My Dad, an extremely wise man, who went from being a ditch digger out of high school to becoming a successful small businessman, has a favorite phrase, "Do Something!" Throughout my life, from the football fields and wrestling mats of my youth to the classrooms and stumps of the present, I have heard the exhortation, "Do Something!" I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Everyday, while talking to people, either at their doors or at a local fair, I hear the same story. People are worried, frustrated, and angry about gas prices, the economy, the Iraq War, and health insurance. Gas, food, and health-care costs are going through the roof, people (rightly) are cutting back, people are losing homes due to foreclosure, job layoffs are just beginning to be announced, and winter is just over the horizon...Congress, meanwhile, does nothing.
Enough! The time has come to act. Like my Dad says "Do something!" We're Americans. We're all in this together. Coming together as Americans is how this country achieved it's greatest glories, got through the trying times of history, and it is how we will survive and prosper through the trials and tribulations yet to come. This idea that "I've got mine. You're on your own" is the reason we're in this mess in the first place, and the time has come for us to put an end to it. We're all Americans, and what do Americans do? We build. We build big. We come together, we work together, and we build big for the future. Let's be Americans!!
At the heart of our current situation is an oil/transportation crisis. This crisis, unless we change our policies, is a long-term, permanent situation. We have no choice; we must act. We must act on both the supply and the demand sides of the problem.
I'd like to start with demand because it is the most immediate. I'd like to offer "feebates" to enable people to afford to buy more fuel efficient vehicles. I think we should offer no-cost loans to homeowners to improve windows, doors, insulation, and heating/cooling systems. We can invest in mass transit both on the local and inter-city levels. We ought to be investing in buses for towns and rural areas, light rail for cities/suburbs, and high speed rail for intercity travel in population dense regions of the country. Doing these things will benefit everybody by driving down demand thus lowering prices.
It will have other benefits as well. No-cost loans to homeowners will result in a huge stimulus for those in the housing/construction industry. Investment in city/suburban rail transit will mean money flowing to those cities that have such systems, but where are the rail cars that those systems need going to be made? We can make sure that those needed cars are made at the Hollidaysburg Car Shops and at the closed Freight Car America shops in Johnstown. Investment in bus systems, whether for small cities and towns or rural areas, will mean a huge demand for buses. These buses must be made somewhere. They can be made at the closed Fleetwood factory in Somerset. This means jobs, good jobs, family sustaining jobs, returning to the more rural parts of the country. We are all in this together, and the only way we will come out of this, is together.
On the supply side, I think we should take a serious look at implementing the Pickens' Plan ( http://www.pickensplan.org/... ). Again, this will not only benefit us by increasing the supply of energy thus lowering prices, but it will also benefit us by increasing jobs. Auto mechanics will be needed to convert existing gasoline powered cars to run on natural gas; it can be done in about the time it takes to do a tuneup. Jobs will be created to manufacture solar panels and windmill parts. Construction jobs will be created to install the solar panels and windmills. Creating these jobs will energize the economy stimulating other businesses. We all will benefit.
There are those who will whine that this will cost too much. This argument doesn't pass the laugh test. As it is now, we are sending $700 billion dollars EACH year out of this country! We are already borrowing from the Chinese to pay the Saudis. While Wall Street and the talk radio guys will tell you that borrowing money from the Chinese to pay the Saudis is a good idea, I know that just doesn't fly on Main Street. It's time we sent someone to Congress who thought about Main Street a little more often. It's time we sent someone to Congress who is working for working people! My name is Tony Barr. I'm running for Congress in the 9th District. Let's build something. Let's do it together. Please join our campaign ( http://www.tonybarr2008.com ), we'd love to have you, and together, we can do great things to benefit everybody. We're building things. This is our country, and we are taking it back.
In the days and weeks to come in this campaign, I want to fill in some details about how we can take this country back. I want to talk about education and health-care and all the things that we need to do to set America back on track. Because of the policies of the past eight years, it's going to be a big job and America will need your attention, your faith in our shared values, and your help. Until then, I'm working for working people. My name is Tony Barr, I'm running for Congress.