents of the Illinois 13th Congressional District. 

Congress should hold a vote on the authorization of any wars or increased use of military force before they are carried out. The executive branch of the United States governemnt should not be the only branch that determines whether our young men and women in the service are sent across the world to fight.

The United States should reduce our footprint in the Middle East. ISIS is a barbaric organization that must be eradicated, but that cannot be done by bombing them away. The United States leading wars in the Middle East has created the vaaccum in which people like ISIS exist. 

Donald Trump's proposed ban on Muslim immigration is unconstitutional, immoral, and xenophobic. We do not support the United States requiring some type of religious test to enter the country. Restricting people from entering this country based on their religion would violate American principles. 

The Iran deal might not be perfect, but it is a better alternative to launching yet another war in the Middle East. We support this deal, but as time goes on if we see that it needs changes we will act accordingly. 

We do not support something as ridiculous as a wall between the United States and Mexico. We believe in creating a path to citizenship for Dreamers and everybody else who has been here and followed the laws of this country, regardless of how thye entered. People come to the United States desperately seeking a better life for them and their family and to turn them back or tear families apart would be immoral.

Voter ID laws have been shown to disenranchise minority voters throughout the country and are a clear violation of the U.S. Voting Rights Act. We applaud the federal judges who ruled on these cases in Wisconsin and Texas and we strongly oppose Voter ID laws.

Opening public lands to exploration for fossil fuels is somethimg we strongly oppose. We believe that the Federal Government should maintain control and protection of our public lands. 

We support a higher tax rate on people who earn over $250,000 per year and closing loopholes that allow corporations to get away with paying little to no income tax. 

We believe that congress should raise the cap on Social Security. Billionaires pay the same amount of money into Social Security as somebody who makes $118,500 per year because of the current cap on taxable income that goes into Social Security. Lifting this cap and having everybody pay the same percentage of their income into Social Security regardless of how much they make would allow Social Security to remain solvent and also allow for an expansion of Social Security benefits. 

We believe that marriage is a sacred bond between two people who love each other, whether that bond is between two people of the same sex makes no difference. We fully support same-sex marriage rights. On the issue of transgender students using bathrooms in schools, we support the Obama Administration's guidelines. On the issue of LGBT youth conversion therapy, we think it is repulsive. Forcing our young LGBT citizens to go through conversion therapy is something we oppose strongly. 

Automatic background checks on every gun purchase made and increasing funding for mental health. 

We obviously do not want guns in the hands of terrorists. However, we believe that a "no fly" list violates the rights of citizens in this country. Citizens of the United States have a right to due process and since citizens on the "no fly" list are not notified when they are put on this list, we believe that in this case their right is violated. 

Obamacare should be changed and improved to a single-payer healthcare system. One of the mistakes made when going through the process of healthcare reform was allowing the private insurance companies to help right the bill. We believe that healthcare is a right and should be guaranteed through a single-payer system. 

We do not. This proposal would impact people who have been paying into Medicare for decades with the promise that they would be eligible at the age of 65. We believe that promise should be kept. 

We support the continued funding of Planned Parenthood, which provides many services to low-income women accross the country.

We believe that this is a good first step toward providing greater access to education in this country. We support making public colleges and universities tuition free through a tax on Wall Street speculation, much like Senator Bernie Sanders. 

College costs have risen because States are cutting he amount of funding toward public universities. For an example of this, look no further than our own state of Illinois. Our solution to this is a tax on Wall Street speculation that would fund free public tuition for all public colleges and universities.