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I'm asking DU's in PA to help build a good list of issues and talking points for PA and the 2006 senate and congressional seats coming up.
Core issues:
Elderly - Health Care, Medicare, *Social Security*, Public Transportation, Community Services and in PA - Heritage.
Families - Education, Education, Education - School taxes and estate tax relief (property taxes). Gambling (slots). Healthcare, Jobs
Youth - Education, Schools, Community Projects, Community involvement, Health
I'm just breaking it down into the basics to compare against the republican talking points so anything you may add would be greatly appreciated.
Framing the Debate:
Social Security as an Insurance policy for being a working and respected individual of our great society. Benefits are paid upon your working contribution to the "system" not as a welfare benefit.
No child left behind - lost its purpose. In PA no child left behind is attributed to giving parents the choice of what is best for there kids. Public schools should be adamantly defended as being an education for the population as a whole and not a tool for secularized education based upon specific family beliefs. A "well rounded education" is the only education that should be funded through the public's tax dollars and we shouldn't confuse "federal bureaucracy" with the means by which school districts are funded, managed and thrive. Schools are based off miniature democracies that represent the districts within. Don't allow republicans to frame "No Child Left Behind" as an excuse for the federal government to only fund those schools by which families have chosen to support under the guise that it is less "government bureaucracy". Education is for all, and not only for those that can afford or have the means to choose.
Pro-Choice is a fundamental right of women. Small Government ideology shouldn't include legislation on personal and religious values. To protect pregnant women and innocent unborn children the rights of pregnant women and the laws protecting them should be enhanced and protection should be afforded to the mother’s body and not as individual rights to the unborn child within. Pro Choice does not however mean the wide acceptance of abortion as a means to solve problems with social issues. Education should include awareness of options, ramifications and the choices mothers have. Government can’t decide the sanctity of that of which is within the body of a women whom has her own rights however government and religion can do more to respect the rights of women, the choices they bare and the values they choose to live by.
Pro-Life isn't anti-abortion. Pro-Life is the spread of freedom, the spread of wealth, the spread of healthcare and the end of capital punishment and the protest of war. You can be Pro Choice and Pro Life. Any reference to "Gray area" is simply a misunderstanding of the rights of citizens and not an excuse to legislate those rights out because of religious values. To have compassion, you must have an understanding. Compassion for life does not end when a child is borne.
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