To ensure that all citizens can access adequate, affordable health care, we must increase the supply of health care, remove barriers to a free market and encourage competition.

When people purchase their own independent health plan covering the services they need and allowing for less out of pocket visits to their doctor, they are more secure and less dependent on others.

When an individual has more control over their own health care and is less dependent upon a third party, they become empowered to be assertive consumers of health care.

It is a proven fact that there is a greater interest in price information and demand for price transparency from consumers as their cost-sharing responsibilities increase. This results in more competition that keeps health care affordable and of high quality.

Therefore, I, as a Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, support the following measures to make quality, affordable health care accessible to all citizens:

• Health insurance premiums, co-payments, deductibles and all medical expenses shall be deducted directly from income without having to meet any standard deduction.
• A Medical Savings Account shall be established to be used for medical purposes in which up to 10% of income shall be deductible but without limitation on contributions.
• Barriers to price transparency shall be removed to empower consumers and to encourage efficiency of care and competitive pricing.

I, support the following measures to increase the supply of quality affordable health care by increasing the numbers of medical professionals, facilities and medical non-profit and for-profit organizations:

• Eliminate or greatly simplify all state medical regulations and licensing standards which impede the supply of health care. Replace the state monopoly on regulation and licensing with an open market for testing and review of products and services to ensure more accurate, timely and cost-effective ratings and controls on quality.
• Provide tax credits, exclusions and above-the-line deductions (without "percentage of income" limits) for medical education, educational savings accounts, charitable contributions to medical schools, facilities, service providers, medical research and construction of medical facilities.
• Streamline permit processes and zoning variances for construction of medical facilities and schools.
• Reclaim our Tenth Amendment right to control pharmaceuticals distributed within the state. Reduce the function of the Food & Drug Association to a merely advisory capacity rather than a licensing authority. Allow drugs which have been proven to be safe to be marketed even if not yet proven effective. Allow patients access to unapproved drugs upon informed consent.

Today the Federal government not only has a Cabinet level Department of Education, it is seriously considering mandatory taxpayer funded preschools for all children. States are handed federal dollars and required to spend more meeting federal standards than they receive. For every $13 in funding, a school has to spend $15 meeting federal guidelines. This alone is reason enough to end federal interference in education.

We, as a society, need to wake up to the opportunities we have to personalize the education of each and every child in the U.S. It is time to take the technology of the 21^st century and put it to use advancing the ability of every American to live, learn and earn a living using their knowledge and skills. Such learning can continue for a lifetime allowing each of us to gain new knowledge and skills as we wish and need.

Education no longer needs to be carried out in classrooms with neat rows of polite children listening to a teacher explaining what they are expected to know. The tools for completely individualized learning are there for the using. Now is the time to make the change.

I am an advocate for private, individualized educational models. This means I support private schools, Charter schools, Independent Study, Home Schooling, Computer learning or Un-Schooling, whatever works for the individual and their family or guardian. The goal is to instill a love of learning and the tools needed to learn throughout life.

To this end, I would seek to abolish the federal Dept of Education encouraging the states to advance educational opportunities according to local needs.

As a method of transition from government schools to freedom of choice in education, I support vouchers so tax money follows each child to the choice of schools during their learning years.

For every individual, there is a learning method that works for them if not others. As a society, we must give learners freedom to find and use what works for them. 

Putting the American Worker First

In America, it used to be that it was not about where you came from, but where you were headed.  And whether you were 20, 30 or 50, you could achieve the dream you had for you and your family.  

For too many Americans, that is no longer the case.  In California alone, 49% of us live close to or below the poverty line. 

Americans feel the system is rigged.  Wall Street banks who made bad loans are bailed out while a single mother who takes out a loan to get an education can’t get such relief.  Multinationals sometimes pay next to nothing in taxes while many small businesses pay 35%.  Poor border enforcement and trade agreements that encourage the exportation of jobs contribute to more people competing for fewer jobs.  

