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Far Left: On October 10, I talked with protestors at the ICE facility in Broadview, IL to learn firsthand what ICE is doing. Earlier in the day, Senators Durbin and Duckworth had been refused entry. Durbin said it was the first time in 19 years he'd been denied access, which was plainly illegal. Federal law states that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may not prevent Members of Congress from entering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities for purposes of oversight. Broadview mayor Katrina Thompson had also been denied entry.Center photos: I've taken several graduate classes in Climate Change and Environmental Policy to Washington for week-long seminars to meet with government, nonprofit, and business leaders.Far Right: My engineer uncle prepares B-17 bombers in WW II to fly from Southeast England to bomb aircraft plants in Germany.

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We need help! There are a lot of fun, interesting ways you can change policy in Washington. And meet new friends who care about Chicagoland and our country as much as you do. If you're tired of incompetence, cruelty, racism, ICE, endemic corruption, and Trump's assaults on democracy and illegal invasions of cities and countries, you can stop it. And improve Congress. Let us know what your skills are or what you'd like to do. You can invite your friends to work as a team. Learn new skills, make a difference, &amp; broaden your resume.Here are a few ways you can make a difference: Connect with others on social media, with influencers, through your digital, graphic design, or video editing expertise. Be a community connector having conversations that win elections, even with those in your building or on your floor. Connect with voters through phone or texts. Be the brains of the campaign: do voter outreach analysis and organize data and outreach. Help design strategy. Deliver lawn signs. Answer campaign inquiries. Build relationships with the press. Do policy research or check legal compliance. Jump-start democracy through GOTV on and before election day. Do event photography. Host or plan a party or event. Changing policy requires many roles - just ask or suggest what you like, are good at, or think needs doing.If you're short on time but still want to make a difference, share our posts and videos on your social media feeds.Send us a message and we'll get back to you.

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The 7th District, including the hardest-working families in Chicagoland, has unlimited human and economic potential if unleashed and with federal help. But your representative has to know how to get that help from writing Chicago-friendly funding formulas, matching grants, pilot programs, policy tests, experimental programs, and many other ways.

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Ehrlich for Congress

Experience: 43 years in policy. Teaches legislators, agency &amp; nonprofit directors, &amp; future leaders the policy process and climate policy at the #1-ranked public affairs school in US. 3,000 students. 25 policy subjects. 140 courses. Mentored by two of the most effective congressmen in history: Charlie Rangel (D-NY), a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus and Chairman of the House Ways &amp; Means Committee. Claude Pepper (D-FL), Chairman of the House Rules Committee, Both were central players in improving health care coverage. Rangel was a primary sponsor of the ACA (Obamacare), sheperding the bill through his House committee. Dave was a GAO policy analyst and advisor to Congress. From his teaching career, he's expert in climate policy, environmental policy, a policy process expert, and has advised Congress on many policy topics.Competence: 22 yrs in Congress as staff &amp; expert consultant. Writing a book on policy design. Teaching award winner.Compare: 9 of 13 candidates have little or no experience in Congress. Only 1 has significant experience there (Boykin). 1 was a short-term fellow (Showalter). 1 likely was a brief student volunteer/intern (Friedman). The rest: none. 2 current/former state reps (Ford, Conyears-Ervin). 1 mayor (Hoskins). Integrity: Fought fraud &amp; corruption at GAO. No convictions or fines for ethics violations. The <a href="https://www.gao.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Government Accountability Office</a> is Congress' nonpartisan, objective, nonpolitical policy consulting arm and ethics watchdog. An agency grounded on evidence, science, and facts. GAO pushes other agencies to be effective, efficient, accountable, transparent, and ethical. Dave's only goal is make better policy to improve your life.Unlike his opponents, he has no criminal convictions, and paid no huge fines to government for ethical violations. No unauthorized use of government resources. No prohibited political activity with government resources, no breach of fiduciary duty, no whistleblower retaliation, no ethics violations, and no scandals.We can't wait years for our Representative to learn the ropes. The job is designing policy. In Congress. Dave has done it and taught it for 43 years.* Worked for two of the most effective Congressmen in history: a co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus; a primary sponsor of Obamacare; a powerful advocate for the elderly; &amp; both key universal health care activists. Dave will continue their legacy.* Fought corruption &amp; improved policies at the US GAO (gao.gov) within Congress, helping save $70 B/year in transparent savings (what DOGE pretended to do).* Taught 3,000 grad students for 20 years, on 25 different public policy topics, including at the #1 public affairs school. Many of his students are legislators &amp; agency leaders at all levels of governments, &amp; now lead nonprofits &amp; businesses. He's writing a book on Policy Design.This is not about Dave. It's about helping the people of the 7th District. He's not a professional politician climbing the ladder. He's not a networking businessman. The job is not an internship. He doesn't owe big money corporate donors any favors. He has no criminal or unethical background. He's not going to stay there 30 years. Dave has done it and taught it for 43 years. He has new ideas to make policies work for the people of the 7th district.It's not enough to talk about fighting for you or being an advocate. All the candidates will try to do that; some are even likely to be loud and persistent advocates. But for what policies, exactly? And how? When I worked on the hill I'd get 500 messages from advocates every day; I'd only open the ones that were good advocates. I've taught grad advocacy courses and the best advocates aren't the loudest. They know the system and stick to the facts. Members of Congress don't care what the MC in the next office is advocating for; they care about what their own constituents want (or they should).New ideas by themselves aren't enough. The representative has to know the system, and the ideas have to work for all of us. It's not about more tired policies that haven't worked. Our next representative has to have good policy ideas, understand Congress, understand the public policy process , understand the government finance &amp; budget process, understand public management, understand domestic and foreign policy, understand how policies should be implemented, and be able to plan and execute policy oversight. It's a lot. But I'm ready. I've taught 4 credit graduate courses on each of these except foreign policy (my BA is in international relations).Dave is the ONLY candidate with the ideas and with the Congressional and policy experience to get results for you. He's BY FAR THE MOST EXPERIENCED candidate, in policy AND in Congress; he won't waste a half-dozen years learning the job or spinning his wheels. Less talk. More results.Can a white guy represent a minority-plurality "black" district? Can a white guy represent a "black" (39-41%) or no racial majority district? Absolutely. Dave did it for Charlie Rangel. He did it for Claude Pepper. Nearly of a fifth of the US House represents districts where their race is not the largest plurality. The question is: who will best represent and deliver for ALL the people of the 7th district?This website is more detailed than my opponents', obviously. You deserve to know who you're hiring. Few will read it all, but I'm applying for a job that will affect your life, for good or bad. Your vote could help keep you out of ICE prison, or from being shot or deported. Even if you're a US citizen. It could help preserve your Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or SNAP benefits. It could help prevent climate and economic disasters. It could empower you to buy a house, stay in school no matter how old you are, or switch careers.This is my job application. I'd love a first, second, and third interview. Call or email me. In Washington, the door to your office will always be open to you, whether you vote or not, no matter your party, and regardless of your race, religion, party, gender ID, or birth country.

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Elect PROFESSOR DAVE The most qualified. By far. No one else is close. Other candidates say they have experience in Congress. Dave actually does. Been there. Done it. Teaches it.

And improve your life and Chicagoland. Far more experience than any other candidate (2x to 40x more) in Congress and public policy. Legislative Assistant for two of the most effective US congressmen ever. He has trained legislators and public servants for 20 years, including at the #1 public affairs grad school. Helped save $70 B/year at the US Govt Accountability Office. Dave is ready.

