Vote For Ted Brown

Digital Privacy

Governments throughout the world, including the U.S., are rushing to require ID to use social media, apps, the internet itself, computers and other devices, and even cell phones. This is flying under the radar, but it's the most devastating blow to privacy in history. If we don't oppose every one of these measures now, we will lose our freedom forever.

Taxes

Democratic and Republican politicians are always quite willing to raise taxes. Sure, Republicans cut tax rates sometimes (but fail to cut spending), but taxes at all levels are at historic high levels. Half of what we earn goes to taxes at the federal, state, and local levels. The federal income tax is the biggest government intrusion into the lives of the American people, to the tune of $2.6 trillion to be extracted from us in Fiscal Year 2022. It forces every worker to be a bookkeeper, to open his records to the government, to explain his expenses, and to fear conviction for a harmless accounting error. Compliance wastes hundreds of billions of dollars. The income tax discourages savings and creates an enormous drag on the U.S. economy.

The federal government is way too large and interferes in too many aspects of our lives

Immigration

Return to an Ellis Island-style system with free movement of people.

People all over the world want to come to the United States to escape political repression and economic stagnation. One of my great-grandfathers was a Lithuanian Jew who fled anti-Semitism in Czarist Russia in 1890. Another fled forced military service in Germany in 1904.

Letting people enter at any international port of entry — at the border, at airports, at seaports — would relieve Texas border towns from being overwhelmed. There would no longer be a reason to build a border wall, which is a terrible idea anyway. The new arrivals should be able to work from Day One, instead of being placed on welfare programs and told to wait for a work permit.

Unlike what you hear in the media and from right-wing politicians, immigrants (both “legal” and “illegal”) commit far fewer crimes than native-born Americans. They contribute to our economy, not detract from it. The U.S. is a nation of immigrants, and we need to recognize and embrace our rich history as a melting pot of people from all over the world, instead of falling prey to ill-informed xenophobia that hurts both Americans and immigrants alike.