Abortion

As a common cure, abortion is not the answer.  To destroy life as a fix to any social dilemma is not a viable alternative.  To generically state that this concept is a choice between a person and their God would be an easy escape without giving you a direct answer.  My answer is simple.  I will not cast our approving vote for any bill that toys with the concept of abortion as an accepted cultural practice.

Gun Rights

Did you ever hear of criminals finally complying with the law and handing over their guns when bans have been enacted in any county?  The right to keep and bear arms was granted by our founding fathers and is a vital part of our American heritage.  The right to own arms is the cornerstone of all private property rights.  A citizenry stripped of the right to own arms is powerless to defend itself against an authority infringing upon that citizenry’s right to own and control private property.  Gun ownership and associated rights to self-defense belong with all law-abiding citizens.  I will not cast our approving vote for any legislation that erodes this fundamental right guaranteed by our founding fathers. 

Bailouts, forced bailouts and fraud

These United States have excelled beyond any other country to rise above the waters of this world and not only bobbed to and fro, but built a multitude of creative, innovative and useful “stuff.”  When I was part owner in a restaurant, we were subject to the simplest of equations.  We needed to make food products, design them to be appealing and sell them for a profit, or close the doors.  The rules of the business game should apply to everyone.  If you cannot create a product and keep the business afloat through the tides of change, then you must either sell the business to allow someone else the opportunity to run it successfully, or close the doors.  Has tossing money at anything ever solved a real problem?  I will not cast our approving vote for any legislation that serves to promote incompetence or reward those that line the pockets of career politicians while draining the productive segment of society.

Coal, Oil & Gas

It has been casually pitched that the American people should pay upwards of five or six dollars for each gallon of gasoline to make other energy alternatives ‘competitive.’  The reaction of “that’s better than the $7/gallon in Europe” expresses the sadness of our willingness to accept political rhetoric as the end of any debate.  Other alternatives will become competitive when the cost of their production drops to a level on par with that for traditional fossil fuels.  To artificially raise the cost of energy production from fossil fuels through taxation and regulation and proclaim that those practices make other energy alternatives cost competitive displays either disdain for the intelligence of the American public, or a fundamental misunderstanding of basic economics.     I live in Nevada, the 36^th state to join the union known as the United States of America.  I do not live in Europe and should not be subject to their economic folly or irrational way of life.

As a nation, we should never put ourselves at the mercy of foreign countries and bow to their demands.  In complete disregard for our national security, we have subjected ourselves to foreign dependence for the majority of our energy supply.  We have abundant native coal, oil and gas reserves.  We have the most advanced environmental technology and compliance standards in the world which would allow us to tap reserves and extract energy from them in a safe, responsible fashion.  I will cast votes to approve an increase in energy production from our nation’s own natural resources which will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and help keep our net energy costs among the lowest in the world.

Alternative Energies

Development of safe, creative and sound alternative energy sources should be encouraged.  However, such encouragement should not come at an unreasonable added expense to each United States citizen.  To mandate production from sources that cost a multitude more than the energy sources they replace is illogical.  To pamper a budding renewable energy industry for a brief period could be acceptable when there is a realistic expectation that it will grow beyond the diaper stage into a feasible industry that is economically self-supporting within a reasonable time frame.  That is not the case at this moment in history.  Until then, we must be practical and meet our energy needs by developing our native fossil fuel sources and finding solutions to the waste storage dilemma that hampers expansion of our current nuclear energy program.  I will not cast our approving vote for renewable energy sources that forcibly steal more money from the pockets of the people of the United States than they can possibly save us in the foreseeable future.

Taxes

The current tax code is a quagmire including loopholes, unbalanced tax burdens, marriage penalties, outdated alternative taxes, unfair expenditure credits, etc.  It has become a dirtied house that has continuously been remodeled and added onto, but has never received the annual spring cleaning, maintenance, and repair work needed to remain a healthy space.  Our current system, managed through the IRS, has been temporarily patched and haphazardly scabbed so many times that it now needs to be completely rebuilt.  The current tax code that has been cobbled together contains thousands of pages and is too cumbersome and complex to be understood by the normal working American.  In fact, it is so complex that the entire code cannot be completely understood by any single expert accountant or IRS agent.  Thus, tax law has become a specialized area in the judicial arena to attempt to ferret out the true requirements of the tax code.

