Douglass Unveils Help Virginia Families Plan

From the John Douglass for Congress campaign:

Gen. John Douglass is running for Congress in the 5th District to help Virginia families get a fair chance at a better future after serving our country on President Reagan’s National Security Council and then as President Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of the Navy, before going on to promote air and space policies that grow our economy by creating manufacturing jobs and keeping our skies safe.

Having barnstormed the 5th district since entering the race for Congress, talking with and listening to voters, Congressional Challenger John Douglass unveiled his Help Virginia Families Plan today at multiple campaign stops in Danville, Bedford and Charlottesville. The Families Plan offers a number of policies that help: support parents and students, bring job creators and seekers together, protect retirees and veterans, keep communities safe and help honor America’s founders.

For more details please visit: www.johndouglassforcongress.com/policies

“I stand before you ready to debate every part of my plan to help Virginia families. My opponent’s campaign admits that the differences in vision could not be clearer, but runs away from a chance to debate me face to face”, Congressional Challenger John Douglass said at his first stop today in Danville. “Corporations and Super PACs would rather buy our election by drowning out the debate with nasty attack ads, but when it comes to defending America, we all do what we do, because we care too much about those we love not to take action.”

The launch of the Help Virginia Families Plan will kick-off a series of public events, where Douglass will be able to give voters throughout the district the chance to make a more informed decision about who will best represent them in Congress. Meanwhile, Corporate Congressman Robert Hurt has visited a lot of businesses as opposed to having large town hall-type of meetings with constituents,” according to a Danville Register Bee article featured on Hurt’s own website.

Related News:

• WSET News: Candidate Makes Stop in Danville – “It takes leadership. Focusing, having goals, knowing what we want to do, making sure that the educational support of that is there,” said Douglass.”

http://www.wset.com/story/1903…

• Daily Progress: Douglass Challenges Hurt to five debates, town halls – “In response, the Hurt campaign said the contrasting visions between the two candidates could not be clearer, and declined to give specific scheduling details.”

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/…

The full details of John Douglass’s Help Virginia Families Plan are below:

This election is about more than Republican versus Democrat or Wall Street versus Washington. This time, it’s about choosing good over greed. Right now our district is being hurt by career politicians in Washington who put the powerful ahead of the people. Having spent his life in public service, Brigadier General John Douglass has no interest in pandering to party leaders or power brokers. He’s running for Congress to help Virginia families get a fair chance at a better future.

John Douglass’s Plan Will Help Support Parents and Students, Bring Job Creators and Seekers Together, Protect Retirees and Veterans, Keep Communities Safe and Honor America’s Founders:

Support Parents and Students

Raising two teenage boys, including a 13 year old with autism, John Douglass and his wife Susan understand that raising a family takes hard work, active engagement and, most importantly, unconditional love.  The challenges faced by John’s family and so many others demonstrate the importance of investing in public education. Abandoning millions of public school students with arbitrary cuts and teacher layoffs will make it impossible for Virginia schools to develop the highly skilled workforce that America needs to lead the world.

As your representative, John will:

· Establish District Education Council that brings parents and teachers to the table with local community leaders who can help expand learning opportunities for more students.

· Reward Outstanding Teachers that improve student readiness for college and a careers and focus funding onto schools that replicate models for student improvement programs, especially in lower income and minority communities that have the largest resource disparities.

· Expand Access to College with a Direct Loan Program that offers more delayed interest loans, Pell Grant levels that account for rising tuition costs and scholarships for those who commit to public service.

· Keep Costs in Check by making student loans accessible at low interest rates, along with tax credits for child care and tuition like the American Opportunity Tax Credit for children pursuing higher degrees.

· Improve Quality of Life by enabling the Federal Housing Administration to assist first-time home buyers with lower interest rate loans that help stabilize the housing market and supporting health insurance reforms that expand access to affordable, quality care.

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Bring Job Creators and Seekers Together

As a leading advocate for aerospace policies, John Douglass helped support thousands of manufacturing jobs in states like Virginia. John worked his way up from a foster home to the highest levels of military leadership. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he helped put new worker training programs in place for ship-building. Now, as the owner of a small family farm, he knows there is much more we can do to expand local growth. Further subsidizing corporations that keep America dependent on foreign oil and foreign jobs comes at the expense of local companies that support local growth. The engine of America’s economy runs on people.

