Issues

These people work for us. We pay their salaries with our hard-earned tax dollars. They owe us, at the very least, accountability and transparency and honesty. If they were ONLY incompetent I might forgive them. How dare they break the law over and over and over again, taunt us and threaten us, like gangsters, to just try to stop them and see what they'll do to us, to try to steal our elections, to thumb their noses at Congress, to dismantle independent Congressional-created agencies, to fire blacks and women for their race and gender, to remove Jackie Robinson's biography from military libraries. It literally makes me nauseous. We're considering handing out anti-nausea pills at campaign events to help us deal with this administration.

I take accountability and transparency and responsive government very seriously. It's in my bones. I've also been trained at the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), the policy analysis and investigative watchdog arm of Congress. GAO's job is to work in an objective, nonpartisan, nonpolitical way

I was trained to seek government accountability, and indoctrinated over many years working for Congressmen Pepper and Rangel, and at GAO as a senior policy analyst. As a press secretary told me, if anything you'd be embarrassed if anything you do ends up on the front page of the Washington Post, don't do it. At GAO we were taught to look for, ask questions around, and investigate any signs of fraud, waste, or abuse in any of the federal government organizations or private federal contractors that we analyzed.

At GAO, we were prohibited from taking anything more than a cup of coffee from the organization or company that we were investigating. We took conflicts of interest seriously, whether by others or our ourselves. So you can imagine my anger levels as I watch the daily grift in our government, the constant self-dealing, the incoherent policies and pardons and hiring of unqualified cabinet secretaries by this White House.

Presidents don't like oversight much. This is different. Other presidents recognize that oversight and a free press is critical in a free and democratic society. The current president doesn't believe in oversight, bullies the press and anyone who disagrees with him. Once in office, he immediately fired at least 17 inspectors general at federal agencies, firing or reassigning ethics and oversight officials. Why? The White House wants the ability to do anything Trump wants.

 The knowing, repeated, intentional lies by Trump himself and his sorry acolytes to cover up ICE murders. His eager dismantling of agencies for Musk's grift. His use of force against political enemies, all immigrants of any country he can smear. The obsequious Trump members of Congress afraid to vote their conscience. Advertising Teslas on the White House Lawn. Pardoning convicted Crypto drug conduits.

Epstein. Honduran President Hernandez. Maduro. Ignoring Machado & democracy in Venezuela and here. The pardons, the pay-to-play. The merch. The dictator crushes. Holman's $50k payoff for...? The Trump properties. Trump’s crypto grift. The Qatar 747. The hidden tax filings, health reports, and transactions. You've seen the list: it's too long even for this long website.

It's enough to force an ex-GAOer to run to Congress. You can guess what I'll do to stop the official crimes and mayhem if you vote me into office. It will work and future presidents won't even try.

DAVE's SOLUTIONS: Dave work in Congress will help reduce health care, housing, food, and energy costs (see separate section).