William Larsen - I grew up in Fort Wayne and graduated from Paul Harding High School in 1975. I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1977 and attained the rank of machinist mate 2nd class. I was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy and attended Purdue University where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. While in college, I met my wife, Lenore. We have five children. My degreed experience is in naval nuclear reactors, space power, filtration, neutron detectors, radioactive waste, gas pumps, busses and more. I solve problems for a living. I will restore the American Dream, where in a land of opportunity an individual can work hard and prosper. It is not right for politicians to create deficits, borrow the money and give the bill to our children, grandchildren and future generations to pay. My Position on Issues Investment Bank Bail Out: I do not agree with bailing out institutions that made risky loans. Bailing out these institutions and taking over millions of properties to be sold later does several things. These vacant homes still have property taxes, utilities and maintenance costs. Taxpayers would be responsible for these costs until liquidated. Home owners attempting to sell their home will be competing with vacant homes; depressing home prices. To "burn" through this high volume of homes will take a long time. up to 25% of the home market or roughly the increase in population since 1960 will have to occur prior to finding financially eligible buyers for these homes. Those who made the loans need to bare the risk and ultimately the loss. There is no guarantee that this bailout will stop future losses from occurring. The national debt already stands out nearly $10 Trillion. Taking on more debt will devalue the U.S. Dollar and cause oil to increase far more than the $145 a barrel we have seen this year. Ultimately a bailout reduces all Americans to the lowest common denominator by shifting the loss from a concentrated few to all. Budget deficits: We hear a lot of talk about cutting the deficit in half. In fact they have talked about it as far back as I can remember. I am 52 years old and I simply cannot remember a surplus year, can you? Who has been running this country, the politicians or the voters? I hear people complain, but do we ever take action? There are only two methods available to cut deficits, cut spending and raise taxes. The general budget deficit was is over $600 billion so far for 2008 and climbing. The last general budget surplus was in 1957! Our representatives say they are against using social security revenues to pay for non social security expenses, yet use its revenues to offset general budget expenses (called the unified budget). They do this to make the numbers look better, I will not do this. There are only two methods available to cut deficits, cut spending and/or raise taxes. To balance the budget we need to first cut spending to the bone and if necessary raise taxes to pay for those programs we need. Energy reform: Congress has debated energy policy for decades and what do we have to show for it? For millennia we have used the process of burning to convert fuel to work. It is time to move into the 21st century with truly renewable sources of energy that are clean, reliable and cost competitive. Wind power has now reached a level where it can compete with other forms of energy. It is time to stop subsidizing inefficient and wasteful energy programs. Nuclear power is costly, creates highly radioactive waste and YUCCA mountain has not opened. Proposing new nuclear power plants before an operational repository is open is being ignorant of the facts. Building coal fired utilities creates pollution. Developing scrubbers for these plants when Wind Power produces clean, reliable and cheaper energy today is giving into special interests at taxpayers expense. Education: I support eliminating the Federal Department of Education. The Federal Government takes our taxes and doles them back to our schools with strings attached. In addition sending money to Washington is like having the added cost of a middleman one does not need. We also have to pay for all of the unfunded federal education mandates locally. Identity Theft: In 2004 9.2 million complaints of identity theft were filed. The IRS is the single largest contributor to identity theft in that it requires financial institutions, employers and now colleges to collect an individual’s taxpayer identification number for tax purposes yet puts no restrictions on the entity collecting the information. As a result these entities have lost control of this identifier. To begin to correct this serious error in judgment, we need to put strict controls on the access and use of these identifiers.No non-government entity should be allowed to utilize a social security or taxpayer identification number in its daily business for account numbers, PIN’s, employee, insurance and school ID’s or any other method of identification. In addition, government agencies should be required to perform their own independent identity verification and not rely on a social security number. This would provide a layered security approach. The social security number should be used for social security purposes only. I will defend your rights! Illegal Immigration: The unemployment rate is 6.1% and 19 million are looking for work who have exhuasted unemployment benefits. The share of unemployed with less education is way up. The U.S. does not have a 5% unemployment rate. The 5% unemployment rate is used to support immigration. Unemployment among less educated Americans is up 11% while it is 13% for dropouts. The perception is the U.S. is in need of less educated workers, which is not true. They already have the highest unemployment rate, the lowest wage rate and employment participation among less educated had declined dramatically. They took the poorest workers and made them poorer. Less educated immigrants and less educated Americans do the same kinds of work. There is no such thing as a job a American will not do. Allowing legal status to illegals has enormous implications for America’s poorest workers. America is not short of less educated workers given the high unemployment rate and the high number of less educated workers who have stopped looking. Internal Revenue Service Reform: Individual Taxpayers have little statutory law to force the IRS to answer questions, meet deadlines or make corrections. Without a final determination or Statutory Notice, taxpayers cannot seek help from the Tax Court, leaving the taxpayer in limbo. In essence the IRS could take 100 years to resolve an issue leaving the taxpayer with no recourse. National Defense: Those who serve our country need to be trained and be provided the equipment necessary to carry out the tasks assigned to them. We should never knowingly send our men and women into combat with out-dated equipment, poor training and poor planning. They are putting their lives on the line, the least we can do is provide them the training and equipment to carry out their assigned tasks. "On-us" check cashing reform: It is not honorable to charge a fee to a non-account holder at the bank the check is drawn on. The bank is providing a service to the account holder, not the endorsee. All employer paychecks need to be readily cashable in a local bank without fees and surcharges at the bank on which they are drawn. Pension, 401K and profit Sharing reform: If you are laid off, the responsible company’s vesting guidelines should be revoked and you should be automatically vested 100% in that company’s matching 401K, profit sharing and pension plans. Personal Freedoms: Our personal freedoms are under attack. The Right to bear arms is being restricted. Religious freedoms are under attack. The courts are attempting to create our laws. The interpretation of the US Constitution does not change with time. Its meaning today is exactly the same as it was in 1787 when it was written. If we want a new intepretation, then the mechanism for change is to amend the US Constitution, not the courts. Veterans: As a Navy veteran, I know the hardship that military life can have on families. I also know first hand that injuries sustained in the line of duty can take years to recoup from if ever. We need to maintain our VA hospitals and provide those who have been injured the best medical care available. I also support changing the index used for adjusting veteran's benefits from the consumer price index to the Social Security Wage Index. This change will maintain the same standard of living benefit throughout the veteran's life. Tax Reform: Americans and Business spend too much on determining their taxes. Why should one company profit at the expense of another simply because a politician wants to give your money away? Individuals and business would do better understanding the tax code and knowing the tax code would not change every few years. Congress has given preferential treatment to companies groups and individuals. This is unfair, creates thousands of pages of code and is inefficient. Income is income, treat income as such. Treat all taxpayers fairly by not holding out carrots for preferential tax treatment. This will reduce the tax code to less than 50 pages. It will greatly reduce compliance costs and tax court litigation. Social Security Disability Program: I support the Social Security Disability Program covering the disabled and survivors of workers who die. This program unlike Social Security's Old Age Survivors Insurance Program is based on a covered loss and not based on living to a particular age. Social Security Old Age Benefits: Since 1983 social security has been working on resolving its latest funding problem. It is no closer to a solution now than it was in 1937. Social security has earned 8.6% compounded continuously since 1980, but as a middleman will pay you a 0% return.This program was designed to fail. If we want to save social security, then each adult must send a check today to social security for $87,000, or cut benefits by 40% or raise taxes by 85%. There simply is no painless solution. I support repealing the Social Security act. In its place The worker would be required to open an IRA style account at a financial institution of their choice where the employer's share of the social security tax would be deposited. The employee's tax would never be taken out of the check so that the employee could use these wages for debt reduction, retirement, education, health care, etc. The total controlled by the employee would be about $3,600 per year ($1,800 in the IRA style account and $1,800 left in the paycheck). Mark Souder’s Statement on Social Security. Mark Souder spoke to Prime Time 39 on 3/12/2004 and referred to Social Security as a "shell game." He stated, "For people under 30 it's probably going to be income based. I am not saying we're going to pass that. It will probably be passed after I am dead." He continued "If you're 40, you might make it through the system. But if you're under 40, and certainly under 30, you had better start planning because if you want to have a decent retirement you’re going to need supplemental funds."

