Here's a few 'specifics'....
Economy
There can be no doubt that we face an incredible economic crisis in the United States. However the solutions to this crisis are clearly evident but it takes members of our Congress who are committed to unleashing the indomitable entrepreneurial spirit of Americans, not economic slaves.
Our federal government created this crisis by first developing an entitlement mentality in our housing market, sub-prime mortgages. The Congress then exacerbated the issue with a lack of oversight that is criminal in nature. They now perpetuate the problem with inept foolish plans called “stimulus”, all the while continuing the wasteful system of earmarks, “pork barrel” spending.
To stimulate our economy we must realize that Keynesian tax and spend economic theory does not work. The public sector shall never grow the economy, that comes from the private sector. When I hear our new President speak of building an economy from the bottom up, well, you just have to cringe.
If we are serious about restoring the American economy then suspend payroll taxes until the situation improves. I would begin with a 3 month suspension and willingly extend that to 6 months if necessary. In order to inspire investment, innovation, ingenuity, and real growth we must end capital gains, dividend, and death taxes, just abolish immediately.
We should begin to redefine our tax code, no more progressive tax system; we need to go to a flat tax system. Currently we have some 40-45% of Americans who are not paying any taxes; a rate of around 15-17% would be adequate. A twist I recommend is to have a flat tax up to an income level of $2 Million, then institute a progressive system. My intent is to inspire Americans to earn and develop their wealth.
Along with these initiatives we must realize that the true strength of our economy is small business owners. Our tax rates are just too high, close to 33%, we should also have a corporate/business flat tax rate at 17% and seek to reduce the duplicitous regulations which destroy their growth.
Finally, our Congress must reassess our foreign aid spending; sending $900 Million of our taxpayer dollars to Hamas is not a wise expenditure. I find it reprehensible to say the least. The federal government must operate within the mandates of the US Constitution and stop its overreach into areas in which they are not legally authorized.
That means truly reduce the growth of government, as stated, that is not where our economy shall grow. More government jobs is not the answer and we must have a federal government that does not rob from we the people to satisfy their lusts. I will seek to make the federal government efficient and look where we can cut, not expand. Remember, if the Constitution does not mandate it, it is not within the prescribed duties of government.
This will only happen if we elect members to the House of Representatives that are truly fiscal conservatives and will, as the Constitution mandates, “promote the general welfare of its citizens”. I pledge to do just that and will not waste your taxpayer dollars by proposing any earmarks.
Health Care
This year’s August heat has brought more than high temperatures and developing tropical storms to south Florida. Political discourse has reached a fever pitch over the proposed health care reforms Congress is proposing.
Our health care system needs reforms. We must make our system more affordable and accessible to all Americans. These reforms can be instituted within the classic conservative principles of limited government, liberty, individual responsibility and accountability, and free market solutions.
A true Conservative believes in the individual and setting the conditions for their success. I offer that the post-modern liberal approach feels the “collective” is more important than the individual. Our US Constitution plainly states that the preeminent purpose for Government is to protect the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness of the citizen, we the Americans.
Reducing costs of health care can begin by making changes to our legal system which often results in catastrophic litigation brought against medical professionals. How many “tests” are ordered by attending doctors for us only as a precaution against potential lawsuits? These costs associated with unnecessary lawsuits are real and often have no basis in fact. A 2006 study by the Harvard School of Public Health found 40% of the lawsuits studied had no patient injury and/or no medical error. Mississippi and Texas recently passed legal reform and insurance premiums have decreased by as much as 70%. These are real savings that will be passed on to health care consumers.
However, as former DNC Chairman Howard Dean stated last week in Alexandria, Va at a townhall meeting, the trial lawyer lobby is more influential than doing what is right.
Why is it that healthcare insurance competition is restricted to individual States? Open this up across the country allowing Americans to receive the best possible plan for their needs. This will force insurance companies to compete for our interest, not us being slaves to them. Personal choice for health care coverage should be a hallmark of any reform.
