Healthcare

What could be more basic, more important, and more fundamental to promoting the general welfare than making the best health care possible available to every American?

More than 40 million Americans have no health care insurance at all. Another 40 million are underinsured. An overwhelming number of these 80 million people are children. Poor health care in the early years dooms children to a life of health problems.

How much worse does the problem have to get before America fixes it?

Nibbling around the margins of the current chaos won't fix the problem. Fixing the problem requires a systemic change.

Be the Change USA supports a universal, single-payer health care insurance system -- the same as Members of Congress get.

It's important to note that this isn't socialized or nationalized health care. Health care providers won't be on the Federal payroll. They will operate as private entities, and the Federal government will provide the insurance and administration.

Foreign Policy, National Defense, and National Security

Some people view these as separate issues.  Be the Change USA believes that they are inextricably intertwined.

If one of America's goals is to foster democracy and liberty throughout the world, she must be the behavioral model of her own values.

America must act humbly, backed with the quiet confidence that she can defend herself when necessary.  Be the Change USA believes in a strong, flexible, and responsive military.  At the same time, America's might must never be exercised until she has exhausted every possible peaceful remedy to the world's crises.  Simply put, war represents failure.

People and countries too often take positions rather than articulating their interests.  Positions have to be defended.  Interests must be satisfied.  Often there is a "third way" position to satisfy the interests of all.

This requires a careful and thorough understanding of the interests of others.  America simply can't arrogantly impose her own model of the world on cultures and societies whose worlds are much different.

There is no doubt, however, that America is threatened.  We must ask, "Why do people want to harm us?"  Why do groups who disagree with us resort to violence?  The answer lies in the roots of lack of opportunity and freedom.  Educational and economic opportunity, coupled with political systems that value diversity and protect the civil rights of all will go much further to solve the terrorism problem than a militant "kill all terrorists" philosophy will.  So long as the root conditions that encourage terrorism exist, there will always be new terrorists to take the place of the fallen ones.

Nevertheless, America must do everything it can to protect herself.  In recent years, vast sums have been spent on "regime change," reducing our ability to protect ourselves at home.

Pre-school and after-school programs are matters of national security and crime prevention.

Similarly, reducing America's dependence on foreign oil is also a matter of national security.  Drilling more at home isn't the answer; it only briefly postpones the problem, and we've postponed it already for thirty years or more.  The solution must lie in using oil and other fossil fuels to do what only they can do.  Alternative fuels must increasingly generate America's electricity and propel our vehicles on land, sea, and in the air.

Foreign Policy, National Defense, and National Security

Effective foreign policy, national defense, and national security are inextricably intertwined. America cannot foster democracy without modeling freedom and its principles

Education

No Child Left Behind

The No Child Left Behind Act is bad legislation. Fully funding NCLB will only accomplish undesirable results faster. The philosophy behind NCLB is fundamentally flawed.

NCLB measures the wrong things. It assumes that every student can reach an artificial bar. If it were an actual bar, NCLB would require that all students be able to grasp it no matter how tall they are.

For example: A seventh grade student must be reading at the seventh grade level at the end of the term. It doesn't matter if the student entered the seventh grade reading at the fourth grade level. Assume that the student emerges from the seventh grade reading at the sixth grade level, through the joint efforts of the teacher, family, and the student him/herself. The student has made two years' progress in only one year. That's great news, right? Not according to NCLB. NCLB will punish the teacher, school, and district since the student didn't reach the artificial bar.

Teachers

Teachers are among the most important people in all of America. They are a major factor in a student's life-long success. Yet teachers are near the bottom of the pay scale. That simply isn't right. Teachers should be rewarded monetarily and non-monetarily (additional education, sabbatical leaves, etc.) when students succeed.

Vouchers

Vouchers and their variants under different names undermine public education. They rob public education in favor of private schools.

Vouchers discriminate against certain special needs students. Some students require a full-time companion or aide to help them navigate through the day or to keep them from disrupting their classmates and teachers. The cost of such assistance can exceed $20,000 per year. No private school will accept that student with a $5,000 voucher in hand.

More on Health Care

Preventive care and early child health care are education issues.

The Economy

Nobody likes paying taxes.  But there are always two sides to the equation: Needs and the revenues to satisfy those needs.  The talking points of the right only address the revenue side of the equation.  Be the Change USA believes that the equation should be balanced—that revenues must be adequate to provide for everyone's needs.

Be the Change USA believes that everyone should pay their fair share, which means that those who have more should naturally expect to pay more to help those who are in need.

Civil Rights

The philosophy of Be the Change USA is simple: guaranteed and unfettered civil rights for all.

Some provisions of The Patriot Act put boundaries on civil rights. Be the Change USA believes that America cannot be the behavioral model of democracy and freedom if her own citizens don't enjoy the full protection of civil rights. 

This includes separation of Church and State in legal partnerships between two people, irrespective of their genders. The term "Holy Matrimony" should be reserved for religious organizations. But the term "marriage" exists in civil matters. A marriage is just as legally binding if it is done in City Hall and officiated by a judge. Two people committed to a life-long partnership should be able to exercise the full suite of benefits of what traditionally is called a "marriage"—to authorize medical procedures; to visit the partner in hospitals and other civil institutions such as prisons; to inherit from the deceased partner; and to adopt children. This is not an exhaustive list.

Such a philosophy already exists. Using today's terminology, some "marriages" are not blessed or sanctioned by some religious organizations. But those couples not viewed as married by the church are still legally married in the civil arena. The genders of the partners should have no effect on the legal rights of the union.

Be the Change USA also strongly supports a woman's right to choose her own bodily future. We all understand that terminating a pregnancy is a very difficult decision for any woman to make. President Clinton said that terminating a pregnancy should be "safe, legal and rare." Abortion is much like war: it can be traumatic for those involved and should be avoided if at all possible. But the government has no right to make such a decision for any woman. After careful consideration and upon counsel with the future father and her or their spiritual adviser (if such people are available), it is the woman and the woman only who must make the decision.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Be the Change USA supports the efforts to bring the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere back down to 350 parts per million, currently at 385.92ppm. A level broadly agreed upon by scientist as the safest concentration for humanity and Earth’s ecosystems. Therefore, we fully endorse the efforts 350.org.