The grandson of a freedom fighter, Ritesh Tandon was instilled with an appreciation for freedom and independence. This would lead him to The United States of America at age 28, where he attended Santa Clara University in pursuit of a Master’s degree in Computer engineering. Later, Ritesh Tandon completed his second Master’s in Business Administration from the same university. While attending Santa Clara University, Ritesh met Zurica Dhar, a fellow computer engineer. They were married in 2001 and made the Bay Area their home.
The California exodus is real! It is not just California residents, in 2018 and 2019, 660 California-based companies relocated their 765 facilities to other states. Yet, many of our local representatives are pushing for higher corporate taxes at both the state and federal level. Our Silicon Valley companies are being squeezed by onerous taxes and regulations. We need to protect the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Today historic low unemployment number 3.4% and historic high Dow Jones Industrial average 2800+ Silicon Valley companies are innovating, hiring, competitive and helping mankind. We need to give more incentives to corporates and support them to continue their path by keeping low taxes and low regulation
e last year. Particularly, the Bay Area is an expensive place to live. The real estate has increased consistently above the CPI and the wage growth in this area. This makes home affordability in the Silicon Valley a daunting task. It not only affects the professionals working in the high tech industry, but also makes it very hard for the service professionals to live in this area. This vicious cycle has not been addressed properly at all by the local governments. $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction (SALT) in their federal taxes is not helping either. Average home price in the Bay area has risen to such levels that paying property tax has become prohibitive. California State definitely does not need the extra windfall money. Prop 13 needs to be modified, such that tax is no more than 0.5% of market property value, and it does not grow more than 2% per year or less than half of the CPI index, whichever is smaller. It will open up many more homes for sale and encourage construction of new homes
In Silicon Valley, we have a multicultural society. I will prevent Discrimination against any individual or group and vote for equal work rights for women. Due to discrimination, company performance goes down, growth is hurt and people are impacted, which disturbs their lives. When women are discriminated against, it disturb families, children and hurts social values. In all cases, people go through stress when they are discriminated and it impacts their lives and it hurts our economy. Especially for foreign companies, there is limited control and structure setup today, where they do wrong things and get away. I will work to fix this
Covid-19 pandemic will be remembered as a cruel event in human history, which has killed over a half a million people already. Most western countries were caught unaware, and took a while to react to contain and mitigate the situation. Confusing directives from WHO and CDC did not help. Administration and policy makers reacted in contradictions, which did not help keeping the public’s health safe or the economy protected from the man-made economic disaster of lockdowns. Four months later, we are still faced with a haphazard policy on re-opening of the economy while keeping people’s health safe. We need a strong and clear consensus, which is what I intend to provide as your potential congressman. I have practical solutions that will have a sharp focus on public health as well as open the economy in a speedy, creative yet responsible ways.
Politicians see our schools as social engineering laboratories as opposed to educational institutions. We need to empower school boards to make local decisions and give families the opportunity to choose better performing schools. We also need to invest in vocational education, so our students are not only learning the fundamentals, they are learning a trade. We need to increase teacher’s pay to compensate them for their work and bring it to corporate level. No for Affirmative actions during college admission. I like every child to compete and get admitted in colleges based on Merit.
Our immigration system must be reformed. Too often, law-aiding immigrants wait over a decade to receive their green card. We need an immigration system that promotes hardworking contributors and prioritizes reuniting families. We must also step up enforcement on those that commit violent crimes. I support securing our border, while expediting citizenship for law abiding, tax paying immigrants. American deserves the best immigrants to keep its leadership in the world. It should remove country quota and accept people based purely on merit.
Cost of a quality healthcare for all is a very important issue and must be addressed now. Our GDP expenditures on healthcare have gone from five percent in the early sixties to about eighteen percent now. Premiums and out of pocket expenses on healthcare are unaffordable for many. We need to address this out of control cost issue at the national level without sacrificing choices, quality of care and its wide accessibility. Unfortunately, this issue has become an idealism war that can only hurt our society. We can’t let that happen. America was built on choices and freedom for our people, not socialism! We must have the courage to implement common sense solutions that work for all. I believe that competition and sane regulations will bring costs down for all. Quality of care in the US is good, and with healthy competition and technology to help, we can achieve even better. I have compiled a list of very sensible paths that can lead us to a very cost effective and high quality health care for all.