We need government to provide tax incentives for covering of pre-existing conditions and warn the American people about companies that do not provide best coverage for our citizens. We must also provide tax credits for the working poor, who want health coverage but cannot afford. We can also explore the possibility of increasing child tax deductions for families based upon healthcare costs.
And Americans must have the freedom that portability affords them; they should never have to drop an insurance plan. We have to establish the relationship which is permanent and not that which places them at a disadvantage.
Guaranteed renewable individual insurance contracts are a means by which we can provide Americans the ability to purchase long term, future insurance. This initiative would create the individual relationship, promote portability, and preclude denial on pre-existing conditions. Americans who choose this option would be afforded a tax credit.
We should advocate individual Americans receiving the same tax benefits for individual healthcare plans as enjoyed by employer based plans.
Small businesses should be allowed to pool together in groups in order to have better competition with larger companies and corporations. Pooling small businesses together will create economies of scale and more employers will offer coverage to their workers. These associated health care plans can only be propelled forward by Congress taking action today to encourage more competition for our health care dollar.
Flexible health savings plans allow individuals to have money withheld from their paychecks by their employers. This non-taxed money is then refunded to the individual through a claims process. In effect, the government is losing the income tax and social security tax on the money and is setting a condition in which the individual analyzes their annual healthcare needs. In the case of a catastrophic or new condition, an individual’s medical insurance would kick in. Money not spent in a certain year rolls over to the next and the healthcare dollars continue to grow.
Any legal obstruction to this concept should be removed by Congress.
Those who support a single payer, public option plan should recognize this already exists in the form of Medicaid/Medicare/SCHIP. These are government medical programs which are funded by our taxpayer dollars. These programs are intended to cover those who fall within the respective cracks in the system. Just this past January, SCHIP was expanded to beyond the poverty income level to $83K and the definition of a child, according to new legislation was raised to 25 years of age. Those who are eligible for these programs should be encouraged to sign up for this coverage.
My Dad, who passed in 1986, older brother and I are veterans who interact with the VA Hospital system. I know what government run healthcare systems look like. Ask any Veteran, it is not pretty.
It is well recognized the government run systems are filled with waste and abuse. Any health care reform must ensure these pre-existing government medical programs are meeting their intended purposes; effectively and efficiently. I would offer this is one of the first lines of attack in healthcare reform for the government.
No discussion of health care reform would be complete without including the costs of covering illegal immigrants. An administrator at Martin Medical Center recently disclosed one patient who had stayed at the hospital for 760 days. Another patient had incurred over $1.5 million in health care charges.
Our system simply cannot sustain these costs. Stopping the flow of illegal immigration to our country will save all citizens money in our personal health care expenditures.
On Tuesday, August, 18 I hosted a health care town hall meeting in Deerfield Beach. Nearly seven hundred people attended from all walks of life. At the beginning of the meeting, we announced that all who wish to express their opinions would be given the opportunity to do so.
Many of the attendees expressed very passionate views on health care. But all were afforded the opportunity to speak their piece and were polite in listening to the views of others. After listening to the varied views of those in attendance, I recognized there was a common thread running through many of their presentations:
Opposition to any expansion of a government run health care system.
Keeping government out of the relationship between the patient and their doctor.
Expansion of personal choice in selecting health coverage.
I agree with these solutions. Those in Congress should listen to these citizens in drafting health care legislation.
I served in the military for 22 years and traveled to 13 countries across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. I can assure you we have one of the best health care systems in the world.
Let us never forget that the government is an entity that can run itself at a loss and raise capital by enacting taxation legislation. That is not fair competition between a public option and private sector. Of course our system needs reforms. We must always strive to make our systems better. But I also believe we can reform our health care system while maintaining the conservative principles that have made our country great.
