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TOMMY THOMPSON
"There
is a big difference between common sense and what I call 'government
sense.' For decades now we have seen the federal government gathering
more and more power into its grasp. For 50 years we have seen a federal
government who thought it could do a better job when it came to running
our states, to running our schools, to running our businesses, and to
running our personal lives. What has happened in those 50 years? We have
seen crime go up, respect for authority go down, more families breaking
up, and a government that does not pay its bills. It’s a good thing
they have been telling us what to do, right? Perhaps the one good thing
to come out of this experiment will be the conviction that it is time to
start moving away from government sense back to common sense." -
Tommy Thompson
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Statistics
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| CAMPAIGN
SLOGAN: "Proven Common Sense Leadership." |
| FULL
NAME: Tommy
George Thompson
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| DATE
OF BIRTH: November 19, 1941 |
| AGE: 66 |
| ASTROLOGICAL
SIGN: Scorpio |
| SPOUSE: Sue
Ann Mashok |
| CHILDREN: Tommi,
Kelli, and Jason |
| PETS: None |
| RESIDENCE: Elroy,
WI |
| RELIGION: Roman
Catholic |
| PROFESSION: Attorney |
|
QUICK
FACT: Under
Tommy's direction as Governor, Wisconsin led the nation in assisting
tens of thousands of families to get off 'the dependence of a welfare
check and onto the independence of a paycheck.'
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| OFFICIAL
WEBSITE: http://www.tommy2008.com |
| E-MAIL: info@tommy2008.com |
Biography -
Tommy
George Thompson is a United
States politician and was the 7th U.S.
Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the 42nd Governor
of Wisconsin.
His brother, Ed
Thompson, was the Libertarian
Party candidate in the 2002
gubernatorial election.
Thompson was born in Elroy,
Wisconsin, where his father, Allen Thompson, ran a gas station and
country grocery store. His mother, Julia, was a schoolteacher. Thompson began his career in politics in
1966
as a representative in the Wisconsin
State Assembly, after earning his law degree at the University
of Wisconsin Law School. He was elected assistant Assembly minority
leader in 1973 and Assembly minority leader in 1981. From
1987 to 2001, Thompson
served as the 42nd Governor
of Wisconsin, having been elected to an unprecedented four terms.
Thompson's initiatives during his 13 years as governor of
Wisconsin
were his Wisconsin
Works welfare
reform and school
choice programs. In 1990,
Thompson pushed for the creation of the United
States' first parental school-choice program, allowing low-income Milwaukee
families to send children to the private or public
school of their choice at taxpayer expense. He also created the BadgerCare
program, designed to provide health coverage to those families whose
employers don't provide health insurance but make too much money to qualify
for Medicaid. Through the federal waiver program, Thompson helped replicate
this program in several states when he became Secretary of Health and Human
Services.
From 1998 to 1999, he served as president of the
CSG
and, with the organization's chairman, Senator Kenneth
McClintock, the nonvoting member from Puerto
Rico, led a top-level delegation to the People's
Republic of China. Thompson left office when he was appointed by
President George
W. Bush as HHS Secretary. He has said of the current President, "George W. Bush has tremendous
characteristics. He's very honest. He's very straightforward. [If I were
president] I would put
him out on a lecture series, talking to the youth of America about honesty,
integrity, perseverance, passion, and serving the public." He announced his resignation from
HHS on December
3, 2004,
and served until January
26, 2005,
when the Senate
confirmed his successor, Michael
O. Leavitt.
Shortly after leaving his Bush Cabinet post, Thompson joined and served
for two years on the board of directors of Applied
Digital Solutions, makers of the controversial VeriChips:
glass-encapsulated RFID
devices to be injected into human flesh for identification purposes and for
use as a payment device. Thompson is the President of Logistics Health,
Inc., a senior
partner at Akin
Gump, a Washington, D.C. law firm, a senior advisor
at the consulting firm Deloitte, and the chairman of the Deloitte Center
for Health Solutions. Thompson taught a class in the fall of 2005 at the Kennedy
School of Government on medical diplomacy.
Thompson has stated that Iowa is the most crucial state in order to
secure the Republican nomination and he plans to spend the majority
of his time there up until the election. He has gained a good amount of
support despite not having as much campaign funding as some of the other
candidates. He recently placed fourth in close proximity to Romney, Giuliani,
and McCain
in a Des
Moines Register poll in terms of who Republicans would nominate. He has
been steadily gaining on the current top tier candidates and is expected to
do very well in the August straw poll in Ames.
During the third republican debate held in New Hampshire Thompson had a
chance to outline his solution for Iraq. First, he would petition Iraq
parliament to vote on whether or not they want the U.S. in their country
anymore to give legitimacy to both the United States and Iraq. Second, he
would give much more power to the 18 provinces that reside in Iraq. This
would be an effort to stop the strife that exists between the groups that
are in Iraq. Lastly, he would use Alaska as a model for what to do with
Iraq's oil supply. Split into thirds, the central, regional, and every
citizen would receive a check every month from the revenue generated.