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<h2>I'm Dave Ehrlich, and I'm ready to lead.</h2><h4>When I saw masked ICE agents attack us, and IL and TX National Guard troops arrive in Chicago, that was the final straw. A $28 billion private Trump masked militia, unleashed for partisan political headlines, defying the Constitution, local laws, and ignoring accepted policing norms. Arresting, jailing, and killing US citizens under the guise of immigration enforcement. Deporting randomly chosen people of color to foreign prisons, even US citizens, without due process. And in another cruel irony, cuffing and jailing native Americans for days because of their skin color. At the same time, the administration is using tax dollars to charter planes to bring white South Africans to immigrate to the US. Half the DOJ Civil Rights Division attorneys are gone. I couldn't stand by and just watch as Congress, Chicagoland, and our democracy are torn apart. I knew that with more than four decades of experience and knowledge, I could help stop it, help rebuild from Trump's "tear-it-all-down" project, and then help our community by getting results in Congress. I had to run.</h4>And And it keeps getting worse: putting a 145% tariff (now 30%) on China based on their "lack of respect" in trade (except favored tech companies)? Kidnapping a president, however corrupt, for oil? Threatening to invade Greenland and blow up NATO, or start at war with what's left of NATO? Investigating anyone who disagrees (Mark Kelly, Jerome Powell, etc.)? Threatening universities -- one of the US' biggest exporters -- with capricious cutting of research funding? Trying to force US universities to stop accepting foreign students? Cutting more than a third of the NIH budget and half the CDC budget? Is these are America Last policies, not first.I've lived in the 7th district for 26 years, and near it for another 7. My wife and I live in Chicago. I want to improve it for your family and mine. Diversity is a huge US strength that few nations can match. And until this year, foreigners have wanted to live, travel, and study here. I know how important diversity is to the US economy. And I understand how much our Chicagoland melting pot has made us not only rich culturally, but is a key ingredient to our economic competitiveness. I see this intuitively, but the academic evidence is also clear that diverse teams and organizations perform better. Even for kids, biracial and bilingual homes are a benefit, not a drawback. The evidence is clear for families across the district; bilingual kids benefit greatly from their different thinking and language styles. If ICE understood this they'd be recruiting minorities and foreigners to serve in government, business, and academics. US companies with workers fluent in other languages and cultures have a built-in export advantage. Further, many reports note that the US fertility rate of 1.6 means that without immigrants, the US population, economy, and markets will begin to decline, putting further stress on Social Security and other government programs. Do we really want that?My entire career has been devoted to improving public policy. Good policy is what makes cities, states, countries, and international organizations succeed, and bad policy condemns them to mediocrity or failure. After college I drove my Pinto - voted the worst car ever built by Car &amp; Driver - to Washington, D.C. and walked the halls of congress trying to get a job with Congressmen I respected and agreed with. I interned with Bruce Morrison of Connecticut, got some experience, and kept looking. Charlie Rangel gave me a job, and I worked there for three and a half years. My first responsibility was to help pass a bill to honor Roy Wilkins, who led the NAACP during the civil rights movement. One of Rangel's biggest achievements was serving his work as one of several primary sponsors of Obamacare (ACA) as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. In his office I worked on policies from food nutrition labelling to arms control to campaigning for his race for House Majority Whip (he came in 2nd of 5 to Tony Coehlo-CA).Like all the hard-working people of the 7th District, I've worked long hours at night getting a Masters in Public Policy at Georgetown University and a PhD at Wayne State University, all while working full-time for Congress. I was lucky to be able to support myself with one job; as costs rise and wages stagnate, many of the people I talk to are forced to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. Many of my students are doing the same thing and some, remarkably, with several young children. We value and need these neighbors; they should have access to affordable child care, college, training in the trades, health care, and housing.I'm interested in good policy, and have been since I was a kid. I'm not a politician but I understand it and why it's necessary but not sufficient for good policy. I was raised in a bipartisan home when northern Republicans believed in civil rights. They wouldn't recognize the MAGA Republican party, either for its racism, attacks on civil rights, or its $4 trillion in OBBB spending - much a redistribution of borrowed money to the wealthy. I welcome traditional Republicans to our campaign; I'm progressive but also worked at GAO (the US Government Accountability Office), an objective, non-partisan, non-political agency interested in facts and science, fiscal responsibility, and continuous government improvement. We do share power in government and need to work together when it's possible.But policies start with politics; that's why I'm running. The difference between a fair, law-based, consensus-based, shared-power, and prosperous society and the opposite is good policies, as I write in my book on Policy Design. Most good policies have unique, predictable characteristics; knowing them helps you design better policies.I'm not a politician, but I'm an expert in policy and politics. I've always been interested in good policy I got interested in political science when my 7th grade civics teacher took me to Ann Arbor for a seminar for kids. They told the classic joke about the definition of communism: you have two cows, the government takes both, and then gives you some milk. During the Detroit riots of 1967, I saw armed National Guard troops on top of buildings, and the next year Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "Two Americas" speech at my high school. I was sharply aware of our society's problems, and I wanted to help fix them.At <a href="https://www.gao.gov/for-congress/reports" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GAO</a>, I helped save $70 Billion per year, every year, in transparent, publicly detailed federal budget savings. I worked with Congress on clean energy, Chapter 1 low-income school funding, Army tank and other vehicle programs, bus and rail transit funding and efficiency, foreign lobbying of the US Congress, income security BLS data collection oversight, worker safety at meatpacking plants, and air safety, pilot training, and <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-04-33" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">airplane crash survivability</a> improvements. In February 2025 a jet crashed and flipped over at the Toronto airport. No one died. The airplane had structurally improved 16G seats and improved fire retardant materials such as those our GAO report recommended to Congress &amp; the NTSB.I've taught more than 140 graduate public policy courses, on 25 different public policy topics to 3,000 students; all will help me in Congress. These ranged from Climate Change Policy that I currently teach, Public Policy Process courses that I currently teach, and many that I've taught that are directly relevant to being a good representative. I've been teaching environmental policy courses for 20 years. I've taught hundreds of foreign students from dozens of countries, here to learn about the greatness of the American experiment. Now they are being threatened for being here and contributing to our great universities, which are also under threat. Now, instead of wanting to stay and contribute to the US economy, business, medicine, and science, they shake their heads and fly home. I've taken students to Washington, D.C. to talk directly with the range of players in the policy process. I've taught dozens of courses on how to analyze and design policies to succeed: policy design and analysis (16), policy evaluation and analytics (7x), environmental policy (12x), policy advocacy (4x), policy implementation, and public management or leadership (19x), organizational behavior (7x), an overview to public administration, &amp; strategic competitiveness in the public sector (8x). I've taught government finance, nonprofit finance, statistics, research methods, comparative public policy, international public service, global civil society organizations, strategic planning, &amp; decision-making in the public sector.Why is my experience in Congress and teaching public policy relevant? Congress is very different than the state house. The skills are not often transferable. Business is very different than government: different goals, funding, accountability, structure, decision-making, services, regulation, and public service rather than private interests. Businesses represent narrow shareholders; governments represent everyone. The skills don't transfer: you can see this disconnect every day in Trump's inexperience and self-interest rather than the public interest; it's jarring, sad, transactional, uniformed, and focused on Trump's inherited real-estate businesses. He really doesn't understand government or its role even after 5 years in office. If you got in a serious car accident would you want to talk to me? Of course not! You'd obviously want to see Dr. Fisher, my opponent.Generational Change: We hear a lot about it, but what does it really mean? I won't take advantage of my opponents' youth, inexperience, energy levels, or physical condition. I know some voters would. Does it refer to age? I am a new generation, young enough to be Danny Davis' son. And do you really want a representative who is too young or too inexperienced to do the job? I don't think so. Does it mean new ideas not limited by professional politicians, conventional ideas, and standard policy bromides? I'm not a politician but I understand politics. I'm not going to run for the Senate. My only interest is making policy that helps 7th district citizens of all ages, incomes, parties, and circumstances. I'm won't be a slave to old ideas, lobbyist donors, or party orthodoxy. My book on Policy Design includes ways to design better, more innovative, more effective, more efficient, more equitable policies. Does it mean mental fitness to serve? I'm teaching graduate students at the best public affairs schools in the US, and I could probably tell the difference between a giraffe and a hippo in a Trump dementia test. Does it mean physical fitness to serve? In my last marathon three years ago I qualified to run the Boston Marathon. If that's the physical fitness requirement to serve in Congress, I'll be the only member of Congress next January. I'll elect myself Speaker, impeach Trump, and help to train a Democratic senator to qualify to run Boston and be Majority Leader of the Senate. Then we could pass great policies and override every Trump veto.My family has served for generations. My father took bomber crew training at the Illinois Institute of Technology during WW II, where I taught graduate MPA and Environmental Management students as full-time faculty for 9 years. My grandfather was a Colonel in the Army in WWI and WWII. One uncle was a career full (bird) colonel in the Army, serving in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, &amp; the Pentagon. Another was an engineer responsible for crews repairing bombers in England to bomb German plants in WWII. A great-great-great grandfather had his eye shot out in the Civil War; he was reassigned as a quartermaster, or I'd likely not be here. My mother was a Parke-Davis research chemist during and after WWII in the massive race to develop anti-malarials, especially for the Pacific theater where malaria was killing more troops than combat. She helped design and develop Amodiaquine, which has saved millions of lives and is still in use as a first-line antimalarial drug in many African countries.

