Veterans Issues: "Our troops deserve better. I will work hard to ensure that "support our troops" is more than just a slogan and that "a grateful nation" is more than a graveside condolence." Read more about the differences between Duane and Republican Kenny Hulshof here.
National Security: The Republicans think they are better and more qualified to handle the issue of National Security than the Democrats, but five years after the September 11th attacks, their rhetoric and their record are FAR apart on this issue. To find our why and to see why Duane Burghard will do more for National Security than Kenny Hulshof, click here.
Fiscal Responsibility: Government must again learn to do what every American family must do, LIVE WITHIN ITS MEANS. Republicans were once famous for saying that government is too big and that it spends too much, yet in the last five years it has been the Republican Party which has overseen the greatest expansion in the size of the federal government in its history, and has simultaneously racked up its largest debts. The era of "borrow and spend and spend and spend" must end. more...
Health Care: In my travels around this district this year, I have encountered just one person who said she was pleased with Medicare Part D. Seldom has any piece of legislation met with such universal disdain from consituents throughout Missouri's 9th District. Medicare Part D is what happens when the drug and insurance companies are allowed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress. Find our how Kenny Hulsof has voted and how I plan to make it better here.
Immigration: There is perhaps no issue where the Republicans rhetoric is as far away from their record as immigration. To read more about how the Republicans TALK about immigration but don't DO anything, click here.
Political patronage :Our government must place well qualified professionals and not personal friends in positions critical to the general welfare and common defense of the United States .
Energy Independence: Government must take action when oil companies post record billions in profits at the expense of the American consumer. And an energy bill which encourages the building of more oil refineries, sets aside more money for drilling in the arctic wildlife reserve and gives those same oil companies $12 BILLION in new tax breaks is not the answer. Government support of the "hydrogen economy" is needed. Greater access to solar energy patents for product development is needed. Greater encouragement of increased efficiency and reduced emissions in fossil fuels (including greater support of agricultural based fuel additives) is needed.
A new era in American politics: We will begin an era where Americans can have honest differences of opinion on issues of substance without having those differences digress into partisanship, name calling and personal attacks. An era of true healing and unification in American politics, and an end to the era of separate and divide, divide and conquer and the ends justifying the means. We reject the idea that there is a Red America and a Blue America, there is ONE America , and in it we (and those with whom we disagree) are ALL Americans.
Science and politics :It's time to get partisan politics out of the pursuit of scientific progress. Whether it is climate change or stem cell research or space exploration or any of a myriad other fields, we must again make scientific policy decisions based solely on an intelligent, non-partisan, qualitative and quantitative analysis of the facts.