Buzz Patterson For Congress

Our elected officials are meant to be public servants, not lifelong political “elites”. The founders intended for civilian leaders to serve in government for a limited period of time, get done what they need to get done and then go back to being a civilian. This entrenched political bureaucracy has been created by lobbyists and corrupt people who are in government for the wrong reasons.

To solve this, I propose that all Senators are limited to two six-year terms, serving no more than twelve years in the Senate. Furthermore, I propose that the House stops having elections every two years. From the moment a new Congressperson gets to Washington, they are campaigning for re-election. When do they have time to get to work? I propose that US Congressmen are limited to three four-year terms, serving no more than twelve years.

America is a great and prosperous nation and we need to keep it that way. This nation has always allowed immigrants to become a part of the American dream, and it has shaped the character of the nation in many ways. With that being said, the system is completely out-of-date. There are so many immigration loopholes now, that our laws don’t even mean anything. It needs to be completely overhauled.

 Firstly, I support a border wall on the US-Mexico border. This is a matter of national security. The flow of illegal immigration must be cut off before any meaningful reforms can be done.

 Second, a merit-based immigration system is necessary. We want the best of the best in America. We want the world’s innovations to be created here. Our northern neighbor, Canada, has a great points-system in place as does Australia. No immigrant should be admitted to the country that stands to become a burden on the system. We need to focus our resources on our citizens first.

 Third, there are too many visas. Every letter of the alphabet has a visa category attached to it. The process is arcane. We need to re-evaluate the various visas and eliminate ones that are out-of-date and frequently abused – such as the diversity visa lottery.

 Fourth, people who are coming to this country as a spouse should not have to wait over two years for their visas to process. Given modern-day technology, the waiting time should be no more than 120 days. This would ensure that the process is followed as intended, rather than many couples going through illegal methods to speed up their process.

Remember in March when a $6 trillion spending package was passed? Remember how many thousands of pages it was? Remember how the Kennedy Center got $25 million in funds from a coronavirus relief bill? That all needs to end.

Laws and bills that are proposed should not be allowed to be more than ten pages. This is not because I don’t like to read, but it is to ensure that the topics included in the bills are relevant to the cause at hand. Poison pills are so frequently slipped into various laws and bills that never even are found out until years later.

Many times, great bills get held up for years because of one point in the bill that was included that is completely irrelevant.

Let’s end all that. If the bill you’re proposing is more than ten pages, write a new bill for the other parts of it. Government efficiency.

My position on the Second Amendment is as follows:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

It does not get much clearer than that.

Americans paid into social security their whole lives. No one should ever touch it. It is not money that the government is giving us. It is money that we paid into the government and are owed back.

Furthermore, social security should be tax-free. We paid into it our whole lives.

The elderly are the most precious among us. It is our sacred duty to protect them. They raised us, cared for us and we need to return the favor to them.

Nursing homes have been left rather unchecked in America, and we saw firsthand during COVID-19 what happens in many of them. I still am filled with fury when I remember the video of the boy in Michigan beating up an old man in his bed.

We need strong nursing home reforms. I propose the following:

Family visitation is the first line of defense against abuse and neglect our most treasured citizens. During COVID, families were locked out and in some cases, are still locked out. As a result, many residents of nursing facilities declined mentally and physically and there are reports of widespread neglect, I propose a “Family Bill of Rights” developed with nursing facility representatives, legislators, and family to prevent this atrocity from ever occurring again.

The development of a public registry of nursing home violations including fines and how the violations were rectified. This will provide families with a complete picture before they choose a facility for their loved ones. This will also provide an incentive for these facilities to supply a quality, safe environment for their residents.

Incentives to attract a high-quality staff and ongoing education hours for staff.

Study individual state mandate ratios for patient to doctors and nurses. Federally implement mandatory minimums that states must meet to get accreditation and aid in order to best serve our elderly.

Social media has become a behemoth. We have been able to connect with people from around the country and around the world. With that has come a problem of major censorship. Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey should not arbiters of what can and cannot be spoken. This has more often than not been applied to one side of the political spectrum.

When I am elected, I will support the removal of Section 230 protections on these companies. They have become publishers and curators of content rather than functioning as a global public square.

Free speech is an absolute non-negotiable.

Sacramento’s homeless problem may not be as nationally known as Los Angeles and San Francisco, but the problem is just as prominent here.

No family should be living on the street in a country that has spent over $8 trillion on fighting wars in the Middle East and sends multitudes of billions of dollars in foreign aid to the world.

As a federal official, I will not have direct control over the local laws and policies that would be able to curb this problem specifically in Sacramento, but I will commit to raising this issue on a national scale.

If the local government cannot seem to get a handle on the problem, the solution is not sending them more money to squander in the ways they are squandering their current budget.

The homeless problem can be fixed only on a local level, but it needs massive pressure from the federal government to do so. We will work with local governments to ensure that money being sent to them to combat homelessness is actually used in proper ways.

COVID-19 has absolutely decimated small businesses. It will take years to recover from the draconian shutdowns that were imposed on the small businesses of America. President Trump’s PPP Loans were a great first step, but more needs to be done.

