My name is Mike Zeltakalns. Probably most folks haven't heard of me. I am new to the to the political scene. I want to start by thanking Rob Strickler and Mr. Taft and Lucia for arranging this today and all the volunteers who made this possible. I would not have this platform to speak to you today if it weren't for these folks because I only joined the race last week.

I only joined the race last week because I was motivated to action by the events in Minnesota. I, of course, have been watching what's been going on with our government for a long time, but have not been in a position to seek office and in fact have never really thought about myself for office.

But what Rob said just a moment ago really resonated with me. I'm here today because I see what's happening in our country. It scares me. I think the people who are running our country right now are just filthy. And I don't need to go through the reasons why, but I think that one of the people on the stage in front of you today has it to beat Bob because - I agree with you - I don't think Bob has the… I like Bob and I will vote for Bob if he's the candidate, but I think that Bob is just lacking in the ability to meet the need to beat Fitz.

And that's my mission- to beat Fitz. Fitz is the one who cast that deciding vote to make the One Big Beautiful Bill Act real. And that's the act that cut healthcare for 500,000 Pennsylvanians. That's the act that brought us closer to authoritarianism and fascism. And Fitz created that act. As others have pointed out, he was the deciding vote. He's a Republican when it suits him and he's an independent when it suits him. And neither of those things benefit the people of Bucks County. That's why I’m running.

Thank you. I think the secret to fixing the economy is redistributing wealth from the very top tier outward to the folks who need it. I think, as Rob pointed out, the last 50-60 years our economic policy has been taken over by the billionaires.

Our government has enabled those folks to concentrate wealth at the top and as a result of that you're seeing policies that are not reflective of the reality on the ground for people who are trying to buy housing, afford healthcare, afford their groceries.

I think you're you're seeing a rising housing cost because the folks who are buying houses are not actually folks. They're corporations and they're driving the house housing costs up for everybody.

And I think the third part of that is about enabling people to make a decision about what job they want. For instance, I grew up being told I had to go to college and have a white collar job in order to be successful. When I was 40, it turned out, I decided I didn't need to do that, right? I like to work with my hands! I went back to school and started taking trade classes. That sort of flexibility for people to jump careers midway into something like a trade, which is a thing we desperately need, is a role government can play. That training should be affordable and accessible for anybody who wants to do it.

Healthcare is the most major issue aside from shoring up the foundation of our democracy. I don't think we can get very far without that.

I spent 20 years in the federal government, nearly 20 years. Nine active duty military. I served in Iraq with explosive ordinance disposal during the surge clearing route Tampa from Baghdad up to Camp Speicher. And I only mentioned that because I spent that entire time on Tricare which is government run healthcare. I paid nothing and it was amazing.

Everybody in America should have the same healthcare that our military has. We do it already for millions of people. We do it well, expand it out, and make it easy.

So, I've seen that. And from my time in State Department, again, nine years in State Department representing the United States abroad, protecting American citizens abroad and American interests abroad, I saw lots of health care systems in other countries, and one of two things is usually true: They are either the government paying for care and the care is fairly decent and, if you want, you can add additional care at your own cost. Or it's reasonably priced and you can pay for it out of pocket. I unfortunately have been the recipient of some medical care in foreign countries and when the bill came at the end I was able to pay it without having to take out, you know, money from my retirement.

We've got to fix the system. It shackles people to jobs they don't need. Health care has to be divorced from jobs. That's an economic issue. So the people are free to pursue the job that best suits them and not the one that happens to pay for their healthcare which is extraordinarily expensive.

I love this question. Thank you so much. It sort of gets first to one of the things I said in the beginning. One of the reasons I love this community so much. This is a vibrant political community where opposing viewpoints are accepted, debated and folks are generally very reasonable.

I think we also have to remember that a third - between a quarter and a third of the country continue to support the president and the Republican agenda. I think the key to reaching out to those people, I think, is to reach out to them as Americans. We share this American value. It's the thing that motivated me to run- the right of American citizens to oppose their government. And use their voice to oppose the government without intimidation, harassment or imprisonment. And we're seeing that destroyed today. I think communicating with people about basic American freedoms, the right to bear arms, the first amendment, the right to free, uh, freedom of speech, the fourth amendment, the right to be private, to have privacy. These things are foundational, and we can see with our own eyes that they're under threat.

I think that's the discussion I'd like to have with folks who have cast a vote for Donald Trump or Republicans in the past.

Thank you for the opportunity to answer that question. The thing that really riles me up, and there are many, but I think you're getting to see what each of the candidates right now, what their particular bailiwick is, right? And mine is personal liberty, law and order - putting the order back in law and order - and having a predictable government that adheres to the constitution and treats everybody with equal justice.

So for me, what scares the heck out of me in the One Big Beautiful Bill is $75 billion additional dollars for ICE. $75 billion with a B, right? So that's that's an immense amount of money.

That's $45 billion for new detention facilities across the country. and your Congress voted for it, including Fitz, because that will bring jobs into each one of those communities. It will purchase a piece of land. It will put logistics and people inside of those facilities.

And once that happens in all of our communities around America, it will be very difficult to turn that system off. That is jobs. That's Fitz's big jobs bill for this district - it’s putting a detention center here and $30 billion for new ICE officers.

Inside of that bill is spywear. Inside of that is an infrastructure for the government to use technology which it has not used in the past, commercial technology, to invasively track American citizens, particularly those who oppose it.

So, with this $75 billion, you get a countrywide network of detainment facilities and $30 billion worth of new ICE agents and technology that will enable them to peer into your private life and track you.

That should scare the heck out of all of us, right? So Fitz created that by voting it from 217 to 218 and sending that bill up to the Senate.

He's not going to save you from it. And when that system runs out of immigrants to put into its detainment centers, who is it going to come for next?

I'll end there and let you fill in the blanks, but that system is not going to shut down when the “immigrants” are done. It will continue.

The youth are going to lead us out of this.

The country is ready to move away from the generation that has been at the helm for a while and the youth are the ones who will have to right the ship.

I talk about a new compact - I think the young folks are the ones - first let's acknowledge what life has been like for these folks:

Pandemic. The prospect of buying a house, definitely not a given. The idea that they will have a steady job throughout their career with a predictable retirement, also not a given.

They've dealt with tremendous economic woe. So they are a learned and experienced group of people and I think they are ready for change.

This administration and both Democrats and Republicans over the last several years have broken the compact, the trust between government and its people. We need to rebuild it.

I don't think that we're gonna go back to the way things were. I think that the generation that's going to live with this ought to put together the foundation for what the new compact between government and its people looks like. How do Americans expect to be treated by their government and what do they expect from their government? And how is the government allowed to interact with its people?

I think we had those things. We've watched them be broken. we need to reestablish them and it's gonna be the youth that does it. And I'm very excited for that!

I also need the youth to help me in my campaign. So Z4congress.com, please!