Jon S. Überfeld

### Political Party

Republican (2017-2018), Liberal Democrat (2018-2018), Independent (2018-2019), Liberal Georgist (2019) Democrat (2019-2020) Green (2020-Present)

### Status

Active

Jon S. Überfeld is a German-American political activist and current Speaker of the House who served as the 11th President in MEC. He was the second President in MEC history to be re-elected, and the first Republican to be elected to a second term, winning by the largest electoral margin in MEC history up until that point. Previously he served as Chief of Staff to President Kelvin Hawthorne, District 3 representative, and MECs second Speaker of the House, being the first Republican to serve the roll.

After his congressional career he convinced President Tom Kirkman to abandon the Democratic Party and with several others helped establish the Liberal Democratic Party, which saw victory in the Presidential race against all odds, defeating a powerful Democratic Party. Unlike Überfeld's Rent Is Too Damn High Party, which he founded during his Presidency, the Lib Dems went on to become a powerful force in MEC politics until they were dissolved in September of 2018.

In early 2020, Uberfeld came out of retirement and relaunched his MEC activism, announcing a house run soon after. He currently serves as Speaker of the House and Representative of District Three. As Representative he has placed an emphasis on public investment into childcare and education, welfare investments, and fiscal stability. In May 2020 he co-founded the Green Party with Representative Robert Sanders and helped lead a "progressive exit from the Democratic Party" which spurred the collapse of party leadership and re-creation of the Liberal Democrats.

## Early Political Activism

Not long after joining MEC, Überfeld began his involvement with politics. His first post on the community was one condemning the fake personas which many of those running had created for themselves. He slowly began carving out an image for himself, and began associating himself with the small but vocal centrist wing of the community. Following the Democratic landslide in the September 2017 House elections, Überfeld joined the Moderate to Centrist Wing of the GOP, at a time when the Republican Party was at its weakest, with many considering it to be a minor party comparable with other third parties. As the next election approached, he announced his candidacy for the house, challenging the unpopular incumbent Kameron Scott for the position.

## First Run For The House

Following the Democratic landslide in the September 2017 House elections, Überfeld openly rallied against the prospect of having a single party in power, and announced his candidacy for Congress as a Republican. He attempted to rally enough support to end Democratic control of the D-3 House seat, and ran a centre-right campaign, encouraging moderate Democrats to support him in support of bipartisanship.

Early on, Überfeld was outperforming Incumbent Kameron Scott in every poll, and close to none believed Scott could win a second term. Due to this, several other candidates entered the race in opposition to Scott, including long-time member Adam Daniel, and future president Jayanth Karuturi. With a split vote, Scott was able to take a lead in the polls, all be it without a majority, and Überfeld fell behind, polling at around 20%.

Due to fear of Scott being re-elected due to a split opposition, many of the people who originally ran chose drop out, leaving a three way race between Überfeld, Karuturi, and Scott. This however did not last, as Karuturi switched to the Democratic Party in order to challenge Scott for the nomination, leaving a two-way race.

Following the primaries, Überfeld and Karuturi were left in an incredibly close race, with Überfeld usually polling behind by a few points. However as the election went on, Überfeld, through aggressive campaigning, eventually managed to create a coalition of moderates and centrists from both parties and began to outperform Karuturi in the polls.

As election day came closer, Überfeld had created a double digit lead in the polls, and eventually Karuturi dropped out of the race, leading Überfeld to win the election in a landslide.

Though many, including Überfeld himself, doubted the Republican prospects of taking a majority in the house, the party was able to garner enough votes to tie the house, and following a narrow win by Libertarian candidate Jason Nicasio, created a coalition majority of Republicans and Libertarians in control of the House. Überfeld, despite his low odds, announced his intention to lead this coalition by running for the Speakership of the House of Representatives, winning in an upset victory against Ethan Kelly. He was the first Republican to serve in the role.

## Presidential Runs

In December 2017, Überfeld he announced his candidacy for president as a Republican, picking centrist Democrat Joe Portillo as his running mate, creating a unity ticket. He defeated incumbent Ethan Fitzgerald by a margin of 299-239. As such, on Tuesday, December 19, 2017, Jon S. Überfeld was inaugurated as the 11th President of the United States. Later, after a successful First Term, many Republicans and even Democrats proclaimed him the best President MEC has ever had. On Saturday, February 10, 2018, he won re-election in a landslide, carrying 45 states, trouncing both the Democratic candidate Jackson Hitchcock and the Working Families Party candidate Braden Hart.

## Presidency (December 2017-March 2018)

Überfeld's republican presidency was known for avoiding partisanship at all costs, and had upset many in his party for occasional disregard for party interests. Within the first days of his administration, Überfeld appointed a cabinet with more Democrats than Republicans, and during budget negotiations called for a tax hike on the wealthy larger than most progressives had proposed, in order to balance the budget. Later in his administration, he denounced the his parties attempts to ban abortion, believing it unconstitutional. Because of actions such as these many accused Überfeld of being a liberal, and a closet Democrat, but he has denied these claims, citing his general support for fiscally conservative proposals. He consistently held the highest Presidential approval rating in MEC History, ranging from 70% at the beginning of his first term to 90% towards the end of his second. This is likely due to his general disregard for party-politics, and both progressive and conservative stances on many issues, as well as a tenancy to stay out of controversy and elections, rarely ever making endorsements.

