Creating jobs to replace those that have been lost in the private and public sectors with well-paying sustainable jobs is a priority for Francine.  Her family, like many others in San Diego, has been affected by the slow economy.  It is important to restore trust in our financial institutions by implementing safeguards against the abuses that led to the financial meltdown and ensuing crisis in home foreclosures, loss of wealth, diminished credit and loss of jobs.  Francine is a strong proponent of good jobs with fair wages, safe working conditions and benefits that allow San Diegans to live with dignity. She will collaborate with leaders in San Diego and in Washington, D.C., to make sure that Americans have access to education and training to prepare them for careers and well-paying jobs.

San Diego is well-positioned to emerge from the current economic slump at the forefront of innovation in the biotech, high-tech and clean-tech sectors. Francine will support and assist San Diego entrepreneurs with increased information and access to Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology (STTR) programs as well as available grant funding. Francine supports extending tax cuts for middle-class taxpayers, such as the Making Work Pay tax credits enacted on a temporary basis in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Francine also supports Healthcare insurance reforms to control costs and increase accessibility to businesses and their employees.  Francine plans to meet regularly with business leaders to address the needs and challenges that she can help to resolve both here and in Washington.

Our current healthcare system is economically unsustainable and morally unacceptable.  Francine supports a vigorous public option to increase competition, lower costs, and offer a reliable alternative to those who have been denied coverage or are not eligible for employer based healthcare plans. The federal government should negotiate costs for prescription drugs for Medicare and close the “donut hole.” that creates havoc with the budgets of our Seniors.  As healthcare reforms progress, Francine will work with healthcare providers and experts to craft sensible, affordable and successful healthcare delivery that emphasizes wellness, quality care and cost efficiency. Healthcare insurance and delivery reform are critical to the well-being of American families.

We must decrease spending by lowering the cost of healthcare, eliminating no-bid contracts, and ending out-of control agricultural and corporate subsidies.  Congress must adopt rules to enforce increased oversight, transparency and accountability coupled with a PAY-AS-YOU-GO system (called PAYGO) of appropriations.  Francine believes that honest, hard-working Americans who pay their taxes and follow the rules have a right to expect their representatives to do the same.

Education, ingenuity, and perseverance are all parts of the American dream.  A college degree is an increasingly critical milestone on the road to personal independence, career success and our nation's ability to compete in a global marketplace. The public economic costs of under-education include decreases in tax revenue due to stunted economic growth, and increased costs for public social programs.  Francine Busby will work to make “No Child Left Behind” more productive and less punitive.  She will fight for America’s future leaders from preschool through college by working to expand Head Start preschool; provide incentives to attract and retain highly-skilled teachers; and make college more accessible and affordable by decreasing the cost of college loans and increasing access to Pell grants.

Francine will work to re-establish a functioning ethics committee that enforces tough rules on corporate perks such as privately-funded junkets and holds members of Congress to the highest level of ethical conduct. She believes that fighting corruption in Congress takes representatives like her who are willing to say “NO!” to powerful special interests and Washington lobbyists.

There are no long term military solutions to resolve the ongoing conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The U.S. should act in collaboration with the elected leaders of those countries and other international partners to help maintain the peace and train security forces while continuing to engage in diplomatic, economic, educational and humanitarian efforts to affect long term, sustainable change.

Honoring soldiers is the moral obligation of Congress and keeping America's promise to our nation's veterans means so much more than Memorial Day speeches. It means fighting every day to fulfill promises on health care, education and benefits. Francine fully supported the 21^st Century GI Bill to give our veterans the same opportunities as previous veterans for education and home-ownership, and she will fight for enough VA funding so that no veteran is denied health care. She will work to find solutions for the alarming number of homeless veterans. Because she believes it is unacceptable that some of our men and women in uniform are forced to accept public assistance during their service to this country, Francine will fight for pay raises for our active military with families.

Terrorist who use violence against civil societies must be stopped.  The U.S. must continue vigilant pursuit of known individuals and terrorist organizations using every means possible in collaboration with other countries and entities including financial institutions.   Individuals and organizations who are associated with international or domestic terrorism must be pursued and disabled.

Social Security requires small adjustments, not radical changes. Francine strongly opposed the privatization plan supported by congressional Republicans because of the estimated $5 trillion transition costs and the high risk of betting our retirement security on private investment schemes. Francine understands that without a secure social safety net, many of our seniors would be reduced to the poverty and dependency that preceded the introduction of Social Security, and families would have no support for their loved ones with disabilities.

Francine Busby has always been a strong defender of women's civil rights, equal rights and human rights.  She will champion the right of each woman to make her own reproductive decisions, free from government meddling. Francine believes that increasing access to quality education, preventive healthcare, affordable childcare and good-paying jobs will decrease unplanned pregnancies and abortions. She believes that we need to do more to decrease violence against women, including domestic violence, which is approaching epidemic proportions. Francine is a proponent of targeting foreign aid toward the education and economic development of women and girls as one of the most effective means of achieving social transformation and stability in developing countries.

