Issues That Matter

Marketplace premiums, $100 copays, dental networks collapsing, and prior authorization blocking care. Gary has lived every layer of this broken system firsthand. Three specific fights, one mission — fix American healthcare through Congress.

Fake job listings waste workers' time, kill hope, and scam job seekers nationwide. Gary will push federal legislation making ghost job postings an FTC-enforceable deceptive practice.

• Federal legislation: real openings only or face FTC enforcement and meaningful fines
• Require employers to remove listings within 14 days of filling — federal standard
• Hold staffing agencies accountable for fraudulent postings under federal consumer protection law
• Create a federal reporting mechanism for job seekers through the Department of Labor

Insurance companies take your premiums every month, then find every technicality in the book to avoid paying — even their own clients, even when the incident was completely out of your control. They don't deny the whole claim, they just lowball, delay, and wear you down until you give up. Gary will use Congressional authority to end it.

Dealers recondition used cars before putting them on the lot — that's fine. But a software scan takes minutes and an alternator is $150 in parts. When that shows up as a $3,000 'reconditioning fee' with no breakdown, you're not paying for work — you're paying for a number they made up. The FTC and CFPB have authority here. Gary will use it.

• Federal legislation requiring reconditioning fees to be fully itemized — every part and labor hour documented
• Software diagnostic fees must reflect actual time, not inflated flat-rate markups
• No bundling real costs into a vague 'inspection' line — break it down or don't charge it
• Inflated or fabricated reconditioning fees treated as consumer fraud under federal FTC rules

A front-line SSA clerk should never have the unilateral power to kill a legitimate citizen's disability claim without supervisor review. Gary has CVID. He was honest with an intake clerk and was denied on the spot. Congress oversees the Social Security Administration. Gary will reform it.

• Federal legislation requiring all SSA denials to have supervisor sign-off and documented review
• No single clerk can unilaterally kill a claim — mandatory second-tier review
• Transparent federal appeals process with clear timelines and claimant rights
• The system must stop punishing people for telling the truth

Mississippi kids don't have access to SEC-level baseball and elite sports development programs other states take for granted. Federal youth development grants and ARPA-funded community investment can close this gap. Gary will fight to bring those dollars to the Gulf Coast.

• Secure federal investment in youth athletic infrastructure on the Gulf Coast
• Real pathways to elite sports development — not just talk
• Every Mississippi kid deserves world-class opportunity at home
• Use federal community development and education grants to close the gap

Mississippi has $1.4 billion in federal infrastructure funding flowing in and roads that still get a D grade. The money exists. The SMART grant program has $100M per year sitting unclaimed for traffic technology. The IIJA sends billions in highway dollars to the state every year. Gary will go to Congress and make sure the Gulf Coast actually gets what it's owed — and demand public accountability for every dollar already sent.

Unqualified people keep jobs because of who they know while better candidates get passed over. The system rewards connections not competence. Gary will push for federal anti-nepotism requirements as a condition of federal grant funding and federal contracting — if you take federal money, you hire on merit.

• Federal legislation requiring merit-based hiring standards for all federal contractors and grant recipients
• Anti-nepotism compliance reviews tied to federal contract and grant renewals
• End cronyism in federal contracting and federal-grant-funded procurement
• Congressional audit authority over federal spending programs for fraud, waste, and abuse

Gary owned INSPR Exchange Outfitters at Edgewater Mall in Biloxi. Rising rent, insurance, taxes, and regulations forced him to close. Small businesses want to pay better wages but the entire system makes survival impossible before a business ever gets traction. Congress controls the federal tax code and federal regulations. Gary will fight to cut both.

• Reduce the federal regulatory burden on Gulf Coast small businesses through targeted deregulation
• Reform federal licensing and compliance requirements that block entrepreneurs before they start
• Fight back-end federal costs — insurance mandates, federal compliance fees — crushing owners
• Make the Gulf Coast the most small-business-friendly region in the South through federal tax relief

Young people and grinders are blocked by excessive federal regulations, IRS burdens, and gatekeepers at every turn. Congress controls how gig workers are classified, taxed, and treated under federal law. Gary will fight against federal overreach that turns hustlers into employees against their will.

• Fight federal worker-misclassification rules that force independent contractors into employee status
• Simplify IRS treatment of self-employment so grinders keep more of what they earn
• Protect the right to operate a side hustle without federal government gatekeeping
• Make it easy for every Gulf Coast grinder to launch, operate, and grow without Washington's permission

The same rot runs through every system — federal agencies, dealerships, disability claims, highway spending, insurance. Regular Americans get played at every level while insiders protect each other and nothing changes. Gary will use Congressional oversight authority to audit everything, name names, and follow the money.

Federal Title IV-D already provides child support enforcement tools but the penalties are weak and the system moves too slow while single parents struggle. Deadbeat parents hide income, dodge court orders, and face no real consequences while their kids go without. Congress funds and oversees federal child support enforcement. Gary will strengthen both.

• Strengthen federal penalties for non-payment under Title IV-D beyond current thresholds
• Increase funding for the federal Office of Child Support Services
• Close every loophole deadbeats use to hide income from federal enforcement
• If you brought a child into this world, the federal system will find you and hold you accountable

Master's degree holders are sitting at home unemployed right now. The credential didn't deliver what it promised — and employers are still requiring it anyway. That is the horse and carriage mindset: clinging to a system that worked in a slower world because nobody updated their thinking. The degree was never a measure of performance. It was a shortcut. That shortcut has expired. The only standard that should exist for any job is simple: can you prove you can do it? Gary is going to Congress to replace the credential gate with that single, honest question.

Only 26% of eligible Mississippi children are enrolled in federal childcare assistance programs — because pandemic-era funding expired and the program got cut. Mississippi loses $860 million a year in productivity when parents can't afford childcare. Congress controls the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). Gary will fight to restore and expand it.

• Restore and increase federal CCDBG appropriations that were cut when pandemic funding expired
• Expand eligibility so working parents can actually access the federal program
• Assistance tied to a work or education requirement — you must be building toward something
• A parent focused on a job or a business raises a child with stability

Financial literacy curriculum teaches kids how to be better bank customers — pay your bills, build your credit score, be a good borrower. That's not financial literacy, that's financial obedience. While the rest of the world learns how currency markets move and how capital actually works, schools are still teaching kids to balance a checkbook. Federal education funding comes with curriculum standards. Congress can change those standards.