Illegal Immigration and Amnesty
If there is one issue that has far reaching effects upon our American way of life, yet no one addresses, it is illegal immigration. Neither Presidential candidate mentioned this subject in a manner favorable to the safety and security of our Republic during the 2008 campaign. Instead they pandered to radical groups like La Raza seeking the Hispanic vote, this is shameful and unacceptable.
If groups like La Raza, and those are supporting it, place furthering the illegal immigrant agenda over that of America I consider them seditious and treasonous.
This is not about “undocumented workers”; it is about the federal government protecting American citizens. And I do not trust new Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano to meet that standard.
Illegal immigration adversely affects our economy, jobs, national security, crime levels, education, and healthcare. One could make the case that it is singularly the most devastating issue for America. Yet our elected officials say and do nothing to rectify the situation.
One side seeks to provide cheap labor while the other side seeks to remake the voting electorate in America, through granting amnesty…which we tried under President Reagan.
Talk radio host Michael Savage sums this issue up nicely; borders, culture, and language.
In 2008 there was estimated 6900 drug cartel related deaths along our border, that number is already more than 1000 for 2009. And we still continue the idiocy of having open borders. Members of the Obama administration are attempting to blame gun proliferation in Mexico on the US. This is just another attempt at gun control in America.
If the issue is guns getting across the border, then seal the border and have controlled access points. We have a US Border Patrol agency which is outmanned and outgunned along the border.
I advocate moving the USBP under the Department of Defense in order to provide proper training, equipping, and better personnel resourcing for the important mission of securing our border. We can lateral transfer members of our Armed Services with Iraq and Afghanistan experience into the USBP for their expertise.
There must be obstacles to deter the illegal aliens, human traffickers, drug runners, and Islamic terrorists who are exploiting our porous border. I support some type of physical deterrent, fence or wall, anything which will canalize activity to areas where we can have better control.
We have to end the failed ideal of “multiculturalism” as it pertains to subjugating American culture to every other culture. The practice of easily obtained student visas led to the horror of 9-11. We can no longer grant these visas, or any others, to citizens entering from Countries known to harboring terrorist groups, especially Islamic terrorist groups.
We must clean out our prisons of illegal immigrants and have harsher penalties against illegals perpetrating crimes against American citizens. The “anchor baby” practice must be terminated. Lastly, any American city classifying itself as a “sanctuary city” must be cut off from receiving any federal government funding.
America is a Nation of Americans and therefore there should be three types of persons here; Americans, those wanting to be Americans, and guests. We must take pride and declare English as our official language. I am sick of being prompted to “press 1 for English”. The most vital element uniting a people is a common language; anyone voting against this measure should not call themselves an American representative.
There are millions of Americans unemployed and lacking proper benefits for to sustain an adequate standard of living. However in this recent “stimulus bill” amendments for e-verify were removed, enabling illegal immigrants to secure jobs which should be for Americans.
The US Constitution has these three mandates; ensure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and provide for the common defense. All three of these directives relate to the issue of illegal immigration.
Florida has moved into the top four in America suffering from this issue.
The answer is simple, enforce the Constitutional mandates, and protect Floridians, protect the American people.
You have my commitment to do just that!
National Defense
If there is one definitive mandate for our federal government it is found in the US Constitution, “provide for the common defense”. It is the primary mission of our government at the National level to protect our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Old English law termed the last piece, property; I consider it part of the American way of life.
I served in our Nation’s Army for 22 years active duty service and in three combat zones. I can attest that this is the vilest and most determined enemy we have seen in our Republic’s existence. We face a radical Islamic ideology that is uncompromising and intolerant in prosecuting its objectives, totalitarian and imperialistic global domination. This is manifested in Islamic terrorist organizations funded and maintained by state sponsors who are enacting proxy war worldwide.
If you do not believe me, then listen to them.
