Reagan Box is taking on brand name men with new ideas
Reagan Box
Walker County native Reagan Box states her greatest strength for the U.S. Senate race is that she isn’t a politician. She understands issues facing grassroots voters and isn’t afraid to talk about them.
One of the issues Box talks about is Social Security. She says the current system isn’t working because it doesn’t provide a good return rate for those forced to pour money into it over their lifetimes. Someone putting $530,000 into Social Security over their lifetime may get a $50,000 in an earnings return and their children get nothing when they die, Box said. Those putting that money into an annuity could get between $70,000 to $1.5 million in additional earnings over their life with remaining monies going to heirs.
“That would make so many people’s lives better,” Box said, adding there would be a transitional phase in her plan to end Social Security where those 40 years old and older would still get their Social Security under current amounts while those under 40 would have the annuity plan option instead of traditional Social Security.
Box also has ideas about ending a cycle of poverty.
“Thirty-one percent of Americans right now are on welfare,” she said. “We need to make conditions to get that – that they go to tech school or an apprenticeship. There’s a deep need there and they will have a better way of life making between $60,000 and $70,000 a year.”
She said her decision to run for the U.S. Senate as her first time in politics came about as a desire to change the direction of American politics. Box said she lived in Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene’s district so running for the U.S. House wasn’t feasible but the GOP nomination for the senate seat was open.
Box was raised in agriculture and is from a small town. She graduated from Berry College in Rome, studied art in Paris, and worked in shark and sea turtle research in Florida before doing mission work in Costa Rica. Box worked on ranches and has shown horses. She is younger than some of the other candidates and feels she can dig into incumbent Jon Ossoff’s younger base because she understands Gen X and millennial concerns.
Box states she understands many may not have heard her name in the media since other candidates like Rep. Mike Collins and Dereck Dooley take up a lot of space. She said that has presented challenges within the Republican Party too as many donors and political action committees (PACS) want to endorse a name brand for the hotly contested primary in 2016. Yet, Box said she can win the primary and the general election because of grass roots support.
Box began campaigning for this seat almost three years ago, criss-crossing Georgia talking to people. She said there has been overwhelming support for her ideas because they have a common-sense approach. She said her experiences give her a strong foundation for understanding how Americans live and grapple daily.
She said career politicians in Washington D.C., or even some of the brand names in Georgia, don’t have that understanding because they live in their society bubble with no financial worries. A trillion dollars, or a national debt of $37 trillion, doesn’t mean that much to them, she said.
“There are so many Americans hurting right now because of poor planning. They don’t understand the value of a dollar the way we do,” Box said.
Another key issue for Box is election integrity. She said traveling around Georgia showed her that something was off in the 2020 election results. She would see many signs for Donald Trump and only a couple for Biden. She also has concerns about the lack of ability to double-check results from electronic equipment. Once you put your ballot in, the scan code could transmit anything. There is no way to check the scans while paper ballots are verifiable.
“We have to make our elections secure,” Box said.
Box has a list of her agenda items on her campaign webpage. Some of those include:
Ending price gouging through government aided monopolies in the medical field. Box said the government has contracts with pharmaceutical companies that are way too expensive, in effect propping them up. This leads to increased costs to provide care for those on Medicaid, Medicare and other programs.
Ending predatory student loans to pay incredibly high tuition at U.S. universities.
Reasserting the Constitutional sovereign right to convene “the people’s grand jury.”
Completing the border wall on the U.S. southern border.
Changing the Emergency Powers Act for the U.S. Senate to approve it by vote before a President can use it.
Ending “regulatory capture” which allows for former pharmaceutical employees to sit on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) boards.
Forbidding congressional members and their immediate family members from doing stock market trades while the person is holding office, ending insider trading.
To find out more about Reagan Box and her campaign, visit reaganforsenate.com.
Melody Dareing is a freelance writer for publications in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Germany. She is a former news director of Adelphia Channel 4 and WBHF radio.