Chris Day running for Congress; pledges economic reforms

BY RAQUEL OKYAY  

Decorated Army veteran Chris Day, the GOP and Conservative Party Hudson candidate for Congress in District 17, says his district, which encompasses all of Rockland and parts of Westchester, has been hurt by economic policies advocated by his opponent Nita Lowey (D).

“Our nation is at a turning point,” Day said. “If we do not address the big problems that have been ignored for so long, we will leave our children a worse country than we had.”

Day said he has specific economic plans set forth at his campaign website; one that simplifies the corporate tax code, and the other is a method of getting people back to work. “I have released a comprehensive plan that will simplify the corporate tax code which will result in a lower effective rate on small and midsize businesses with no change in the effective rate for large corporations,” he said. Implementing his plan would establish a two-tiered system where he said any company that meets a ratio of compensation and outsourced production to executive compensation and profits, would receive a lower rate. Those that do not will receive the current statutory rate with no exemptions.

“This will cause the tax savings to have to be passed on to employees, thus raising their salaries, and discourage shipping jobs overseas for cheaper production centers,” said Day. “It will result in decreased government spending on things like food stamps and welfare as more companies choose to pay their employees more in order to be able to take advantage of the tax break.”

His second point deals with getting the unemployed back into the workforce without cutting their benefits and without forcing them into other welfare-type government programs.  “It would mandate participation in an online job search system,” said Day. “The system will provide incentives to companies to hire people who are presently unemployed, with greater incentives for people who have been unemployed longer.”

Day also told the Rockland County Times he wants to look into reforming the Federal Reserve banking system. During the downturn in the economy, which has lasted over five years and created a “new normal” of lower expectations for the economy, the Federal Reserve has relied on printing cheap money.

Day, who in 2013 was named to Rockland County’s Forty Under Forty list for community service and professional achievement, believes it is important to have fair trade policies with foreign countries that protect middle class jobs here at home. Lowey has proposed free trade with low wage countries, such as Vietnam, but this approach undermines our workforce at home, he said. “It gives a perverse incentive for companies to ship jobs overseas.

During Day’s tenure in the military he lists 17 awards including the Bronze Star, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, and Ranger Tab. He said is no stranger to complex decision-making and service to the nation, having been commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry. Day was promoted to the rank of captain within three years, and after serving four years, he said he returned to Rockland County inspired to continue serving the country in other ways.

Without real plans to correct economic policies that have hurt businesses and jobs, the nation cannot recover from the economic hole it has dug, he said. “I look at my son and want him to have the same opportunities I had. If we continue down this path he and all of our sons and daughters simply will not.”

“When there is a challenge that needs to be tackled, I am willing to step-up to the plate and sacrifice,” he said. “I have led a lifetime of service – and that is what I am trying to do right now.”

“As a businessman with multiple degrees, I have the skills needed to execute.” He earned his MBA from Columbia Business School and is currently employed as vice president at Selway Capital, a private equity and venture capital firm in Manhattan. Day said he believes in encouraging the private sector to engage in beneficial behaviors through financial incentives. “Make it make business-sense for a business to do the right thing.”

Day says Lowey is committed to a status quo–offering “no solutions” to the nation’s economic problems. “She has not proposed a single independent solution to our economic problems, preferring instead to just repeat President Obama’s proposals verbatim, with no room for compromise.” A big government approach is completely ineffective, he said. “It inevitably leads to inefficiencies, infringes on people’s rights, and has massive negative unintended consequences.”

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