There are four things we can do to dramatically improve the economic lives of the working men and women of this country.

Water.  The best way to improve the lives of working people is to identify those issues which, if addressed, would have a positive impact throughout the economy.  In California, the number one issue is water.  People cannot build homes or grow crops because of a lack of water.  With water we could build more homes in lower density areas which would create high paying construction jobs.  More water also would enable us to grow more crops, which would create jobs in our most depressed areas.  The benefits would not only be on the jobs side - a greater supply of homes would bring housing prices down and more food would lower its cost.

Consequently, I would stop all federal High Speed Rail dollars and use those funds to help solve our water crisis.

Resurrect Small Business.  It is disgusting the fastest growing path to the middle class today is a government job.  We can change that.  The number one creator of private sector jobs is small business.  We have a three point plan to make American small business the envy of the world and the engine of job growth:   

* Resurrect the community bank system to provide small business with access to capital.

* Get rid of the tax breaks and gimmicks that have nothing to do with improving the economy - and everything to do with taking care of the well-connected.  Then lower the marginal tax rates for individuals and businesses. 

The value of the reduction in the marginal tax rates to individuals is obvious.

In terms of businesses, it will enable small businesses that are not able to take advantage of such gimmicks to compete on a more equal footing.  It also will enable the trillions of dollars that are being parked overseas to come home to develop our economy instead of the economies of other nations.

* Dramatically reduce government regulations and put limitations on the scope of discretion bureaucrats have.

Control Our Borders.   I strongly support legal immigration.  However, to protect our workers we need to take control of our borders to prevent people from entering the country illegally.  There is a role for 5th Century B.C. technology (a wall) to help us achieve this goal.  However, we should have a triad approach:  

* A wall where cost effective

* Sensors, drones, big data in less populated areas

* Border officials with the manpower and tools they need to do the job.

Better Trade Deals.  Historically trade deals have focused on opening up markets to American goods and reducing the cost of goods imported into our country.  However, the American worker has not been well represented in this process.  Our trade deals need to do a much better job of taking the needs of the American worker into effect.  When I am in the U.S. Senate, I will ensure this is the case.

The bottom line:  When I cast my vote on economic issues, I will be focused on one issue:  “How does this law impact the American worker?”  If it either helps raise their pay or lower their costs, I will support it.  If it does not, I will oppose it.

How to Keep America Safe

The number one priority of our federal government is to keep America safe.  That requires bold, balanced, and smart leadership. With geopolitical threats from Russia, North Korea, and Iran and terrorist threats from radical Islam, it is essential our nation has both a strong defense and maintain a robust offensive capacity.  

As a U.S. Senator, I will work to empower the four core pillars of an effective national security policy: 1) Accurate Intelligence, 2) Thoughtful Diplomacy, 3) Innovative Technology , and 4) a Strong Military.

Intelligence is one of the most important national security components.  If we don’t know where our enemies lie and what their plans are, it is impossible to prevent, deter, and combat them.  Accurate intelligence can prevent wars and if you are in a war, accurate intelligence is the difference between winning and losing.

Current law makes intelligence gathering cumbersome and despite efforts to better coordinate intelligence across agencies, there is much more to be done.  We need to empower our intelligence agencies, not politicize them.  We need to better coordinate our intelligence with our allies across the world, especially in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. And we must aggressively prosecute anyone who undermines our intelligence gathering and networks.

Diplomacy is essential to an effective foreign policy.  From the Truman Doctrine to the fall of the Soviet Union, leaders such as George Marshall and George Shultz helped the United States build long-lasting relationships abroad that played an invaluable role in keeping us safe.  

We need to stop thinking of the State Department as a separate foreign policy entity from our intelligence agencies and our military and better integrate its diplomatic efforts into a grand national security agenda. 

In Europe, NATO should be transformed to also focus on the threat ISIS poses to its members. In the Middle East, we ought to be building a coalition to combat a nuclear Iran and ISIS. In Asia, we should work with the Japanese, and the South Koreans and pressure the Chinese to prevent North Korea from attempting anything reckless.

