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Loyalty to our Constitution, our liberty, and the people of Iowa
It’s time for Congress to reread the Constitution and have the Federal government get back to its constitutionally enumerated duties only. It is time for Congress to stop abusing the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to interject itself into the everyday lives of all Americans.
We need to simplify our income tax system from its current 85,000 plus pages and adopt either a fair tax or a flat rate income tax system.
The United States has the world’s second highest corporate income tax rates. We need to eliminate income taxes on corporations, both large and small, as these businesses are the true engine of our economy. The taxes those corporations pay are passed on to all of us through higher prices. That high tax burden, coupled with excessive government regulation, are killing our competitiveness and sending our jobs overseas. Let’s make the tax burden reasonable and bring those jobs home again.
Half of the solution to our current record high deficits is spending. We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.
Conservatives would never vote for you to pay someone else’s mortgage.
The incumbent supported the TARP bill, has voted for massive spending increases, job killing “government stimulus”, bailouts and cap and trade. He can no longer be trusted with the people’s money.
I know firsthand from my flying career ending injury that virtually anywhere in this country, if you’re injured in an accident, numerous professionals from first responders to hospital staff will literally risk their lives to save yours. That is a system built by free people who respect life and all it brings. No government program can operate a healthcare system as efficiently as the free market already has.
The free market will do far more to fix the alleged health care crisis in America than any Government-run program. I will vigorously oppose Obama-care and the resultant rationing of health care. It’s time to make major medical insurance coverage affordable through the free market. Transferable, inheritable health saving accounts need to be made available to all Americans. We should all be allowed to save tax- free for the days when we need more care. We should not be forced to join some substandard healthcare system because it is thrust upon us by a socialistic Federal Government mandate.
If the just passed democrat controlled House version of the health care bill, at 2000+ pages, is so great, why do we have to threaten Americans with five year prison sentences and $250,000 fines for not buying it and why are members of Congress exempted from joining? Needless to say, the incumbent voted for it.
The FDA needs to be restructured to allow the timely development of lower cost life saving drugs. Limits should be placed on malpractice suits to protect both health care providers and those who make honest professional judgments. You shouldn’t win a lottery based on another person’s honest efforts to save your life that don’t work out as hoped for.
Government involvement in healthcare and most other things of concern to Americans will only bring higher cost, lower quality and less availability. It’s never been successful before, what makes anyone think it will be now?
Agriculture
Agriculture is a $20 billion a year business here in Iowa, with more than 90,000 farms. I support the farmers, ranchers, and producers who are supplying the food and fuel for consumers worldwide and who are the heart of economic growth in our state. As your member of Congress, I would support common sense, forward looking, free market agricultural policy that benefits the farmer and the consumer.
I support lowering the tax burden, increasing access to growing global markets, and reducing government regulation of our agriculture industry. As a conservationist, I know that no one values the land more than a farmer. I believe clean energy and a better environment are important for the quality and sustainability of agriculture production in our state.
Family farms are the backbone of the industry. Unfortunately, more than 80% of them make less than $250,000 gross revenue annually. I will help position our family farms to be able to take advantage of renewable energy, new innovations, sustainable technologies, and conservation techniques to make Iowa agriculture production smarter and more valuable. I also support efforts to help our next generation of farmers continue to make Iowa a leader in this business.
Education
This is an issue very dear to my heart. Like many of you, my wife, Sheila and I face the challenges of educating our kids every day. Sheila is a counselor at the Ankeny Campus of the Des Moines Area Community College and I hear of both the successes that institution is having every day in this district as well as the challenges of both the DMACC staff and its students to ensure quality education and real value for our dollars.
The federal government has no business being in the education business. This issue is managed best at the local level by local school boards. School choice and home schooling should be available to all of our citizens. With the reintroduction of competition, we can fix our broken public school system.
How about this one; “All of the above”
As a nation, we have vast energy reserves. It is time to release those energy reserves for our use in an environmentally responsible way. The free market is much better at determining what makes economic sense– be it nuclear, solar, wind, oil, coal, ethanol and any other form of energy. Clearly no responsible energy policy is based on the belief that man-made carbon dioxide emissions significantly contribute to global warming and it’s time to acknowledge that fact. Science has yet to clearly prove global warming is even occurring. Government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers or subsidizing any industry. Let’s get the environmental zealots out of the energy debate and let the adults decide what is best for America.
Sportsmen are the original Conservationists with a hundred-year history as an example. It’s time we follow their lead in being good stewards of the land and its resources.
Of course, the incumbent voted for the Cap and Trade bill and has offered no real solutions to America’s current or future energy needs.
Law Enforcement and Crime
As a Reserve Police Officer, I understand the challenges that our police professionals and other first responders face every day, from budget constraints to unfunded federal mandates. Recent history clearly shows that community policing efforts and the continued imprisonment of convicted criminals are the two most effective tools in reducing crime and I will work to support those efforts.
I support reasonable legal immigration policies, not illegal immigration. We all know a nation without borders can no longer be considered a nation. America needs to ensure the security of all of our borders, with fences, technology and manpower. Unskilled, illiterate foreigners are not the future of America’s economy or security.
I believe that life begins at conception and life should be defended from beginning to its natural end.
The framers of our Constitution knew that the government should never have a monopoly on force, that’s why they articulated our God given right to self defense and ensured the right to keep and bear arms was written in our Bill of Rights. Let’s not forget, George Washington didn’t use his right to free speech to defeat the British, he shot them.
The Federal Government is constitutionally mandated to defend this country and its citizens. I support fully funding the Defense Department and ensuring that all of our services, active and reserve, have the tools they need to dominate any enemy, on any battlefield, anywhere in the world.
The world is ruled by the aggressive use of force. Appeasement never works. It didn’t work on the playground when we were kids and it doesn’t work in the real world; 9/11 proved that to all of us. It’s time that Congress holds the Administration and State Department accountable for failed policies and bad ideas.
North Korea and Iran are testing long-range guided missiles and developing nuclear weapons. These two countries support terrorists all over the world and continue to provide the weapons that are used to kill American service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet the current Congress and Administration are making defense cuts including the reduction of Ballistic Missile Defense systems and are unwilling to use America’s military to be the force for good in the world that it has always been.
I am and will be a staunch supporter of not just our traditional allies such as Israel, Australia, Britain and Canada, but also Honduras, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. They are among our best friends in the world and need to be supported and trusted with our best equipment and technology, both military and civilian. That includes our most advanced fighters, ballistic missile interceptor systems and other defensive equipment.
We have all watched for far too long the continued deterioration in our care for veterans, not just for our older generations of veterans, but even our most recent returnees’ from the war on terror. Perhaps it is time we take advantage of our best in the world private medical system and transition our Veterans Administration into a VA funded- privately provided partnership to provide the best of medical care for our veterans, without making them travel great distances to scarce and often sub standard facilities.
Let me be clear; I will never turn my back on the promises made to America’s military veterans.
Foreign Affairs
Our foreign policy should always put America first. Like a United States Marine, the United States should be no better friend to the freedom loving people of the world and no worse enemy to anyone or any nation who would oppose freedom and liberty for all of the world’s people.
Free trade has filled our stores and lives with the world’s bounty, we need to protect our industrial base and ensure free and fair trade between all nations. Protectionist tariffs and closing off our domestic markets extended the Great Depression; we should not repeat those same mistakes again.