United States SenateCandidate for Senator

I do not favor a federal carbon tax.

I do support the reduction of pollution worldwide in a cooperative manner.  Unfortunately, the result of our regulations has been increased pollution in other countries as manufacturing has moved offshore.  Rather than push even more jobs to countries like China and India that pollute wantonly, we should have more practical regulations at home to allow jobs to stay here and have less global pollution with cleaner manufacturing here in California.

The federal government should encourage state and federal policies that refocus our efforts to reduce gun violence.  The second amendment states that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.  So any policy changes must respect our 2^nd amendment rights.

The key to reducing gun violence is to reduce criminal activity. It is not to infringe on the rights of law abiding citizens.  The different approaches of Chicago and New York are telling.  Chicago has focused its efforts on restricting the rights to own and use guns.  That has resulted in increased crime and gun violence.  New York, under the Giuliani administration, focused on reducing crime overall, which necessarily focused on cracking down on criminals.  That resulted in reduced gun violence and a safer New York.

Finally, if someone uses a gun in connection with a crime, they must go to jail.  We must enforce that policy.  Too many prosecutors are plea bargaining away gun charges. That encourages gun violence and puts criminals back on the streets earlier than the law should allow.

History demonstrates that the richest nations have been those that have traded internationally. America should stand for free trade and I support free trade efforts.  Unfortunately, our own governments have weakened the ability of American companies to trade. Our excessive taxes and regulations are the cause of that weakness.  Our weak economic growth over the last 7 years (under 2%) has been 40 years in the making and has been made worse by recent policies.  One result of that weak economic growth is the historically low labor force participation in America.

The trade pact likely would increase the number of foreign workers in America at a time when the American economy is not able to produce enough jobs because of those bad government policies.  In other words, if the TPP were instituted tomorrow, our weak labor market would be exposed at the height of its vulnerability. 

I support a flat tax and a reduction in the level of regulation to allow the American private sector to thrive and to boost employment here at home.  That could all happen by March of 2017.  Once that recovery is under way, then the impact of the implementation of TPP would not hit American workers when they are most vulnerable. In short, the trade pact should have been negotiated when America was economically thriving and had maximum leverage and implementation ideally delayed until the implementation of tax and regulatory reform here at home – reforms which should be made in full not later than early next year.

I am not in favor of relaxing the federal marijuana laws. 

The experiment in Colorado is demonstrating that there are collateral effects to increased marijuana sales and use. For instance, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection port director in San Diego stated one of the collateral effects of increased accessibility to marijuana is that “Hard drugs are the growing trend, and they’re profitable in small amounts.”  Indeed, the use of heroin and methamphetamines is on the rise as well as the importation of those drugs.

Rather than plunge forward here in California, we need to understand the full effects of the amount of legalization we already have.

The impact of California’s water policies is far-reaching. More than just a question of the length of showers, they directly contribute to high unemployment and poverty. The solution to our water crisis can boost employment and reduce poverty – and it’s high time we get practical about it. - See more at: http://www.delbeccaroforsenate.com/2016/03/practical-plus-high-tech-solutions-can-ease-californias-water-crisis/#sthash.Lof4yBN3.dpuf

The resolution of the water crisis can actually be quite simple if we are as practical as Singapore, a world leader in water technology. When I went to summer law school there in 1986, I was impressed by how the tiny nation island went about solving its problems. Only 277 square miles and surrounded by ocean and near the equator, Singapore has severely limited freshwater sources.

It anticipated a population boom and now leads the world in water recycling technology, including capturing rainfall not just on protected land but on buildings and roads, as well as desalination plants and water recycling. Singapore also partnered with neighboring Malaysia (with whom it sometimes had sharp disagreements) and built a dam to increase water supplies for Singapore.

California should be the high-tech water capital of the world. Rather than build high-speed rail, we should allocate funds to retrieve storm water from our roads and have the water pumped to recycling stations. Within 10 years, no lawn in California should be watered with anything but recycled water.

To ease unemployment and the water crisis, our aging municipal water pipes should be replaced. Those older pipes, by many estimates, leak as much water as all of the state’s residential use. Los Angeles alone has more than $1 billion in deferred maintenance. Since we have a plan to measure, monitor and regulate all of California’s groundwater, shouldn’t we fix our pipes? That would create shovel-ready jobs and could be completed within four years.

Our forests can provide a solution as well. They are overgrown and present a fire danger, but a policy that allows thinning of trees would create dramatic increases in runoff – some say enough to feed the Central Valley. Those are shovel-ready jobs as well.

We should also (1) build desalination plants (70 percent of Californians live within 30 miles of the ocean) and more reservoirs, including the long awaited Sites Reservoir, (2) require greater water recycling.  Every blade of muncipal grass should be watered with recycled water within 10 years.

Our broken immigration system has been bad for the country and a source of political division for well over a decade. Some want a so-called “comprehensive” solution to the crisis, but the prospects for it actually happening (let alone being a solution) are not good amidst our divisions. I proposes a more practical approach:

I believe we should do the following to address the immigration crisis:

1. National Security.  Immigration should now be viewed as the national security issue it has become.  Whatever we thought about immigration before 9/11 and the San Bernardino terror strike, we must think again.  We can build a consensus on immigration by putting the interests of the entire country first.

2. Comprehensive Legislation Won’t Work. Large, 2,500 page bills – especially on this contentious issue – are unlikely to pass any time soon and have proven to be a pandora’s box of bad provisions and policy.  We don’t have to attempt to solve all problems at once and our national security concerns mean we cannot wait.  Therefore, I believe we need to take a piecemeal approach to solving the crisis.

3.  Immediate Visa Reform.  Up to half of those here illegally have overstayed their visas. We can reduce racial tension in this country by acknowledging that fact instead of implying all illegal immigration is from a single country. Also, remember that the 9/11 conspirators took advantage of our lax visa laws.  The San Bernardino terrorist took advantage of our weak protections by simply giving a false address at the time she applied for a visa.  We have lost track of hundreds of thousands who have overstayed their visas.  Enough is enough.  We must strengthen our visa laws. 

4.  All Ports of Entry.  We must understand that all of our ports of entry represent a danger.  Therefore, we need to bring added resources to protect all of them not some of them. We also must support enforcement of existing laws when it comes to those who come here illegally.