### **Healthcare**

Überfeld's first major accomplishment as president was the passage of the Two-Tier Healthcare Reform Act, a plan which he had proposed and campaigned for during his first presidential run, as a bipartisan replacement of the current, Canadian style, single-payer system. The bill lifted the ban on for-profit hospitals and significantly reduced government control over the healthcare system. It also expanded drug trade to Europe and Canada, and included a public option and Medicare Savings Account for which all Americans were eligible. It also repealed the vast majority of taxes and tariffs introduced to fund the single-payer system. The plan also ensured that every american remained covered with quality healthcare. Many members of MEC often give this healthcare model the nickname "ÜberCare" or "ÜbyCare".

### **Taxes**

During his presidency, Überfeld's approach to taxes, while having a conservative bend, generally focused on the middle and lower class, and businesses, the latter of which he had the most disagreement with congress, which was democratic for the majority of his tenure. During his first term, Überfeld fought for lower middle class taxes, and a lower corporate rate. While being opposed to an overly complex tax code, he was consistently open to raising taxes for the wealthy, and during budget negotiations, proposed a higher tax rate than most congressional progressives, believing it would help balance the budget while allowing large tax cuts for the middle class.

During his second term, Überfeld pushed for the largest income tax cut in history, focused almost entirely on the middle class. He proposed a Geoist oriented tax plan, which introduced a 10% land value tax, in order to pay for an elimination of the property tax, a halving of the corporate tax rate to 15% (later changed to 16.5%) and an elimination of the federal income tax for 90% of Americans. After minor changes to the plan, as well as many additions by congress, the plan passed and was signed into law.

### **Environment**

Überfeld has been known to describe himself as an environmentalist, similar to Teddy Roosevelt in his support for national parks and a green economy. However he declined to propose taxes as a solution to climate change, knowing it would hurt many counties and cities which rely on fossil fuel production, including his own. Instead, he has supported tax credits and deductions for green energy, which he believes wouldn't eliminate jobs, only creating them. He has also supported infrastructure projects which incorporate green energy.

### **Budget**

Early in his Presidency, Überfeld was faced with the threat of a government shutdown, and began an immediate push for a balanced budget. Using a cut in government expenditure following the signing of "ÜberCare", and an agreement with congress to begin bringing massive amounts of foreign soldiers back home, the President and Congress succeeded in creating a budget surplus which was maintained and expanded throughout the Überfeld Presidency..

### **Trade**

On the campaign trail, Überfeld heavily criticized the government for a failure to act in economically efficient ways, and create an anti-business environment. During his presidency, Überfeld cut tariffs on multiple occasions, to encourage trade, cut taxes for businesses returning to the United States, and renegotiated NAFTA to create more national autonomy, and required member nations to implement Bull Moose style labor regulations. He had cut tarriffs repeatedly throughout his administration, and had many disagreements with congress over his emphasis on the harms of tariffs.

### **Student Debt**

During his presidency he proposed massive regulations on student debt limiting how much a student could be charged in debt. This plan was based on the Australian model and passed Congress with flying colors.

### **Split With the GOP**

During his second term, the increasingly fragile alliance between Überfeld and his party began to whither. After being elected for the final time, Überfeld began to worry far less about his popularity and political correctness. He consistently remarked that he'd leave the GOP, and had many clashes with Republican leadership. He actively opposed Congressional Republicans attempts to ban abortion. Though Überfeld was pro-life, he disagreed heavily with Congress' methods. He was admittedly sympathetic to Presidential candidates David Delaney and Dank Underwood, both Democrats. After a controversial spat with the Republican Party, he announced that he would be leaving the Republican Party, joining the now infamous "Rent Is Too Damn High Party", and afterwards, promised not the endorse either candidate.

## Post-Presidency

Überfeld left office as the most popular president in MEC history, however he continued working with multiple government officials as a private citizen in the implementation of major economic reforms. After his Presidency Überfeld almost completely let go of political correctness and after his final terms in the House of Representatives displayed very little interest in MEC politics.

### **Senator and Minority Leader**

In may of 2019 Überfeld was elected junior senator to District 2. Upon inauguration, he was chosen as minority leader. Although initially independent, he joined the GOP and formed the Conservative-Labor Caucus. He had been generally centre-left, proposing budget cuts, but didn't shy away from progressivism such as with his Worker Co-Determination Act, and with a Universal Dividend Proposal.

He proposed many policies, such as a Tripling of the child tax credit, wealth taxes, increase of the estate tax, lowering of taxes on businesses, environmental protection proposals, an alaskan style basic dividend scheme, and a co-determination proposal and stock buyback ban.

## Second Speakership

After running successfully running for House against incumbent Representative Bryson PIttman with a narrow 50.72% of the vote, Uberfeld was appointed Speaker Pro-Tempore, and directed his attention to keeping his campaign promises of a Universal Basic Income, Universal Childcare, and new Child Allowance, and a millionaire surtax. After much debate and political battles, Uberfeld was successful and ultimately won a second term against fellow Fmr. President Chase Stevens with 64.47% of the vote.

On inauguration day Uberfeld was formally nominated for Speaker and one a with a majority vote. As Speaker, he was one of the key figures in the push for healthcare reform, having wrote a large junk of the legislation and ultimately advocating for its passage in private and in public. After Healthcare was signed into law, Uberfeld worked with the President and many others in congress to design a balanced budget. In the latter weeks of his second term, he proposed the balanced budget to congress, along with a tax reform proposal to pass alongside the budget.

During his second term as Speaker, he broke with President Fitzgerald's foreign policy, and helped establish the Subcommitee For Peace in part as a way to advocate for what he saw as a Peace-driven alternative to current US Foreign Policy.