Issues

• Delivering on the Promise
• Ensuring Fiscal Responsibility
• Achieving Energy Independence
• Refocusing on Small Business
  
• Supporting the Middle Class
• Using Technology in the Classroom
• Enhancing the Doctor/Patient Relationship
• Addressing the Iraq War
• Confronting Global Warming
• Fighting the War on Terror
• Defining the Role of Government

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Supporting the Middle Class

Our financial system should earn its income through the value of the services it provides its customers.  Unfortunately, we have a system that uses excessive and non-value fees on middle income families to subsidize the services it offers their more valued customers.  I have seen checking accounts where the annual fees were more than the value of the account, credit cards that charge for customers to make a payment, late fees accessed as a result of slow processing by the banks, disguised real interest rates and bait-and-switch schemes. 

On top of these practices, we are now seeing the mortgage market collapsing under the pressure of misguided mortgage practices and the excessive issuance of capital for the sake of generating fee income. 

I am a strong believer in open markets and that people need to take responsibility for managing their livelihood.  However, these practices are so common, have no relation to the services provided, and are effectively a legal form of usury that we need to redefine the practices of consumer lending.