Where Ray Lenzi Stands on Key Issues

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/JOBS/INCOME INEQUALITY

As a former career Economic and Community Development professional the candidate has broad and deep experience in business and enterprise development, having been a founder of three strong non-profit enterprises still employing hundreds of employees, generating millions in payroll and representing tens of millions in business property. We support economic development and jobs policies including a massive public infrastructure bill, climate crisis action and federal fiscal and monetary policy coordinated for maximum economic growth consistent with addressing climate change and global warming. Income inequality is way out of balance as a recent Federal Reserve study showed that just three people now have as many assets as the lower half of our country’s population (165 million people)! This is morally unacceptable . Coordinated fiscal stimulus as outlined here and combined with the national $ 15 minimum wage, labor support and local action will provide the necessary support and framework for a robust economy serving everyone. Local action in the 12th District will include our coordination with the local economic players including all private manufacturing, healthcare, construction, agricultural, banking and finance, tourism, social service, educational, retail and other sectors of the economy. This will mean coordination with these businesses as well as such organizations as the Chambers of Commerce, Labor Union Councils, local city and county and other regional economic and business development organizations including the Research Parks of SIU Carbondale and Edwardsville with their Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center (IMEC) and other related services. We also propose a greater Metro-East/Southern Illinois Development Bank with private sector banking and development officials overseeing a higher risk pool of equity and debt capital to support and initiate enterprise development from the micro to macro scale. As your congressman I will pledge to participate in coordinating this effort. We can do better but we must be willing to act together and commit to some new and creative enterprises.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

The Ray Lenzi for Congress, “We the People,” campaign stands firmly for protecting and expanding women’s rights. These include protecting women’s reproductive freedom and Roe v. Wade. We favor legislation to institutionalize Roe as the law of the land and favor legislation guaranteeing equal pay for women and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Women are the backbone of the Democratic Party and the “We the People” movement.
Our “We the People” movement stands for the following positions to protect women’s rights and advance women’s lives:
Roe v. Wade: Women’s reproductive freedom is threatened. Women’s bodies are their own. The Republican packing of the courts must be stopped and reversed. The only path to protecting women’s reproductive freedom is a Democratic-controlled House and Senate and a Democratic president.
Equal Pay: Equal pay for women is a seemingly simple and obvious stance. Yet, Mike Bost and the Republican Party oppose this legislation
Universal Child Care: Despite advances, women still carry most of the burden of childcare. Federal funding for universal, affordable and high-quality childcare is a must, which we enthusiastically support. Research shows that perhaps nothing is more important for breaking the cycle of poverty than quality early childhood education.

As a former pre-school founder/director/teacher, I will be the strongest supporter of universal childcare. Women’s rights and needs will be a top priority for federal action. Our campaign will push those issues forward for the benefit of women, children and families.
Stand with women, stand with justice. Forward, not backward.

GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION

Reducing gun violence means taking action to reduce the likelihood of deadly shootings. While gun ownership is a right and candidate Lenzi is himself a gun owner, the proliferation of military style assault weapons is a clear and present danger as shown by multiple mass killings haunting our society.
The Lenzi for Congress position is a simple four point plan that will demonstrably reduce the number of gun deaths and incidents:

1)A ban on the sale of military style assault weapons with a voluntary buy back program.

2)A ban on the sale of high capacity magazines (more than ten rounds).

3)Universal background checks on all gun sales.

4)“Red flag” laws to keep guns out of the hands of those who have shown themselves to be a danger to themselves and others by flagrant and threatening words and behavior.

PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE

Build America for the 21st Century
Sometimes it seems that America is crumbling before our very eyes. So it makes sense that Congress should take up a major public infrastructure bill designed to meet those challenges head-on. There has not been a major national infrastructure bill since the late 1980s. It’s long overdue.
Mike Bost and the Republicans forced passage of a multi-trillion dollar tax cut for the super-rich to pay off their billionaire donors. The Lenzi for Congress, “We the People,” campaign favors using those dollars instead for a massive ten-year public infrastructure bill that would build, repair and rebuild highways, bridges, airports, river levees, schools and other public works projects.
Such an infrastructure bill should also include direct funding as well as expansion of tax credits for solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.
Let’s look at three issues that are important for the 12th Congressional District.