(See http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=21738.)
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Thompson.)
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Platform
Issues -
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| Iraq: |
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Governor
Thompson believes Iraq is a vital front in the War on Terror and that
the debate over short-term military solutions and defunding of the
troops’ mission is shortsighted and counterproductive. Instead,
Governor Thompson believes that America should work to build an Iraq
with strong economic and political infrastructures. |
| Defense
and Foreign Policy: |
|
Governor
Thompson believes the nation must recommit itself to rebuilding the
American military because our armed forces must have the capacity to
dominate any war or any conflict we must enter – all while having
the capability to fight a multi-front war. Our military is simply
stretched too thin to protect American interests overseas and at home
in these dangerous times. At the same time, our foreign policy cannot
be based solely on military might. We must reach out to the rest of
the world, and a good place to start is with medical diplomacy.
Governor Thompson’s initiative would take America’s great doctors
and health professionals, along with our medicines and technology, to
some of the most distraught places in the world, helping to comfort
and nurse the poor to better health. By doing so, we can begin to heal
some of the wounds with our global neighbors.
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| Health
Care: |
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Governor
Thompson believes America must strengthen its health care system if it
is to remain the best in the world. He would accomplish this by 1.
moving the focus to preventive from curative care; 2. accelerating the
adoption of health information technology to save money and lives; 3.
placing the uninsured in state-by-state insurable pools, allowing
private insurers to bid on their coverage; 4. strengthening the
nation’s long-term care system that robs too many Americans of their
life savings; and 5. strengthening the Medicare and Medicaid programs
to ensure the programs are there in the future for the millions of
Americans who depend on them.
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| Immigration: |
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Governor
Thompson opposes amnesty and believes that America must enforce its
immigration policies to the fullest extent of the law. People who are
found to be in the country illegally should be returned to their home
countries and should have to wait at the end of the line, behind
people who are seeking to enter the country or become citizens
legally. |
| Abortion: |
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Governor
Thompson is pro-life and signed one of the nation’s first
partial-birth abortion bans. Under Thompson, the number of adoptions
in Wisconsin increased by 22 percent, while the number of abortions
decreased by 37 percent. Just as he did in Wisconsin, Thompson would
appoint strict constructionist judges who do not legislate from the
bench. |
| Marriage: |
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Governor
Thompson believes marriage is between a man and a woman. He supports
states’ rights in determining the definition of marriage and
believes it should be done legislatively or by referendum. |
| Education: |
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Governor
Thompson, who started the nation’s first school choice program in
Milwaukee, believes America must hold our schools to high standards
from kindergarten through college while making sure all of our
children have access to a world-class education, regardless of what
neighborhood they live in or how much money their parents make.
Governor Thompson believes Congress can make No Child Left Behind
stronger, and do so without wavering on its core principles.
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| Second
Amendment: |
|
Governor Thompson is a gun owner
who signed legislation that banned Wisconsin communities from passing
anti-gun ordinances that are stricter than state law. |
| Taxes
and Spending: |
| Governor Thompson cut
taxes by $16.4 billion in Wisconsin and believes President Bush’s
tax cuts must be permanent to allow taxpayers to keep more of their
hard-earned money and to continue to build the economy. Governor
Thompson also vetoed more than 1,900 items in 14 years in office,
saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
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| Energy
and the Environment: |
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Governor
Thompson believes America must become more independent in its energy
needs and break reliance on foreign oil. We must begin with greater
investments in renewable energy, like ethanol, so we can bring these
technologies to market faster and more efficiently. And we must come
together and deal with our changing climate.
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(From http://www.tommy2008.com/On_The_Issues.aspx.)
(See http://www.issues2000.org.)
TOMMY THOMPSON QUOTES
"When
you use the opportunity to allow the free-market system to work, it has the
tendency to drive down costs.”
“We
spend $117 billion a year on obesity-related diseases and 300,000 Americans
die.”
“This
rule makes sure that private health information doesn't fall victim to the
progress of the information and technology age, ... where an array of data
is readily available in computer systems and too often just a keystroke away
from being assessed.”
“Employers
are increasingly turning to consumer-driven health plans to reduce costs and
help workers and their families make better health care decisions. Not only
do companies protect their bottom lines, they help make employees better
health consumers.”
“We
really have to go to the state to the governor to the legislator and make
some changes and make them quickly or we're going to get to the point where
we're a third-world nation.”
“Unless
the federal government is going to be able to come together -- which I don't
think is going to happen -- you're going to see states (reforming
healthcare).” (See
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/tommy_thompson.)
We thank the following resources:
Tommy Thompson Official Website
http://www.tommy2008.com
Project Vote Smart
http://www.vote-smart.org
Wikipedia
http://www.wikipedia.com
On the Issues
http://www.issues2000.org
ThinkExist.com
http://en.thinkexist.com
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