I have been writing this blog for almost two years because of my great concern about the direction our country is headed on fundamental fiscal and economic issues. Federal spending has been out of control for over thirty years and the situation is getting progressively worse.  Our national debt is over $17 trillion and growing at a rate of $500 billion per year.  And it will soon be growing much faster than this if we don’t make big changes.  Economic growth has been stuck at the anemic rate of 2.2% of GDP ever since the end of the Great Recession over five years ago.
Our national leaders are simply not doing the job they were elected for.  Democrats blame the Republicans and Republicans blame the Democrats but excuses are not good enough.  We need people in Washington who can figure out how to navigate within the system and actually find solutions to our very serious problems.
I believe that Jim Jenkins, a registered independent from Callaway, is the best qualified candidate to do what needs to be done.  Check out his website, Jenkins for Senate, and decide for yourself.  Here are a few of his views on important issues:

• Fixing the Debt. Jim supports the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles Commission which calls for dramatically cutting federal spending especially for entitlements and also raising taxes if necessary in order to drastically shrink our annual deficits.
• Tax Reform. Jim supports lower tax rates achieved by eliminating many of the tax expenditures (credits, deductions and exclusions) embedded in the code. This is what is needed to boost economic growth.
• Affordable Care Act. Jim believes that the ACA has many rough edges but that it is possible to fix them rather than repealing it and starting over.
• Immigration Reform. Jim supports comprehensive immigration reform which includes securing our borders but at the same time expanding the number of guest worker visas to meet the needs of business and agriculture.
• Veterans Administration. Jim supports setting up a plan to enable veterans to obtain medical care from health professionals within their own communities.

Compare these common sense views with the far more ideological positions of the other candidates in this race. I think that you will agree with me that Jim Jenkins is the person we want representing us in Washington!