Shamaine Daniels

Defense / Veterans

Making sure that our veterans receive the ongoing support they have earned means addressing the issues in the VA system to guarantee quality, timely healthcare to our veterans. The VA makes decisions based on money and not on patient care. I believe that those who serve to keep America safe deserve the very best healthcare available. If we send men and women out to protect us, we cannot cut corners when they come back. Learn more

Economy

We must expand credit to help small businesses start and grow, and provide tax incentives and credits to those businesses who really are “job creators.” We must prioritize policies which encourage manufacturing, construction, and production of American goods by American workers for domestic and global markets. Learn more

We must retool our education system to prepare people of all ages for their first job, or their next job, without burying them in crippling debt that leaves them unable to engage in the American dream or the American economy. We must direct our economic policies toward investment in education and research, innovation as a primary driver of job growth and infrastructure repair and improvements as fundamental to our economic growth both now and in the future. Learn more

Without our support, farming in Central Pennsylvania will become a memory, rather than a cornerstone of our community and tradition. I will stand-up and fight for our agricultural community and do all I can to preserve and strengthen a way of life that reflects our nation’s values and puts food on our tables every day. Learn more

Education

I also understand that we need options for those who do not wish to go to college, but wish to expand their skills and education beyond high school. Vocational and technical schools, and programs like the apprenticeship programs run by organized labor, provide a viable and attractive alternative for those who wish to continue their education and training beyond high school to pursue a career capable of sustaining a family, but who do not wish to pursue a traditional college degree. We must work to strengthen these programs and inform our students about the array of options available to them if we want to build a strong, vibrant, and diverse workforce capable of responding to the demands of a rapidly changing economy. Learn more

I believe in public schools and public-school teachers. We must restore a culture of respect for people who teach in public schools, and pay them according to the value we place on the future. Failing to adequately fund education, to trust our educators, and to compensate them for their work and their skills fundamentally drains the ranks of educators of the talented, thoughtful, proactive people who make education work. Public school teachers have held the ladder into the middle class for millions, and we are counting on them to do so for millions to come. Learn more

Environment / Energy

I will support strong environmental protection measures that make sense, and I will be an outspoken advocate for investing in the type of clean and renewable energy that will benefit the agricultural community, grow the economy, create jobs and make our nation more secure by reducing our reliance on foreign oil. The economic opportunities presented by addressing the climate change crisis are real. Solar energy now employs more people than coal, oil, and gas combined. The increasing numbers of environmental tragedies that require federal intervention, like the water crisis in Flint, are opportunities for direct investment in communities, job training, and the creation of new industries. Learn more

Healthcare

Of course, like any sweeping new program, the ACA is not perfect, and implementation came with a host of unintended consequences. While the ACA was a great first step in expanding access to healthcare for everyone, millions of Americans remain uninsured. I will work to meet these challenges by addressing the unintended consequences of the ACA, while working to expand access to quality, affordable healthcare so that we can all get the healthcare we need. Learn more

Women’s health is also about valuing the lives of women. We need to ensure that women have the time to heal after delivering their children, and that those who care for them are sufficiently trained and resourced to reduce the highest maternal mortality rates in the developed world. Learn more

Through the ACA, millions of Americans were able to gain health coverage, including those previously barred from such coverage due to pre-existing conditions. From an economic standpoint the ACA was also effective at slowing the skyrocketing cost of healthcare in the United States, which represented a looming economic crisis. Repeated Republican attempts to roll back the advances made by the ACA by repealing with no real plan to replace it are unacceptable. I will stand up to protect the ACA to insure continued access to quality healthcare. Learn more

Infrastructure / Transportation

There are a wide array of investments we can make in expanding and upgrading our infrastructure, and our specific areas of focus should be: Roads and bridges High-speed internet – critical for rural towns and farmers Dams Electric Grid Airports High-speed intercity rail Making these strategic investments will provide immediate jobs and will support businesses in their transport of goods, workers, and information, and help citizens to more freely move about and lower home energy bills. This can also free workers to live where they want to live instead of having to move where the jobs are. Learn more

Social Services

I will stand up to protect Social Security and Medicare by supporting simple, common-sense reforms that will modernize these vital programs and make them secure for generations to come. Increasing lifespans, shrinking family sizes and falling wages are pushing the current Social Security system towards a revenue shortage. One proposed response to this is to promote dangerous plans to require Americans to gamble their savings in a largely unregulated and unstable stock market and to turn Medicare into a coupon scheme. In Congress, I will fight any attempts to privatize Social Security and Medicare. Learn more

Taxes / Budget

Agriculture is an uncertain business that is subject to huge market swings. As a result, meaningful tax reform that ensures that those at the top pay their fair share, while small businesses, like family farms, and middle class families do not continue to shoulder a disproportionate amount of the tax burden, is extremely important to supporting the agricultural community. I will support this type of tax reform so that farming families do not have to sacrifice their financial security so that Wall Street billionaires can continue to live off of the hard work of middle-class families. Learn more

Wages / Job Benefits

No one should work forty hours a week and live below the poverty line. Work should pay enough to care for a family. We need a 15-an-hour minimum wage, indexed to inflation so that no one falls behind again. Learn more