Ted Rusk
for Congress

Bob Dylan : " Come writers and critics , Who prophesize with your pen , And keep your eyes wide , The chance won't come again , And don't speak too soon , For the wheel's still in spin , And there's no tellin' who  That it's namin' , For the loser now  Will be later to win,  For the times they are a-changin'

Let me start by describing my positions extremely clearly, unlike my competitors, Democrats and Republicans who love the generic happy statements! I am the only Democrat with the courage and true leadership to say that I will strike a deal with Trump! Here are a few large issues that we Americans have been talking about for decades. It is time to act!

IMMIGRATION - GREENCARDS NOW!

I will obtain GREENCARDS for all of our non-criminal, undocumented immigrants in 2019, by agreeing to give Trump his $20 Billion for border security. Any candidate who will not take that pledge obviously doesn't love the undocumented as much as I do. Think back to 2008, ten years ago, when Obama promised it was the number one priority. With a DEM House and a DEM Senate he did nothing. When he wanted re-elected in 2012 he once again stated that this time it will really be my number one item. So we got DACA, nothing more than an executive order that everyone should have know was just another order that can be reversed by the next president! These undocumented immigrants have been in limbo for so many years as politicians talk, talk, talk! We have not had amnesty since Reagan in 1986. That is way too long. We will need a secure border! We will need to deport all of the criminal types and such. But let's make that deal to spare these people the mental anguish of waiting for ICE to break their doors down during the night.

AFGHANISTAN - GET OUT!

This forgotten war was started under a Republican. It was continued by an anti-war Democrat. This Republican (Trump) ran on getting out of Afghanistan. Let's take that opportunity to tell the defense lobby: sorry but no more gravy train! This war is the longest the U.S.A. has ever fought! We didn't even spend this much time breaking from the Brits. It has cost us $2 Trillion! $80 Billion a year flushed down the toilet every year that would go a long way on helping this homeless crisis and "real" healthcare reform!

TRADE - MADE IN USA

We can bring our manufacturing jobs back like the unions of the 60's would have suggested. Democrats used to help "factory" unions. I don't see that anymore! Trump ran on this issue of bringing back manufacturing. We need to go after these Midwestern manufacturing jobs if we ever expect to win the presidency again! A simple flat tariff to attempt to bring each nation into balance. The level will be set by each country. That is to say, if they want the current level of trade then they merely need to purchase the same amount as they sell us. Don't let the DNC convince you that the jobs will all be automated and won't make a difference. That is what they have to say when working for the cheap-labor lobby! There will be a lot of high tech jobs maintaining those machines as well as truck drivers and office workers.

MILITARY - PAY TO PLAY

We should stop protecting, for free, wealthy countries that have been taking advantage of our generous nature for decades. Japan, Germany and Korea should help us bear the cost of this presence. We now have troops in so many countries that we are shocked now and then when we find out soldiers were killed in Niger or Yemen. It is time to rebuild the United Nations to handle these small skirmishes that pop up from time to time.

BUDGET - BALANCE IT

When I graduated high school our national debt, after 205 years, was $1 Trillion. I am still not retired and it is now $20 Trillion! Neither party will touch this issue. I will! It needs to be balanced. Cut a lot of spending first! Then a simple and fair tax code. Then let's see how much money we have leftover

HEALTHCARE

Bernies' "Medicare for all" is a great idea. It is a huge step away from our ACA sell out. Medicare still relies on private doctors and hospitals doing the work. And we all know what happens when government deals with private enterprise, right? Watch some documentaries about Medicare/Medicaid abuse and fraud. That is why I would suggest that  we get some real, honest-to-god government ran healthcare as in we, the U.S. government, offers us an insurance policy for catastrophic care through the VA hospital system. Costs should run between $200 per year up to $4000 per year based on your income. We will then upgrade the VA system to bring wait times down to "walk-ins only"!

The tale of two parties!

Once upon a time, when I was in high school the two parties in this country actually worked together solving problems. Later, we actually had amnesty for undocumented in 1986! 

Then special interests hatched a wonderful idea: Instead of gambling on one party...why don't we place bets on both parties. That is about the time we started getting pretend fights over issues (immigration ever year) and when they also began sweeping issues off of the table and they would concentrate on smaller issues and even screw those up. Remeber the "do not call list" so we don't have to answer robocalls? Instead of passing a law that says you may not call someone pitching anything unless the person has asked to be called, they set up a website where we had to sign up in order to not be called. Of course it only handled the dying landlines and also exempted many special interests groups too. Here is what the two parties agreed to during the years of the 70's, 80's 90's and 2000's. 

1. Allowed cheap Japanese imports to kill our businesses in the 70's and 80's without a provision for balanced trade that I believe in!
2. Allowed American companies, in order to compete with the Japanese, in the 80's, to manufacture overseas with cheap labor and bring the goods back with no import duties!
3. They both agreed that they can bankrupt this country by never balancing a budget...although Clinton almost had it done!
4. Next, because they could not ship all of our jobs overseas, they opened the border to allow cheap labor (unvetted immigrants) to spread across country. They also increased legal immigration so that we went from a country of 10% foreign born population to about 15% foreign born today! That all started around 1990. Just check the details online to confirm.
5. They have continued to allow the longest war in American history to rage on for 16 years! Let's get out!
6. They managed to pass a huge sell-out to the health insurance lobby and the pharmaceutical lobby and with the help of the Republicans, was able to brand it as socialized medicine! What a joke! So far it has made us spend more money on healthcare, convince us we are all sick (by allowing pharmaceuticals to advertise on TV), made us less healthy, less happy (it takes good health to be happy) and prepared to die younger than the generation before! Sad people....so sad!

 Now we sit at a fork in the road. We are at the beginning stages of a revolution! The beauty of this revolution is that there will be no violence. This will be America's first revolution after almost a quarter of a millenia. The beauty is also that our president, Trump, has already done all of the heavy lifting! This is a revolution where the government is on our side! That's a damn good start!

This party (DEMOCRAT) should be the party of choice for the majority of the electorate. It has strayed from its' principles. I am wondering why this party leadership won't take a deal like "wall for amnesty". Did they sell out to the cheap labor lobby? I wonder why they won't balance a budget. Clinton did it! They are like the other party, afraid to cut spending or raise taxes. This party needs a major shake up and overhaul. An overhaul that will build a better, more responsive, more loving and caring party that can be respected for the remainder of this century much like an FDR period.. 

This is certainly the low point in American history in my adult lifetime.We have allowed politicians and special interests to form us into sad, pathetic, hypochondriac, neurotic, paranoid, unhealthy and unhappy citizens! Both parties and their associates are tearing us apart with hatred. Let us bring back a bit of the 70's hippie spirit! Young'uns better google that one! 

For those Dems who did not follow Trump during the primaries let me say this: For 25 or so years both parties had agreed to leave borders open, continue shipping our jobs overseas, letting the war rage on and never even attempt at producing a balanced budget. Both parties sold out to special business interests. Trump shook up their party by killing 16 competitors! They hated him when he started. Now they are accepting his ideas. I am saying we can deal with him! Forget his personality. Let's get what we want. He is just a brash NYC guy who has certainly sat down and negotiated with the Italian Mafia. That is how he deals. He is tough. But I believe even he would love a win-win situation! And we together can set up that win-win!

We are so in need of healing in this country. We are at the bottom now. Are you ready to speak up and begin the healing process?

I am asking the people of the 39th district to cast your vote for me in order to protest our current system in American politics! Here are some of my crazy promises for this district: