United States SenateCandidate for Senator

I oppose a federal carbon tax.  Although I have not researched the issue sufficiently to form a solid conclusion, I am somewhat skeptical of the reality of man-made Global Warming due to fossil fuel use, and until I am more solidly convinced on this issue, I obviously cannot support major policy changes to address that supposed problem.

I'm very skeptical that gun control laws have much impact one way or the other on crime or murder rates, at least compared with numerous other factors.  Since I doubt that gun control laws have much practical impact, it seems to me that most sides in the highly-contentious gun control debate are focusing on an ideological distraction.

Although I haven't formed an absolutely definitive opinion on the TPP trade agreement, everything I've read causes me to lean strongly against supporting it.  In particular, it seems to allow numerous existing American laws and regulations to be overridden by international courts, in ways that might greatly benefit business corporations while hurting the interests of ordinary Americans.

Also, its emphasis on increasing the protections of intellectual property rights seems misguided.  Individuals and businesses centered on such rights are now among the wealthiest and most successful sectors of American society, and an agreement to further increase their wealth may not be the best focus of government efforts.

Finally, my impression is that the TPP is directly against against China, intended to spur the formation of an anti-China economic block, and I think this may be an unwise policy.  Instead, I support good relations with China.

Although I haven't studied this particular issue enough to take a direct position, it seems to me that most of our existing illegal drug law policies have been a gigantic failure over the last forty or fifty years, and we should closely consider all possible alternatives to keeping the current system in place.

When I was born in Los Angeles in the early 1960s, the California public infrastruction, including water infrastructure, was easily able to handle the needs of California's population.  Since that time, California's population has increased by 150%, so it's hardly surprising that our infrastructure problems have become severe, including our water problems.  

Population growth nationwide has also been very rapid, and in recent decades America has had the fastest population growth rate of any developed country, and a rate of increase nearly twice that of China, leading to similar problems in other states.

Therefore, an important step that the federal government can take in helping to solve California's water problems is to help reduce our population growth rate.  And virtually all of this population growth rate has been due to very high levels of immigration over the last 40-odd years.

Therefore, I support a sharp reduction in current rates of legal immigration.

Yes, I strongly support sharp cuts in legal immigration rates and strong safeguards against illegal immigration (although the latter is relatively low at the present).

By the simple laws of supply and demand, the large scale immigration of new workers serves to sharply reduce the wages of existing American workers, benefiting Capital at the expense of Labor.  I think it is more than pure coincidence that over the last 40-odd years America has had very high levels of new immigration and over exactly the same period, the bulk of ordinary Americans have seen their incomes and standard of living stagnate or decline.  This was exactly the reason that liberal icon Cesar Chavez spent decades as one of America's most prominent anti-immigration activists.  Indeed, the group that economically suffers most from additional immigration are existing immigrants, since they are faced with the most direct economic competition.

Furthermore, as mentioned above, these decades of very heavy immigration have caused an exponential increase in America's population, which now is rising far faster than any other developed country in the world, and this puts severe strains on our public infrastructure and natural resources.

Meanwhile, the best and most effective means of preventing future illegal immigration is a large hike in the minimum wage.  All studies show that the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants come to America for jobs, and the pundits are absolutely correct when they say "immigrants take the jobs that Americans won't."  But the reason that Americans won't take those jobs is that the wages are just too low, and only desperate, recently-arrived illegal immigrants are willing to take such terrible jobs.  A big increase in the minimum wage would make such jobs much more attractive to native-born Americans and existing immigrants, and this would eliminate the job-magnet that lures future illegal immigrants, making our border-control laws much easier to enforce.