자유게시판 - 내가 김성섭(Justin) 연방하원의원 후보를 지지하는 이유 (수정)

여기서, 그리고 옆 동네에서 몇 번 한 이야기이지만,
나는 미국 민주당보다 훨씬 왼쪽에 있는 사람이다.
그럼에도 가끔 민주당 후보를 지지할 때가 있다.
이데올로기가 달라도,
그 후보의 정견에 일단 수긍할만한 점이 여럿 있고
이 썩어빠진 제도 속에서도 양심적으로 온 정성을 쏟는 모습이 보일 때
나는 그를 지지하고 그에게 내 표를 던진다.

김 후보의 이민 정책에 대한 사고와 의지, 월가의 원흉들에 대한 법적 조처를 요구하는 자세, 지역 사회의 장기적, 단기적 경제 정책,

동성애자 결혼 문제, 환경 정책, 의료 정책 등에 관한 진보적 정견을 보면

내가 표를 찍을 수 있는 후보이다.

물론 나는 그의 선거 구역에 살지 않기에 불가능하다.

그의 부모를 오랫동안 잘 알고 있다던가, 내가 영어권 목회할 때 그가 그 교회에 나오는 어린아이였다던가 하는 개인적인 친분은

내가 이렇게 공개적으로 그를 지지할 명분이 되지 못한다.

다만, 그의 정견이 내가 그를 지지할 수 있는 충분한 조건이 되기에
여기서 공개적으로 그를 지지한다.

선거자금법 개혁 하나 이루어내지 못하는 이 시궁창 같은 정치판에서 그가 자금난으로 고생하고 있다 하니

뜻있는 분은 꼭 도와주셨으면 좋겠다.

아래는 퍼온 글이다.

[김 후보] 후원의 밤에 초대합니다. 회비를 모아 Justin Kim for Congress Fund에 기부하게 되며, 원하시는 기부자들의 넉넉한 기부도 부탁드립니다. 이번 Open Primary에서 당선되면, 민주당 중앙당의 endorse를 받음과 함께, 민주당으로 부터 11월 선거를 향한 전폭적인 후원을 받을 예저이므로, 본선거 당선가능성이 매우 높을 것입니다. 우선은 6월 Open Primary에 당선되기 위해 애쓰는 Justin Kim과 부모, 지역의 후원자들과 자원봉사자들에게 선거자금 후원으로 힘을 낼 수 있게 그래서 당선될 수 있게 해 보십시다.

Justin Kim for Congress Fund Raising Dinner

날짜: 4/29/2012 (일요일) 오후 6시

장소: 작가의 집

주소: 2410 James M. Wood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90006

작가의 집 전화: 213-380-3000 (김병연)

참석문의 전화: 213-321-2001 (양민)

후원금을 직접 보내려면

Checks payable to “Justin Kim for Congress”

P.O.Box 670

Loma Linda, CA 92354

(기부문의) 909-936-6388 (김진식)

또한, 현재 이 지역구의 한인유권자들은 꼭 예비선거 본선거에 참여하셔서 Justin Kim을 뽑으시길 바라며, 주변에 알려주셔서 Justin Kim의 당선을 이루어주시길 바랍니다.

About Justin

Justin Kim is a second-generation American and a native of the Inland Empire. As a Congressional staffer, he saw first-hand the numerous missed opportunities to help the unemployed and underemployed, strengthen the economic recovery, and address the housing and foreclosure crisis. He wants to represent California's 31st District in the United States Congress to refocus its priorities away from ideological deadlock to real economic reform.

Justin worked to ensure an accountable and ethical government that promotes and protects the public trust. He served as committee counsel to Senator Claire McCaskill on the impeachment trial of a federal judge accused of corruption. He then served as counsel to Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, who is investigating the housing and foreclosure crisis and leading efforts to address systemic abuses in the mortgage servicing industry.

Justin was born and raised in Loma Linda and Redlands. He attended Pacific Union College and later graduated from Yale Law School. He is an active member of the California State Bar. After law school, he returned to the Inland Empire to work as a law clerk for the Honorable Virginia A. Phillips, U.S. District Judge, in Riverside. He then went to work for the Department of Justice where he represented the United States in civil tax cases in California and other western states.

Justin brings together an understanding of the local communities with extensive experience in public service working on the pressing issues affecting our country.

Justin and Mary, his wife, live in Loma Linda.

Priorities

Justin Kim is a Democratic candidate for the 31st Congressional District focused on pursuing progressive solutions to the problems facing our district and our nation.

Jobs and Economy
This district needs both long-term and short-term solutions that address the building blocks of our local economy from the bottom up. Our focus should be on sustained growth through the creation of temporary jobs that translate into permanent employment in a progressive job market. To meet these ends, we need to continue our investments in publicly supported projects that create the infrastructure and environment for lasting private investments while protecting the employment rights of the workers who make these changes possible.
High unemployment hurts the entire community and reduces everyone's standard of living. When one family's income plunges due to joblessness, so does their spending in the local economy. We need aggressive measures to create jobs quickly and prevent more job losses. Drastic cuts in critical investments will irresponsibly hurt the creation of more jobs. When unemployment remains high, government revenues will fall, budget deficits will rise, and the downward spiral of our economy will continue.