Moreover, we ought to be using the economic might of the United States as a diplomatic carrot and the military as the stick.  As Theodore Roosevelt was apt to say, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

Technology can be the difference between success or failure in national security.  From muskets to sailing ships to computers, the entity that has mastered the latest technology usually has been the masters of their fate.  As the home of Silicon Valley, America should have a huge technological advantage, yet state actors like the Chinese and North Koreans have consistently hacked our government and terrorist organizations like ISIS have mastered the use of social media to recruit and propagandize.  

First, we need leaders who understand technology.  Second, we need to streamline the ability of our national security network to utilize the most innovative technology.  And third, technology must be thought of as a defensive and offensive priority.  As much as we should try to plug every hole in our technology network, we will never be able to do so.  People who try to undermine our network need to understand the price they will pay if they try.

Our military is the envy of the world thanks to the courageous men and women who serve in uniform. It is our most valuable national security treasure. But it is only effective in both preventing conflict and winning conflicts when it is undeniably the strongest military in the world.   

First, we must make investment in modernizing our military a key priority.  Second, we should prepare for the wars that haven’t been fought, not the ones we have.  Third, we should incorporate our military into our diplomatic missions.  These men and women are on the front lines and can be our most visible and effective diplomats. Fourth, we should leverage our military with strong alliances worldwide so that America isn’t alone fighting other people’s wars.  Fifth, we should never take military action off the table; it may not be the first option, but it must remain one.  Sixth, when we decide to engage our military, we must be prepared to do what it takes to win.  Leaving a combat zone with the mission unfulfilled creates new and more dangerous problems. And finally, we must work to ensure our veterans are cared for.  The current situation is shameful.

Protecting the American people is not only the most important priority; it also is one of the most difficult.  It takes persistence and clarity of vision.  In the Senate, I will have no higher responsibility than to do everything I can to keep the American people safe.

Imagining a New Age of Reason

We are on the cusp of the Second Age of Reason, one of the most exciting times in the history of man.

Before the first Age of Reason: the word was flat, and Kings and Queens ruled the world.  Then came the First Age of Reason, ushered in by the Gutenberg Bible.  We learned the world was round.  There was an explosion of philosophical thought.  And the American Revolution taught us that we did not need the Kings and Queens, that we could govern ourselves.

We are now on the cusp of the Second Age of Reason.  Technology has totally transformed what we know.  It has also transformed our ability to communicate what we now know with our 7 billion fellow human beings.  It has had a profound impact on the way we live, work, learn and play.  

It has had almost no impact on government.  

In fact, as the world is moving faster and faster, it is more and more difficult for government to keep up.  This is one of the main frustrations people feel not only at the national level, but at the local level, where it can often take longer to get a building permit than it took us to beat the Germans!

Because of (1) the dispersement of knowledge, (2) our ability to communicate quickly and (3) our ability to track performance and hence keep others accountable, there is no longer the need to centralize nearly as much power in Washington as before.

Hence, my goal is to make Washington as relevant in the everyday life of the American people as Prince Charles is to the people of England. 

As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pointed out, the American Revolution was one of the few successful revolutions in the history of civilization.  Hence, since revolutions seldom succeed, I support an orderly transition to a decentralized system as opposed to a revolution.  However, as is evidenced by the mood of the people and the inflammatory rhetoric of some candidates, this transformation must begin immediately.  We should encourage the states to take on more responsibility and using big data, learn from those experiments what works and what does not and make the necessary and continuous adjustments.

The second major concept in this area follows the first:  since there is so much knowledge and communication among up to 7 billion data points, it is no longer possible for one individual or group to have more knowledge than the people as a whole.  Hence, to truly represent the people of California, we are looking at ways to “crowd source” our campaign.  I will also attempt to do so as a member of the U.S. Senate.  And wherever feasible I will look to find ways to transfer power from elected officials and bureaucrats to the people through crowd sourcing and concepts yet to be developed.

