I am a Vietnam-era Air Force veteran. I was honorably discharged, so I've been eligible to enroll in the Veterans Administration health care system for most of my working life.

But for all of that time, I was covered by an employer-subsidized health care plan, so I never needed to enroll in the VA system. Now that I'm retired, I've been encouraged by several of my veteran friends to join, but frankly, I don't think I should be burdening an already overloaded system with my minor complaints. I have a Medicare Advantage plan, and it serves my needs well.

But I have heard many, well, horror stories about the poor treatment veterans are receiving at our own Mann Grandstaff Veterans Hospital in Spokane, which serves this district and more. I say treatment rather than care, because I have heard nothing but positive words for the staff at the hospital, but the computer system used there is atrocious. I don't need to go into details. If you're one of the 22,000 veterans who have been there in the last few years, you already know. If you're not, ask a vet who has been. Chances are, you know one. I know several.

It's not just in Eastern Washington, it's happening at several VA hospitals around the country. So Congress can and should take a serious, nonpartisan look into this situation. It's a national issue and, frankly, a national shame.

I put myself through college with grants and student loans. At the time, the standard rate for such loans was 9 percent, and it took me 20 years to pay them off. That meant that by the end, I had paid 180 percent of the actual cost of my education. And that was a few decades ago; I can only imagine how much more difficult it would be today.

And that's for a degree in political science. Those in the medical profession are several times more expensive, ranging into the hundreds of thousands of dollars -- a lifetime of crippling debt. We're critically short in many of those vital professions, so we should be making it easier to study in them, but we're doing the opposite. As part of the "Big Beautiful Bill" enacted into law last year, many of the lower-cost federal financing options are being discontinued or altered, in an effort to move student loans into the private sector, where banks can make a profit.

The federal government has a program of direct lending, part of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. I support the idea, because the borrowers are repaying the U.S. government, so we get the interest accrued. But the program has already accrued more than $1 trillion in debt for a variety of reasons (there have been several proposals in Congress to remedy the situation; none have been acted on), one of which is that it offers loans for nearly every field and at nearly every college.

I would propose a special program making low- or zero-interest federal loans to students in designated, critical fields that benefit America at large -- particularly in the medical professions and teaching. As much as my political science degree changed my life, I'm no doctor. We need doctors, not more Poli Sci majors.

On Dec. 1, 2025, the Washington state Department of Revenue issued a preliminary report on data centers. It's a long read, but worth it. I don't know if there's been a final report, but it's certainly a great start. Google "Data Center Workgroup: Preliminary Report."

Basically, data centers provide a lot of opportunities and benefits, if they're built responsibly and with consideration of the environment around them. But they also pose "potential environmental and community impacts, particularly regarding energy use and related dam operations, water consumption, and localized ecological effects."

Many of the issues should be addressed and controlled as locally as possible, by the people who will be most affected by the actual physical presence, but there must also be oversight and coordinated planning on a larger scale, even nationally. This includes regulatory efficiency (i.e., with the minimum possible cost and red tape), and early engagement with affected Tribes (they are contributors to the state report)..

Artificial intelligence is here, and it's growing much faster than most people would have expected. We can't just deny them, because, in a way, this is the space race of our era. Whoever dominates in artificial intelligence and data processing will be very powerful in the world of the future. We cannot and must not cede that position to other nations -- particularly China. We the people need to get out in front of artificial intelligence and let it develop in ways that are beneficial to us all, rather than becoming a strain on our resources. That, I believe, is the federal government's role in data center development.

These pages were built by GoDaddy, so I don't want to take any of these sections out because I might not be able to put them back in later. So just ignore the rest of them ... except as an example of what AI can do. I don't know who that guy is.

The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance fund, or as it's more commonly known, Social Security, is predicted to be depleted by 2032, requiring an estimated $500 (or 24%) average monthly cut for recipients unless Congress intervenes. There are basically two ways the Legislature can act.

We could increase raise the payroll tax rate. The current tax rate is 12.4% (split evenly at 6.2% for both employers and employees). And/or we could raise or eliminate the cap on earnings subject to Social Security taxes, currently at $184,500 in 2026.

We could also replenish the fund by modifying payouts, such as increasing the Full Retirement Age, currently 67 for those born in 1960 and later. We could gradually raise it to 68 or 70 to reflect longer life expectancies. We could also reduce benefits for higher earners, who presumably wouldn't be as dependent on Social Security funds.

I prefer to raise revenue by eliminating the income cap -- there has been a lot more money created in the last few decades, and current Social Security policy doesn't tap much of it -- rather than the restructuring the payouts that many people have come to expect over the decades since it was created in 1945.

Most people under 40 don't even expect Social Security to be there when they're eligible to receive it, even though they'll be contributing a significant portion of their income for decades.

Never miss an important date! Check our events calendar to find out when and where to participate in Mike's campaign activities.

On a different page, and not much there, but yeah!