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Public service should be, public service, not a lifetime endowment. Currently, if a Congressman is voted out of office, or if they no longer run for office, they still receive their full pay, for life. That is just wrong.
I will serve two terms without pay, benefits or retirement. I will also seek to reduce congressional pay for the rest of Congress and repeal the huge benefits package that they have given themselves. In addition, Congress should not receive any pay in any year that there is a budget deficit.
The president is term limited to two four year terms for a total of eight years. My position on term limits for Congress is: the Senate should be limited to one six year term at a time. The Congress should be limited to two terms of two years each at a time for a total of four years. After a person has served the above years they could run for another office, or return to private life for one election cycle to live under the laws they have put on the American people. If they want to be a public servant for the same office again after being out of that office for one election cycle and the voters want them to serve again in that capacity, then they could be elected to serve with the same term limits as stated above.
The federal government has
proven itself untrustworthy with environmental policy by facilitating
polluters, subsidizing logging in the National Forests, and instituting
one-size-fits-all approaches that too often discriminate against those
they are intended to help.
The key to sound
environmental policy is respect for private property rights. The strict
enforcement of property rights corrects environmental wrongs while
increasing the cost of polluting.
In a free market, no one is
allowed to pollute his neighbor's land, air, or water. If your property
is being damaged, you have every right to sue the polluter, and
government should protect that right. After paying damages, the
polluter's production and sale costs rise, making it unprofitable to
continue doing business the same way. Currently, preemptive regulations
and pay-to-pollute schemes favor those wealthy enough to perform the
regulatory tap dance, while those who own the polluted land rarely
receive a quick or just resolution to their problems.
As a Congressman I would
support the Congressional Green Scissors Coalition, a bipartisan caucus
devoted to ending taxpayer subsidies of projects that harm the
environment for the benefit of special interests.
Individuals, businesses,
localities, and states must be free to negotiate environmental
standards. Those who depend on the land for their health and livelihood
have the greatest incentive to be responsible stewards. Private
property rights must be vigorously protected to ensure environmental
protection.
America needs an energy policy that includes every American. A policy based on the free market and individual choice. What we don't need is another huge bureaucracy and more taxes paid by the American people. The federal subsidies given to the oil industry and foreign oil producers should be stopped. Energy independence is important to our national security and our national sovereignty. We must therefore have affordable, environmentally safe, clean, sustainable American energy produced on American soil by American workers.
Congress needs to do a better job managing federally owned lands and federal leases. 100% of the revenues from those leases should go to the American citizens as dividends. Tax credits for alternative energy should be made permanent. Margin limits on oil futures should be raised to 50%.
According to testimony at a congressional hearing, at least $1.50 per gallon of the price we are paying at the pump is due to the federal deficit. Deficit spending is a major cause of the devaluation of the dollar. If we had purchased our gasoline with gold or silver for the last four years, we would not have noticed much of a price change at the gas pumps. Congress must balance the federal budget without raising taxes. Instead Congress has passed legislation that will raise cost for every American. The anti-American business regulations passed by Congress that foreign companies don't have to comply with are hurting Americans. More government bureaucracy applied to a problem that government caused in the first place is not much of an answer. If Congress is serious about fuel efficiency, then the government purchasing office should only purchase high mileage vehicles. We need leadership by example. To ask Americans to pay more, while our federal government does less and charges more is wrong. Many Americans already spend 1/2 of their working hours just to pay taxes. That is just plain wrong. We are overtaxed, over-regulated, and overrun by bureaucracy.
To find out more about CAFE standards, please view the following link.
The following video is quite long, but has some information that needs to be part of any energy overview.
I support the Second Amendment
which says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security
of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall
not be infringed". The Second Amendment does not address duck
hunting. It does address the personal and collective rights of a free
society. Our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution to guarantee our
God-given liberties. They wisely made many provisions to guard
against tyranny, including tyranny from our own government. The Second
Amendment is one of those provisions. It acknowledges our personal
rights as well as our collective rights.
The right of an innocent, unborn child to life is at the heart of the American ideals of liberty.
I support legislation that seeks to define life as beginning at conception, HR 1094.
I support legislation to remove the ability of
federal courts to interfere with state legislation to protect life.
This is a practical, direct approach to ending federal court tyranny
which threatens our constitutional republic and has caused the deaths
of 45 million of the unborn.
I also support legislation, HR 1095, which would prevent federal funds from being used for so-called "population control."
Our nation has troops in
130 nations. Our nation has over 700 bases world wide and 572,000
troops overseas. Our generals tell us we have stretched our military
too thin. We have given aid to nations that do not have our best
interest at heart. We need a more humble foreign policy and we should
avoid nation building. We must choose our friends more carefully and
guard against our enemies more diligently. Those we place in power to
represent the interest of our nation must understand the cultural and
religious as well as the military realities of the present world.