Tax revenues are necessary to insure that we have national defense, an interstate transportation system, a judicial system to protect the constitutional freedoms guaranteed to us, and a plethora of other services that we take for granted.  However, continuing to add patches and more pages to our tax code piñata in hopes that the thin spots where it is about to burst apart are covered for a few more years is no longer a tolerable approach to the problem.

I am committed to reversing the course we have taken regarding the tax code, and will vote FOR measures that REMOVE its most inequitable provisions, including unjust shelters, unfair exemptions and deductions that only benefit targeted special interests, and unmerited credits that allow refunds to those that pay no taxes.  I will vote FOR measures that REDUCE the tax rate disparities built into our current escalating tax brackets.  This will simplify the tax code so it is shorter, easier to understand, and more fair to all taxpayers.  I will vote AGAINST all measures that expand our tax code by adding new shelters, exceptions, deductions, or credits, or that increase the gap between tax brackets.  If we reverse course on tax code legislation through several sessions of Congress by removing unfair provisions, we can substantially reduce the length and complexity of the code and move toward a system that is more equitable and understandable for all taxpayers.

I personally support the concept of replacing our current tax code with a flat tax on income that would have a very low basement (i.e. if you earn less than, say $5,000 annually, you are not required to pay income taxes) and would have no exemptions, deductions, credits, or other adjustments.  Repealing our current tax code and replacing it with such a flat tax would establish what would arguably be the simplest, fairest income tax system that is possible.  However, it would also effectively dismantle the tax advice and preparation industry that has slowly grown to mammoth proportions alongside the ever-expanding tax code.  This would have serious short-term repercussions that would ripple through our entire economic system.  If I receive input from a clear majority of registered Nevada voters supporting transition to a flat tax, I will champion that concept in Congress.  Otherwise, I will steadfastly work to reverse our current course and support bills that simplify our existing tax code and equalize our escalating tax brackets.

Overspending and Overtaxing

I do not remember cutting my children’s allowance and asking them to hand over money from their change purses after I overspent and busted the budget.  I do not remember overspending and then proposing to change the law to eradicate my debts.  I do not remember printing my own money so that I could purchase items I did not earn enough to afford.  I manage my pocket book.  I manage my expenditures.  I manage not to spend more money than I have earned.  I even manage to save money by limiting my spending.  My wife manages to do the same, as do my closest friends.  This concept is honest, fair and simple.  There is no mystery to this methodology.  The wild spenders in our government must be roped by the neck and pulled back into the bull pen.  I will not cast our vote for increased spending on ‘magic’ money that must be pulled out of the hats of citizens not yet living.

Closed door meetings/Secret agendas

When did it become acceptable to propagate one’s agenda, and then, like a magician, distract the people of the United States while voting for a hidden agenda?  Our government is supposed to be accountable to the citizens.  Closed door meetings and covert deals to implement secret agendas are not the conduit to accountability.  A government of the people, by the people, and for the people must operate openly and truthfully in full view of the citizenry.  I will not tolerate or participate in any meetings that take place behind the cover of drawn curtains that shield the proceedings from the watchful eyes of my constituency.

Aging, Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid

I offer a cliché to illustrate my position; every day we get older and every day we face new challenges.  Without fail all of us will age and God willing, if we are blessed enough to live into old age, will experience age related frailties.  Through mandatory withholdings, every worker pays into Social Security and Medicare becoming more deeply indebted to our government with each passing day.  Meanwhile, we receive notice that our share of future dividends from these mandatory social programs are constantly dwindling because they face insolvency, if not outright collapse.  Our politicians, under the guise of solving one emergency after another, robbed from these so-called ‘trust’ funds time and again, stealing the future ‘security’ from the people of the United States in broad daylight.  We could have routed nest-egg money into our own ‘old age funds’ that would have been more ‘secure’ than the government controlled programs that we are forced to participate in.  Instead, ‘we’ bailed out dying Savings & Loans, investment firms, automobile companies, and unknown corporations through secret meetings that ‘we’ were not invited to or allowed to attend.  Let us stop the insanity and no longer allow our hard-earned money to be taken from us to be thrown into the abyss.  I will encourage policies that require these government administered programs to follow tried and true business practices that allow savings accounts to grow in value over time, rather than lose value.  I will vote for legislation that will allow workers to invest in private security and ‘old age’ funds rather than be forced into the government run programs.

