I was born at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, in 1948. My Father, a World War II fighter pilot, stayed in the Army-Air Force after the war and helped create the Ballistic Missile Division in the U.S. Air Force. His assignments took our family to Ohio, New York, Maryland, California, Virginia, England, and Germany. I got to spend a summer with my Uncle Jack on Staten Island in New York City when I was six. He had enlisted in the army after Pearl Harbor was badly wounded in 1944, losing an arm somewhere in Italy. I never attended the same school two years in a row until I attended college in California in the sixties. But this was the norm for many military families back then, everywhere was our home state.
I moved to New Mexico in 1970, bought a small farm in Rio Arriba County and soon came to realize why this state was called the Land of Enchantment. I was able to grow carrots and potatoes and was welcomed into this community from another time, where family, friendship, and honor ruled. Unfortunately, Northern New Mexico was not spared from the ravages of the economic turmoil during the 1970’s due to Democrats’ inflation and environmental mismanagement. There was no escaping the scourge of inflation caused by U.S. Government spending (the Great Society and Vietnam War) and Environmental Policies gone berserk in those wonderful northern mountains.
In 1978 Northern New Mexico towns and villages suffered tremendous economic and lifestyle loss with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Mexican Spotted Owl that shut down nearly all the logging in the western U.S. Forests. The residents lost jobs and access to the Forests that they had lived in for centuries. This misguided policy decision was devastating to many Northern New Mexico towns such as Chama, Cuba, Espanola, etc. The U.S. Forest Service had used much of the enormous Logging proceeds to pay contractors (who paid me) to thin forests, plant trees, etc. To survive, many left for work elsewhere. For seven years I worked winters in the Four Corners at the Power Plants and Oil fields and fought Forest Fires with the Chama Valley S.W. Forest Fire Fighting (SWFFF) crews during the summers until a spinal injury sent me and my wife to Albuquerque for my rehabilitation.
It took a while, but I eventually earned a double degree at U.N.M. in Political Science and Economics. Charlene and I got married in 1987 and began raising our three wonderful children. For six years I worked at University Hospital as an U.N.M. Hospital Emergency Room Security Officer and a Patient Observation Attendant. Having physically recovered I chose to continue my education and attended night school at Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute and got “an education you can use”. I left TVI as a licensed Refrigeration and HVAC tech. Albuquerque was foolish to close TVI, one of the nation’s best Trade Schools. In 1999 I was hired by Albuquerque Public Schools, where I worked for five years and then joined a construction union in 2004.
My final assignment before retirement was at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 2010, I was selected to participate in a “pilot project” in Maintenance and Construction Management for MSS/Logistics at the Lab. I was given a “Q” Security Clearence and a $3 million Visa card to work outside of the normal procurement channels to coordinate, facilitate, and complete Construction/Maintenance Facility projects. This approach was such a success that my “trial period” lasted for eight years.
Now I want to take my knowledge, common sense, and work experience to fix a Broken Congress that has left our sons, our daughters, and grandchildren a $38 TRILLION DEBT and that has turned our once valuable Dollar into almost worthless paper.
Policies and Goals to Restore American Dream
Balance the Federal Budget by restructuring Tax and Funding sources
Create External Revenue Service to begin reducing U.S. Debt
Reform Social Security Payments and Funding to avoid default of benefits
Reduce Federal Reserve “missions” with emphasis on Sound Dollar and No Inflation
Reduce overseas U.S. Military “World Policeman” role to Critical American Interests only
Limit most Agriculture Subsidies to Price Support Mechanism (Foreign Aid Food surpluses)
Return Welfare, Education, Social, ETC., Programs to the 50 States (Local Responsibility and Local Funding)
Limit Federal Programs to National roles (FBI, FAA, FDA, Interstate Highways, Ports, etc.)
Twenty-year limit of Immigration (critical need, merit based need only), Visa Program Accountability
Reinstate National Health Corps (Medical Doctors only)
Reinstate Multiple Use policies for Federal Lands and Forests
(More on my website electchrisvh.com beginning Jan 14th)
The PLAN
The Social Security Trust Fund surplus is scheduled to disappear in six years and millions of seniors who rely on their meager monthly assistance will be devastated by at least a 26% cut in their retirement benefits. This comes on top of recent Social Security failures to keep up with true cost of living increases caused by the past Democratic Administration and Federal Reserve policies. Anybody who buys food or paint or auto insurance or pays rent knows that the real “currency inflation” has been much, much higher than the 2.8% increase benefits recently announced. For years government and other economists have not included the types of items mentioned above in the “basket” of goods on which they base their inflation numbers. The true cost of inflation caused by Biden and the previous Democratic administration’s four years of policies and legislation probably approaches 80% and can’t be blamed on oil or gas prices.