We also face threats from a resurging Russia who is seeking to again expand its reach into our hemisphere. North Korea is extorting the Pacific region through nuclear threat holding hostage in order for its Stalin like regime to survive. China is defeating us economically and using their gains and profits to build a dominating naval force. We cannot forget the socialist dictator to our south, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela who is fomenting unrest throughout South and Central America. And do not discount the drug lords and their militias in Mexico who are exploiting our unsecured borders.
What we have developing is truly a 21st century axis power ready and willing to align in order to defeat America and its allies.
And our current administration issues proclamations about not calling the enemy, “enemy combatants”, and willingly releasing them to return to the battlefield. It is an administration willing to send your taxpayer dollars to Hamas, not to our defense budget. This administration is projecting weakness, not resolve, at a critical time.
What we need on Capitol Hill are Congressmen, Representatives, who understand this enemy and how to defeat it. Those who realize that it requires a holistic approach to reduce the sphere of influence this enemy seeks to establish. We must have members who having served on the ground and comprehend how to craft strategic objectives which support tactical goals, and successes.
We must get away from occupation warfare and nation building and execute precision strike operations aimed at denying the terrorist enemy sanctuary. We must cut off their funding, manpower, and logistical support from their state sponsors. And that means finding their financial resources and freezing them. We must win the information war and defeat this enemy on the websites which proliferate hate against the US and western civilization.
We must stop with the PC non-sense and confront this enemy with courage, competence, conviction, and character. No longer can tolerance be a one way street in the US which will lead to our cultural suicide. No longer can we allow this enemy to infiltrate our financial, religious, cultural, educational, and political systems in America using our own Constitution to destroy us.
My fellow South Floridians, and Americans, national security requires us to protect our borders, strengthen our economy, and develop new strategic alliances to combat this growing threat. This is the defining moment for our Republic and if we fail then the legacy and future of America will be one of defeat.
I pledge to never succumb to this enemy, seek out non-kinetic means, but will stand ready to go kinetic in order to “provide for the common defense”. My life has been about protecting the American way of life, count on me to continue the same.
Energy Independence
Some 32 years ago, President Carter created a new government entity
called the Department of Energy. Formed in response to the Saudi
Arabian oil embargo, the mission of this organization was to make
America “energy independent”. In the late 70s we were importing some
18-20% of our energy resources from foreign sources. Today we are
importing close to 65% of our energy resources from foreign sources,
making the failures of the Department of Energy evident to everyone.
This is obviously one area where we can save money and return it back
to the overburdened American taxpayer.
Due to our increased reliance on foreign energy supplies, terrorists
found a great source of funding through “petro-dollars” emanating from
Saudi Arabia. There can be no doubt that the promulgation of
totalitarian, imperialistic Wahabbist ideology is enabled by the
transfer of American wealth to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In
essence, we are killing ourselves, and allowing this enemy to sustain
its infiltration into western civilization, especially America, by
building of mosques, buying of property, promoting Islamic-centric
curriculum, creating political lobbying groups, and overtaking our
colleges and university Middle East studies programs. The modern day
battlefield does not resemble the conflagrations of the 20st century
and includes the promotion of radical beliefs. This new battlefield is
complex and its players are non-State, non-uniformed belligerents who
have learned to hide among the shadows using 21st century technology
while retaining 7th century ideology.
The new battlefield of the 21st century centers on energy
independence, truly a national security issue. We can no longer suffer
the deficiencies of the Department of Energy, nor be held hostage by
extremist environmental groups blocking efforts to develop clean, safe
energy development in the U.S. Saudi Arabia stands with the growing
cartel of Mexico, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran, China, and Russia as they
vie to control energy resources across the world, thereby having a
stranglehold and dictating our foreign policy. Organizations such as
OPEC are nothing more than a gathering of member nations led by
despots and authoritarian regimes, almost a “Mini-Me” of the United
Nations.