To break this cycle, Congress needs to pass a robust jobs bill that aids working Americans by creating temporary jobs in projects that strengthen the local community and attract new business—thereby fostering new long-term employment opportunities. Projects that could provide temporary relief, invest for the future, and revive the economy include:

• Investment in public infrastructure—projects to improve local roads, bridges, and transportation systems that create jobs in construction and manufacturing;

• Investment toward increasing energy independence from foreign oil and simultaneously creating new jobs in the Inland Empire by putting researchers, manufacturers, and engineers to work developing clean energy technology to power the future;

• Investment to prevent state and local cuts that threaten accessible, quality childhood education—saving and creating jobs in primary and secondary education.

These are important investments because the long history of our government's role in facilitating technological innovation—from railroads and interstate highways to medical research and development—demonstrates why public investment must be a foundation for our economic growth.

Protecting American jobs and industry will also require strong multilateral trade agreements that are fair to American workers and American industry. American manufacturing has already suffered from unfair trade regimes that allow other countries to manipulate their currency to disadvantage American exports to foreign markets. This requires the negotiation of strong trade agreements that uphold labor standards and aggressive enforcement actions to ensure that American-made products are not unlawfully excluded from global markets.

Tax Reform
I support reform towards a simpler and more progressive federal income tax code. Our current system is overly complicated and results in wildly varying tax bills for similar households. Among other things, the unnecessary complexity of the tax code allows some of the wealthiest Americans to exploit loopholes that undermine the fair distribution of taxes. This is unfair and needs to be stopped.
At the Department of Justice, I confronted and fought against some of the most abusive tax shelters that defrauded the U.S. government. In Congress, I intend to continue to this work by closing loopholes for the rich and returning to a tax policy that requires each citizen to pay their fair share. This starts with the expiration of 2001 and 2003 Bush-era tax cuts for taxpayers in the top income brackets and continues with progressive distribution of the national tax burden.

Protecting the Social Safety Net
We are all vulnerable to events beyond our control that threaten our health and well-being. For most Americans, our families are one personal or medical crisis away from financial ruin. Social Security and Medicare are broad social insurance programs that provide the minimum level of safety for all Americans in order to ensure economic security and dignity for many generations. I want to strengthen these public insurance programs by giving more Americans the opportunity to choose between private insurance and a public option while making some common sense fixes to the system.

Social Security is a critical layer of the social safety net. We should ensure that it continues to provide retirement security to all Americans. Despite the political rhetoric, strengthening Social Security for future generations is a relatively simple fix. The Congressional Budget Office has already published a straightforward analysis of the projected long-term shortfall and options that would eliminate it. For example, raising the cap on payroll taxes to $250,000 while maintaining current benefit levels would, by itself, make up for most of the projected shortfall for the next 75 years.

The projected shortfalls facing Medicare are much more challenging because they are linked to the high—and alarmingly growing—cost of health care in the United States, both now and more steeply so in coming decades. We need reforms that control rising health care expenditures without merely shifting those costs to individuals. That is what the Affordable Care Act, which I support, initiates—a comprehensive reform package that begins needed fixes to both the private insurance sector and public programs.

Housing
San Bernardino County suffers from some of the worst effects of the subprime mortgage crisis. We need to educate the public about the causes of the crisis and, at the same time, provide meaningful solutions to those who continue to suffer from the burden of inflated mortgages and falling home values. By addressing these issues, we can also cut inefficiency from the local economy and free up investment into a sustainable housing sector.
Priority number one should be the credible investigation and prosecution of the entities and individuals who committed the fraud and abuse that created the near-meltdown of our financial and banking system. Years after the initial crash, the lack accountability is unacceptable.
Congress and the Administration must relieve struggling homeowners deeply underwater on their mortgages. Still-falling home values confirm that many mortgages are not worth their face value. We must own up to this fact and accept that our economic recovery has been hampered by the disparity between many existing residential mortgages and actual property values. For some homeowners, this dark reality has meant short sales and even foreclosures. But we may be able to save others who are struggling.
Meaningful principal reduction and access to refinancing are options that can: (1) preserve value for creditors and investors that would otherwise be lost through foreclosure sales; (2) stabilize and strengthen middle-class households; (3) and accelerate the recovery of a housing market that has stalled and frustrated both potential buyers and sellers.
Admittedly, these are aggressive prescriptions. But this is a once-in-a-generation crisis that deserves bold action rather than acquiescence to a potential lost decade for the Inland Empire housing market.

Immigration Reform
As a second-generation American who has benefited from what this country offers—and who now wants to give back—I strongly support immigration reform that preserves opportunities to share in the American dream while strengthening our communities. I believe we can meaningfully move toward documenting every person within our borders by providing a conditional pathway to legal status, permanent residence, and citizenship.

Social Equality
Because of my respect for all individuals, I support marriage equality that ends government-sponsored discrimination based on sexual orientation. Like age, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, or marital status, sexual orientation is a fundamental part of one's identity and should not be used to create second class citizenship. To further these values, I also support equal access and diversity in education and employment through the careful application of affirmative action.

Energy and the Environment
Clean air and water are public goods that we all share. As a child growing up in the Inland Empire, I remember the smoggy days when a red flag in the schoolyard signaled that the air quality was too dangerous for students to have recess outside. While the air quality has improved to some degree, San Bernardino County continues to suffer from some of the worst air quality in the United States. This needs to change.

I support strong, sensible policies that protect our environment and meaningfully address climate change caused by human activity. We must invest in and aggressively develop alternative energy sources that are clean, sustainable, and reduce our dependence on carbon-based fuels.

내가 김성섭(Justin) 연방하원의원 후보를 지지하는 이유 (수정)

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