Please see my website, http://www.massiemunroe4ussenator.com

GREG CONLON COMMENTS ON THE FUTURE OF

CALIFORNIA’S HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM    

(Palo Alto, CA) - California is taking away an outstanding educational opportunity from some of its best and brightest high school graduates by limiting their access to the University of California system. US News and World Report ranks UC Berkeley and UCLA  20th and 23rd in the nation, yet 30% of their students come from out of state.  That amounts to approximately 8,500 students each out of a total of 27,000 to 30,000 students, respectively. While out-of-state tuition costs $36,000 per year, or $23,000 more than in-state tuition, this additional revenue supports only about 6% of UC System’s expenses.                                   

Is this really what we want to do — give away about 17,000 spots a year in these two schools to out-of-state and out-of-nation students and deprive our own top students of this educational opportunity and future high-paying jobs?.  My answer is no.  The State of California has decreased its funding of the UC System in total from 18% of the State's general fund in the late ‘70's to 11 to 12% today.  These decreases compare with increases in health and human services, corrections and rehabilitations, and K-12 education from 60% to 80% of the State's General Fund expenditures.  These statistics are available from a Study of Public Education in California by the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund. 

Meanwhile other universities that are ranked equal or higher than our two top public universities are charging about $10,000 more per year (average $48,000 per year) in student fees.  So not only are we giving away these top spots to non-state students, we are doing it at a discount compared to similar top 20 universities in the nation (see US News and World Report Rankings).  

As a candidate for the U. S. Senate, I believe a federal policy regarding issuance of student visas to out-of-nation students can positively address the inequity of educational opportunity for California’s equally qualified best and brightest students.  I propose that out-of-nation students (who are primarily from China and India) be subjected to requirements similar to those currently imposed for issuance of "Green Cards" for foreign persons to obtain work visas.  My recommendation is that each University would have to demonstrate that there are no equally qualified in-state students, based on test scores and GPA, who could fill the available slot for admission. Only then would student visas be issued. While the loss of higher tuition revenue would have an impact, I believe we can find ways to make up much of the lost revenue.  First the California legislature should try to increase appropriations for the UC System and reverse the trend of the downward spiral.  Second, based on my experience in both the private sector as a businessman and CPA and my public sector experience as President of the California PUC, it is not out of the question to find some savings to recover some of the 6% in the University System expenditures.  

This is not an easy problem to solve but by addressing this issue we can increase the chances for California’s best and brightest to receive a high-quality education and gain access to future high-paying jobs right here at home.

Letter to the Editor or Opinion Letter April 9, 2016:

US Supreme Court issues a recent decision continuing the logic that has caused a negative impact on the timber and fishing industry in Northern California

U S Supreme Court in its recent decision  (Evenwel, v Abbot, Governor of Texas) continues supporting the 1964 Case of Reynolds v. Sims where the Supreme Court upheld that "The Equal Protection Clause" of the U S Constitution "requires that the seats in both houses of a bicameral state legislature must be apportioned on a population basis."   The Supreme Court  decision stated "a State may draw its legislative districts based on total population."  This decision does not require that only the use of population basis be used to apportion state legislative districts and related maps.  It uses the terminology "one-person, one-vote" to describe this rule.   Over the ensuing decades, the Court has several times elaborated on the scope of the one-person, one-vote rule.  Finally it decided in another case, Brown vs. Thomson in 1983, that the Court would allow deviation in the method of apportionment as long as the deviation, between the largest and the smallest is less than 10%.  The Court has held that the maximum deviations above 10% are presumptively impermissible.  One later decision allowed a 16% deviation in order to accommodate the State's interest in "maintaining the integrity of political subdivision lines.”  The State of Hawaii was allowed to deviate because of its geographic island separation. 

