By Ray Lenzi, Democratic candidate for Illinois’ 12 Congressional District

In the current Coronavirus crisis we must stand united in our campaign to control and defeat the common silent enemy. Some are suggesting that we should emphasize the positive and avoid criticizing the Trump administration, Mitch McConnell and our local congressman Mike Bost.
We will now reiterate the positive positions of our “We the People” campaign. We will continue to critique the current Administration’s failed response to the crisis and carry out the traditional role of oversight of the legislative branch.
On the positive side, our positions on the big issues before the district and American voters can be viewed on our Web site, Facebook and Twitter sites. On some of the major issues we stand as follows:

1) Healthcare: We support the ACA expansion through a vigorous public option or Medicare expansion. We need a well-coordinated national healthcare policy led by the federal government in consultation with state governments and the healthcare and scientific communities. This means federal leadership on planning for testing, tracking and stockpiling of swabs, reagents, test kits and PPE inventory.

2) Climate Crisis: The climate crisis is real and must be addressed with urgent and aggressive action. We have put forward unique proposals for a 50% federal tax credit for renewable energy projects as well as to guarantee future wages of all coalminers and energy workers as jobs are transitioned to the renewable energy economy.

3) Income Inequality and Social Justice: We favor an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour, stronger support for labor unions and full employment programs through federal, state and local partnerships. Economic justice means the super-rich must pay their fair share in taxes. At present three people own as much as half (165 million people) of our population. Unjust!

These are our “positive” positions. We will continue to criticize the disastrous and failed policies of the Trump administration. This includes calling out Mike Bost for his failure on all of these issues and his silence on oversights of the administration’s failures.