As I noted yesterday, I have recently become very interested in the New American Independent Party and their candidate, Frank McEnulty.  Why?  Well, out of every candidate I’ve researched thus far, McEnulty has positions that makes the most sense to me.

The NAIP was started in 2004 on election day, so this is their first time running a Presidential candidate.  The previously ran a State Rep. in 2006.  Earlier this year, the NAIP selected Frank McEnulty as their candidate.  McEnulty is currently CFO for a small group of companies, and has done a lot of work in the real estate industry.

Why do I like him?  Because he’s the first candidate I’ve seen that seems to have middle of the road ideas from the get go.  Like me, he’s disgusted with the two major parties and their stranglehold on American politics.  That’s a huge thing to me, and part of why I’m also interested in the Libertarians as well (though, technically, most third parties are disgusted with the two biggies).  Additionally, he’s as disgusted with the partisan state of this country as I am.

One of the reasons I like him in terms of policy issues though, is healthcare.  I used to be in favor of universal healthcare.  Then I had first-hand experience in how government run healthcare is already a failure and full of red tape, with regulations and restrictions that sometimes don’t make sense.  Just yesterday, I was reading up on my state’s new Charter Oak healthplan for adults.  All the ads make it sound pretty good: marketing it toward people like me who’ve just left college.  Well, there’s a caveat to it: if you’ve had health insurance in the past six months, you can’t get it!  Unless you have lost your job, are in financial dire straits, or have just gotten off the state’s HUSKY Plan (which I left a year ago), you’re in trouble.  I figure I might fit under the first category, but I have to check.  I fear that it only covers those who’ve been laid off, though, which isn’t my case.  I left my job because school ended.

So, I was pleased when I saw McEnulty’s plan:

I believe there should be a Federal safety net for people with insurance who, through no fault of their own, use up their health insurance and are left without coverage when they need it most because of a catastrophic illness or injury. People who try to do the right thing (buy or have a job with insurance coverage) should always have the backing of the government for circumstances far beyond their control.

I believe there should be a Federal health insurance pool for people who cannot buy health insurance from traditional sources similar to the Flood Insurance Program currently in place and the Disaster Insurance Program that I have proposed in an earlier email concerning the government’s response to disasters.

The true purpose of a Federal health insurance program should be to prevent people from suffering financial ruin when a major medical event happens in their lives, not to pay for every little thing and every time they want to see the doctor. When a governmental program starts to pay for every little thing, it gets abused, our money is wasted and costs spiral even more out of control.

Let’s do what is right by all Americans and develop a safety net so that everyone has the ability to be covered against the major medical events and can buy major medical insurance while maintaining some individual responsibility for the day-to-day health care items whether it is through their one’s own private insurance policy, an employer insurance policy or by paying for it out one’s own pocket.

Emphasis his.  Now, I’m looking for a job, and with some luck, should have one in the next half month or so.  The job comes with benefits,  including healthcare, whenever that might start.  In the meantime, I need something.  I have Crohn’s Disease, which requires medicine, regular blood tests and (recommended) yearly colonoscopies.  I also have asthma, which requires treatment and doctor visits as well.  I’m very happy to leave the insurance when I get one from my job, but in the meantime, I could use some help.  I think the safety net of insurance needs to be extended, and available whenever someone needs help, and not with a ridiculous waiting period.

Next, I consider myself a hawk on illegal immigration.  It’s been a while since I’ve written about it.  Back in 2007, I aligned myself more closely with those who want to round up all the illegals and cart them back to their countries of origin.  But, these days I know that’s unreliable, fascistic (even if right), and costly.  Here’s McEnulty’s plan:

First, I would instruct all agencies under my jurisdiction to strictly enforce and apply the rules against hiring illegal immigrant workers.

Second, I would direct that all instances of employing illegal aliens be subject to penalty by fine and jail time – real jail time, not a “country club” jail. It’s real simple for an employer to pay a fine and move on – that’s just a cost of doing business. It’s not so simple to ignore the threat of real jail time in a real criminal jail. No one wants to face that prospect.

Third, I would do whatever was possible to ensure that illegal aliens in this country would not receive any social benefits.

Fourth, I would move to change the Constitution so that only those born of American citizens become citizens of this country upon birth. The founders of our country could not and would not have ever envisioned the fact that there would be hundreds of thousands of babies born each year in the United States hospitals solely so their parents can use them as an excuse to demand to stay here and take benefits from the rest of us.

Basically, enforce our current laws!  I think that makes a lot of sense.  I’m not sure I completely agree with the hard time for employers, but tough punishments need to be handed out to those who employ illegals.  The second part I really like is the loss of social benefits.  Illegals are just that, illegal!  So, why afford them social benefits, sometimes even more than Permanent Residents (who came here legally) get!  That’s insane policy.  However, I do have a concern.  The plan I posted above came on February 28 of this year.  However, on June 27, 2007, he posted this:

1 – All people in the country illegally would have to register as a foreign guest-worker within 90 days in order to ever obtain citizenship or even achieve permanent status. There would be no exceptions to this policy. If you don’t register within 90 days, you are in a separate class, face a much harder road to move forward towards legal working status and citizenship and probably will be deported.

2 – In addition to having to register, all illegal aliens would have to open bank accounts and obtain legal, taxable jobs if they hope to ever obtain citizenship or permanent status. Household employees would need their employers to start paying taxes on them, gardeners would have to start recording their income like real businessmen and everyone would get back on a level playing field. No legal, tax-paying job and you get to go back home.

Those ideas listed above would seem to go against policies against hiring illegals.  I’m going to pop him an email about it and get back to this issue, because this needs to be reconciled, I think.

Finally, McEnulty is pretty social liberal, but more economically moderate, which matches me a lot.  Like me, he does have some strong personal feelings about some hot topic issues (abortion, etc.) but doesn’t feel that he can speak for everybody, which I like.  A president who knows he represents all the people and not just his own feelings is someone I can support.

See this page for more of his mini-essays on policy issues.

I do wish McEnulty luck, and my email to him will have me find out how I might be able to vote for him in Connecticut.  The NAIP is working on getting ballot access in many states, but I’m not sure if he’ll be on in CT.  No, I haven’t made my decision yet, but I now consider McEnulty on my list of considerations.

You can call it wasting my vote if you wish.  I call it the democratic process.