Northern California counties were severely impacted by the 1964 "Sims" decision because they had to redraw their California Senatorial Districts, (as did the entire State), using total population from the U S Census Bureau rather than using the eligible or actual registered voters or just using county lines, i.e., one Senator per county.   This had a dramatic impact from Sacramento north causing a loss of seven Northern California Senators from the State Senate.  This loss in Senators caused an extreme transfer of political power in the State Senate from Northern California counties with very low population towns and cities to large metropolitan urban centers like Los Angeles County.  Today there are only 4 Senators out of 40 representing most of Northern California (excluding the San Francisco and Sacramento area) while there were 11 Senators before the 1964 decision in Sims and the subsequent reapportionment. 

Although this loss of political power by Northern California is hard to measure I believe that State legislation in the 1970s and the Federal legislative changes over the years have had a dramatic impact on both the timber and fishing industries in these counties.  I reach this conclusion from my experience traveling through six of these Northern California counties two years ago when campaigning for State Treasurer.

The fallacy of the use of total population rather than political boundaries like counties makes no sense in a bi-cameral government where there are two bodies--a house or assembly and a senate.  The house or assembly should be elected by population as it is in the U S House of Representatives and the Senate body should represent the different government sub-bodies normally counties within a state.  This logic follows the practice in the Federal Congress where the U S Senators are based on two per state, not on some equal population formula as is the House of Representatives with about 800,000 persons in each District.  If the Federal U S Senate were apportioned by the equal population formula called for in the "Sims case" decision and the recent "Evenwel case" New England states would likely have only one or two Senators instead of the 8 or 10 they have today and California with its large population would have 12 U S Senators.

Hopefully the U S Supreme Court will recognize its use of population apportionment for both houses of a bi-cameral State government is inconsistent with the Federal apportionment of two Senators per state. Instead States should be allowed under the 10th amendment states rights to come up with their own apportionment process for the second house (usually the Senate) in a bi-cameral legislature. One of these processes would be to use the county boundaries within the State to reapportion each Senatorial District. 

Greg Conlon, Wash. D.C., Attorney

Candidate for U S Senate in California

I submitted an application to the Zayed Future Energy Prize 2014 & 2015 with the premise we can grow enough marijuana everywhere to stop drought & provide all countries with the fuel they need without tearing up the Earth or cutting down more trees, the alternater to this was continued destruction through warfare, continued uses of fossil fuel & other ore. The incredibaly educated people on the panel salected IKEA, who does nothing worthwhile, electric car producers, which use contemporary ore, solar & windmill producers who waste land, use toxic batteries, provide not enough energy or any water to stop worldwide drought. We need to recreate our educational system worldwide to create a healthy world researching the growth of marijuana everywhere for all it's uses.

For years I've wondered why our government has a right to make decisions concerning the continued rise in payment of income tax to have a job, DMV & land taxes to own a vehicle while paying huge bank payments & interest & never owning our property. We pay huge fees for birthing, doctors bring babies early & c-section to make fortunes, Then for death, funerals cost upwards of $8000. Our gov. doesn't want to pay for forest fires so they let them burn & charge us regular taxes, $150 a home yearly plus  county taxes, taxes for voting priveleges then fees for ballot access [$3480 for us senate], $25 a word for ballot statement, & though we pay the same rate only the TOP TWO go to the general election,  2010 it cost a 3rd party 150 in-lieu signatures for any office & the top vote getter of each party went to the general election, for us senate it was 10,000 signatures. It's called LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD so you don't get to vate for anyone but democrats or republicans when we should have to pay nothing but have 2 ideas to save Earth & Inhabitants, no labels, just great Ideals. 2014 we spent a minimum of $526 billion  on defense, many billions more for space research, $7 million on tiny Mendocino counties judicial system, $9 million their sherif & jail, They profited $1.5 million phone & canteen, $20 million from Governor Brown's ab 109, $3.5 billion for new prisons & security pods voted against by voters with maybe 3 violent offenders monthly that woundn't be violent if they had a decent job. WHAT DO WE GET IN RETURN? Let's divert this wasted money to putting people to work restoring our Earth & Inhabitants, profit from growing marijuana everywhere, particularly land & water wasting vineyards to be used as substitute for current source of fossil fuel & lumber products, nuclear, coal, hydro energy, a source of water, clean air, food, water, an entire house with incinerator toilet, local employment not imprisonment, stop failing economy,environment, social security, healthcare, GLOBAL WARMING & THE NEED FOR WAR. Who are these people who control us & do such terrible things to us? If our constitution is valid at all, the part that says "If it doesn't work we have the right to change it" should be called into effect.