President Trump may be right when he says Biden’s Democratic administration caused the worst inflation in our history. The Federal Reserve aided and abetted the Democrats’ fiscal disaster Trump inherited. Biden’s handlers and the Fed monetary practices are to blame for the recent surge of inflation. The disaster caused by the Democrats inflation in the 1970’s was compounded by a 300% rise in gas/oil prices and President Carters’ decision to borrow so much money at 13% interest rates and force other lenders to charge even higher rates. These actions forever changed the housing industry by destroying the Savings and Loans Institutions that for decades had allowed a vast middle class of Americans to enjoy owning their own homes. Everybody alive in those days has their own loan story to tell. I recall paying 22% interest on a used car loan in Farmington, New Mexico.
The FIX
Everybody and every business pay the Social Security on all of their earned income, only sole proprietor business’s pay ½.
Only U.S. citizens receive these benefits. Dead people, the forty million illegal immigrants, the 54 million visa holders, and other noncitizens should not receive the benefits that Americans spend their whole lives paying for until they too become citizens.
Cost of living increases should be measured in real terms that reflect actual prices and expenses paid by Senior citizens.
The PLAN
The Federal Reserve Governors have been tasked by Congress to regulate the Banking system, operate an emergency “loan window” for banks lacking necessary reserves, maintain a sound currency, and maintain” full” employment in the nation. These are conflicting tasks and have led the FED to print $9 Trillion for infusion into economy to goose economic activity (Quantitative Easing). The shift from easing to tightening to easing is a tremendous gift to financial institutions as they are able to sell questionable assets at a profit to the FED but then get bargain prices if a buyback occurs. In the meantime, this flood of money circulated to maintain full employment leads to inflation when combined with enormous Fiscal debt due to Federal government spending and borrowing $Trillions every YEAR.
The FIX
The mandate of a “full employment” should be removed from the Fed’s task list eliminating the need for “Quantitative Easing” and other financial tricks by OUR Central bank. The Fed’s Balance sheet needs to be reduced and audited by a non-governmental entity for accurate assessments of actual value (mark to market). Read “Too Big to Fail” and get a glimpse into 2008 Financial Disaster in the Housing Market. The main function of the FED should only be preserving the value of the American dollar.
With near zero inflation your pay raise for improved productivity or job performance increases your purchasing power and raises your Standard of Living. With the Democratic high inflation, you work harder for less purchasing power and get poorer as the years go by.
The PLAN
The Federal government cannot continue to borrow money to pay the interest on money it has already borrowed. History tells us that no nation can survive with such a policy, it is a path to chaos and destruction. The current path can only lead to our government eventually taking all your income as taxes in exchange for food stamps and poverty, everybody equally poor! The Federal budget must be BALANCED! We must have an Internal Revenue Service (TAXES) for Federal spending and an External Revenue Service (TARIFFS) for Interest and Debt payments.
The FIX
I believe President Trump is on the right path by leveling the playing field when it comes to Trade with foreign nations and then collecting a small Tariff to do business in America. These monies (consumption taxes) collected from Tariffs will be placed into an External Revenue Service to reduce the $38 TRILLION DEBT. As our DEBT is reduced, the annual interest (currently $1.1 TRILLION) the Federal Government pays to service this DEBT will be reduced. Income taxes can then be reduced by the same amount, allowing you to spend more of your money on your family, your charity, your lifestyle. The Federal Budget must be balanced for this Debt reduction plan to work. Why hasn’t Congress been able to design a balanced Federal Budget since Speaker of the House Newt Gringrich did it in the 1990s?
The history of Democracies/Republics has shown when people are able to vote to enrich themselves, they ultimately FAIL. They fail when they can no longer borrow other people’s money! Our modern Congress is failing us; they cannot create a balanced budget or create a surplus to reduce the National debt. For decades Congress has passed Fiscal gimmicks such as Continuing Resolutions, so everybody gets everything with built-in spending level increases for everything. They have gotten away with this method of governance and are ROBBING our children and grandchildren of the American dream and a secure future.
Much of our Federal Spending must be sent back to the individual States. Local governments cannot borrow money like Congress, so if they want a particular program or service, the states will have to design it according to their needs and what they are willing and able to pay for. They will determine the value of goods and services to be provided and how to tax their citizens to pay for such items without borrowing. The Federal government will only pay for things the entire Nation uses or benefits from. Programs like Social Security, Medicare, the Military, Interstate Highways, Food and Drug Administration, FBI, National Media, Pipelines, Air Traffic, ETC., will all remain under the Federal purview. Spending and Taxes for state roads, hospitals, schools, universities, welfare programs, Medicaid, housing, ETC., will be returned to the responsibility of the individual States.
DOGE has shown the Federal Government to be incapable of managing its spending, financing, and taxes as it is currently structured. Congress has shown itself to be incapable of making the tough decisions with its current responsibilities. I will try to lead our Congress down a more sane path and not over the fiscal cliff it is quickly approaching.
More to come……