We can get past this president. We can rebuild our institutions, assure free and fair elections, preserve our democracy, and codify strong, enforceable penalties against future wannabe authoritarian presidents, MAGA or Republican or Democrat, who try to steal and overturn elections, flout norms, break laws, and ignore the Constitution itself and Congress' preeminent Article I representative role in US government. This president is getting away with it; we can't let future presidents. Presidents often push the boundaries of their authority, but now, with a lapdog Congress and the Supreme Court's ideological activism, the playbook is bigger and more dangerous.We can restore the Constitutional role of Congress. As John Quincy Adams said (yes, the Quincy El Station guy) on returning to the US House as an elected representative after serving as president, secretary of state, senator, and minister (ambassador) roles: "Here, sir, the people rule." My former boss, Claude Pepper (D-FL), was also one of the few members of the House who had previously served in the Senate.We can improve life in the 7th starting in January 2027: At the same time, starting in January 2027, we can move quickly to improve the 7th District economy, education, SNAP and Medicaid safety net, health care coverage, environment, and public safety with federal cooperation, pilot programs, and funding. We can keep Chicago a great place to live and work, create the jobs of the future in climate and tech, and keep and grow our manufacturing base. Our educational institutions and hospitals are the best anywhere, and in Chicago employ 58,000 directly and 137,000 indirectly. UIC supports 97,000 jobs statewide including direct and indirect alumni created jobs. All IL-7 universities support jobs totalling 150,000-200,000 statewide.I will do everything in my power to get the 120th Congress to help you. This current 119th is the least productive Congress in decades. And what it has done has hurt everyday Chicagoland voters' costs for nearly everything, including for food, housing, energy, and health care. It's also hurt their careers, the climate, the economy, all our futures, including theirs and their kids'.

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COSTS &amp; AFFORDABILITY OVERVIEW: Both directly and indirectly. Trump and the Republican Congress haven't tamed inflation or contained costs. They've increased the deficit by $4 Trillion (yes, Trillion). While giving redistributing wealth to the richest, they've cut ACA Obamacare subsidies, doubling some monthly costs and forcing families to give up health insurance. They've cut Medicaid and SNAP. They've increased household energy costs by sweetheart deals with AI companies to push up others' prices, by gutting lower cost clean energy programs and their lower costs in favor of expensive fossil fuels. They seem oblivious to housing the food costs as well. The Trump tariffs have been projected to cost every American $2,000 per year. They're made with no plan and change for no reason, so this is an estimate. They won't lower costs, bring back US manufacturing, or help US exporters.Here's how Congress can help lower costs in 2027, and increase incomes, the flip side of costs. Higher incomes are rising faster than inflation, and lower incomes are barely keeping up.The Federal Minimum Wage is $7.25 ($15,000/year), a poverty wage. Congress should increase this to $15/hour (Chicago's is $16.60)Congress should fix the CFTB in January 2027 by clearly authorizing funding and roles. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) stops fraud and predatory pricing against consumers. The White House is trying to close it and has largely succeeded. It's fully funded by the Fed, so the President has no authority to do so.HEALTH CARE: Everyone should be able to get the health care they need at a price they can afford. 60,000 people are uninsured in the 7th CD (8%). That's unacceptable. Most of the uninsured are between 18-64, not covered by CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) or Medicare. Blacks and Hispanics are over-represented in these numbers up to 12-19% uninsured.There are many moving parts to health care, and the politics in Congress are also hard to predict.The best legislative options will probably include several elements, and I'll start from the best way to the least best way to get to universal coverage. While the House has passed a 3-year extension of ACA subsidies, the Senate has not.1) Extend ACA subsidies; the Senate must pass the House bill or something similar.2) Change to continuous eligibility for ACA subsidies, Medicaid, and CHIP. Auto-enroll those eligible. In 2027, the House may be able to do this.3) Expand ACA subsidies to those below the poverty level who don't qualify now. Allow IRS to share income data4) Create a public option within ACA to compete with private plans. Public-private competition could lower costs by up to 20%. It could draw buyers from private ACA plans, which are rising sharply. This could be especially needed by small businesses.HOUSING: The problem is not enough homes. Here's what Congress could do in 2026 to increase the supply of housing and leverage more home-building by helping locally controlled building and funding.Housing supply is complex. Our IL-7 district needs 10 to 15,000 new homes to reach market equilibrium and slow or steady price increases, and more than $25,000 very low-income units priced to make them affordable at 30% of the owner or renter's income. Chicago needs 119,00 new affordable homes, and US as a whole needs more than 7 million new affordable homes.Some Congressional levers such as land use are locally controlled. But congress can act mainly through tax incentives and regulatory reform.1) LIHTC: The low-income housing tax credit spurs rental housing building, up to 3 million nationally so far.2) Housing Choice Vouchers (Sec. 8) help low-income renters stay off the street and out of Emergency Rooms, and better able to care for their own health (plenty of "Housing is Health" evidence).3) Innovative projects such as the Green Social Housing Ordinance (May 2025), which aims for 1,200 affordable homes each year through a $135 million bond and revolving local fund. The project will break ground on the west side this year in IL-7. Another example is the Chicago 1901 project (9500 total homes, 1000-2000 low-income). These are not enough, but they're a start.4) The YIMBY Act (Yes in my neighborhood). This bipartisan approach is a promising first start. It's intended to push local governments to fix discriminatory zoning to build more senior, worker, low-income, and affordable housing. If not passed by 2027, the House should do so.5) More innovative nontraditional homes: Chicago now allows ADUs (accessory dwelling units), coach houses, and tiny houses. Oak Park has led in this area. The bipartisan Road to Housing Act of 2025 and other proposals allow ADU-type homes to be financed through FHA loans, Fannie and Freddie purchasing of these loans, and standard federal building code for modular homes that would build trust for banks and others in the market. Some bills speed NEPA permitting and reduce administrative costs of 10-20% to speed building.FOOD: Food prices are rising. How Congress could help control them:The obvious self-inflicted wound in food prices is tariffs. Another actionable reason is grocery consolidation, which Congress could help fix with anti-trust actions anathema to the White House. Congress could likely reduce future severe weather impacts with climate action and poultry disease outbreaks with other regulations.1) Anti-Trust Enforcement: Some of food price increases are due to grocery consolidation. Congress should address these through specific anti-trust enforcement and legislation, mandates, targeted funding, and confirmation demands.2) Congress should restore previous tariff levels. That's Congress' JOB under the Constitution. The reasoning for them and their rollout was nonsensical, unplanned, and harmful to consumers, US trade overall, and US reliability as a trade partner around the world. They are increasing food cost, very sharply for some products. When consumers complain Trump exempts them. They are also raising costs for fertilizer, for example. These inflationary effects have not hit prices yet. OBBB cut $186 billion from SNAP benefits, reducing demand as families go hungry or pay much more for food. This is bad policy for lower-income Americans, for farmers, and for the economy as a whole.3) Reverse subsidies while removing tariffs (see below). Most farmers don't want subsidies. They want to sell their crops on the market, to China, and to the world. The OBBB Act subsidizes farmer at $60 billion for commodity crops. Some of this pays farmers to not grow crops, raising prices. Some is intended to restore lost revenue from soy and other markets lost to the Chinese due to tariffs and to US loans to subsidize Argentinian farmers.ENERGY PRICES: Trump and the Climate Hoax party are intentionally raising consumer electricity prices. SEE CLIMATE BELOWDave will be a leader in Congress on Climate Policy, Energy Policy, and Protecting the Environment. Dave teaches a graduate climate policy course he designed at the #1 public affairs and #1 environmental policy university in the US (of 267). The Trump war on renewable energy despite growing energy demand is the dumbest energy policy in US history. It makes absolutely no sense and gives up any US economic leadership in renewables and EVs, ceding these markets to Chinese companies for decades into the future. There are hundreds of effective policies that the federal government can and should incentivize, including both a carbon tax and cap and trade system.&nbsp;