1)Transportation: Deep Southern Illinois still needs an improved transportation link to the St. Louis metro area. This should come in the form of a four-lane corridor to Interstate 64 with a light rail corridor connecting to the St. Louis MetroLink in St. Clair County. We will propose and vote for these improvements.

2)Renewable Energy: Any infrastructure package must include projects related to building and developing renewable energy systems for the 21st Century. This means infrastructure investments in a “smart grid” that integrates renewable energy generation and storage so that we can meet the Paris Climate Accord targets. It should also mean demonstration projects within all public buildings and low income publicly subsidized housing. We will target demonstration projects in the 12th District.

3)Protecting our farms and levees: Public infrastructure includes protecting our fertile farmlands from devastation. Hundreds of millions of dollars were lost this past year in the 12th district due to flooding exacerbated by global warming. While some of the flood plain should be set aside for conservation buy out, existing levees should be improved where appropriate.

Public infrastructure investment is vital for America’s future. Investment in these and other projects has to be a priority for the future. It goes without saying that all projects should pay Davis-Bacon wages, which means well paid union wages.
Let’s invest in America; lets invest in America’s future; let’s invest in America’s infrastructure.

EDUCATION AND COLLEGE TUITION FUNDING

Educational funding must be increased across the board. Teachers are underpaid in much of the country and “We the People” support federal policy to support public education at all levels and to set minimum teacher pay nationally as Illinois has done at the state level under the leadership of Governor Pritzker and the Democratic state legislature. This also means supporting paid tuition in exchange for two years of community service (civil or military) to meet the nation’s needs., especially for low and moderate income students. We also call for a college debt forgiveness policy to relieve the economic burden and stress that effects millions of young graduates.

MASS INCARCERATION REMEDIATION

Mass incarceration has become a national tragedy that has unfairly targeted minority and low-income communities. Our national policy should be to change the situation on the ground by offering remediation to those convicted of non-violent offenses including cannabis prohibition. We call for the decriminalization of cannabis nationally and the legalization of the industry for federal and legal tax purposes. It is time to end this modern Prohibition which has been unwise and a failed policy as bad as the Prohibition of Alcohol from 1920-1933. Returning mass incarceration prisoners to the community presents significant challenges. We propose significant federal support for re-entry and job training and placement programs to remediate this national tragedy. It is time to end mass incarceration and welcome our fellow citizens back into an economy which needs everyone’s active hand.

ELECTORAL REFORM: ABOLISH THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE FOR MAJORITY RULE

Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 by 3 million votes and still Donald Trump was elected President. This is a tragedy of the first order. For a country that brands itself as the oldest and most stable democracy in the world this is a dark state of affairs. It is a result of a long and dark history of structural racism intended to secure the rule of the country by wealthy white males to the exclusion of women and minorities, particularly African slaves and their ancestors.
At the country’s founding slavery and its economic beneficiaries were dominant in the power structure of America. The electoral college was designed to make sure that popular democracy did not threaten the rule of the landed and monied men of wealth who ruled the country. Of particular concern was that those states where slavery was entrenched would not see their enriching but brutally suppressed slave labor force challenged or eliminated. The electoral college was seen as a safe and effective way for the wealthy to maintain control and protect the sordid institution. Now the electoral college allows a similar class of super rich and oligarchs a narrow path to maintain control of the government for their own benefit. The “times they are a’changin”. It’s time to end the electoral college and go directly to a popular vote!
Money out of politics: Public financing of Elections!
The Lenzi for Congress campaign supports public financing of elections. To end rule by the super billionaires and the oligarchs we must outlaw money in politics. Public financing of elections will allow a level playing field for all citizens to compete equally to represent the people. This, of course, also means overturning Citizens United by constitutional amendment or otherwise. Democracy is a fragile and now endangered system. It must be drastically reformed to function properly. “The times they are a’changin”, time for public financing of elections. Time to retire Mike Bost!!

