TC Indivisibles Meet Dwight Brady
Dwight Brady is running against Jack Bergman to be the Congressional Representative of Michigan's 1st District. He lives in Schoolcraft County in the Upper Peninsula and is a professor at Northern Michigan University in Marquette.
Dwight states that his mission is simply to "repeal and replace" Jack Bergman. He feels his best credential is that he was born and raised in the UP and knows firsthand the problems people of Michigan's 1st District face. Facing the millions of dollars that will be backing Bergman, he responds with "our passion will be a strong force against their money.” He will concentrate on the primary, and rely on reconnecting with people as volunteers. He believes that competing against Bergman as an incumbent won't be a problem. Jack made it into office running on his short stint as a military general; but won't be able to play that card in the next election. Jack's record will speak for itself - what Jack hasn't done for the people in the 1st District.
Dwight is very concerned about protecting the Great Lakes. He will fight to keep the funding for the Great Lakes Restoration; increase it if possible. He will fight to have Line 5 removed, and the oil transported another way. He is concerned about storing nuclear waste near the Great Lakes insisting that there be more research into better ways to dispose of it. He feels that dumping it in the already built Yuca Mountain establishment is not the best option, but is better than potential exposure to the Great Lakes.
He believes Health Care is a human right, and will work to expand Medicare. He believes that we should keep subsidies for senior citizens. He wants to fight for Single Payer Health Care. Medicare has proven to be the best insurance plan in our country. There are many ways universal health care can be funded. For example, the wealthy and corporations pay the amount of taxes they actually owe. Millions of dollars in subsidies are paid out to military and large corporations. Those can be reduced. Also as our reliance on oil decreases, the need to maintain a large military to ensure our access to oil will decrease, allowing more funding to be transferred to health care. Money from taxing high sugar drinks, etc., could support health programs.
On immigration - the number of hospitality and agriculture workers is decreasing significantly with the efforts to limit immigration to our country. He is concerned that local businesses won't be able to get enough workers to sustain our local economy. Our immigration system needs to be opened up to necessary workers. Farmers state they have tried to use local workers - "that lasted about 2 hours". Some people feel employers should be responsible for checking the immigration status of workers before they are hired. Dwight feels this puts too much of a burden on small business. He wants a path to citizenship for people who have been working and living here, and for the government to take part in a joint effort to allow workers to remain here while that happens.
On education - Dwight has no problem with school choice if it is done right. But he is very much against anything that will decrease the funding for public education. He believes that the government should insure that every high school graduate be provided with 2 years of higher education - be that a trade or a Bachelor's Degree. Dwight wants to provide tuition assistance to those who need education to switch professions or gain knowledge in their ever-changing occupations. He knows teachers are under paid and underappreciated - he hopes to stabilize the public-school system and attract more teachers through offering help with tuition.
On jobs - He doesn't think that bringing back old economy jobs is possible; he wants to create jobs by bringing our energy portfolio to 50% renewable. Other countries have accomplished this - we can learn from their efforts in solar and wind. Thousands of jobs will be created. He opposes most fracking; he would like to see more research on the effects and strict regulation in areas where it is allowed. He doesn't feel a minimum wage of $15 is doable in places like the UP. Small businesses might suffer too much. When higher education decreases the pod of low wage workers, business owners will be forced to gradually raise wages.