COSTS &amp; AFFORDABILITY OVERVIEW: Both directly and indirectly. Trump and the Republican Congress haven't tamed inflation or contained costs. They've increased the deficit by $4 Trillion (yes, Trillion). While giving redistributing wealth to the richest, they've cut ACA Obamacare subsidies, doubling some monthly costs and forcing families to give up health insurance. They've cut Medicaid and SNAP. They've increased household energy costs by sweetheart deals with AI companies to push up others' prices, by gutting lower cost clean energy programs and their lower costs in favor of expensive fossil fuels. They seem oblivious to housing the food costs as well. The Trump tariffs have been projected to cost every American $2,000 per year. They're made with no plan and change for no reason, so this is an estimate. They won't lower costs, bring back US manufacturing, or help US exporters.Here's how Congress can help lower costs in 2027, and increase incomes, the flip side of costs. Higher incomes are rising faster than inflation, and lower incomes are barely keeping up.The Federal Minimum Wage is $7.25 ($15,000/year), a poverty wage. Congress should increase this to $15/hour (Chicago's is $16.60)Congress should fix the CFTB in January 2027 by clearly authorizing funding and roles. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) stops fraud and predatory pricing against consumers. The White House is trying to close it and has largely succeeded. It's fully funded by the Fed, so the President has no authority to do so.HEALTH CARE: Everyone should be able to get the health care they need at a price they can afford. 60,000 people are uninsured in the 7th CD (8%). That's unacceptable. Most of the uninsured are between 18-64, not covered by CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) or Medicare. Blacks and Hispanics are over-represented in these numbers up to 12-19% uninsured.There are many moving parts to health care, and the politics in Congress are also hard to predict.The best legislative options will probably include several elements, and I'll start from the best way to the least best way to get to universal coverage. While the House has passed a 3-year extension of ACA subsidies, the Senate has not.1) Extend ACA subsidies; the Senate must pass the House bill or something similar.2) Change to continuous eligibility for ACA subsidies, Medicaid, and CHIP. Auto-enroll those eligible. In 2027, the House may be able to do this.3) Expand ACA subsidies to those below the poverty level who don't qualify now. Allow IRS to share income data4) Create a public option within ACA to compete with private plans. Public-private competition could lower costs by up to 20%. It could draw buyers from private ACA plans, which are rising sharply. This could be especially needed by small businesses.HOUSING: The problem is not enough homes. Here's what Congress could do in 2026 to increase the supply of housing and leverage more home-building by helping locally controlled building and funding.Housing supply is complex. Our IL-7 district needs 10 to 15,000 new homes to reach market equilibrium and slow or steady price increases, and more than $25,000 very low-income units priced to make them affordable at 30% of the owner or renter's income. Chicago needs 119,00 new affordable homes, and US as a whole needs more than 7 million new affordable homes.Some Congressional levers such as land use are locally controlled. But congress can act mainly through tax incentives and regulatory reform.1) LIHTC: The low-income housing tax credit spurs rental housing building, up to 3 million nationally so far.2) Housing Choice Vouchers (Sec. 8) help low-income renters stay off the street and out of Emergency Rooms, and better able to care for their own health (plenty of "Housing is Health" evidence).3) Innovative projects such as the Green Social Housing Ordinance (May 2025), which aims for 1,200 affordable homes each year through a $135 million bond and revolving local fund. The project will break ground on the west side this year in IL-7. Another example is the Chicago 1901 project (9500 total homes, 1000-2000 low-income). These are not enough, but they're a start.4) The YIMBY Act (Yes in my neighborhood). This bipartisan approach is a promising first start. It's intended to push local governments to fix discriminatory zoning to build more senior, worker, low-income, and affordable housing. If not passed by 2027, the House should do so.5) More innovative nontraditional homes: Chicago now allows ADUs (accessory dwelling units), coach houses, and tiny houses. Oak Park has led in this area. The bipartisan Road to Housing Act of 2025 and other proposals allow ADU-type homes to be financed through FHA loans, Fannie and Freddie purchasing of these loans, and standard federal building code for modular homes that would build trust for banks and others in the market. Some bills speed NEPA permitting and reduce administrative costs of 10-20% to speed building.FOOD: Food prices are rising. How Congress could help control them:The obvious self-inflicted wound in food prices is tariffs. Another actionable reason is grocery consolidation, which Congress could help fix with anti-trust actions anathema to the White House. Congress could likely reduce future severe weather impacts with climate action and poultry disease outbreaks with other regulations.1) Anti-Trust Enforcement: Some of food price increases are due to grocery consolidation. Congress should address these through specific anti-trust enforcement and legislation, mandates, targeted funding, and confirmation demands.2) Congress should restore previous tariff levels. That's Congress' JOB under the Constitution. The reasoning for them and their rollout was nonsensical, unplanned, and harmful to consumers, US trade overall, and US reliability as a trade partner around the world. They are increasing food cost, very sharply for some products. When consumers complain Trump exempts them. They are also raising costs for fertilizer, for example. These inflationary effects have not hit prices yet. OBBB cut $186 billion from SNAP benefits, reducing demand as families go hungry or pay much more for food. This is bad policy for lower-income Americans, for farmers, and for the economy as a whole.3) Reverse subsidies while removing tariffs (see below). Most farmers don't want subsidies. They want to sell their crops on the market, to China, and to the world. The OBBB Act subsidizes farmer at $60 billion for commodity crops. Some of this pays farmers to not grow crops, raising prices. Some is intended to restore lost revenue from soy and other markets lost to the Chinese due to tariffs and to US loans to subsidize Argentinian farmers.4) Congress should restore previous tariff levels. That's Congress' JOB under the Constitution. The reasoning for them and their rollout was nonsensical, unplanned, and harmful to consumers, US trade overall, and US reliability as a trade partner around the world. They are increasing food cost, very sharply for some products. When consumers complain Trump exempts them. They are also raising costs for fertilizer, for example. These inflationary effects have not hit prices yet. OBBB cut $186 billion from SNAP benefits, reducing demand as families go hungry or pay much more for food. This is bad policy for lower-income Americans, for farmers, and for the economy as a whole.ENERGY PRICES: Trump and the Climate Hoax party are intentionally raising consumer electricity prices. SEE CLIMATE BELOW1)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Climate &amp; energy policy: Dave teaches a graduate climate policy course he designed at the #1 public affairs and #1 environmental policy university in the US (of 267). The Trump war on renewable energy despite growing energy demand is the dumbest energy policy in US history. It makes absolutely no sense and gives up any US economic leadership in renewables and EVs, ceding these markets to Chinese companies for decades into the future. There are hundreds of effective policies that the federal government can and should incentivize, including both a carbon tax and cap and trade system.

Costs: Health Care, Food, Housing, &amp; Energy: Prof. Dave Will Lower Health Care &amp; Other Costs

Crime is complex and has to be addressed aggressively in several major ways simultaneously. A combination of policing methods can reduce crime. The evidence is clear that more guns, gangs, poor job opportunities, income inequality, and a broken criminal justice system combine to increase crime rates. First, I'll immediately join the US Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.There are a number of proven, successful programs that the federal government has been reluctant to fund beyond small pilot programs. These programs work, and are phenomenally good investments; every investor would be rich getting these returns on investment. The problem, as with many government and public investments: the costs are concentrated and the benefits are diffuse. There may be ways to align these. Even if there aren’t, Congress should fund these programs that clearly work according to rigorous academic research. This Administration fired 3/4th of the CDC's Division of Violence Prevention, and lost the important work they do to reduce gun violence, including maintaining data on gun deaths and injuries.Reduce gun crimes through multiple policies: Chicago had 573 homicides in 2024, and 2758 shooting victims. 80-90% likely involved firearms. About 200 in our own 7th District. Some 60% of the guns used came from out-of-state. We can and must do better.Nationally, over 15,000 US gun homicides in 2024, and 48,000 gun deaths. More than half were suicides. Canada's gun homicides: 287; Spain: 53; Australia: 25. This is a national problem. Our neighboring states have looser gun laws. We need better local and national laws to prevent cross-border guns from being used in Illinois 7th CD crimes.We can no longer rely on the 2nd Amendment to preserve states' rights to regulate guns (McDonald 2010), since the Court suddenly decided, after 200 years of being overlooked by previous Courts, that the Amendment now gives individuals a right to "bear arms," - a military reference - including military assault rifles, regardless of any militia role (Heller 2008). There's no sport or hunting use for civilian military-style assault rifles. Their purpose is to kill, and they kill every day. We should explore every other policy approach to protect our families.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Reduce cross-border guns; this is not easy but we should be experimenting with the best options. Chicago's rapid Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC) federal collaboration should be expanded.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Longer gun purchase waiting periods: Waiting periods reduce homicides by 17%. It's not clear yet how much longer periods decrease gun homicides. 14 states have longer waiting periods than our 3-day wait. Surely our gun owners would wait another few days if it saved even one of their neighbors from suicide. Allow gun tracing that is currently prohibited of stolen and missing guns by gun dealers, and require new firearms to have a second, hidden serial number harder for criminals to remove. Rep. Quigley's TRACE Act would do this. I'll consponsor his bill.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; More Chicago Police Department federal funding, though it is less than 5% of the CPD budget, dropped sharply last year. It's badly needed to funding promising pilot programs and investigative assistance from other federal agencies. We welcome funding, but less than a third of ICE arrestees have a criminal record.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Greater federally funded investigation assistance from the FBI, ATF, and other federal agencies. More ATF enforcement of existing gun laws.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; More investment in education, school retention, job training, after school youth and mentor programs in high-crime communities. These programs work. Beyond their fairly low costs and moral benefits, they have very high economic returns, often paying back $3-7 for each dollar spent on them according to academic research. Each year of schooling reduces a person’s likelihood of committing a crime to 10-20%.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; More federally funded city-suburb cooperation. CPD and our suburban communities use many of the policing and crime reduction methods. Cooperative policing experimentation with federal funding could reduce crime across the 7th District.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Recidivism reduction such as reentry and job training are effective. Nationally, recidivism prevention programs have apparently reduced 3-year recidivism by about 23% in the US. Programs such as the 2008 Second Chance Act have played a role; this and similar programs likely have high investment returns in many ways in addition to lowering crime rates. They typically include services to help reenter society through job training, housing assistance, and mental health help for those leaving prison.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; More federal funding for proven programs. While more patrol officers does reduce crime, the federal government funders should closely evaluate and selectively fund other programs that may achieve greater crime reductions for the same or less cost: for example, hot spot policing, problem-oriented policing, community-oriented policing, and predictive deterrence are strategies that have shown positive impacts.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Procedural Justice Training; trust in policing reduces crime. When police activity is seen as legitimate and fair, and all citizens treated with dignity, crime drops. Body cameras have been shown, for example, to increase the civility and respect shown by all in some studies.