Now is the time to take aim on making America energy independent and
developing our full spectrum of resources. That means we must invest
in oil, natural gas, clean coal, nuclear, hydrogen, cost effective
biofuels, wind, and solar research, exploration, refinement, and
development. America must look at energy independence much the same as
having a diversified investment portfolio.
We must embark upon a plan to drill for our own oil and natural gas
resources wherever they lie within our continental rights. We should
create incentives for our coal industry, not punitive measures such as
Cap and Trade legislation, which will inhibit the investment in proven
energy that we rely on. We have to restart our nuclear program as the
technology has so greatly improved. We led the way in harnessing the
power of nuclear energy, let us reclaim that title. The advancement
of these efforts will lead to our energy independence, decrease
funding to our enemies and provide affordable energy to all Americans.
In concert with these efforts let us strive to develop the renewable
sources, including biofuels, wind, and solar, and invest in their
development. I find it sadly representative of the elitist left wing
that Senators such as John Kerry promote wind energy, just not in
their neighborhood!
The renewables are not the panacea that many on the left are
advocating, at most generating 10% of our requirements. However, the
promotion of renewable energy resources is a vital part of what should
be our national energy plan. Technological growth and ingenuity will
lead to greater development of newer, more efficient energy. We need
to avoid the job killing agenda of the Democratic Congress which wants
to give us Cap and Trade legislation that dictates behavior through
excessive taxation and destroys blue collar industries. Forcing a
“green agenda” is not how you address our energy independence, and
certainly not how you advance our national security. Spain has already
proven the false promises of the green agenda does nothing to improve
employment, a nation’s economy or build energy self sufficiency
cnsnews.com.
We must reduce our absurd corporate/business tax rates to a flat rate
between 17-20% while providing tax incentives to inspire employment,
innovation, investment, ingenuity, and growth in the energy private
sector, and ensuring we maintain proper oversight.
I am an advocate of suspending gas taxes from Memorial-Labor Day to
help consumers struggling with fuel prices in this difficult economy.
I advocate the elimination of the Department of Energy, which has
proven a failure. Return those revenues back into the treasury and use
the money to pay down our debt. We can create a smaller, more
functional, energy advisory board. Lastly, we must eliminate the
politicization of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and remove
any subjective restrictions that impede our energy development and
growth of vital blue collar workers.
I am not into easy gimmicky slogans. Repetitive slogans are a poor
substitute for real, concrete plans and actual work. I realize that
America’s Energy Independence is a key to stimulating our economy,
getting Americans back to work, and defeating our Islamic terrorist
enemies and adversarial nations. We have kicked the proverbial can
down the road for 30 years. We must turn to America’s energy sector
and give them a simple mission, “make America energy independent in 3
years.”
Growth of our Nation shall never come from the public sector; it comes
from the private sector, regardless of what Michael Moore may believe.
We must unleash the indomitable American entrepreneurial spirit!
America must produce, consume, and even export its own energy
resources. Anything less than that objective is criminal, and a
failure of determination.
Energy Independence is a critical component for the future and legacy
of our great country.
National Disaster Insurance
Create federal tax credit for the cost of windstorm and earthquake insurance; no tax on that amount of income.
Allow federal tax credit for any and all amounts paid to repair or rebuild any property, crop or equipment damaged by natural disasters not covered by insurance for all forms of property ownership.
Troop Support
Ensure troop funding must NEVER be used to resolve internal partisan disputes as long as American soldiers are deployed in a war zone.
Provide health care funding for any deployed soldier serving or injured in the line of duty as a fully funded annual budget line item.
VA mortgage funding should include a credit equal to a 10% down payment for a first home purchase.
Second Amendment
An armed and informed law-abiding citizenry is the best defense against an unjust government and the criminal element created by irresponsible societal benevolence and activist judges.
