Dan on the Issues

This country is facing what most economists consider to be the most serious and the most dangerous economic situation in our lifetimes. Government must create policies that allow small and large businesses to put Californians to work and keep our economic engine moving.

We must balance the budget in Washington—government consistently spends more than it has and the American people have made it clear they have no appetite for new taxes.

The first and most important role of government in providing an education is to guarantee a safe environment for our students. We must also ensure that our schools are held accountable and to the highest standard and that we are giving local districts local control.

Government health care rationing would be a catastrophe for the quality of health care in the United States. I believe we can look to proposals that would create healthcare associations allowing people to pool together to explore healthcare options within their state or even across state lines, rather than imposing a government-run option that reads like a one-size-fits-all approach.

We need to create 500-year flood protection in the Sacramento area. Astoundingly, our region currently has roughly 85-year flood protection, and though I continue to support improvements to our levees and Folsom Dam, these improvements will only get us to near 250-year flood protection.  We must ensure our region is protected from a massive flood and continue to look at all options for flood protection.

Congress must ensure that we create policies that are tough on crime and keep Americans safe. This means we develop no-nonsense policies to ensure that dangerous criminals are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.