Crime is complex and has to be addressed aggressively in several major ways simultaneously. A combination of policing methods can reduce crime. The evidence is clear that more guns, gangs, poor job opportunities, income inequality, and a broken criminal justice system combine to increase crime rates.There are a number of proven, successful programs that the federal government has been reluctant to fund beyond small pilot programs. These programs work, and are phenomenally good investments; every investor would be rich getting these returns. The problem, as with many government and public investments: the costs are concentrated and the benefits are diffuse. There may be ways to align these. Even if there aren’t, Congress should fund these programs that clearly work according to rigorous academic research.Reduce gun crimes through multiple policies: Chicago had 573 homicides in 2024, and 2758 shooting victims. 80-90% likely involved firearms. About 200 in our own 7th District. Some 60% of the guns used came from out-of-state. We can and must do better.Nationally, over 15,000 US gun homicides in 2024, and 48,000 gun deaths. More than half were suicides. Canada's gun homicides: 287; Spain: 53; Australia: 25. This is a national problem. Our neighboring states have looser gun laws. We need better local and national laws to prevent cross-border guns from being used in Illinois 7th CD crimes.We can no longer rely on the 2nd Amendment to preserve states' rights to regulate guns (McDonald 2010), since the Court suddenly realized, after 200 years, that the Amendment gave individuals a right to bear arms - a military reference - regardless of a militia role (Heller 2008). There's no sport or hunting use for civilian military-style assault rifles. We should explore every other policy approach to protect our families.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Reduce cross-border guns; this is not easy but we should be experimenting with the best options.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Longer gun purchase waiting periods: Waiting periods reduce homicides by 17%. It's not clear yet how much longer periods decrease gun homicides. 14 states have longer waiting periods than our 3-day wait. Surely our gun owners would wait another few days if it saved even one of their neighbors from suicide.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; More Chicago Police Department federal funding, though it is less than 5% of the CPD budget, dropped sharply last year. It's badly needed to funding promising pilot programs and investigative assistance from other federal agencies. We welcome funding, but less than a third of ICE arrestees have a criminal record.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Greater federally funded investigation assistance from the FBI, ATF, and other federal agencies. More ATF enforcement of existing gun laws.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; More investment in education, school retention, job training, after school youth and mentor programs in high-crime communities. These programs work. Each year of schooling reduces a person’s likelihood of committing a crime to 10-20%.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; More federally funded city-suburb cooperation. CPD and our suburban communities use many of the policing and crime reduction methods. Cooperative policing experimentation with federal funding could reduce crime across the 7th District.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Recidivism reduction such as reentry and job training are effective. Nationally, recidivism prevention programs have apparently reduced 3-year recidivism by about 23% in the US. Programs such as the 2008 Second Chance Act have surely played a role; this and similar programs likely have high investment returns in many ways in addition to lowering crime rates. They typically include services to help reenter society through job training, housing assistance, and mental health help for those leaving prison.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; More federal funding for proven programs. While more patrol officers does reduce crime, the federal government funders should closely evaluate and selectively fund other programs that may achieve greater crime reductions for the same or less cost: for example, hot spot policing, problem-oriented policing, community-oriented policing, and predictive deterrence are strategies that have shown positive impacts.·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Procedural Justice Training; trust in policing reduces crime. When police activity is seen as legitimate and fair, and all citizens treated with dignity, crime drops. Body cameras have been shown, for example, to increase the civility and respect shown by all in some studies.

Crime, Guns, &amp; Public Safety: Professor Dave Will Make You Safer

I don't have all the policy answers to every problem in the 7th District. But I plan to ask a lot of the right questions. I'm not a genius (but am stable). I learn every day from my students.Good policies are critical; they’re the intrinsic, underlying, fundamental, sometimes invisible DNA of any government or organization. Successful cities, states, countries, businesses, schools, NGOs, and other organizations – even households – depend on good policies. Societies, governments, and organizations fail when policies fail, or don’t exist, or are flouted, intentionally disobeyed, evaded, or mistrusted. It’s often obvious when policies are really bad, and why. It’s not obvious what the best policies are, but it’s obvious when critical policies are absent or failing. Because policies fail in many different ways, diagnosing their causes can be difficult (from Dave's book on Policy Design)If public policy problems were easy and simple to solve, we wouldn't need great members of Congress. If it weren't complicated to solve policy problems we wouldn't see so many policies fail. Still, many policy problems can and have been solved. We just don't hear about them anymore. They affect your life every day, in hundreds of ways, usually without your awareness. They become norms, expected and accepted but rarely noticed or acknowledged. Until they're noticeable as bad policy or obviously not solving a problem.Policies don't always work; most are less effective than claimed, and many achieve results that are the complete opposite to those intended. Policy analysis can be used prescriptively and post-scriptively or diagnostically to evaluate it during implementation or after a policy ends. Then the decision to revise or end a policy may be clearer.The more policy participants can analyze policies, the better they will be. The more legislators understand how policies work organizationally, politically, and use tools such s goals/alternatives matrices and logic models, the more useful and productive legislators of different ideologies can agree, talk, and negotiate. Oversight Committees need to know evaluation analytics, including financial and program metrics such as such as cost/benefit, efficiency, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, equity, and other measures.As a Congressman, I'll also be a policy analyst, involved in improving policies wherever I can. This section is about the policy problems that haven't been solved; problems that are bad, that are getting worse, or that might be solved or reduced. I plan to educate my colleagues where possible, convince others to more thoroughly analyze policies, and do the right thing even when it's not politically easy.For every significant issue, policy, and program, I'll be analyzing the policy alternatives and compare their effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and other metrics. I'll also be tracking policies after they're in operation for success, failure, and changes in implementation factors.I plan to institutionalize policy analysis more directly into the policymaking process in Congress. A highly analytical policy shop - located either in CRS, GAO, or CBO for financial issues - could incrementally improve both policy design and the implementation of ongoing policies such as Social Security, Medicare &amp; Medicaid, and SNAP. Where a policy clearly fails or shows room for big improvement, an NTSB-type post-mortem policy shop could help institutionalize knowledge about policy success and failure to improve current and future policies.Where possible, I prefer to use policy incentives and markets rather than mandates and requirements. That approach maximizes citizens' freedom, usually costs much less to enforce, requires fewer staff to enforce, requires less or no coercion to enforce, and tends to achieve policy results with greater consensus. This isn't always possible where the possible society harm is large, where markets don't exist, where the actor's motivation to harm society is strong, or the actor has no respect for the law. An example of incentives is offering tax incentives or expedited permitting for those who reduce or stop certain emissions. Markets include measures such as carbon taxes that are incentives to emit less.I plan to be a bit like Dick Durbin. Once, when I was once in a policy planning meeting of House Legislative staffers, Dick Durbin came in and sat down. He was the only Member of Congress at the meeting. He cared about the policy, about getting it right, about making sure the policy would work. It's rare that a Congressman cares enough to join staff policy meetings; I never forgot that. And almost never saw it again. That's the kind of Congressman I'll be.