Any subsequent stimulus bills that are passed in regards to coronavirus should focus on small businesses and direct relief for people. There should be no ludicrous spending on random projects throughout this country that are unrelated.

We must get the engine that is small business up & running again at full speed.

Every unborn child has a right to life. The federal government should not be in the business of funding abortion. Planned Parenthood should immediately be defunded.

Abortion is not birth control and should not be thought of in a flippant manner.

Furthermore, the sexualization of children in our country must end. We are watching as cartoons & other media intended for the youngest among us are being filled with sexual innuendos. This must end.

Our internet is filled with child pornography and makes it incredibly easy for human traffickers to target our children. This, too, must be addressed.

If we do not protect the children of America, we have no future.

While the Trump Administration has made great strides in correcting deep deficiencies in our Veterans Affairs, we still have a long way to go to meet the needs of our all-volunteer force—especially those from the last decade of war.

As an Air Force Veteran, striving to preserve the rights of our fighting men and women, many who reside in California, are top priority. Wounded Warriors and those suffering from PTSD and Drug Addictions must find support from the country they served to protect.

New integration and certification programs are necessary, not only to support our veterans but for the reenergizing of California’s innovative marketplace. Veterans with skillsets such as medics, firefighters, welders, plumbers—alongside technical experts—should be able to easily transfer their experiences and qualifications to private and public sectors.

Right now, they cannot.

Californian Lawmakers have the power to support veterans by providing crossover certifications, applying time-in service and access to any required training for transition into trade, medical, security and emergency work in private and public sectors, making California the leader in Veteran employment, and allowing California to benefit from

Veteran specialized expertise.

Californians deserve a congressman who knows the caliber of his veteran brethren, navigating the halls of Washington, DC to ensure they are properly represented, and Californians reap the benefits.

After COVID-19, no one can claim ignorance on the dangers of being dependent on China. For years, our politicians have allowed our manufacturing to be shipped off to China. Rather than seeing “Made In China” on our products, I want to start seeing “Made In America” once again.

There is absolutely no reason that China should be producing any of our medical equipment or pharmaceuticals. Whereas many considered this simply a nuisance, it is a national security threat and must be treated as such.

We must work hard to combat the Chinese Communist influence on the world and especially in this nation. If we do not address this now, we may not have the same chance to do it in twenty years. The can cannot be kicked down the road another day.

Obamacare took American healthcare and destroyed it.

Here’s a hint: If healthcare lobbyists and insurance companies are writing a bill on how to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, you’re probably not going to get a bill that favors the people.

We need to reform the American health insurance industry to work for the people rather than the insurance companies.

The first and simplest thing we can do is make insurance companies available across state lines. If we did car insurance the way we do health insurance, your premiums would be tripled and quadrupled. Allow nationwide competition within the industry and you will see prices come significantly down.

Many on the other side discuss Medicare For All. This system would never work in America – a nation of over 350 million people. Access to healthcare and quality healthcare are not the same thing. We need to work with local governments to find solutions for those unable to pay for health insurance.

Illegal immigrants should never receive free healthcare in the United States of America. This talking point is pure lunacy.

While we discuss healthcare all the time, we need to focus on making America a healthier nation in general. We do not speak about this, as the subject is a bit taboo. We are one of the unhealthiest nations on the planet. Much of this has to do with our diets. The industrial food complex does not focus on quality.

We need to eliminate obesity-promoting regulations such as the Congressional prohibition on whole milk in schools.

We need to support small and mid-sized producers of food rather than give priority to large companies like Monsanto who produce products filled with GMOs. We have some of the richest farmland in the world. Let’s use it to make healthy food.

Schools should focus on physical education programs once again. We have become too politically correct when we allow exemptions for gym classes because of social justice reasons. Absolutely not. A healthy nation is a strong nation.

The education system in America is broken. Public schools have been promoting ideologies to students that are simply anti-American. While I believe a strong public school system is a good thing, we should give Americans the power to choose the education style that fits their children best. Charter schools have produced incredible results in many communities, and they need to be lifted up as models throughout the nation.

Furthermore, a focus on college education as a necessary step in one’s educational journey is something we need to move away from. If you want to go to college, fine. That is great and I encourage it. That being said, college is not for everyone. We need welders, plumbers, electricians and so many other jobs that have been neglected in favor of this new notion that a four-year degree is the only way one can succeed. Trade schools should be brought to the forefront once again as an option right alongside college.

Without a strong family, nothing government can do to help the lives of the American people matters. We need to look to countries in Eastern Europe, who have very robust family-building policies and programs to see what works and how we can perhaps apply them here. A model that could work is something similar to Hungary’s CSOK plan. Strong American families are the backbone of a strong America.

Anyone who has followed the AB-5 law in California can tell you what a crisis it has been. Gig workers and freelancers are getting killed by this disastrous law. Democrats are talking about a national version of AB-5, which would have a crippling effect on people who work for multiple companies, work as freelancers, or even have side jobs for extra money. I will stand against any bill that resembles AB-5.