The greater the American liberty, the lower the taxes, the smaller the government spending, the better we obey our Constitution, the stronger our economy will become.
Government spending is out of control. Federal revenues went up 46% from 2004-2008. Did wages go up that much in the same period of time? Yet, with that massive increase in revenues, spending has gone up even more. Congress, which is responsible for all budgets, is spending at a faster pace than all the money they are taking from the American people. Congress is running huge deficits each year. This causes the money in our pockets to be worth less and less.
Spending levels for every department should be frozen immediately. Our federal government's budget should be much smaller. We need to end corporate welfare. We need to end federal subsidies. Entire departments can and should be eliminated.
Congress must cut spending and start paying off the national debt for the well being of our children.
Today, many politicians with help from lobbyists are spending America into ruin. The national debt is now over eleven trillion dollars. We are now the biggest debtor nation in the world. Our mounting government debt endangers the financial future of our children and grandchildren. If our elected leaders do not cut spending now, higher taxes, a devalued dollar and economic disaster will be our future. Our federal debt was less than a trillion dollars when Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. It is now 11 times what it was then. Entitlement obligations are an additional 60 trillion dollars and growing. Congress added 4.6 trillion in entitlement obligations in the 2008 fiscal year alone.
In addition, the Federal Reserve, the central bank, fosters runaway debt by increasing the money supply -- making each dollar in our pockets worth less. The Federal Reserve is a private bank run by unelected officials who are not required to be open or accountable to "we the people."
Our economy and our independence as a nation is increasingly in the hands of foreign governments such as China and Saudi Arabia, because their central banks also finance our runaway spending.
Our current debt, including entitlement obligations, is over $175,000.00 per man, woman, child and illegal alien. It is over $420,000.00 per full time worker, and over $700,000.00 per full-time taxpaying American.
We cannot continue to allow private banks, wasteful agencies, lobbyists, corporations on welfare, and governments collecting foreign aid to dictate the size of our ballooning budget. We need a new method to prioritize our spending. It's called the Constitution of the United States.
The following links are sobering and informative videos with David M Walker, the former Comptroller General of the United States under three presidential administrations. He resigned that job to spend his full-time warning America of the train wreck that is coming if we don't cut federal spending now.
YouTube - Economic Disaster Ahead
Our government should NOT be in the business of choosing winners and losers on Wall Street or anywhere else.
On September 29, 2008 Congress narrowly voted down the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Then on October 3, 2008 Congress passed the bailout out package saying it was for Main Street this time. The only change in the package was the Senate increased the FDIC coverage from $100,000.00 to $250,000.00 until 2013 and they added $150 billion in pork and earmarks. The bailout is and was a slap in the face to all hardworking Americans and a wink to billionaires who had already profited from past transactions.
Congress could have been doing their job in August instead of taking a month long taxpayer paid vacation of over $14,000.00 each. The economic crisis was caused by Congress and has been made worse by Congress. Congress should have come back in session and gotten to the bottom of what needed to be done to protect the American taxpayer. What they did do is to pass a bailout that punishes the taxpayers.
All those that voted for the bailout should be fired by the voters on November 2, 2010. ~
Congress should immediately raise the personal exemption from $3,400.00 to $15,000.00 immediately.
Next, Congress must balance the budget by cutting spending, not by raising taxes. Wasteful, unconstitutional, counter-productive, and ineffective spending and over-regulation must be eliminated. Half of the savings should be used to pay down the national debt. The other half should be returned to the taxpayers by reforming the tax code. The new tax rates should be 2-1/2% up to $100,000.00; 5% for income from $100,001.00 to $500,000.00; 7-1/2% for income from $500,001.00 to $1,000,000.00; and 10% for income over $1,000,000.00. The implementation of the new tax rates should be put in place in the order listed, beginning with the lowest level of income earners. This should be an interim step to eliminating the IRS.
I support less taxes. Lower taxes benefit all of us, creating jobs and allowing us to make more decisions for ourselves about our lives. I have always supported lower taxes and lower spending. It is important to note that every time taxes have been cut, like during President Kennedy's administration, revenues have actually increased.
The federal government should not tax a person that is eligible for federal aid. That only creates and funds bureaucracy.
For every dollar the federal government takes, it provides as little as 20 cents worth of services compared to what that dollar would have purchased if left with the individual to start with.
Our current tax system spends over 250 billion each year on compliance. That is a huge waste of the American taxpayers money.
The following link is a history of the income tax from when it was first put in place in 1913 until 2008.
