Willie on the Issues

Willie has developed concise position statements on many issues important to Floridians based on feedback received through the On-line Issues Poll and his conversations with countless voters during the Logan2000 Independence Tour and elsewhere on the Campaign Trail.  Click an issue below to read his stance and learn what he will fight for as Florida's next junior U.S. Senator. To comment on Willie's positions on the Logan2000 Bulletin Board and receive feedback from Willie and other logan2000.org visitors, click here.  

Willie plans to add statements on other important issues.  So, be sure to revisit this page from time to time.

Campaign Finance Reform
Economy
Education
Environment
Federal Budget
Gun Control
Health Care
Home Ownership
Military and Defense Spending
Social Security and Medicare
Space, Florida 's Prominence
Taxes
Trade

• Campaign Finance Reform

  I believe it is critical that Congress pass fundamental campaign finance reform legislation. As long as special interest money dominates campaigns, it will dominate legislation as well. Both major parties continue to sell our government, piece by piece, to the highest bidder. If we don’t stop this "cash register politics" by electing people who aren’t beholden to parties and their corporate special interest friends, we will lose our government altogether. 

  I will work to ban the use of soft money, provide candidates free television time, and publicly finance federal elections. We spend $900 million yearly promoting democracy abroad. For about the same amount, we can remove special interests from politics here at home.

  Return to Issues List

• Economy

Economy. My proposed economic blueprint for the next decade will have three guiding principals: 1) to help improve the economic condition of middle class families, who have always been America's backbone and strength, 2) to reduce the poverty level to below 10%, and 3) to increase America's competitive edge in the world economy. This can be accomplished by cutting taxes for all Americans, raising the number of families who own homes to more than 70%, reducing the debt, and providing targeted tax breaks that fuel the economy.

Return to Issues List

I will join the struggle to pass the Patients’ Bill of Rights and put doctors, instead of HMO’s, in charge of health decisions. Working with the states, I will ensure that every child has access to fully affordable high quality coverage. I also will fight to stop drug companies’ price gouging and to make generic drugs more available. Finally, I will work to achieve parity of mental and physical health care coverage.

Return to Issues List

• Home Ownership

I want to ensure opportunities for all Floridians to achieve the American Dream of owning their own homes. Though home ownership in America is at an all time high, many hardworking Americans still fall short of reaching this goal. I will propose bold movements toward providing home ownership opportunities at every family income level.  

Increasing interest rates and construction costs continue to limit many of our neighbors' ability to own homes. With the economy stronger than ever, I will work to see the government implement programs that will remove hurdles to home ownership and resulting stronger communities. 

Return to Issues List

• Military and Defense Spending

Both Democrats and Republicans have wasted scarce defense dollars on pork barrel projects that contribute nothing to national defense, while 12,000 enlisted personnel survive on food stamps. As a defense spending priority, I will increase pay for enlisted personnel and honor our commitments to veterans and their families. 

I also would reduce overseas deployments, not to retreat from the world, but to replace unfocused missions with clear ones that ensure that the U.S. military is at all times prepared to protect Americans in harm’s way, preserve significant threatened resources, and/or work collectively with our allies to prevent genocide. Finally, I would seek to save taxpayers $10's of billions of dollars by 1) reducing four Trident submarines as recommended by the Chief of Naval Operations and 2) ending the prohibition against STARTII reductions.

Return to Issues List

• Social Security and Medicare 

  We must ensure and extend the solvency of Social Security.  I will advocate that we spend the interest savings from the national debt reduction and part of the general revenue surplus to do so.  

  I support creating individual retirement accounts and expanding supplemental individual retirement savings accounts, but I believe these accounts should supplement, not replace, guaranteed benefits provided by Social Security. I also believe the government should invest a limited portion of Social Security reserves in a broad range of investments other than Treasury securities in order to diversify its assets and increase the Social Security Trust Funds' rate of return.  

  I will fight to strengthen Medicare by securing benefits past the year 2015, and I will oppose raising the age of eligibility above 65. Finally, I will work to ensure that Medicare includes prescription drug coverage for all beneficiaries.

  Return to Issues List

• Florida's Prominence in the Aerospace Industry
  
  I will work to keep Florida in the forefront of the aerospace industry in three primary ways.  First, I will continue to support Florida’s effort to construct a new research lab at the Kennedy Space Center to support the International Space Station and attract and also prepare in our own universities scientists to conduct space research at the lab.  This will enable Florida to benefit from some of the $800 million each year NASA expects to spend on research once the Station is complete.  Second, I will support legislation that allows expansion, improvement and maintenance of Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center launch facilities and helps lower launch costs to enable Florida to better compete for commercial launch business now going to other states and countries.  Third, I will support initiatives to provide financing incentives to attract reusable launch vehicle manufacturers to Florida.

  Return to Issues List