Why I am a candidate

I am running for Congress because I am unhappy with the direction of the country: The runaway spending, the bailouts, the takeovers and the healthcare reform before Congress that is being forced upon the majority of the people to the cost of $1 trillion dollars.

We can’t borrow or spend our way back to prosperity and this certainly won’t create jobs. We are lectured by the elites in Washington that the financial crisis was largely a result of our ‘living beyond our means’; however, in the first year of the new administration the federal deficit increased three times from $500 billion to $1.5 trillion and this is only forecast to grow for the next 10 years.

There is a conceit coming out of Washington that somehow they know better than we do.

The common American values of life, liberty and limited government are being trampled by those who ‘know better’. Liberals have faith in the government. I have faith in the people. Limited government and individual liberty made this country great, and these are principles we should continue to live by.

I plan to bring a practical, common sense approach to Washington, D.C.; an approach that harnesses the creative power of the individual and not the government.

Jobs & the Economy

Wall Street may have stabilized;  however, the problems on Main Street continue. Nearly 11 million people have lost their jobs and our unemployment rate hovers near 10%.

Since January of 2007, Massachusetts unemployment has more than doubled from 4.6% to 9.4%.

The $787 billion stimulus package has not solved unemployment in this country. Jobs created via ‘pork-filled’ stimulus packages focusing on public spending are not sustainable. What will happen to these jobs when the funding is gone? We are in a ‘jobless recovery’ that will be a drag on our economy for years to come. Washington DC jobs summits are great; however, we need jobs now. Small businesses are the engine of job creation in this country. But currently they are reluctant to hire. Why?

Because the current ‘uncertainly’ regarding future government policies is stifling job creation: healthcare, cap and trade, card check, repeal of the Bush tax cuts.

Those won’t be resolved soon so how do we overcome this?

I propose the following:

1. $10K tax credit to any small to mid-size business that hires a new employee
2. Lower the corporate tax rate from 35% (second highest in the world after Japan and this isn’t including state corporate tax rates)
3. Give small investors a tax credit based on the percentage of their investment in a small, non publicly traded company. There is money on the sidelines and banks aren’t lending. So let's encourage small investors to lend to the small companies.

Energy Independence

Consistent with my belief that we have the responsibility to leave this country a better place for our children and grandchildren, I believe that we should protect our environment from the harmful effects of pollution and that we should pursue opportunities for alternative sources of energy such as wind, solar, and nuclear power. 

I do not believe that the government should ‘encourage’ the use of new technology via the use of punitive taxes on older, less efficient technology. I believe the free market should determine how and when these sources are brought to market, not the heavy hand of the government.

I believe that the clean energy sector could be the dynamic growth engine for our economy with the potential to create thousands of jobs. The growth of this industry will create a virtuous circle in which sustainable jobs are created, energy costs decline and our dependence on foreign energy sources diminished. The government can help facilitate such innovation via tax code changes, modified capital gains tax and increased investment tax credits.

However, we must continue to preserve our current supply of energy while we allow for these new technologies to emerge. 

Spending & National Debt

Our current fiscal policy is unsustainable. 

Assuming the full $700 billion of bailout money for the banks, insurance companies, auto firms gets fully spent, federal outlays approached $4 trillion in 2009. That's double the $2 trillion Congress spent only seven years ago. Federal expenditures are now rapidly outpacing the growth of the economy. This is without including the cost of any healthcare legislation that passes Congress.

Current levels of government spending cannot be financed at today’s level of taxation.

Eventually, we will find ourselves paying higher interest rates to attract capital to cover our national debt and the result will be mortgaging future national incomes and diminishing our standard of living.

The government needs to encourage the longer-term goal of promoting economic growth through more adequate saving and investment. We can’t borrow our way to sustainable prosperity any more than the housing bubble could sustain itself on perpetually growing debt.

Whether or not you think new spending will stimulate the economy, the one undeniable truth is that this money has to come from somewhere, which means that it is borrowed or taxed from the private economy. The recent rate of spending all but guaranteeing future tax increases.

National Security & Terrorism

Currently, we find ourselves the target of terrorist groups throughout the world. We must fully fund our nation's military and ensure the men and women in uniform have the tools, training, and care they need and deserve.

Killing Americans on US soil is no different than killing Americans in the field of battle. These enemy combatants do not deserve the protection of the United States Constitution. They should be held by the military and tried in military tribunals. Further, enemy combatants should be housed at military prisons on secure military installations and not in the public correctional facilities of our country.

Healthcare

The media speaks of the ‘Democrat’ health plan. Have we travelled so far down the partisan political path that we have a Republican or Democrat ‘plan’? Our government is one that includes all of this country’s citizens; Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Any legislation should be bipartisan and make sense. Legislators should be driven by improving their constituents’ portability and access to healthcare not by high dollar earmarks for their states but via legislation that is supported for its merits and not the pork it conveys to their states.

We have the best quality healthcare in the world. But it is also the most expensive. Why? The inefficiencies. Costs need to be bought down while quality maintained.

I propose the following:

1. Permit individuals to purchase insurance across state lines. This will force insurance companies to compete for business via lower premiums.
2. Businesses are permitted to deduct healthcare costs; let’s extend the same treatment to individuals.
3. End state healthcare ‘mandates’, which increase insurance premiums as they cover tests that many will never need
4. Engage in tort reform: $54 billion in savings over 10 years. Harry Reid dismissed this savings as inconsequential but what he neglected to talk about was the exponential savings that will accompany the end of the practice of ‘defensive’ medicine.

Second Amendment

I believe that citizens have the right to keep and bear arms.

Capital Punishment

I support the use of the death penalty in cases where it is justified.

Immigration

Of my four sets of great grandparents, 2 came from Ireland, 1 from Germany and 1 from Poland. Our nation is a diverse country created by people from around the world who came to the United States with one idea: to improve their lives and the lives of their children. Diversity is a true American value and in this diversity we find our strength as a nation. However, our country is one of ‘legal’ immigration.

Ronald Reagan signed comprehensive immigration reform in 1986. Almost 3 million illegal immigrants were given a path to citizenship. By Reagan’s own admission, the legislation failed and now more than 24 years later, we find ourselves with four times as many illegal immigrants in the country. The 1986 reform failed because we failed to secure our border, and we failed to enforce the laws prohibiting the hiring of undocumented workers.

Before we make any attempt at additional reform, we need to:

1. Secure our borders
2. Impose strict penalties on any employers who hire undocumented workers.

Once we remove the ‘magnets’ that attract illegal immigrants to the country can we stabilize the illegal immigrant community and proceed with addressing the remaining illegal population that remains in our country.