MATT LYNCH FOR CONGRESS
Preserving the Spirit of America
Illegal Immigration
According to the Department of Homeland Security, there are roughly 11 million illegal immigrants in our country, 3,500 of whom are in Massachusetts emergency shelters hosted in local community centers and hotels. The cost to house, feed, and care for these people falls on the backs of Massachusetts taxpayers. Solely the cost to feed them is $64 per day per illegal immigrant, which is around $81.7 million per year. Once you take into consideration the cost of housing, medical care, clothing, and other basic necessities, taxpayers are looking at a bill of around $1 billion per year. That is a lot of money that could otherwise be used in our schools, on our aging infrastructure, to upgrade our power grid to better support the growing use of electric cars and homes and to generally benefit the American people living in Massachusetts. Housing these illegal immigrants in our community centers also takes away important public facilities that our towns and cities rely on. Our taxes pay for the construction and maintenance of these centers only for our citizens to be told they can't use them anymore. The hotels are jammed full of immigrants, and the government is footing the room bill. This has left the hotels with no rooms available for the public to stay in. This fact is going to destroy the local economy come summertime. With hotels turning away tourists in favor of housing illegal immigrants, tourism in Massachusetts will decline, and without tourists coming to enjoy our beautiful state and spend money here, stores and public attractions that have drawn in thousands of people every year will likely cease to exist. I believe this is unacceptable and, if I am elected, I promise to defend Massachusetts from this foreign invasion, protect our people and our businesses from the threat caused by this crisis, and work to find a solution that works best for the people of Massachusetts as well as those who seek to come to America for a better life. I think we need to stop illegal immigration and improve our systems to help migrants who would like to come here legally.
Gun Control
Gun control is a steady hand. Our Constitution states, "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." We are granted the right to national and self defense, but it is slowly being eroded away by those in power. The extreme overreach by our government is not only unconstitutional, but unjust. Every gun control measure that is passed simply makes it harder for law abiding citizens to exercise their rights. The CDC reports that in 2019, 14,295 people were murdered using firearms, and roughly 97% of which were committed with illegally obtained firearms. Stricter gun control laws would have only prevented a possible maximum of 3% of those homicides, and that's in a perfect world. Compare that to the 36,355 people who were killed in car crashes in the same year, yet no calls for car control or the banning of vehicles. The root cause of the issue isn't the guns or people's access to them, but the people who are using them to harm others. If someone wants to commit murder, they will do it with whatever tools are available to them. If someone is having a mental health crisis, they won't stop to think about laws or consequences. Our rights should not be restricted because a small number of people. I will do everything in my power to defend our rights as citizens of the United States. The second amendment protects the Constitution and the people from all enemies both foreign and domestic.
Criminal Justice Reform
The United States of America has more incarcerated people than any other country in the world at 1.76 million people in 2021. 31% of inmates were White, 24% were Hispanic, 34% were Black, and 11% were all other ethnicities. Of that entire prison population, men made up nearly 90% of those incarcerated. There are a lot of factors that go into this issue that need to be addressed. Firstly, we can talk about sentencing. People of color are between 4-5 times more likely to be sentenced to prison for the same crime than a white offender and were more likely to receive a longer prison sentence for the same crime. Men also received roughly 12% longer sentences than women for the same crime. The fact that sentence lengths are able to differ from person to person is what helps create these harsh disparities. A reform of sentencing based off of the crime committed is greatly needed. Another point to look at is the fact the women are more likely to be sentenced for drug related crimes than men, and White women are more likely to be sent to mental health and rehab programs versus Black women, who are more likely to be sent to prison. Obviously with this being such a complex issue, factors such as upbringing, location of sentencing, crime committed, mental health issues, etc all play a massive role into why these crimes are committed in the first place. Getting to the bottom of those issues and trying to resolve the root cause will do more for decreasing the prison population and creating a fairer criminal justice system.
Term Limits
Since the beginning of our country, term limits have been a touchy subject. When our government was created, term limits were not necessary as the men of the day saw it as a civic duty, to serve their country until they felt their job was done, then step aside to let someone else do the job. This was the ruling mentality until the 1940s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a historic four terms as president but died shortly after his final term started due to failing health. The potential dangers of having one person in power for too long became very apparent to the people. It was directly because of Roosevelt that the twenty-second amendment was passed in 1947 which has prevented any president from serving more than two terms in office ever since. Unfortunately, the conversation did not continue on to the rest of the federal government. The topic of term limits for Congress and the Senate being brought up a handful of times over the years. Most recently in 2023 when Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex) and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) proposed an amendment that would institute a three-term limit on Congress and a two-term limit on Senators. At the time this amendment was proposed, 226 of the 435 Congressmen had been in for more than three terms, 17 democrats and three republicans had been on their 15th or more term. Two democrats and two republicans are at 20 or more terms. As for the Senate, 42 of our 100 Senators have served more than two terms. Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa currently serving his eighth term (48 years upon completion in 2029) at 90 years old (95 at end of eighth term). To quote Congressman Ralph Norman, "Elected office should represent a short-term privilege of public service, not a career choice. Those of us in Congress ought to serve for a reasonable period of time and then return home to live under the laws we enacted." I believe that enough is enough. People should be running for political office to serve the people, not create a career!
Cost of Living Control
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Income Tax and IRS
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Political Insider Trading
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