As your Representative, John Douglass will:

· Grow Small Farms with regulatory relief that allows for greater land use, including energy storage while investing in natural gas, wind and other secure power sources that help lower the cost of production.

· Level the Trading Field so that America can out-compete the rest of the world based on innovation and productivity instead of putting our workers and our environment in jeopardy.

· Train Our Workforce for jobs in emerging industries such as health, IT and clean energy production by working with local governments to setup new programs, financed by ending tax subsidies for corporations that sacrifice America’s growth for their own bottom line.

· Support Local Companies by increasing the Small Business Administration lending limit, as well as simplifying the tax code to encourage new investors in small and startup companies that will hire more workers, including a 10% refundable tax credit for new hiring.

· Boost Earned Incomes by supporting fiscal policies that reward hard work such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, the “Buffet Rule” to ensure America pays our success forward and wage and labor laws that give people a chance to move up in the world.

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Protect Retirees and Veterans

John Douglass is part of a generation who worked their whole life to ensure that America would make good on its promises. Those who have reached or are nearing retirement increasingly rely on Medicare, Social Security and other retirement nest eggs. Wall Street’s efforts to bankrupt and privatize our safety net could put the lives of millions of retirees and veterans in danger — a risk we cannot afford to take.

As our Representative in Congress, John will:

· Welcome Troops Home with greater access to job training and local health centers, supported by TRICARE, for those dealing with PTSD and other health challenges as they return to civilian life.

· Safeguard Retirements by stopping Wall Street from gambling with our retirements savings by sustaining a public social security system, cracking down on insider-trading and enforcing consumer protections.

· Protect Health Benefits from the Republican budget cuts that turn Medicare into a private voucher program that could cost seniors $6,000 more per year.

· Invest in Cures by concentrating NIH financing on research and development, such as stem-cell research, into life-saving treatments for life-threatening illness such as cancer, diabetes and others.

· Bring Down Costs by negotiating for cheaper prescription drugs, enabling comparative research into best practices and rewarding preventative care before patients require emergency medicine.

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Keep Communities Safe

John Douglass puts our nation’s security above politics. Having narrowly escaped several attempts on his life during his 35 years of service to our country, John served on President Reagan’s National Security Council and as President Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Responding to the threats of terror, disease and natural disasters will take a flag-officer in Congress that promotes robust economic diplomacy, intelligence-based decision making and a volunteer fighting force that is ready to step up in the face of real danger.

As our Representative in Congress, John will:

· Prevent Uranium Pollution in the air we breathe and the water we drink by continuing the ban on uranium mining at Coles Hill.

· Beef-Up Border Patrol with greater leeway to prevent illegal weapons, drugs and other contraband from entering our country.

· Fight Terrorism around the world with strong alliances among all who support peace and democracy using more high-tech engagement systems and special forces operations to defeat groups like Al Qaeda.

· Combat Cyber Threats to our security, banking and transit systems by upgrading critical national technologies, databases and servers that are vulnerable to hacking breaches.

· Prepare for Disaster Response to floods, hurricanes, and the spread of disease by ensuring emergency resources are provided for rapid relief.

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Honor America’s Founders

After devoting his life to defending our democracy, John Douglass will be a champion for responsible policies that ensure everyone plays by the same rules, gets a fair chance, and pays their fair share toward America’s future. In the Navy, he cut through the red-tape to turn budget deficits into surpluses. But he understands that letting corporations take over would result in the type of predatory lending and corporate abuse that will drag our country back into an economic disaster. Forming a more perfect union is all about empowering more people to achieve the American dream.

As our Representative in Congress, John will:

· Defend God-given Liberties against those willing to abandon the parts of our Constitution that don’t fit their agenda, from free speech and religion to bearing arms, and he will tell anyone that forces their politics on women that “no means no, leave the family planning up to our families.”

· Promote Equal Opportunity by investing in public education, supporting paycheck fairness and non-discrimination in the workplace, and fully supporting any couple committed to sharing their life together.

· Keep Government Honest by exposing foreign corporate influence in our electoral process with reforms like the DISCLOSE Act and cracking down on politicians who abuse their power for personal financial gain.

· Budget for Lasting Policies that responsibly shrink our nation’s debt, such as pay-go for non-emergency expenses, and root out waste, fraud and abuse in every agency and program.

· Invest in the Future in partnership with local communities and private companies to research and develop new technologies and rebuild our roads, bridges and other public transit projects.