When I was a child our family traveled all over California to visit relatives.The mountains to San Francisco where mostly bare, then came the huge freeways, oil tanks, many housing tracks, the same to Los Angeles to join the wastland of southern Californias vast oil fields of dinosaur appearing machinery. There were many water filled rivers on the way to Los Angeles, many agricultural fields along our highways, from Sacramento to San Pablo. Even then the logging had destroyed the center valleys & many mountains, today highways, unneeded bridges, oil lines, huge cement mall areas with the same stores every two miles  many housing tracts filling agricultural areas, telephone & electric lines mar the valleys, mountains, oceans, satellites mar space & at great expense we're paying ATT billions of dollars adding unneeded broadband, [two foot trences eight hundred miles or more at the cost of $100 million dollars per mile. California still looks good sometimes from the road, but like Oregon, Washington, most states it looks bare from the tops of mountains. Governor Brown appropriated $3.5 billion for new prisons & maximum security pods for jails against voter's wishes that mar not only the land but huge amounts of people's lives Most the state is covered with land & water wasting vineyards that are huge tax write-offs for huge corporations that grant the people no addition to our taxbase, water all day long despite the drought. The politicians I know say the marijuana growers cause more damage then all of theses. we're the only ones who grow foliage to provide oxygen, good nutrients to heal Earth.  I submitted an entry to the Zayed future energy prize twice one time they picked IKEA & an electric car manufactured from ore dug up from the ground instead of everything that can be created with marijuana, all IKEA's furniture, buildings, everything, all entire vehicles with non-toxic fuel. Check out the educations of the people who pass those prize awards out. OBVIOUSLY their education is inferior if they don't know we need foliage to create water, STOP GLOBAL WARMING & THE NEED FOR WAR! Imagine the worldwide delight of having a GREEN environmental, PEACENIK in the US Senate. A politician that doe more then explain &complain, offers concise solutions to worldwide problems of poverty, unemployment, high food costs, imprisonment, worldly uglification. 

Tom believes that the last 40 years of growing tax burdens, regulatory burdens and government debt (at the hands of both parties), has slowed our economy and made it hard for people to find and keep good paying jobs.  In order to get the robust economic growth we need to produce good jobs and rising wages, Tom supports the following: 

1. A Flat Tax for the Country and California. Tom is the only U.S. Senate candidate in the country with his own flat tax plan. It is supported by Steve Forbes, Larry Kudlow, Art Laffer and Steve Moore. Tom’s tax proposal will reduce the 77,00 page tax code to just a few pages, grow the economy for all and reduce the power of the IRS. Please read Tom’s Flat Tax proposal below.

2. Regulatory Reform. The number of regulations in America are at an all time high and cost the economy nearly $2 trillion per year.  We need to be sensible about our level of regulations.  Tom proposes that all existing and new regulations undergo a cost benefit analysis and that any new regulations that cost consumers over $200 million be approved by Congress.  Any existing or new regulations that fail this cost benefit analysis should be scrapped.

3. Trade.  America should be the world leader in trade.  Too much of our trade deficit is due to the fact that our employers are subject to high taxes and regulations that make American businesses uncompetitive in the world markets.  We need to reduce the costs of doing business in America (through tax reform and regulatory reform) so we can reduce our trade deficits.

See More at Tom's page Flat Tax & Pro-Growth Economic Policies