IMMIGRATION

“We the People” being nearly 100% immigrants or the children of immigrants support “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” including a path to citizenship for DACA (Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals) residents as well all residents who have lived and worked in our country for a minimum of five years without any serious criminal history. We will also end Trump’s “Muslim Ban”, prohibiting immigration from Muslim countries. This is a clear violation of religious freedom and obviously discriminatory.

The Statue of Liberty welcomed my grandparents to Ellis Island and me and my cousins have their names engraved on Immigrants Wall of Honor there (Enrico and Rosie Lenzi!) We will not have their names and the names of hundreds of millions of other grandparents dishonored by a racist policy that forgets our Statue or Liberty promise to “Give us your tired, your poor your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. This is our sacred pledge, the promise our grandparents told us about as little children in solemn voices with tears in their eyes. We are the nation of immigrants. We will stand by our promise to welcome as many law-abiding citizens to our shores as possible while maintaining strong borders and border security.

STRENGTHEN AND GROW ORGANIZED LABOR

The Lenzi for Congress Campaign recognizes that organized labor is under attack. As a former member of the United Mine Workers I recognize the historic hostility of the Republican Party and big money to unions and their members. The current hostility of this administration through all levels of government has reached a fever pitch. Union membership has reached its lowest level since the Wagner Act of the 1930s. It is time to have a Congressional representative in the 12th District who stands strongly for working men and women and their families on the bread and butter issues. It is time we retire Mike Bost.
Our position on some of the key issues are clear:

1) Raise the Federal minimum wage to $ 15 per hour. Though Illinois has, with our progressive Democratic Governor J. B. Pritzker, already raised the minimum wage, a Federal $ 15 minimum will lift wages of all workers throughout the country and buoy our economy. Long overdue!

2)We support 51 % Cardcheck (Employee free choice)! If a majority of workers sign union authorization cards they should have their union as a bargaining agent. The current process makes it too easy for employers to threaten workers and crush unions and hurt workers. Bost opposes Cardcheck. It’s time to retire Mike Bost!

3)We support a BIG INFRASTRUCTURE BILL including a major buildout of renewable energy infrastructure. All of these projects should be union jobs paying Davis-Bacon wages. Bost voted for a huge tax cut for the rich rather than addressing the nation’s infrastructure package that the nation needs.

4)Reform the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB): The NLRB is currently in the pocket of big business and the oligarchs. Time to take back the NLRB for working families. The courts and the NLRB should not be allowed to steal from the pockets of hard working families.

The survival of organized labor is at stake in the next decade. We must stand together and expand the labor movement to represent all workers to move together for economic and social justice. Labor must be at the vanguard of this movement. Bost opposes all of these pro-labor positions. The times they are a’changin; Time to Retire Mike Bost!

LGBTQ RIGHTS

Our Campaign is in full support of the LGBTQ Rights Movement and their many great gains in the United States since the Stonewall Riots. Illinois decrimininalized homosexuality in 1962, the first state in the U.S. to do so. These gains are under constant threat by the Trump Administration, who increasingly encroaches on the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ Americans. This sets an unacceptable tone on a global scale and seriously jeopardizes the lives and liberties of LGBTQ people the world over. Illinois has passed anti-discrimination laws, same sex marriages, anti-bullying laws in schools, third gender options, the right to a legal gender change, a ban on the harmful practice of conversion therapy, access to IVF for same-sex couples, a ban on the gay/trans panic defense, stepchild adoption rights, equal ages of consent, joint adoption for same-sex couples, and most recently LGBTQ inculsive history education requirements for schools. All of these rights should be secured at the federal level and expanded to include discrimination protection for LGBTQ people who would like to donate blood and allow all LGBTQ people to serve openly in the U.S. Armed Forces. When I am elected to the U.S. Congress I will represent the progressive values of the State of Illinois on LGBTQ issues from day one!