As a native Southern Californian, Francine understands the crucial need to protect our air, water, wetlands, parkland, forests and coastlines from irresponsible development and pollution. She opposes drilling off the coast of California. She believes that conservation is the most effective and affordable means of decreasing pollution and preserving our natural resources. Francine supports the re-use and recycling of water for specific uses,;the responsible expansion of desalinization as an alternative source of water; and the vigorous protection of our marine and sensitive habitats. The goal is to balance environmental protection and conservation with the needs of commerce and residents.  Francine supported the American Climate and Energy Security Act of 2009 (ACES) as the first step toward comprehensive national climate and energy policies.  This historic act established an economy-wide greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system and critical measures to address climate change and build a clean energy economy.

San Diego is poised to emerge as a leader in clean-tech and the new “energy” economy that will generate new jobs and economic opportunities. San Diego will become a key national model and incubator for technologies to locally produce and distribute clean energy.. Francine strongly supports incentives to research and develop clean energy sources including solar, wind and third generation biomass such as energy from algae. We must reduce our dependence on the importation of foreign fuel for economic, environmental and national security reasons.

Francine supports the “Cash for Caulkers” program that is a federal expansion of the the Property Assessed Clean Energy or PACE concept. PACE, which has been adopted in 16 states including California and is spreading quickly. It allows private property owners to pay for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects through an addition to their property tax bill. This allows property owners to overcome high upfront costs that prevent most property owners from investing in upgrades. Owners realize immediate savings on their utility bills; green jobs are created and sustained locally by increased demand and new owners assume the costs when properties are sold. Sixteen states have adopted legislative changes to allow some form of PACE.

President Obama’s proposed “Cash for Caulkers” program further encourages local governments to adopt the PACE model. This initiative aspires to retrofit 100 million homes and generate a million new jobs while reducing U.S. Green House Gases emissions by 5 percent over the next 20 years.  These incentives are expected to greatly increase the demand for energy retrofits and PACE financing.

Cash for Caulkers would allow eligible homeowners to reduce the cost of energy efficiency retrofits by up to 50 percent; used in concert with PACE financing (where available),  that means a homeowner could make energy efficiency improvements with virtually no out-of-pocket costs, pay half-price for those improvements, and pay off the remainder through a 20-year assessment on their property tax bill—while saving money on their utility bills.

PACE is an excellent model of a well-designed public-private partnerships that stimulate economic growth by supporting individual efforts to change energy consumption patterns.

Securing our borders is a national responsibility, and stopping illegal entries, human trafficking and gun and drug smuggling at the border is a top priority. We must reform our immigration policies and practices to establish market-based immigrant labor policies and hold employers accountable. Francine will work to address the complex issue of dealing firmly but fairly with the twelve million undocumented immigrants who work productively and live peacefully in the United States.  She supports comprehensive immigration reform to humanely address important issues regarding both legal and illegal immigration policies

Francine Busby will be a strong advocate for the issues important to the LGBT community. From marriage to military service, Francine will stand up to ensure that all persons are treated fairly and equally under the law. With California being one of the more diverse states in the union, we must be the leader for those who want to champion equality and justice for every person in our county.

Francine believes that the middle class is the engine of our economy.  As entrepreneurs, skilled professionals and highly-trained workers, the middle class creates jobs and economic opportunities for growth and innovation.  Francine believes that the middle class will benefit from access to affordable, quality healthcare, relief from the alternative minimum tax, regulation of credit card interest and high  quality, affordable public education from preschool to university.

San Diego has a serious water problem.  With no naturally occurring local supplies of fresh water, the San Diego region is completely dependent on importing water from outside sources, such as the Colorado River and Sierra Nevada mountains in Northern California.  This is not only very costly, but the available stores are fast drying up.  Francine recognizes dire consequences of a failure to address the region’s water needs.  This is why she supports the mandatory conservation policies that have been implemented throughout the county.  Further, she strongly encourages the use of available modern technologies to recycle and reuse as much water as possible, and to continue investigating the potential viability of desalination in order to take advantage of the unlimited supply of salt water and increase the amount of available fresh water.  Similar conservation efforts in Australia have seen water consumption there drop to 30 gallons per day per person, compared the nearly 300 gallons per day per person currently used here in San Diego.  There is no time to waste, and no water to waste.

Twice in the last decade San Diego County has been ravaged by devastating and horrific wild fires.  Both times the county was woefully unprepared to deal with it, despite the valiant and heroic efforts of our local firefighters.  With budget belts being tightened county wide, ensuring that we have the resources at our disposal necessary to prevent the widespread destruction seen in 2003 and again in 2007 is of the utmost importance.  To that end, Francine advocates the formation of a regional fire authority that will take command and coordinate the fire suppression efforts of the various state and local agencies throughout the county.  She will also work to make sure that San Diego County has access to every federal dollar that has been allocated for use in firefighting efforts.  And she will push to close the loopholes that prevent state and local officials from being able to immediately take advantage of the resources that our military neighbors at NAS North Island, Miramar, and Camp Pendleton are willing and able to offer in assistance, in particular the firefighting helicopters and their crews that senselessly sat idly by throughout the 2003 fires and much of the 2007 firestorm.  The safety and well being of San Diego’s residents are the highest priority of any public official, and Francine Busby understands that as your representative in Congress it is her job to make sure that everything is being done to protect and assist San Diegans in a time of crisis.