Greetings, my name is Sean Closson. I'm a 25-year-old artist running in the Democratic primary for New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District. My opponent in the primary, Ben Ray Lujan, is a co-sponsor of SOPA, which I oppose in the strongest terms. I'm not running because I want to build a career, I'm running because it's something I believe in. I think if things are ever going to change, really change, then we have to get more people in office who aren't lawyers, or CEOs, or career politicians. The House has completely lost perspective, and I think the only way to get it back is for people from all walks, not just old white business men, to occupy congress in the most literal sense.
On to the questions!
1. Do you support:
a) A public health insurance option, offered by the federal government and tied to Medicare reimbursement rates plus 5% (H.R. 3200, Subtitle B, including § 223(b)(1)(A), as introduced in the House, 111th Congress)?
I would, but I'd prefer single payer by a wide margin and I think it's important to make a real effort for it.
b) The Medicare You Can Buy Into Act (H.R. 4789, 111th Congress), which would allow all citizens or permanent residents to buy into Medicare?
I'd support this, but I'm a big fan of Medicare for All. I think the easiest way we can get to a national single payer system is by using the Medicare infrastructure we already have and just expanding on it to cover everyone.
2. Do you agree that any immigration reform bill should:
a) Contain a meaningful path to citizenship — one that does not include overly-punitive fines or a touchback requirement — for law-abiding undocumented immigrants currently in the United States;
Absolutely. I think a pathway to citizenship is a must. The whole reason that businesses can exploit undocumented immigrants is that they have almost no rights. They can't fight wage theft or demand humane working conditions due to the fear of getting picked up by ICE. In my experience most undocumented immigrants came here to make a better life for themselves and their families, just like countless immigrants through out our history. I think as long as they've stayed out of trouble they should have a way to legitimize themselves.
b) Ensure that expanded legal permanent immigration, rather than expansion of temporary worker programs, serves as the United States' primary external answer to workforce shortages; and
I much prefer expanding legal permanent immigration. I'd love to see the entire immigration process simplified. If you make it easier for people to do the right thing, I believe that they'll do it. I wouldn't necessarily vote down a temporary worker program if it legitimately prevented exploitation. It would depend on the details of the bill.
c) Ensure that any non-agricultural temporary worker programs maintain current caps on the total number of non-agricultural temporary worker visas issued, and also include a meaningful prevailing wage requirement keyed to the Service Contract Act and the Davis-Bacon Act?
I'd support this. I think making sure that businesses have to pay everybody the same, and give them the same rights to safe and humane working conditions is important. It levels the playing field and makes it more about what the worker can actually do as opposed to whether or not they're willing to work for peanuts or suffer through an abusive work environment.
3. Do you oppose each of the following changes to Social Security and Medicare:
a) Raising the retirement age;
b) Eliminating or reducing the cost of living adjustment;
c) Directly reducing benefits;
d) Means-testing recipients; and
e) Privatization, so-called "personal accounts," and vouchers?
a) Oppose- There are way better ways to do reform than to try to age
people out of the benefits they earned. It's unfair and frankly cruel.
b) Oppose- It makes no sense to me to cut cost of living adjustments.
c) Oppose- I think the best way to address Medicare costs is by addressing
the cost of healthcare, not cutting benefits. Again, cruel.
d) Oppose- Too expensive to administer for questionable results.
e) Oppose- Terrible idea.
4. Do you support the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1409/S. 560, 111th Congress), including the provision known as "card check"?
I support EFCA. I've never been in a Union but I think they're integral to maintaining and improving the standard of living and working conditions in this country. They're one of the few forces left to counterbalance the ever increasing power of corporations.
5. Do you pledge to vote against any efforts to extend the temporary tax cuts for income over $250,000 (Public Law 111-312)?
I would relish it. This is one of the issues that really drove me up the wall during the lame duck session in 2010. Allowing the Republicans to hold UI hostage for the sake of the 1% was mind boggling to me.
6. If elected to the House, do you pledge not to join the Blue Dog Coalition?
I have no interest in the Blue Dog Coalition. Huge fan of the work the Progressive Caucus does, especially the People's Budget.
7. If elected to the Senate, do you pledge to restore majority rule to the Senate and work/vote to end the filibuster?
Not really applicable, but if I were in the Senate I would. The recent abuse of the filibuster is terribly obnoxious to me.
So there are my answers to the Orange to Blue questionnaire. I'm also going to take the opportunity to briefly outline some of my other positions. I am big into ending the wars, including the Drug War by a combination of legalizing and regulating marijuana like alcohol, and decriminalizing possession of small amounts of harder drugs, offering treatment instead of jail time. I'm very much into turning the clock back on all of the damage done to our civil liberties in the last decade or so, including repealing the Patriot Act, abolishing the TSA, ending extraordinary rendition and indefinite detention, and prosecuting torture. I'd like to see private prisons abolished. I'm pro-marriage equality, pro-Dream Act, pro-choice.
Something I'm really trying to push for is a WPA scale jobs program focused on clean energy, R&D, infrastructure, and public works. I'm opposed to Keystone and I think it's well past time we start seriously moving beyond a fossil fuel based economy. Very interested in ending too big to fail by breaking up banks, prosecuting the crimes that got us here, and reforming the SEC so it isn't such a worthless revolving door agency.
If you'd like to know more about my campaign my website is closson2012.com or if you have any questions about me or my positions you can send them to info@closson2012.com.