My Stance
There are many issues on which I could comment, but I have chosen four that I feel are the most important to the constituents of Ohio’s 7th District and to that of all Americans.
What Matters To You?
I would be happy to answer your questions about my positions on other important issues. Please feel free to email me at info@PeopleforWyderski.com and I will answer you promptly.
Prosperity In The Community
We must work together to bring prosperity to our community. The 7th District needs to have its leaders work with the Ohio State University Department of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to take advantage of our wonderful farmland and increase production of biomass to meet our country’s needs for biofuel. However, biofuel is only part of the answer to our country’s future energy needs. We must also work with Wright Patterson Air Force Base to attract more private research and technology firms to invent new sources of energy to allow us to become less dependent upon oil and coal for our energy needs. Wright Patterson’s tremendously important role in our community must be expanded for the good of the 7th District and the good of our country. We need to become the Silicon Valley of the energy industry.
A Resolution of Peace
We must put a stop to war, not only in Iraq, but also work hard to build relationships with people who we may now consider our enemies so that we can defeat terrorism. The great Abraham Lincoln said that the best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend. This might seem impossible in today’s world, but I say it is the only way that we can achieve true peace, and not just the temporary lack of violence and false peace we see after we finish waging war. What has seemed impossible in the past has come to pass for many things. We are now able to talk to each other around the world at the touch of a button and can fly to anywhere in the world within a day. If we are able to attain these magnificent accomplishments, then we can and we will achieve peace and lasting security for our families.
Healthcare
We must care for our sick. Our current system of health care works well for those with wealth and those with health. More and more people, including those with insurance, find themselves bankrupt after a serious illness because of high deductibles or denials of coverage or both. It is not right that working people should lose their homes and their savings because of an illness or injury beyond their control, or that people should forego the treatments needed to prevent them from becoming ill because of financial barriers. One should not have to have to fight with Worker’s Compensation to receive coverage for treatment so that one can return to work. We need a health care system that works to heal the sick and to prevent illness, and doesn’t work to further the profits of insurance companies and the bonuses of their executives by withholding such care. True health care reform can happen if we have the right people in the right positions of leadership at the right time. That time is now.
I support a single payer health care system as the US's basic insurance. I support the passage of HR 676, the United States Health Insurance Act, which would bring Medicare to all people in the United States, but with modifications. Instead of continuing Medicare as a governmental agency, I would modify CMS to be a nongovernmental not-for-profit organization ("AmeriCare") directed by a consortium of physician, nurse and consumer groups, e.g. the AMA, the ANA and Consumer's Union. In this way, we would have an efficient, affordable, high-performing health care system that would be portable, universal, and easy to use for everyone. The health care system would be back in the hands of caregivers and patients where it belongs. Services not covered by AmeriCare would be paid for out of Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s), either directly or through purchasing "Amerigap" insurance much the same way that seniors now can purchase Medigap insurance. Insurance companies could also manage the HSA's and medical entrepreneurship would be preserved since innovative therapies would likely not be covered by AmeriCare until those innovations had proven themselves both scientifically and in the marketplace.
Organized Labor
I am a strong supporter of organized labor and collective bargaining, not only in this country, but throughout the world. My father was a Polish immigrant and was a union worker at The Kroger Company for over 20 years. My first job was also at Kroger's, and my brother-in-law is a union pipefitter, belonging to the Local 162. If it were not for unions making sure my father received a good wage and good benefits and a public school system that gave me an excellent education, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to become a physician or to be where I am today. Unions help ensure that America is a land of opportunity where justice and fairness apply to everyone.
The only way we will maintain a strong middle class in this country and the only way people will achieve economic justice in other countries is through organizing and collectively bargaining. It's unfortunate that statistics in this country show that our middle class is shrinking and the number of people that live in poverty is growing. It's a trend we must stop and a direction we must reverse.
I am a supporter of Fair Trade rather than Free Trade, much as is defined by Progressive Democrats of America. Unfortunately NAFTA did not lead to the promise of building up the Mexican economy, but instead led to the loss of good jobs in the US while outsourcing those jobs to workers who do not receive the same wages and benefits to boost their local economies. We must have Fair Trade policies that not only ensure good jobs in this country, but also allow workers in other countries to be treated fairly and justly. American unions must help bring the success of America to fellow workers in other countries.
I have signed a pledge to an organization in Washington DC called Change to Win. I will support policies and laws that will allow workers to organize and protects workers from adverse repercussions when they do so. I believe that in a democracy, a majority should determine whether a workplace will be unionized or not, rather than a minority being allowed to prevent collective bargaining.