I don't have all the policy answers to every problem in the 7th District. But I plan to ask a lot of the right questions. I'm not a genius (but am stable). I learn every day from my students. Here's some of what I've learned.Good policies are critical; they’re the intrinsic, underlying, fundamental, sometimes invisible DNA of any government or organization. Successful cities, states, countries, businesses, schools, NGOs, and other organizations – even households – depend on good policies. Societies, governments, and organizations fail when policies fail, or don’t exist, or are flouted, intentionally disobeyed, evaded, or mistrusted. It’s often obvious when policies are really bad, and why. It’s not obvious what the best policies are, but it’s obvious when critical policies are absent or failing. Because policies fail in many different ways, diagnosing their causes can be difficult (from Dave's book on Policy Design)If public policy problems were easy and simple to solve, we wouldn't need great members of Congress. If it weren't complicated to solve policy problems we wouldn't see so many policies fail. Still, many policy problems can and have been solved. We just don't hear about them anymore. They affect your life every day, in hundreds of ways, usually without your awareness. They become norms, expected and accepted but rarely noticed or acknowledged. Until they're noticeable as bad policy or obviously not solving a problem.As a Congressman, I'll also be a policy analyst, involved in improving policies wherever I can. This section is about the policy problems that haven't been solved; problems that are bad, that are getting worse, or that might be solved or reduced. I plan to educate my colleagues where possible, convince others to more thoroughly analyze policies, and do the right thing even when it's not politically easy.For every significant issue, policy, and program, I'll be analyzing the policy alternatives and compare their effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and other metrics. I'll also be tracking policies after they're in operation for success, failure, and changes in implementation factors.I plan to institutionalize policy analysis more directly into the policymaking process in Congress. A highly analytical policy shop - located either in CRS, GAO, or CBO for financial issues - could incrementally improve both policy design and the implementation of ongoing policies such as Social Security, Medicare &amp; Medicaid, and SNAP. Where a policy clearly fails or shows room for big improvement, an NTSB-type post-mortem policy shop could help institutionalize knowledge about policy success and failure to improve current and future policies.Where possible, I prefer to use policy incentives and markets rather than mandates and requirements. That approach maximizes citizens' freedom, usually costs much less to enforce, requires fewer staff to enforce, requires less or no coercion to enforce, and tends to achieve policy results with greater consensus. This isn't always possible where the possible society harm is large, where markets don't exist, where the actor's motivation to harm society is strong, or the actor has no respect for the law. An example of incentives is offering tax incentives or expedited permitting for those who reduce or stop certain emissions. Markets include measures such as carbon taxes that are incentives to emit less.I plan to be a bit like Dick Durbin. Once, when I was once in a policy planning meeting of House Legislative staffers, Dick Durbin came in and sat down. He was the only Member of Congress at the meeting. He cared about the policy, about getting it right, about making sure the policy would work. It's rare that a Congressman cares enough to join staff policy meetings; I never forgot that. And almost never saw it again. That's the kind of Congressman I'll be.

Dave's Policy Values: Analyze, Plan, Evaluate, Implement, Oversee. Don't Accept Policy Failures

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 wayI 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.&nbsp;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 &amp; 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).

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.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 wayI was trained to seek government accountability, and indoctrinated over many years at GAO as a senior policy analyst. 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.&nbsp;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 boot-licking stooges in Congress. Advertising Teslas on the White House Lawn. Pardoning convicted Crypto drug conduits.Epstein. Honduran President Hernandez. Maduro. The pardons, the pay-to-play. The merch. The dictator crushes. Holman. 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.Costs: Health Care, Food, Housing, EnergyDAVE's SOLUTIONS: Dave work in Congress will help reduce health care, housing, food, and energy costs.

Corruption, Accountability, Democracy: Prof. Dave Will Actually Drain the Swamp in DC &amp; Chicago

Voters Have One Big Simple Choice: A) A public policy professor with 43 years of directly related experience? Or B) Someone with almost no experience in Congress or in the nuts and bolts of whether public policy actually works?Who do you want to represent you and work on the details - not just the press releases - in a competition between you and your neighbors and a wannabe authoritarian president, hundreds of Democrats steering funding to their districts, and hundreds of lapdog Republicans in Congress?A) A professor and former senior legislative assistant, senior US GAO analyst, and public policy professor who has worked full-time in Congress for 22 years and taught public policy for 21 years, with decades more experience than his opponents, but who is still an outsider with no political baggage and the independence to put you and the 7th first? Professor Dave is not a professional politician, he's not climbing any political ladder, he's not running this year while holding another office, he doesn't have a business to promote, he's not building his resume, and he's not applying for an internship or a fellowship. He's served in three Congressional offices, including being mentored by the most effective Congressmen in history for nearly 7 years, and consulted with Congress and taught public policy the rest of his career.B) Or do you want to be represented by a much less experienced part-time state legislator, county councilman, mayor, doctor, or real estate developer?The system strongly advantages incumbents, as you know. You may not get another choice to represent you in this US House seat for another 30 years, so choose wisely.Some Hypotheticals:1) You're seriously injured in a car accident, you get to the ER, and the triage nurse says: would you like to be seen by the doc with 20 years' experience or Dr. Dave, who isn't the kind of doctor who helps people, but who's just visiting the ER there with a friend for his illness? In my defense, I've read some medical textbooks and watch Chicago Med and Grey's Anatomy. I've seen ER and House! I've taken first aid classes and CPR.2) You inherited a lot of money and I want to build some buildings as investments. Should I hire a lawyer, a doctor, Professor Dave, or a professional real estate investor with a huge portfolio of buildings?3) You need to insure your new house or new car to make sure you don't lose your investment if you get in that accident in #1 above, or your house burns down, god forbid. Should you hire Professor Dave, who has only studied government insurance programs and knows zilch about property insurance? Or should you hire one of the several candidates with extensive insurance experience?

Write a little something about your issue here. You can only write about a paragraph here, but you can turn on an option to create full issues pages on the options sidebar of the issues page.

The Voter's Choice: A professor who has Worked in Congress for 22 years? Or someone much less experienced?

