On the Issues
Our campaign is for real long-term prosperity. Len Britton sees a healthy Vermont with a rich mix of jobs and opportunities – a state whose native young people can stay, work, buy a home, and raise a family. Changing course, in Vermont and Washington, means changing the players.
Small Business
Small businesses employ more than half the private-sector workforce, and running one has historically made you more likely to enjoy higher income and achieve economic security. Vermont has nearly 75,000 small businesses, according to Gaebler.com. When meaningful new hiring starts, it’s going to start here on Main Street – not on Wall Street or in the plush-carpet hallways of the Fortune 500.
But in the Great Recession, small businesses have had a cold shoulder from government and banks. The Obama stimulus wasn’t designed for them. Skittish lenders have cut off their credit. No bailout programs for your local coffee shop, garage or dry cleaner.
The U.S. Treasury says the 22 largest banks to take federal handouts in 2008-2009 have reduced small business lending by $12.5 billion since April 2009.
That’s not right – and the belated Democratic small business aid package mentioned by President Obama in his State of the Union address is too little, too late.
As Senator, Len Britton will change priorities. Small business won’t be an afterthought; it will come first.
If we can invest in young people via the Stafford college loan program, we can invest in small business via a similar program. No handouts. Low-interest loans to give America’s real economic engine the capital it needs to work through hard times… and eventually hire more workers.
We’ve ignored the real source of American prosperity for long enough. Gigantic corporations can take care of themselves for a change. Len Britton promises to take care of small business.
If you’re a small businessperson with ideas for getting Vermont and America back on track, Len Britton is listening. Contact Len.
The official unemployment rate is forecast to remain around 10 percent for perhaps two more years—unless we do something. The Democrats’ top-down stimulus, pouring billions of borrowed money into bank bailouts and mammoth, slow-moving government programs, hasn’t worked on Main Street. We need jobs, and in recoveries it’s invariably small businesses that provide them. They’re the economic backbone of America. We must help small businesses hire, not with handouts, but with tax changes and innovative programs like a borrowing program similar to the Stafford college loan program.
Federal Spending
Our national debt is no longer a vague and distant problem. It’s at $12.3 trillion and rising – totally out of control thanks to Congressional irresponsibility. Unaddressed, this crisis will eventually bankrupt the United States, pure and simple. We have to put the country back on sound, sustainable financial ground, and we have to put budget reform above partisan squabbling. Vermont needs a senator that will comb the budget line by line, eliminate earmarks, let programs under review make their case, and set a balanced-budget target. Government agencies should have to present zero-based budgets every year and justify every American tax dollar spent.
Protecting Vermont: Environment and Energy Policy Initiatives
Lake Champlain is Vermont’s crown jewel, serving as a key economic and recreational area for the state. It faces environmental threats ranging from invasive species to excessive amounts of phosphorus spurring blue-green algae bloom growth. Washington’s response to Lake Champlain’s troubles has been to shove earmarks into various pieces of legislation. Although it’s good that our Congressional delegation is working to fund projects that protect the lake it should not be used as a political ploy. Download Len Britton’s policy initiatives that is focused on comprehensive Lake Champlain clean-up legislation, weaning off fossil fuels, and the construction of a new state of the art nuclear power plant to replace Vermont Yankee.
“Protecting Vermont: Len Britton’s Environment and Energy Policy Initiatives”
Congressional Term Limits
Today’s paralysis in Washington, DC is what happens when legislators stay too long and lose touch with their constituents. Our founding fathers wanted citizen legislators who would serve in Congress briefly as a civic responsibility, not angle to spend a lifetime in office. They’d abhor today’s situation in which most incumbents count on virtually automatic re-election. I don’t support statutory term limits because every American already holds the power to turn out the incumbent. But I intend to serve no more than two terms, and I think every candidate should be asked how long they plan to stay in office. The sooner I can accomplish fiscal reform, the sooner I can return to my farm in Woodstock — as a citizen legislator should.
Health Care
Health care costs too much and reform is badly needed. But the Democratic plans of 2009-10 carve no costs out of the system and, like a clear majority of the American people, I oppose them. The current bills are products of business-as-usual Washington. They’re expensive, pork-filled, and they’ll make a bad deficit worse. Starting over with a free-market focus would be far more likely to deliver Americans the medical services they need more efficiently. Meaningful tort reform would reduce both legal and insurance costs.
I love and support our troops, especially the 1,500 Vermont National Guard soldiers deployed to Afghanistan, and I’m against putting them in harm’s way without a clear mission and strategy. I am not convinced we have either in Afghanistan, but I am convinced that native Afghan forces will never step up to protect their own homeland until our departure requires them to. Nation-building and counterinsurgency have not worked in Afghanistan to date and cost too many American lives. Meanwhile al-Qaeda gathers strength elsewhere, from Pakistan to Yemen.
In December of 2009, Len Britton submitted an editorial to local newspapers outlining his position on Afghanistan. Click the link below to read it.
Terrorism
The United States has the greatest military in the world. We must give our military the latitude to defeat terrorism via surgical, unconventional means. Low-profile, high-impact missions executed by our elite Special Operations forces and those of our allies will be the key.
