It's Your Time

Here is the text of the presentation I gave on WFAA's segment "It's Your Time":

The most frequent question I am asked is: Why are you running for Congress? There are many issues and positions I can speak about, but the simplest answer is my primary motivation. I am not represented by my government. In the last six years, I have watched the national debt climb to almost 10 trillion dollars, our country started a war of choice, investigation committees shut down to keep testimony out of the record, witnessed the dismantling of Habeas Corpus, a legal precedent that reaches back to the Magna Carta, seen legislation written by lobbyists and special interests that was adopted and rubberstamped through a Congress which has only been in session less than 100 days this year, a culture of corruption with a major scandal every month and no oversight on ... anything ... All of this done in the name of the American people. This is the reality of one party rule. I want my country back as I don't believe in the notion that 51 percent is a mandate.

Congress needs the voices of working Americans and not professional politicians. We don’t have a bad government. It’s just being run badly. I am a believer in the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances. There are issues and concerns that regular working people need addressed. I work for a living, have concerns about retirement, health care, education and the rising cost of college, higher energy bills and lower wages. My mother is on Social Security which needs to be protected and not privatized. I would like to find out if there was war profiteering in Iraq and prosecute any company defrauding the taxpayers. And we need to end the cycle of government corruption through a strong campaign finance reform. Lobbyists should not have more representation than citizens. Congress needs to get their priorities back to working on education, health care, restoring Veteran's benefits, define a 21st century energy policy, jobs and issues that the American people want their government to deal with. We need a special focus on the environment because we only have one and it belongs to all of us. Clean Water will be the crisis of the near future.

Democracy is about having a choice to define our future. I would ask that you become informed and involved. My name is Gary Page and I would like to be your voice in Congress.