In the past 70 years, this world population has grown from 2.5B to around 7.5B, a 300% increase. Concurrent to this growth, the consumption of energy per capita has grown to about twice. The global industrialization, and consumer demands have spiked fossil fuel usage particularly in Asia. Not surprisingly, therefore, the largest green house gases (GHG) are now emitted by China (25% of worldwide CO2 emissions) and India (8% of the worldwide CO2 emissions). In comparison, US, and Europe (including Russia), are 15% each of the world CO2 emissions. To reduce GHG, China must be part of the equation. A prime example of environmental pollution is Plastic overuse, burning, ocean dumping, and plastic micro-particles found all over the planet that can be a health hazard of large proportion. I will lead efforts to implement sensible solutions that will have positive global Impact with minimal or no economic disruptions
Homelessness in the US has been increasing at double-digit rates in many cities. As policy makers, we must examine the root causes and create a national policy to eliminate this suffering within our nation. Large metropolitans like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley can’t afford to let their cities deteriorate. We have the capability and means to help homeless get back on their feet and become dignified part of thriving societies around them. As a humanitarian potential policy maker, I have practical solutions that can be implemented in cooperation with the cities and states. Please join me to take care of this important issue for our nation. ..
Our law enforcement officials put their lives on the line each and every day to protect those of us going about in our daily lives. I will not tolerate the radical liberal policies calling for defunding our police and spewing anti-police rhetoric. As a US Congressional candidate, I will make sure to motivate our police department and protectors of the state of California to enhance public safety and defend the people from significant crimes. Additionally, I will prohibit the federal government to continue allowing unfettered access into our state. Currently, we have wide-open, unsecured borders, and 20% of San Jose residents are undocumented. Meanwhile, our lawmakers are allowing them to vote in elections like Mayor, City Council, or School Board instead of taking action. People are unsafe, and our businesses are broken into very frequently. We cannot let this persistently affect our state. We must rehabilitate our asylum policies and work towards a comprehensive solution to this crisis and stop drug cartels and illegal immigrants from coming to our state. Our border patrol agents are putting their lives on the line, daily, to help keep our country safe. We must ensure our border patrol is fully-funded and return to policies that keep our state out of harm's way.
The Bay Area is an expensive place to live. The real estate has increased consistently above the CPI and the wage growth in this area. This makes home affordability in the Silicon Valley a daunting task. It not only affects the professionals working in the high tech industry, but also makes it very hard for the service sector professionals to live in this area. This vicious cycle has not been addressed properly at all by the local governments. In 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. I support a number of measures that would help put more money in people's pocket to spend on housing in the Bay Area. One of them is repealing the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction (SALT) in their federal taxes. The second is to support modifying Prop 13 such that no more than 0.5% of market property value is taxed at the county level, and the market value assessments are capped at 1% less than the CPI index per year regardless of the ownership transfers. It will open up many more homes for sale and encourage construction of new homes. Third solution is to give a 15% reduction in the federal tax rate break to all employees of a start up in their first 5 years of existence. This will spur innovation and reward the 80-hour/week employees.
I fully oppose Race based discrimination (Prop 16). Let us together help children of all races, color, and ethnicity learn better, and prepare them to compete vigorously at national and international levels. That would be a real gift to our society, not a debilitating quota system! .
Lately, the US has lost respect at the world stage because of its questionable foreign policies and failed executions (Afghanistan, Iraq). Going forward, we must restore the prestige and admiration for our country on multiple fronts of foreign policy including conflict resolutions and trade policies. World leadership position is not an entitlement. It must be earned
Let’s face it. Hours spent in traffic steals time from our families. Commuting in the Bay Area has become a mind-numbing experience, with many commuters spending up to four hours a day in traffic. The Trump administration has an ambitious infrastructure plan to rebuild roads the State of California has neglected, while creating thousand of new jobs. Traffic is not a partisan issue; it affects us all the same. We must be willing to work across party lines to get it addressed.
The new name of ACA 5 bill is Prop 16 and it will be in November 2020 ballot. I oppose Prop 16 and request everyone to vote NO on Prop 16.
In November of 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209, a California State constitutional amendment, providing that government entities “shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.” (Cal. Const. Article 1, Section 31.)
It was March 2014, when the first attempt to repeal prop 209 was made by California State Senate proposition 5, and our esteemed Congressman, Ro Khanna, strongly opposed it!
Guess what? A few days ago, Congressman Ro Khanna changed his mind and now thinks that race, color, sex, national origin-based discrimination or preference to UC admissions, public jobs, and public contract awards is the right thing to do.