Original Web Page - go here while I update my web

2004-03-22 

News Sentinel "Candidate Larsen raises an issue incumbent office holders don't want to touch. Larsen is by no means a single-issue candidate. When he moves away from Social Security, he sounds very much like a typical conservative Republican: Keep defense strong and government intrusion minimal, define marriage as between one woman and one man, enact school vouchers and keep our personal freedoms intact. But on this one issue, he is an expert."

By Leo Morris for the editorial board

2006-04-18

News Sentinel "Souder’s opponent is William Larsen, a structural engineer who has broadened his approach enough so that he no longer deserves the “one issue candidate” label he got stuck with when he first ran as a fierce opponent of the current Social Security system. He lists his top priority, for example, as national defense, and he has keen insight into some accounting tricks the federal government uses to keep the budget so bloated."

 

We are all in this boat together.

"Actually, it's today's retirees who are sitting on the deck with mint juleps in hand, while the boomers and X'ers are below in the galley rowing like slaves to the command of stroke, stroke, stroke. Seniors would like the galley slaves to continue to believe the hoax that one day they too will have the opportunity to sit on the deck with their feet propped up. Only problem is, when it's finally the galley slaves turn on the deck, the ship will long since have sunk. The slaves are just now realizing the cruel hoax perpetrated upon them, and are about to ban together to stop the ship dead in the water and use their oars as clubs."

Written by Karl A Sweetman 10/25/98

"I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means-- except by getting off his back."

-- Leo Tolstoy