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Bob's Policy Platform

Put the fire out in Washington

Washington’s a dumpster fire, and working people are the ones getting burned.

Billionaires and big corporations run the show while the rest of us are left to scrape by. I’ve lived a working-class life. There was a time when a blue-collar job could make you a decent living. It doesn’t anymore.

We’ve fought three wars since the minimum wage was last raised.

The richest 1% of Americans hold 40% of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 50% share just 4%.

Jeff Bezos paid no federal income taxes in 2007 or 2011.

The system isn’t broken. It’s working the way it was designed: by and for the super rich.

It’s time to change it.

  • Repeal Citizens United and take our elections back from the 1%.
  • Ban corporate PAC money from politics, period.
  • No stock trading in Congress. If you want to get rich, don’t run for office.
  • Term limits. No more lifetime politicians.
  • Fair taxes for the rich. No more free rides for billionaires and big corporations.

While Republicans are stripping us for parts, Democrats in Washington need to step up and deliver. That’s why I’m running. I know how hard it is out there right now. I’ve lived it, and I believe we can do better.

I’m here to present the following platform and humbly ask for your support.

The number one issue I hear from my neighbors and friends is how unaffordable life is. Frankly, it’s the reason I got into this race. Working people can’t keep up with groceries, electricity bills, rent, healthcare, childcare, you name it. Wages aren’t keeping pace, and too many are working harder than ever for too small a paycheck.

  1. Healthcare: Restore the cuts to Medicaid and provide Medicare for All. In the richest country in the world, we can give people healthcare. Simple.
  2. Rent: Increase the amount of market-rate housing, ban private equity companies from buying up tons of houses and driving up costs, and pass the HELPER Act to extend VA-style home loans to teachers, nurses and first responders.
  3. Childcare: Repeal Republican cuts to Headstart, provide subsidies to working parents to help pay for daycare, and expand publicly funded kindergarten programs to preschool-aged children.
  4. Utilities: Bring back renewables cut by Trump, invest in new nuclear and natural gas power plants, and crack down on price-gouging utility monopolies.
  5. Retirement: Protect Social Security and pass the PRO Act to deliver bargaining power and union pensions to more workers.
  6. Everyday Goods: Enact strong price-gouging enforcement, antitrust action, and transparency rules to protect ordinary people. Companies are using their market power to raise prices even when their own costs haven’t increased. We can stop them.

For more detailed policy positions, please continue reading.

In 2023, 20 million Americans were stuck with $220 billion in medical debt, while 16 of the biggest drug companies raked in $684 billion. We spend the most money per-capita than any other developed nation in the world, with lower life expectancies than all but a few. People skip prescriptions and avoid seeing doctors because they can’t pay their bills.

Because of this, I support Medicare for All. You shouldn’t have to run into a burning building to get healthcare from your government or wait until you turn 65.

I’ll also go to bat to bring down drug prices like insulin and beta-blockers, expand coverage, and make sure every town has the doctors and clinics people actually need. No more lining the pockets of insurance and drug company bosses. Healthcare should work for people.

We need to pass a billionaire minimum tax: a baseline tax rate the ultra-wealthy can’t dodge. In 2022, the 400 richest Americans paid an average federal tax rate of just 3.4% on their wealth, while ordinary workers paid 14% or more.

The 2017 Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act handed massive breaks to billionaires and big corporations, exploding the national debt and leaving working families to pick up the tab. Repealing those giveaways could raise over $1.5 trillion – enough to lower the debt, expand healthcare, and strengthen the safety net without raising taxes on working people.

It’s time the wealthy and big corporations finally pay their taxes so we can rebuild the middle class.

The last time we raised the minimum wage was 2006. We’ve fought three wars since then. We need to raise it, and tie it to inflation.

While CEOs rake in millions and pay wages that barely keep people alive, people like me have worked two or three jobs and still barely paid the bills. It’s time hard work actually pays and gives families a shot at not just existing, but living comfortably.

I’ve seen it up close – unions are what built the middle class. They fought for fair pay, safe jobs, good benefits, weekends, overtime pay, and the 40-hour workweek.

I’ll make it easier to join a union by passing the PRO Act, crack down on bosses who punish workers, and make sure every worker can fight for a better future. Strong unions mean strong communities.

