Eyewitness News Goes to Washington: Solving the Nation's Problems
By: Elsa Gillis
Updated: February 15, 2012
With all the problems our country is facing, how do we go about solving them? Congressman Richard Hanna says he's focusing in on two specific areas that will put our country on the right track. Those solutions involve education and helping small businesses.
"The most important thing, the most value added thing they can do in their whole life, other than build character and be loyal to their family, and country, is get themselves educated," says the Congressman, referring to what people can do to better themselves.
This is something he spoke of frequently, throughout the day and through our many interviews.
"How do we compete in the world, how do we maintain a standard of living in this world that is commensurate with people's idea with what it means to be an American, that sense of upward mobility? How do you create an environment that everybody shares in? It's through education it always has been."
Specifically, the Congressman says we should focus on STEM--science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In his view, that's where the future is, and how we stay competitive. In fact, he's working on a bill right now that gives students tax advantages for studying stem in college.
We asked him, if he could waive his magic wand and do one thing for the country, other than push education, what would it be? "It would be to bring back an economy to upstate New York that told people that they had an opportunity to be self-reliant." Hanna says he supports any bills he can to help small businesses flourish. He also says he's gotten phone calls from central New York businesses in need of assistance, and he's done what he can to help.
Overall, he says the answer to our problems lies in being thoughtful, working on things that are doable, and not backing down in fear of failure.
"Mistakes are a natural outcome from a free enterprise system, and they're going to happen, and you want to minimize them but you don't want to lose the energy that's embodied in that, that makes people get out of the bed in the morning and go take risk."