Published on “Opportunity for all coalition” blog site, representative Khanna said, “As a proud member of the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community, I wholeheartedly endorse ACA 5 — because every single Californian stands to benefit from affirmative action and equal opportunity programs, programs that have never been more critical than they are today.”
He continued, “Make no mistake: Proposition 209 was authored by Wall-Street-backed interests who felt threatened by an increasingly diverse California, so they put a thumb on the scale for their own businesses. This hurt countless California communities — very much including my AAPI community. Our enrollment in the UC system has suffered; our ability to build strong businesses has been hamstrung; and our ability to secure good-paying jobs has been undercut. Anyone who says anything different is misrepresenting the facts — because AAPI Californians will benefit from ACA 5, period.”
“Lastly,” Rep. Khanna stated, “a generation has passed since Proposition 209 became law in 1996. ACA 5 will give millions of Californians their first opportunity to raise their voice and demand equal opportunity. I’m proud to support this bill, and I will do everything I can to ensure it passes the Legislature and becomes law with a win on Election Day.”
Congressman Ro Khanna has really lost touch with the community of the 17th district. He falsely claims that it benefits Asian, Indian, and Pacific Islander communities. Truth is that it benefits only untrustworthy politicians like him, and others who have opposed it. It was legally challenged three times and lost. The lies perpetrated by Ro Khanna, in his statements above, are unbelievably devious. He is misleading the Asian community with false information that they are being hurt by prop 209. He is hoping that they will not do any diligence, and vote for ACA 5. His real purpose for flipping on what he promised in 2014 maybe something else.
Truth is that, under existing law, the University of California takes account of each individual applicant’s personal story and achievements. Is this student the first in her or his family to go to college? What is the family income level? How many students from an applicant’s high school have gone to college?
All these factors above are considered, just not a race, color, sex, and national origin!
The results of the current system have not been unfair. Here are the enrollment rates, by race, the year before UC was ordered to stop considering race, and today: African Americans (3.7 percent then, 3.87 percent now); Latino Americans (13.4 percent then, 25.45 percent now); Asian Americans (36.1 percent then, 39.72 percent now), Caucasian Americans (38.4 percent then, 19.29 percent now).
In other words, the rising percentage of Latino Americans graduating from California’s high schools has been matched by the rising percentage in their admission to UC, and the drop in Caucasian Americans’ percentage of California’s high schools has registered in their drop in UC enrollments. The other races stayed about the same. These numbers do not call out for racist Affirmative action Programs endorsed by Ro Khanna.
In public jobs, blacks are already at about 20% . It is 30% higher than their population proportion. ACA 5 actually might actually hurt them.
The truth is that Affirmative action Programs, started by John F. Kennedy in 1961, were designed to ensure that no prime federal contractors discriminated against sub-prime contractors based on race, color, sex, and national origin. There was never any intention for quotas, set-asides, etc.
Outreach programs to include small businesses, disadvantaged businesses, first-time businesses, minority-owned businesses, is totally fine under Prop 209, as long as all are approached equally, not just targeted to one category. That is why Prop 209 is fair and must stay, and ACA 5 must be defeated.
Congressman Ro Khanna is the one misrepresenting the facts and lying to you when he says that the AAPI community has been suffering in getting fair enrollment in the UC system, in getting good-paying jobs, hamstrung informing businesses, and that Wall Street is involved in prop 209. He has some hidden ulterior motives, which are not clear.
Truth is exactly the opposite. Children of hardworking AAPI and other communities will suffer, as they will be stripped of fair competition to enter the UC System for higher education. They will either have to go out of state or private universities that will cost 2-3 times more. The quality and standard of the UC system will decline.
We can not trust Ro Khanna, or the state elected people who are supporting ACA 5. They completely misrepresent the facts and lie to get your votes. Let’s vote them out this November! We need honest and responsible representatives. We deserve better!
One-click email to all finance committee members + some senators:
http://email-appropriations.noaca5.org
One-click email to all representatives of your constituency:
http://email-representatives.noaca5.org
Please oppose and STOP ACA 5. Let us together help children of all races, color, and ethnicity learn better, and prepare them to compete vigorously at national and international levels. That would be a real gift to our society, not a debilitating quota system!
Please support me, support my campaign, and help me to fight for you. https://secure.anedot.com/tandon-for-congress/donate
I’ve lived the American Dream and will do all I can to assure everyone has that opportunity. Outstanding and fair education practices are a huge part of that.