The Lehigh Valley has the second most competitive housing market in the nation. We’ve seen housing prices skyrocket, and families are getting pushed out of the communities they grew up in.

We need to build more starter homes, crack down on corporate landlords and rent gouging, and expand programs that help first-time homebuyers get their start. And yes, sometimes cut rules and red tape that make it harder and more expensive to get homes built. I mentioned the HELPER Act earlier – it would be a game changer and help millions get low interest VA-style mortgages. I will be a day 1 cosponsor.

I’ll always defend Social Security and will sign on to the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act, which removes the cap on Social Security Payroll taxes and increases the net investment income tax by 1.2%. While Republicans gut American’s social safety net, I will work to protect the benefits tens of millions have worked hard to earn.

I personally have a good pension from 20 years of working for the city of Bethlehem as a firefighter, but I’m one of the lucky ones. Every hardworking American, especially young people, should be afforded the opportunity to get a pension, and that starts by passing the PRO Act and giving everyone the chance to join a union.

I’m lucky to spend time with my granddaughters and help out when I can. But not everyone has a grandpa nearby to pitch in. Families in the Lehigh Valley are struggling to find affordable, quality childcare, and that shouldn’t be the case.

Far too many working class Americans struggle to provide their children with care until they’re old enough to be enrolled in school. I support expanded childcare subsidies, restoring and expanding funding to Headstart, and providing universal kindergarten and pre-k.

I’ve seen too many kids bury themselves in student debt just to get a shot at a decent life. College shouldn’t leave you broke before you even start working. We need to bring down tuition and make sure financial aid works.

Trades matter too. I’ll fight to fund apprenticeships, vocational programs, and training that get young people into good-paying jobs in manufacturing, construction, and clean energy. This is the kind of work that builds a real middle class.

Washington’s full of people rigging the system while working families get crushed:

  • Trump accepting a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar
  • Members of Congress day trading stocks while writing the rules
  • Cozy deals with big corporations
  • Firing inspectors general who are supposed to keep them honest

It’s all corruption. It’s the most corrupt administration in American history.

I’ll fight in Congress to hold people accountable, pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, ban members of Congress from trading stocks, and make sure our government is working for us.

In America, we don’t send masked men to kidnap people off the street and throw them into unmarked cars. It’s bullshit and un-American.

We need an immigration system that deters illegal entry and secures our border, while treating people humanely and give law-abiding folks a shot at earning citizenship.

The federal government should never take the power to decide where a data center gets built out of the hands of the residents who have to live near them. I oppose all legislation that hampers local control, like the ten-year ban on state AI regulation Ryan Mackenzie voted for in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Utility costs are already too high. The last thing we need are data centers raising our energy costs while an out-of-state corporation gets rich.

I'm grateful Governor Shapiro is taking steps like his recent executive order to protect regular Pennsylvanians and allow communities to veto data center proposals in their backyard. We must pass national legislation that makes these protections federal law, and in Congress, that is what I'll fight for.

We need energy that works for working families, not just big oil companies. That means creating good-paying union jobs in clean energy, protecting our air and water, taking on the climate crisis, and investing in the industries of tomorrow. Pennsylvania can lead the way by building wind, solar, and power projects that put people to work.

But we need to be serious about capacity building. Nuclear power is clean, safe and underutilized. I’ll work to approve new nuclear and natural gas power plants while we build up renewables.

I’m a firefighter who owns guns and grew up around guns. I respect the Second Amendment. But guns are now the leading cause of death for American kids, and in 2024 there were 332 school shootings.

We need common-sense laws: universal background checks, closing the gun show loophole, and enforcing waiting periods so dangerous people don’t get their hands on guns. This wouldn’t change things for responsible gun owners, but it would for kids who are afraid to go to school.

Public schools and teachers are under constant attack by Republicans, scapegoating some of our most dedicated public servants and threatening their collective bargaining.

The federal government should step up and make sure every school in every corner of the district has the funding, staff, and support it needs so every kid gets a real education. And make no mistake: I will not support using federal money to hand vouchers to private schools while public schools are being starved. Our teachers deserve respect, our kids deserve opportunity, and I’ll fight for both.