CLIMATE CRISIS ACTION NOW!

At this point in human history there can be only one primary factor in framing and motivating government policy both nationally and globally: the climate crisis. As the reports come in from both the “expert” scientists as well as the unfolding environmental catastrophes playing out on our television screens we can no longer afford to look the other way or be distracted. Scary as these realities are to face we must face them squarely. Once faced honestly we may behold not only the nearly unimaginable challenge before us but the greatest opportunity for humanity to make genuine progress in terms of social, economic and environmental justice.
First, the scary part. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Secretary-General are all screaming warnings of the disasters facing us now and in the future if we don’t act quickly and decisively. The deadly heat waves in Europe this summer, the forest fires in California, Canada and around the world, the polar and Greenland ice melts, the rising and warming seas, the deadly storms—we could go on but the point is clear-we must act and act decisively if we are to hand off a livable atmosphere and planet to our future children. Scientists tell us that global carbon emissions are still rising and that, in order to prevent the worst catastrophes, we must reduce emissions by 7.5% per year compounded for the next ten to twenty years—a steep challenge.
Once we accept that we must act decisively it becomes clear that, without exaggeration, we are looking at the greatest challenge to ever face humanity. What is required is something even beyond the national and global mobilization of the World War II period. Such a mobilization will not only require the cooperation of the entire global community but will also require us to sustain this mobilization for several decades at a minimum. Such a mobilization has never before been attained by humanity but we can do it because we have to. We should also be motivated to do it because it is also the greatest opportunity for human progress in humanity’s history.
The transformation from a carbon based economy to a renewable energy economy is like the Civil War era transformation from horse and buggy to steam power and trains; or like the 20th century transformation to world electrification. Big things do happen over time. It should not be surprising that each collective human challenge in modern history has been bigger than the previous. We have spent six trillion dollars since 9/11 on foreign wars protecting oil. For that six trillion we could have retrofitted every building in America with solar or renewable energy technologies.
Another aspect of our advocacy of urgent climate crisis action is that it offers an opportunity for coal and oil workers as well as left out minority communities to be provided social and economic justice during this transformative period by our proposal for a “Just Transition” that will provide generous tax credits and development dollars so that former carbon economies will be part of the renewable revolution. The Just Transition means those previously damaged or left out, particularly the descendants of slavery, will gain economic benefits and security. The Just Transition offers the added benefit of securing an alliance between economically challenged urban and rural communities. Full employment programs modeled after the New Deal era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) could now be called the “City-Country Coalition” with projects ranging from tree planting to energy efficiency and weatherization. This would also create a common purpose and bond between rural and urban people and between races, something badly needed at this time. This offers a social and economic peace and a common vision and commitment for society to move forward at breakneck speed to where we now know we must go—a new economy of renewable energy.
It is now urgent that the United States steps up to the plate, rejoins the Paris Climate Accord and takes up its leadership role in the struggle to save our future. Analysts tells us that a twenty to thirty year transformation to renewable energy will create tens of millions of good paying union jobs and a previously unseen prosperity just as seen in previous transitions in energy and transportation systems. Imagine a future with clean renewable energy, all electric cars and a stable atmosphere. In such a world we should also see universal healthcare and a great reduction in income inequality. To attain such a world, however, we must stand up against the world oil and carbon monopolies and oligarchs and stand for a positive vision of a future to believe in. Please join us in standing for this future.

FOREIGN POLICY

“We the People” stand for a strong foreign policy that supports democracy around the world and partners with other like-minded countries and continents to promote the universal security of all nations and people to freely pursue their future development. We favor international multi-lateral action in nearly all matters of national security and military intervention. This means an end to foreign wars that are wasteful of American resources and American soldiers lives. Our “Veterans for Lenzi” supporters favor a common sense policy that takes care of our uniformed heroes and supports the care of they and their families including all the resources of Veterans Affairs. Common sense foreign policy can stabilize the world and allow us to act together as we face the global challenge of addressing the Climate Crisis.