Israel
About 62 years ago, the world came together and established something that was very long overdue, the State of Israel. When one considers the travails of the Jewish people since the 7th century, it should bring shame upon the face of the world. These persecutions began with them being forced out of the Saudi peninsula and the Levant by muhammad and his successors. The horrors of the inquisition in Spain among other wrongs brought upon the Jews in early Europe followed. When we failed to learn from that lesson, the world would witness the supreme horror of the Holocaust in Europe. Finally, we learned the lesson. We made a commitment and established a Jewish homeland, fully recognized.
Now we face the resurrection of the original enemy of the Jewish people, a resurgent islamic fundamentalism evidencing itself in totalitarian, imperialist design. This time it has morphed itself using 21st century technologies, yet still retaining a 7th century mentality, utilizing terrorism internationally to promote its perverse aims. One of those objectives is the destruction of the State the world agreed to support when creating, Israel.
In keeping with previous traditions established by muhammad, the modern islamic warriors promote taqiyya, lying to promote islam. They also, just as muhammad, use the Treaty of Hudaybiyya as a model to delay and deceive their enemies until they are ready to strike. Under Yasser Arafat some 200 agreements were never honored.
Why would we trust any word coming from the mouth of the psychopathic delusional leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? The mad mullahs, insane imams, and combative clerics are again calling for the supremacy of islam, no different from earlier centuries.
Israel faces groups such as Hamas, which in its charter commits to the destruction of Israel. They face Iran, committed to destroying the Jewish state and driving its people into the sea. When asked to depart from southern Lebanon, Israel complied, yet they now face Hezbollah in the north. In Egypt, the Muslim brotherhood is complicit in enabling Hamas to receive material support and funding through the series of tunnels.
And there are still those who demand that even more land be ceded by Israel and settlements halted? The end result will be a country with the width comparable to the distance from New York’s JFK to LaGuardia airports. Each time Israel has given back terrain, it has become a launching point for terrorist attacks.
We are dealing with an enemy that has no regard nor respect for negotiations, compromises, and certainly not appeasement. As a matter of fact it is deemed weakness and only encourages them more so.
I do not support any creation of a Palestinian state, to do so would be to create a terrorist state. There is already a state for the Arabic people residing in the region called Palestine, Jordan. If the Arabs can build an indoor ski slope in Dubai, they can resolve the issue of their Arab brothers and sisters. Instead, they use them as pawns in an international game of extortion and use the subsidies provided not for humanitarian gain but for more weapons, for jihad.
I do not support any division of Jerusalem. If I recall from history and the Old Testament, David, Son of Israel built Jerusalem and his son Solomon made it great. The muslim claims to Jerusalem are based upon a very contentious story concocted by muhammad, and of course the latter conquering of the city, even by Salahaddin. One flag will fly over Jerusalem, the Israeli flag, never any other, certainly not a UN flag.
Lastly, we must move away from the antiquated world government organization called the United Nations. We recently saw what type of “leaders” are allowed a stage before this body politic. It is time we create a new organization which is based upon Nations with like political structures, Republics and Democracies. I advocate Israel being part of this structure, perhaps an expanded NATO, but something with teeth, and principled member Nations. We face a dangerous committed enemy; we are all targets, not just Israel.
And if we fail to believe that last sentence, ask those who lost loved ones on 9-11 in America, on 3-11 in Madrid, and in the London bombings. We just dodged a terrible blow here in America, again, while promoting “Islam on Capitol Hill”. Funny, the attendees blamed their fear of reprisals for not having more persons participate. This on the same day, 25 September 2009 that a Jordanian illegal immigrant was caught sitting in a “supposed” car bomb and dialing up the cell number to detonate in Dallas.
Genesis Chapter 16, verses 11-12 states, “And the Angel of the Lord said to her (Hagar): Behold you are with child, and you shall bear a son, you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against everyman, and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
Ishmael of course became the beginning of the Arab people….and God’s word is immutable truth.
In closing, there are battle lines clearly drawn, I know where I stand, and that is to support the State of Israel. The lessons of history have been learned by me and I offer one simple retort, “Not on my Watch”. |