As a first responder, I know what it takes to keep people alive when the call comes in. In the Lehigh Valley and Carbon County, we’ve got growing communities, busy highways, aging infrastructure, and first responders stretched too thin. Public safety is about making sure our neighborhoods are safe, our families are looked after, and our firefighters, EMTs, and police have the resources to do the job.

It means roads and bridges that let ambulances and fire trucks get there fast. It means making sure firehouses, EMTs, and police have the training and equipment they need, and that communities trust the people sworn to protect them. It means investing in mental health and addiction services so our ERs and firehouses aren’t the only safety net. It means defending the collective bargaining right of first responders.

I’ve lived public safety every day of my life and I’ll fight in Congress to make sure the Lehigh Valley has what it needs to protect families and keep our communities strong.

The government has no business telling people what to do with their own bodies. Period. Your healthcare, your reproductive choices, and your personal health is yours. Not Ryan Mackenzie’s, not anyone else’s.

We need to codify Roe v. Wade and pass legislation to overturn Trump abortion bans in red states. If you need care, everyone deserves the same access, the same protections, and the same rights.

Republicans seem more interested in bullying kids than fixing real problems. I’ll always stand up for LGBTQ people by protecting anti-discrimination laws, defending marriage equality, and making sure everyone can live comfortably as themselves.

It’s not the business of the government to dictate who people love and how they live.

Democrats used to stand against reckless wars, valuing oversight, restraint, and putting America’s interests first. It’s time to get back to that.

Trump weakened our alliances, cozied up to Putin, started a war with Iran, and blocked aid to Ukraine, leaving us less secure on the world stage.

Russia and China are real threats, and we need a plan to deal with those threats without dragging us into another endless war. That means supporting Ukraine and our NATO allies, paying attention to Asia, and rebuilding trust with the international community.

Ryan Mackenzie promised to end costly wars and bring down your costs. Then he did the opposite.

Five times, he had the chance to end the unauthorized war in Iran. Five times, he voted to keep it going. The result: gas and fertilizer prices spiking, inflation hitting a four-year high, and working families in the Lehigh Valley paying the price for a war that should’ve never been started.

I will always stand against pointless wars that cost American lives and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.

We should serve those who served us. I’ll work to make sure every veteran in the Lehigh Valley, Carbon County and across the country gets access to quality healthcare, mental health services, job training, and housing. I’ll also work to stop the disastrous mass firings at the VA and bring those people back.

No veteran should be left behind, forgotten, or forced to fight the system just to get what they’re owed.

I will fight Republicans like Ryan Mackenzie who have voted to slash VA funding and make it harder for veterans to get the care and support they’ve earned. It’s shameful.

The Lehigh Valley is growing, and our transportation system needs to catch up. Traffic on Routes 22, 33, and 78 is eating into family time and slowing down local businesses. As a union guy, I know how precious those few hours after work are.

I’ll work to make travel easier and more reliable. I’ll build on the work we’ve already done to expand the Lehigh Valley International Airport, including expanding parking and runways to build capacity.

There was a time the Valley was connected to New York and Philadelphia via passenger rail. Thousands rode the train every day into the city for work. I’ll work hard to both support SEPTA and reconnect our region to those hubs.

Specifically, there’s no reason the Lehigh Valley shouldn’t be connected to Philadelphia by passenger rail. SEPTA still owns the right-of-way between Lansdale and Bethlehem, which could be double-tracked and electrified with the right investment.

Investing in transportation will help families, strengthen our economy, and keep the region moving forward.

The issues facing Carbon County are not the same issues facing the Lehigh Valley. They’re distinct regions, and too many politicians forget that.

I’ll work to curb the growth of warehouses and support our local elected officials here who want to ensure these corporations give back to the communities they profit off and preserve our farmland. My part of Northampton is facing similar issues with these warehouses and data centers being built too close to homes and schools. New Jersey is already feeling the effects of unrestricted warehouse and data center development on their daily lives and electricity bills.

I’ll make sure to hold the EPA accountable and push for stricter federal oversight for pollution like sewage sludge and mine refuse. Ryan Mackenzie’s destruction of the Clean Air and Water Act is a betrayal of Carbon County residents and their history of dealing with pollution.

Carbon is also disproportionately affected by Mackenzie’s vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill to gut Medicaid and SNAP. I’ll work to repeal it and bring those dollars back.

Bob Brooks smiling and carrying a small child who is pointing at the camera, adorably

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