Dave has been involved in energy issues as a Congressional Legislative Assistant, at GAO, and teaching graduate environmental policy and climate change policy for 20 years. He teaches a graduate climate policy course he designed at the #1 public affairs and #1 environmental policy university in the US (of 267).Trump is ceding nearly all the renewables markets to Chinese companies for decades into the future. On a whim, he's chasing expensive, heavy, and sour oil in Venezuela that the oil majors don't need or want, and that's hard to extract, refine, and market. Exactly the opposite of what's good for the US, Americans, exports, and domestic energy security.Chicago can and should be the world's center for clean energy jobs, research, manufacturing, and technology exports, to US and foreign markets. We can. We should. We have as many as 2 million jobs in Chicagoland, but we need more and we need to start building now. Chicago is a logical place for a climate and renewable energy jobs cluster to grow. It will grow 25% a year here or, if we give up, somewhere else. We have all the building blocks even if Congress won't help right now. I will help build it within Congress and here. Chicago already has many vibrant industrial and service clusters. Manufacturing, transportation &amp; logistics, biomedical &amp; life sciences, financial services, food processing, construction materials, insurance, legal and accounting services, IT and software development, marketing, advertising, management consulting, corporate headquarters, and many education and research universities and institutions. All of these could participate and benefit 7th district workers and each sector if we went all-in as a center for clean energy. We could streamline local and national regulations to install rooftop solar in weeks, like Australia. We could permit and build <a href="https://www.bsu.edu/about/geothermal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ground-source geothermal here</a>, an always-on source of heating and cooling for 30 years that can reduce heating and cooling costs by 70%. This Congress and federal government's legacy will be seen as some of the worst set of policy decisions ever made. A time when the US ignored the health and welfare of both Americans and others around the world. When we deliberately slowed the world's progress on climate change. And set the world economy back sharply, increased pressure on the most vulnerable populations and countries, and made the loss of dozens of important low-lying cities around the world inevitable. While destroying our own health, economic, and trade interests.Congress can change course by stressing the evidence that renewables are not only the future, but the present. They're cheaper, faster to build, aren't subject to fluctuations in fuel prices, and improve local health from respiratory and heart and other diseases. Renewables lower PM2.5, NOx ,VOCs, Ozone, and SO2. They reduce rates of asthma, COPD, CVD, heart attacks, stroke, low birth weights, and premature death. These are facts. It's a hoax to say they're not true. Trump is also pushing Canada to accept Chinese EVs rather than US EVs. It makes no sense.Good environmental policy with clear, output-based standards can <a href="https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/03/27/well-done-regulation-can-spur-innovation-how-companies-can-get-involved/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spur innovation</a>, empower small businesses, create new markets, incentivize efficiencies that make companies and industries more efficient and competitive than companies with no such environmental policies.There's plenty of good climate and energy news, and plenty Congress can do in the 120th Congress (2027-2029). States, cities, and counties are not waiting for Trump to leave. They're building their own renewable energy systems, laws, and regulations. We should too. Chicago's workforce is perfectly positioned to produce all kinds of clean energy products and services that other cities would struggle to match. Chicago's clean energy <a href="https://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/product/98609-PDF-ENG" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cluster</a> could compete with any city in the world. And Chicago's companies, many of which already seek <a href="https://www.relativimpact.com/downloads/HBR-Shared-value.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">shared value</a>, can help get us there, providing hundreds of thousands of good new jobs, increasing productivity, preparing for the future, and improving the lives of everyone in the 7th district.Even if you were to believe Trump's hoax talk, and even if you don't care about climate change, renewables make sense. They're already 90% of new energy starts. It's delusional to think that natural gas, coal, or nuclear power, even their costs somehow miraculously drop sharply, will produce less expensive electricity. The LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy) is lower for solar and wind than natural gas in most places, and has dropped 70% (onshore wind) to 90% (solar) over the last decade. Gas plants are the fastest fossil fuel sources of energy, and they take three times longer to build than solar.The Trump war on renewable energy despite rapidly growing energy demand is the dumbest energy policy in US history. It makes absolutely no sense and gives up any US economic leadership in renewables, EVs, heat pumps, or any of the myriad technologies and services involved in renewable energy and low-cost grids, new transmission systems, and a great workforce in each area. There's no competition between environmental and business interests. It's not one or the other. That's a <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.9.4.97" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">false debate.</a>His oil-fueled invasion of Venezuela is also not thought out. Even if Trump is successful at stealing Venezuela oil fields in the short term, American oil companies are not keen on making decades-long investments and risking tens of billions of dollars in a politically fraught area likely to be litigated internationally forever. Further, maximizing Venezuela's huge reserves will likely push the price of oil down, risking profitability. Meanwhile, there's no plan on "running" the country or transitioning to democracy. The Iraq invasion was poorly planned, but this time they can't even put together talking points for a single rationale for the invasion. The House was right to vote to stop the intervention using the War Powers Act. The Senate seems to need more chaos before agreeing. Maybe Trump's bizarre Greenland fixation will be enough for the Senate to act.

Climate Change &amp; Clean Energy Jobs: Prof. Dave Will Help Make Chicago a Hub &amp; Cluster of Green Jobs &amp; Businesses

PLEASE READ FOUR SENTENCES BEFORE YOUR EYES GLAZE OVERBefore you fall asleep, give me four sentences. 1) We all want government to invest in policies and projects and programs that will return more benefits than they cost. 2) I've never heard my opponents mention return on investment or benefit-cost ratios in their speeches or materials. 3) I think we should be basing many government decisions on this and other important metrics, including effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and equity metrics. 4) I'm the only candidate qualified to do this (over a decade as senior analyst at GAO, the investigative and consulting arm of Congress). In fact, I'm the only candidate who seems to care about it. So if I were you, I'd vote for me.HERE'S WHAT I'LL BE DOING WHEN YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION AND LIVING YOUR LIFEYeah, it's wonky, but we all do this every day, and it makes even more sense for government to do it systematically. You don't have to pay attention to the details, but I will. I've studied it, did it at the US GAO, advised Congress, and taught grad students policy design, policy evaluation, statistics, and many other topics. I will do it for you because to me, that's what it takes to do the job well.My opponents in this race have little experience in studying and really understanding public policy. I've been doing it for 43 years - 22 in Congress and 21 years teaching it in academics. I'm serious about it and using my experience and knowledge to make your life and the 7th district better, safer, healthier, more productive, and more prosperous. With greater economic and educational opportunities for everyone.OK, that's the standard campaign bullshit. It's good to have priorities, even if they're one word and even if they go no deeper than that. But if you want your representative to actually deliver, or more often help deliver these things, they really have to know the system. They really have to know how policies work, what research says about what makes them work, what agency or agencies have the staff and expertise and organizational structure and leadership to deliver after Congress finally passes a bill and the president signs it in the rose garden (now a Trumpy concrete patio).Then the most difficult part starts - implementation. This is where policies often break down, don't work as planned, where events and surprises keep them from working unless they were designed well from the start. Then Congress may fix them if the vote wasn't close, and if Congress knows how to fix the policy.I've studied policies while in Congress for 22 years, and I admit that at first I really had no idea how successful policies differed from failures, or how to actually get a good bill passed with 535 negotiators trying to derail it. But I paid attention, went to Georgetown to get a Masters in Public Policy at night, got my PhD, am now teaching at the #1 ranked graduate program in the US, got obsessed with how and why policies work, and now I'm writing a book on it. I've always thought that everyone would be interested in this, but who has the time and energy to study it (besides me). Voters don't. Legislators don't. The Courts don't - especially the Supreme Court. But lobbyists do - they're often ex-members of Congress.ANY CONGRESSMAN CAN PRESS BUTTONS, WRITE PRESS RELEASES, &amp; RAISE MONEYYou can elect someone to go to the floor of the House, sit down, and vote YEA, NAY, or PRESENT, and hope they make good choices. Then they can claim credit and spend the day raising money. I won't be spending 7 hours a day - a normal day for most members - raising money. I'll be working on more legislation that will help you and the 7th district.<img src="https://run.imgix.net/33a543ab-57a1-4002-b3a8-f9907ab2a323/bc994047-5ff8-404b-b468-f188d51de7b3/bc994047-5ff8-404b-b468-f188d51de7b3.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=0%2C0%2C234%2C155&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="" align="middle" alignwidth="40" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed">OR WORK BEHIND THE SCENES TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE REPRESENTED ALL DAY, EVERY DAYOr, you can elect someone who has studied, participated, and taught legislators for decades, and who understands everything that comes before and after pressing the button. Someone who does the work to study, understand, and take the actions to make sure the YEA policy actually helps you and the 7th district, and isn't just a Congressional spectator able to see just the tip of the legislative iceberg.<img src="https://run.imgix.net/33a543ab-57a1-4002-b3a8-f9907ab2a323/360551f9-ffd1-489a-85f5-e79a3cc510e5/360551f9-ffd1-489a-85f5-e79a3cc510e5.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=0%2C0%2C611%2C814&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="" align="middle" alignwidth="40" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed">

The Benefit-to-Cost Candidate (this is not a joke)

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Members of Congress play multiple roles.First, they're delegates, reflecting their constituents' views. I'll be listening at home every free minute to your views, problems, and concerns. If you sign up here on this website to keep informed, I'll send you surveys on your concerns and act on them in Washington.Second, they play a trustee role. Constituents are busy living their lives. They don't always have time to be closely involved in telling their Congressman what to do. Other times issues are so complicated or fast-moving, such as policy negotiations , committee markups, or conference committees that consultation with constituents isn't feasible. Then, constituents have to trust their congressperson to act in their interest. Over time I will earn that trust.On the negative end, constituents have to trust that their representative won't act in lobbyists' interests instead of theirs because of the implicit contractual overtones of campaign contributions. They have to trust that their representative won't abuse staff or government resources for their own benefit instead of their constituents or the country. We saw that every day in 2025 in this administration.I plan to explore and act on the many ways that I can help the 7th District outside of purely legislative action. If I can help facilitate intergovernmental cooperation, even when the federal government isn't involved, I will. If I can help solicit foreign investment for Chicagoland business sectors or clusters of firms, I will certainly do it, as the State Department does - while avoiding personal benefit, specific or implied endorsement of products or companies. I'll support, in every way possible, all the critical nonprofits that provide needed services to our community.

