Kincaid for Congress – Washington’s 1st District

No Federal Income Tax or Tax Filing for People Earning $61,000 or Less Summary This proposal would eliminate federal individual income tax liability for people earning $61,000 or less in total wage income, simplifying the tax system for tens of millions of working Americans while having minimal impact on federal revenue. In practical terms, anyone earning approximately $29.33 per hour or less would pay zero federal income tax and would no longer be required to file a tax return each year. Payroll taxes  Social Security and Medicare would still be deducted from paychecks as they are today. Beyond that, nothing. No additional federal tax withheld. No annual filing requirement. Rationale Based on IRS data from the past decade (2013–2022), households earning $61,000 or less make up approximately 50 to 60 percent of all U.S. tax filers. Yet this group contributes only 2 to 3 percent of all federal individual income tax revenue roughly $53 to $79 billion per year, depending o...

The Peace Corps was founded on one of America's most idealistic impulses the belief that young Americans, sent abroad in service, could help build a better world. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers have served with genuine dedication, courage, and sacrifice. That history deserves respect. But respect for the mission does not require silence about the institution's failures. And the failure we are talking about here is not a management problem or a budget shortfall. It is a decades long pattern of placing female volunteers in dangerous environments, failing to protect them from sexual assault, and then retaliating against or ignoring those who came forward. Over 350 rapes and attempted rapes of female Peace Corps volunteers have been reported since 2009 alone. That number almost certainly understates the true scope because of documented underreporting and retaliation against survivors. This is a moral crisis, not an administrative inconvenience and Congress has known ab...

A Real World Proposal for Universal Healthcare: A Phase by Phase Plan Before a tech company launches a new product, it runs a beta test. Before a car hits the road, it goes through years of prototyping and safety evaluation. But when it comes to healthcare reform, the political debate has offered Americans only two choices: leave a broken system untouched, or tear down the entire thing overnight. That is why every push for Medicare for All has failed  and it will keep failing. This is not a criticism of the goal. The goal is right. The problem has always been the strategy. Bernie Sanders and others have introduced Medicare for All legislation twelve times since 2003. Every single time, it has died in committee. It has never made it to a floor vote  not even when Democrats controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House simultaneously. That should tell us something important. The obstacle is not the idea. The obstacle is the approach. We need a fundamentally diffe...

A Real Discussion on Immigration This nation has never had the conversation on immigration that it actually needs the one that asks how we got here, why tensions are rising, and what kind of society we want to build. Instead, we get sound bites and photo ops. Politicians from both parties offer slogans, not solutions. They tell us these are jobs Americans won't do, and that we need immigrants to keep prices low. That is the full extent of the conversation. It is not honest, and it is not enough. The Uncomfortable Truth Today in America, 42% of agricultural workers are undocumented immigrants. So are 23% of construction workers. This is not a system built on fairness  it is a system built on exploitation. We have created an economy that depends on people who live in the shadows. Millions of workers who are essential to our daily lives, yet remain vulnerable, disposable, and frequently abused. The conditions endured by much of our undocumented workforce are not far remove...

Gun Safety That Works: Stopping Gun Theft Before It Happens There is a significant gap in the national debate on gun control policy. The overwhelming focus has been on laws that do little or nothing to protect people from the daily street crime happening in communities across the country. Far too little attention has been paid to stolen handguns  and to preventing guns from being stolen in the first place. Home invasions and vehicle thefts happen every day, and in many cases they result in firearms being stolen. A criminal should not be able to smash a car window and walk away with a bag full of guns in a matter of minutes. Yet right now, in most of America, that is exactly what can happen  with minimal consequence for anyone. Only 16 states and the District of Columbia require gun owners to report a lost or stolen firearm. Think about that for a moment. There is no federal law requiring the secure storage of guns. A child safety lock may be included with a firearm purch...