As a small business owner and operator, I understand what it takes for the private sector to create and maintain good jobs in our community. With unemployment at the highest level in recent memory, job creation will be my top priority when I am elected. We need to address four areas to help create meaningful jobs in our district.
America needs a common sense plan to achieve realistic energy independence. My plan includes increasing the use of nuclear power; utilizing America’s resources including coal, natural gas and oil; investing in renewable energy sources such as wind and solar; and encouraging personal responsibility through the use of alternatives such as plug-in electric cars. We also need to develop more of our own natural resources such as oil and natural gas by permitting further exploration. Finally, we should encourage personal responsibility through conservation. I support offering tax incentives to encourage citizens to be more energy efficient.
I strongly believe that the Pelosi-Reid Health Care plans are the wrong prescription for our health care system. These bills put federal bureaucrats in between the decisions you and your doctor make, and will force between 9 and 10 million Americans off their employment-based insurance plans while lowering our quality of care. These bills are too expensive and will steadily increase taxes on the middle class, while adding to an already unsustainable Federal debt. It is wrong that Pelosi and Reid purport to pay for some of the new costs by cutting seniors’ Medicare benefits. These bills are unacceptable, and I will fight their implementation if elected to Congress.
While the Pelosi-Reid bills would hurt those requiring health care, taxpayers, and seniors; some reforms are needed. America spends more than $2.1 trillion per year on healthcare, or nearly 16% of our GDP. Medical costs are rising at 6.7% per year, faster than the rate of inflation.
We must pursue common sense policies that reduce medical care costs so that more people can afford quality health care.
The federal government is too big and wastes too many of our tax dollars. We must make the federal government accountable by lowering taxes, reducing the national debt and balancing the federal budget. Reckless spending is pushing our country to the brink of fiscal disaster. Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem-it has a spending problem. Lower taxes and more predictable regulations will give businesses the confidence that they need to invest in workers and capital. We need to lower the corporate tax rate, eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax and the death tax, keep the capital gains tax rate low, index capital gains taxes to inflation, and ensure that the tax code encourages, not discourages, Americans to save.
The safety of Americans at home and abroad must be a top priority for the federal government. We need a strong, well-funded military, but we also need clearly defined goals. We must focus our efforts where our national interests are clearly at stake by supporting our staunchest allies, such as Israel and the countries of NATO. We must also continue to protect our citizens against terrorist threats here and abroad.
Israel - It is a strategic imperative and moral necessity for the United States to preserve its close relationship with the State of Israel. Since the beginning of the modern Jewish state in 1948, the United States and Israel have shared a special bond. This relationship is based on shared values, including our mutual commitment to democracy, the rule of law, freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
Israel stands alone as the preeminent democracy in a region of repressive totalitarian regimes – and she remains our most steadfast democratic ally in the Middle East. The United States and Israel face a common threat from radical Islamic terrorism – and we must stand together in this fight for freedom and democracy.
I will work to increase oversight of U.S. assistance to Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and multilateral organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to ensure taxpayer funds are never used to support terrorism, weaken Israel’s security or undermine U.S. foreign policy. UNRWA should be pressured to allow an independent audit of its expenditures to ensure no funds benefit Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Egypt must remain a partner in combating terrorism by stopping the flow of Iranian arms into Gaza.
Iran - The United States must take strong and immediate actions to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. A nuclear Iran is not just a threat to Israel – it is a threat to the United States, Europe and our allies around the globe. President Ahmadinejad’s threats to “wipe Israel off the map” and his denials of the Holocaust reflect a dangerous ideology that threatens world peace. Strong action is needed now for diplomacy to succeed.
I support the United States in using all diplomatic, political and economic measures available to remove the threat posed by Iran. Such measures could include increasing economic sanctions on the current regime and the country’s central bank; increasing sanctions against foreign suppliers, insurers and brokers of gasoline; and support for democracy groups inside Iran. As a member of Congress, I would vote for the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, which would limit Iran's ability to import refined petroleum products. I would also support the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act, which authorizes state and local governments to divest from companies investing in Iran’s petroleum and natural gas sector and protects fund managers who divest from such companies from potential lawsuits.
Afghanistan - Afghanistan would again become an unfettered terrorist training ground capable of perpetrating gross atrocities around the world if NATO and America withdrew now. I therefore support President Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. The President must provide clear objectives to his military commanders, and follow their recommendations about how to achieve those objectives as quickly as possible. President Obama should not have publicly announced the date to begin withdrawing troops. In doing so he undermined the mission. The enemy in that region is certainly capable of going underground for a defined period of time and reemerging after our date for departure. We must set benchmarks for success instead of timelines for withdrawal.
We must own up to the fact that our country has an entitlement crisis. Nearly 51 million Americans depend on Social Security for over $650 billion of annual benefits, yet projections show that this program will be insolvent by 2041. We must preserve the viability of Social Security by protecting the Social Security Trust Fund. We need to raise the retirement age for Social Security to reflect the fact that people are healthier today and living longer. Of utmost priority is preserving the viability of this program for people who are currently receiving benefits or who are near to receiving benefits. America has made a promise to our senior citizens and we need to keep it. For younger people, we should offer options for a portion of their payroll taxes to be put into personal retirement accounts.
America has a Medicare crisis too. Like Social Security, we need to uphold the promises we have made to our current seniors and those about to become seniors but make changes for our younger generations so that they will have adequate health care when they retire.
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