Jeff Matemu who is running to be the Representative for North Carolina’s Second Congressional District has issued a comprehensive plan on what he would wish to accomplish if elected congressman for North Carolina. Here below are the Issues and Solution:
- IMMIGRATION
- Restore DACA and expand and strengthen the program by passing permanent legislation which will not be subject to the whims of partisan politics.
- Provide a federally-recognized legal status for illegal immigrants, short of citizenship or permanent residency, that would allow them to participate in economic and social life.
- Repeal the laws that penalize employers for hiring the wrong person. Employers have as much of a right to associate freely as immigrants have to travel freely.
- Instead of building a border wall promote trade and the movement of goods and people to promote our economy and create jobs.
- CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM
- Decriminalize the small-scale possession of drugs for personal use, to end the flow of nonviolent drug addicts into the criminal justice system.
- Create well-staffed and first-class treatment centers where people are willing to go without fear of being prosecuted and with the confidence they will receive effective care
- Consider alternatives to incarceration. The current justice system sets inmates up for failure on the outside, denying them easy access to jobs and forcing them back to a life of crime.
- End the militarized expansion of police powers which leads to high potential for violence and disruption.
- AFFORDABLE HIGHER EDUCATION
- Students should pay back their loans their income, based on percentage tied to their annual income. Do not require interest payments. This will make loan repayment more manageable and easier and mitigate default.
- Base the amount of a student’s loan on their major and potential future earnings. Loan amounts should not exceed a defined percentage of future earnings. Tying loan size to the choice of major ensures the student an handle payments.
- Colleges should cut costs by reducing non-academic salaries, doing away with 4-star college dormitories, and stop marketing worthless degrees.
- Reevaluate the need for everyone to get a college degree. There are many well-paying and critically important jobs that require skilled workers with training, but not a four-year college degree.
- STOP THE EXPANSION AND INVASION OF GOVERNMENT INTO PRIVATE LIVES
- Advertisement -
- Promote personal liberty and privacy by getting the government out of legislating our social life, choices for our families, use of our social media, our recreational activities, decriminalize marijuana
- Adopt a balanced budget amendment. We cannot solve every problem by expanding the government and spending even more money. We cannot borrow forever. We need to stop at some point and control spending.
- Promoting America’s model of limited government and unlimited economy.
- Reduce or eliminate government spending in foreign wars
- REFORMING OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING POLICIES FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH
The evidence from the economics literature suggests that licensing has had an important influence on wage determination, benefits, employment, and prices in ways that impose net costs on society with little improvement to service quality, health, and safety. To improve occupational licensing practices, I propose four specific reforms.
- Advertisement -
- First, state agencies would make use of cost-benefit analysis to determine whether requests for additional occupational licensing requirements are warranted.
- Second, the federal government would promote the determination and adoption of best-practice models through financial incentives and better information.
- Third, state licensing standards would allow workers to move across state lines with a minimal cost for retraining or residency requirements.
- Fourth, where politically feasible, certain occupations that are licensed would be reclassified to a system of certification or no regulation.
If federal, state, and local governments were to undertake these proposals, evidence suggests that employment in these regulated occupations would grow, consumer access to goods and services would expand, and prices would fall.