I'll Be Working For You as Your Representative in Many Ways

Dave Ehrlich, an adjunct public policy professor at University of Illinois - Chicago and Indiana University - O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, announced today that he is running for the IL-7th District US House of Representatives seat being vacated by Rep. Danny Davis. The primary is March 17.# # #

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Dave Ehrlich Announces for IL-7 Congressional Primary March 17

Dave is:1) The ONLY candidate with 22 years working in Congress. That means your priorities will get more legislative results. Our community will suffer a lot if we have to wait for years of on-the-job training. Congress is a unique institution; It's not like state or county or city governments. As a legislative assistant, my mentors and bosses were two of the most effective Congressmen ever (Charlie Rangel-NY and Claude Pepper-FL). I plan to extend their legacy of helping constituents, especially to get better and more affordable health care but in every major district issue, through policy, casework, and in every other way. We successfully dealt with regular cases of racial discrimination of constituents. That's why I'm angry now. The Trump administration's and Hegseth's anti-DEI racism and sexism is different, open, and extremist. We have to make all discrimination shameful and illegal again.2) The ONLY candidate with 43 years of policy experience. Public policy seems simple on its face. You advocate for a bill and everyone votes for it. It's not.The issue has to be on the Congressional decision agenda (you can help but it takes more than one). The problem has to be framed correctly. Specific, clear, consensus goals have to be articulated, largely agreed on by major stakeholders. Policy alternatives have to be fully analyzed, again with wide input. These above factors have to go into a policy proposal that achieves its goals and is palatable politically. The bill has to clear the legislative counsel's bars for effective laws (not easy). And then the policy faces implementation challenges, usually their biggest challenge, for as long as the policy is in place. Oversight prevents more legislative and agency and state and local challenges. And finally, good evaluation to determine the extent to which the policy is achieving its goals. Sometimes the statistical analysis is complicated and misunderstood. Credit and blame is allocated by all involved. Professionals in many fields work around the clock to find loopholes in the policy, usually successfully. And then, if the policy can't be explained in 30 seconds during campaigns, it can be used against you even if successful. Or killed or revised in the next legislative session. No, you don't want amateurs new to Congress to represent you if you want to see results.3) The ONLY candidate that advised presidential agencies for over a decade. GAO, Congress' Government Accountability Office, investigates what the president and his administration are doing, asking questions like: is a policy working, and at what cost? Is the Administrative agency implementing the policy as Congress intended? If not, GAO writes recommendations with full transparency for all federal issues except some intelligence, covert, and Fed activities (see GAO.GOV). It's core "mission values": accountability, integrity, and reliability.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Government_Accountability_Office#cite_note-5">[</a>4) The ONLY candidate that advised many congressional committees and members of Congress. Members of Congress trust GAO advice, passing 70% of recommendations into law. In addition, GAO provides other types of investigative and consulting assistance to Congress, such as testifying at many committee hearings, giving briefings to committee members and staff, and even giving private briefings on GAO work, special white papers, or short-term analysis requests.5) The ONLY candidate who has trained thousands of graduate students who are now serving the public in government, nonprofit, or business roles. Dave has been teaching for 20 years, on 25 different policy-related subjects from climate policy to policy analysis to statistics to organizational theory to nonprofit and government finance. These students, some mid-career high-level legislators already, have continued or gone on to important jobs across the spectrum of public service professions. I try to keep with their career successes and I like to think (and they kindly let me think) that I played some small role in their success. Many are doing phenomenal work in the IL-7 today.6) The ONLY candidate writing a book on Policy Design, now being edited down from 400 pages. I've have one career goal since my freshman year of college: to understand and then make public policy better. Five years ago my 5-year old daughter told me I should teach more people about to make better laws and rules. Now I'm trying to take her advice and make her proud.7) The ONLY candidate who taught graduate public policy analysis, policy evaluation, advocacy, implementation, and public sector decision making courses, including at the #1 ranked public affairs school (USNWR) I only add this to say that I'm vetted by students and fellow faculty every semester in both my universities, and I always get high average marks across many facets of teaching, rigor, mentoring, and communication.8) The ONLY candidate who has taught graduate public management and organizational behavior courses, including at the #1 ranked program in Public Management and Leadership (USNWR). Even after studying political science as an undergrad at the University of Michigan and getting high honors, when I went to the Hill and worked in Congress I was still mystified by how public (and all) organizations really worked. While getting a masters at night at Georgetown, baffling and complicated agency behaviors finally started to make sense. Your congressman is dealing with organizations constantly - in government and the private and the nonprofit sectors, both in DC and in the IL-7 district. Understanding them is a prerequisite to getting things done every day.9) The ONLY candidate who has taught climate change policy and environmental policy for 20 years, including currently at the #1 ranked US graduate program in Environmental Policy &amp; Management (USNWR). If you care about the environment, climate change, or getting energy prices down, Dave's your guy. If you want Chicagoland to be the US and global center for clean energy manufacturing, finance, services, and their huge numbers of associate jobs, see below. For more detail, see the Clean Energy issue drop-down below. The climate hoax is that it's not happening. Another hoax is that clean energy is more expensive than fossil fuels. It's not.10) The ONLY IL-7 candidate - compared to ZERO current members of Congress - that has recently qualified to run the Boston Marathon (as far as I know). Yes, your representative needs endurance to deal with all the #*&amp;@%# of politics and government every day of every year. To bring federal funding and resources to IL-7. To get help for the Chicago-based federal agencies. To help 7th District individual people deal with the federal government. Dave has the experience, knowledge, and stamina to do it.11) The ONLY candidate named Dave. Remember to vote for PROFESSOR DAVE EHRLICH on March 17

Dave is:1) The ONLY candidate with 22 years working in Congress.2) The ONLY candidate with 43 years of policy experience.3) The ONLY candidate that advised presidential agencies for over a decade.4) The ONLY candidate that advised many congressional committees and members of Congress.5) The ONLY candidate who has trained thousands of graduate students who are now serving the public in government, nonprofit, or business roles.6) The ONLY candidate writing a book on Policy Design, now being edited down from 400 pages.7) The ONLY candidate who taught graduate public policy analysis, policy evaluation, advocacy, implementation, and public sector decision making courses, including at the #1 ranked public affairs school (USNWR)8) The ONLY candidate who has taught graduate public management and organizational behavior courses, including at the #1 ranked program in Public Management and Leadership (USNWR)9) The ONLY candidate who has taught climate change policy and environmental policy for 20 years, including currently at the #1 ranked US graduate program in Environmental Policy &amp; Management (USNWR)10) The ONLY candidate that has recently qualified to run the Boston Marathon (as far as I know)11) The ONLY candidate named DaveWrite a little something about your issue here. You can only write about a paragraph here, but you can turn on an option to create full issues pages on the options sidebar of the issues page.

Top Ten Reasons to Vote for Professor Dave

This campaign is not about me, never has been, and never will be. My job as your representative is to listen to what you need and want to make your life easier and happier, to figure out if it's doable, to figure out what role I can play to make that happen, and then do everything I can in 24 hours a day to do it. That's it. It's a lot. But it's about you, so I need your views.You can start here to tell me. Go to the Volunteer button on the home page and add your comments. You can use an alias if you want to rant. I still want to hear what you think about the federal government and how it can improve. Or email me directly at dave@ehrlichforcongress.com. Or come to Capitol Hill to OUR office in January 2027. We'll probably lose the lottery and get a small office in the Cannon Office Building, which is OK. Except now they've discovered lead in the pipes and you can't drink the water. I will get our lead pipes here in the 7th District fixed first on my agenda; we'll drink bottled water in Cannon. Also right after the March 17 election I'll be identifying every source of federal funding to the 7th district that we get, and how to maximize that. As a blue state, we pay more into the federal coffers than many states, while our government illegally tries to take Illinois funding away that Congress intends that we get. Another priority is what the federal government can do to make your life easier and happier, especially when it doesn't cost the taxpayer much if anything. And there is, surprisingly, a lot that government can do to improve your life without taking your money and then giving some of it back to you, after the billionaires take their $4 trillion slice of OBBB tax breaks, of course.Many countries are focusing on happiness, just as the founders did in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of <a href="https://www.worldhappiness.report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Happiness</a>.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Happiness</a>."We're not doing that well: 22nd and 24th in <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">happiness</a>. We can do better. My opponents are not talking about this yet, but I am, and I'm serious about it. Our federal government can reduce your paperwork burden for taxes and benefits, help your economy, and importantly for this election, dramatically reduce the corruption that is sapping our moral, democratic, and economic futures. See the Corruption section above. And again, surprisingly, many of these improvements are inexpensive, costless, or have high benefit-to-cost ratios.I have a list of how I'll make your life easier and happier, but I want to add your ideas, complaints, and irritations to the list. I will seriously do what I can to improve them.