The Tax Foundation - U.S. Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History, 1913-2008
Education should be controlled locally. The federal government should not be preempting the parent's authority over their own child. Local educational authorities working with the parents and the teachers are all that is needed to make our schools better.
The federal government should be out of education completely. The money being taken from the taxpayers of each of our states to meddle with our schools should stop immediately. Education is a state and local issue. The parents have and should have the primary responsibility concerning the education of their child.
NCLB and the Department of Education have increased the cost and bureaucracy of education while reducing accountability to parents and lowering standards by draining resources and causing the focus to be on a top down, one size fits all approach.
I am a strong advocate for accountability and high standards. That is why I have spent years serving on a local Board of Education. But federally mandated reports that isolate the parents, teachers and local education authorities from the operations and control of our schools are not the answer. Parents and students, nor anyone else on the local level, do not get to see the test after they are graded. I would repeal NCLB (No Child Left Behind) and eliminate the Department of Education. That money can be more effectively managed at the local level.
There is no government system that can make choices for an individual as well as the individual can make their own choices. Some of the current ideas being suggested by Congress will make our health care system worse. We need to move away from the trend toward socialized medicine and instead increase consumer driven health care options.
Health care must be addressed on multiple levels at the same time. All analysis must take into account quality, cost and availability. And all decisions must successfully cover those three components.
Artificially imposed government obstructions to individual consumer choices have made health care more expensive while indirectly rationing its availability.
If elected to Congress I will co-sponsor the "Comprehensive Health Care Reform Act", bill number H.R. 3343 as one measure to bring down the cost of health care. I will vote for all Americans to have a full tax deduction for any healthcare related insurance and a full tax credit for any cash payments for healthcare.
Further, I support tort reform that maintains or increases individual choice and responsibility. I will vote to repeal any Federal laws that prevent or hinder buying insurance across state lines. I support giving the same tax breaks to individuals that buy insurance or pay for healthcare as is given to companies. I will vote to repeal Federal limits and mandates. I will demand that Congress clean up the fraud in Medicare (estimated at 4-10%). I will vote to repeal Federal laws that prohibit doctors from charging less to cash patients. I support greater transparency of what is being charged. I support a tax credit for all cash payments made for healthcare.
No taxpayer money should be spent for welfare and/or government subsidies for persons here illegally. There must be a federal program available to states and local jurisdictions for deportation of illegal aliens who are a threat to our society.
For those that would prefer to see the steps that need to be taken in bullet form:
- physically secure our borders and coastlines
- enforce visa rules
- no amnesty
- no welfare for illegal aliens
- pass true immigration reform
-
no Social Security for illegal immigrants. Currently, illegal immigrants are able to collect Social Security after they have worked 18 months in this country.
- Social Security contributions made in the past must be put in the Social Security Trust Fund and used for social security payments only.
- All Social Security contributions made now and in the future must be kept in the Social Security Trust Fund and used for social security payments only.
- Benefits must be revenue specific. All persons that are currently making Social Security contributions should be given a savings bond each year for the contributions they made that year that is redeemable at their retirement age.
- The employee's portion of contributions and self employed contributions should be based on voluntary participation.
- Stop paying Social Security to illegals as is the current practice.
- I would repeal the tax on Social Security benefits, enacted in 1993.
Here is a sample of how the system works:
Average annual income : $40,000 (today's dollars)
Number of years of work : 35
Estimated monthly benefits under Social Security:
| Retirement Age |
|
|
Individual |
|
|
|
|
Single Income Couple |
|
|
|
Double Income Couple |
| 62 |
|
|
$984 |
|
|
|
|
$1,476 |
|
|
|
$1,968 |
| 63 |
|
|
1,066 |
|
|
|
|
1,599 |
|
|
|
2,132 |
| 64 |
|
|
1,148 |
|
|
|
|
1,722 |
|
|
|
2,296 |
| 65 |
|
|
1,230 |
|
|
|
|
1,845 |
|
|
|
2,460 | If an individual retires under the current system at age 65 and lives to be 80 years old, they would collect a total of $221,400.00 from Social Security. If they do live to the age of 80, their benefits that they could have received can not be passed on to their children.
Under my plan, all taxes paid in to the Social Security Trust fund would be kept in the Trust, plus interest earned. All benefits for persons entering the work force would be revenue specific. Moneys paid into the Trust Fund could only be paid to the person that paid into the Trust Fund. So the same individual as illustrated above would have available immediately upon retirement an account worth at least $724,798.64. (this is with a 5% interest assumption). If they did not receive all of the money in their account prior to their decease any balance could be given to whatever person or group they would choose.
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