Education

For an extended period of time, our children have suffered from relaxed educational standards and poorly administered public school systems.  Vast quantities of money have been pumped into our state school systems without achieving any desirable results.  Private or chartered schools almost universally achieve higher academic success than our public system even though their average expenditures per student are far less.  Rather than education centers that enable our children to step out into the world fully prepared to succeed, our schools have become diploma mills that push students through and dump them out ill-equipped to compete for university slots or jobs with more disciplined foreign students.  We must revamp our education system to enact standards that promote honest education.  We must refurbish our school curriculum to equip our children with exceptional reading, writing, civics, arithmetic skills, dedicated work ethics and high moral standards.  Our children offer little to the world, our states, our counties or our towns without an honest knowledge base and skill set to support the paper that was issued after their ceremonial stroll at graduation. 

We must implement policies that empower parents to provide the best education to their child that is possible for the money that is available to them.  If homeschooling, private schools, charter schools, or other alternatives to public school will better achieve this goal, we need to implement policies that will allow federal school monies to support these more efficient, successful alternatives.  Only the ability of true school choice can provide the incentive needed for our public schools to remake themselves into a first rate educational system that can again be the envy of the world.

We have laws upon the books in each state that instruct, without exception, that false information and/or lies cannot be taught at the taxpayer’s expense.  Are we to continue allowing revisionist history, alternative educational materials (social engineering) and false theories to be purchased at the taxpayer’s expense and forced upon our children?  Are we blindly to accept such indoctrination in place of a quality education?  We must demand adherence to the laws that provide that each child truly, and not just on paper, receives a quality education yielding a productive young adult that can better our nation.  If it becomes necessary to review each dollar spent and insure that each one is used for sincere education, then we must stand as a country and complete this review.  We can no longer accept our sub-standard educational system.  We must review our spending, enforce laws about false teaching, return to solid basics and grant our children hope. 

Furthermore, our children must be taught the same principles that we require immigrants to learn before they become naturalized citizens of our States United.  We must again teach the basic principles of our constitutional republic, including the purpose and function of the three separate branches of our federal system, the extent and limit of powers granted to the federal government by the people and the importance of the rule-of-law which has as its foundation in the Constitution of the United States.

I will cast our approving vote for legislation that re-establishes basic, quality education, high achievement standards, and that empowers parents to choose the most efficient, effective education for their children.

Constitutional Process – Review and Implementation

We need to allow and require healthy deliberation of all legislation before it is enacted as law that controls or regulates United States citizens.  Passing bills that are never read, are only skimmed through and are subject to undisclosed amendments in closed door meetings is not acceptable.  Our country was not built upon secret-ism or rule of the peasants by the self-proclaimed elites.  We are the United States of America and we must conduct our legislative process openly and honestly in front of the people who must abide by the resulting laws.  Our laws must always be for the people and not against the people of this grand nation.  I will not cast our approving vote for any legislation that has not been completely reviewed by me, and is not open to complete and thorough review and comment by Nevada citizens.

Constitutional Process – Understandability

Congress has failed the people of this nation by passing laws that require an interpreter (an attorney, or teams thereof) in order for typical citizens to understand them.  Perhaps the people have failed themselves by primarily electing lawyers to congress, thus promoting legal-speak as the standard legislative language.  I live under the laws passed in this country, as does every citizen.  I want bills that can be understood by the people of this country.  I want laws written in such a way that anyone with a basic education can easily identify what is required for compliance.  I will resist any legislation containing confusing legal terms that frustrate clear understanding by average citizens of our nation.  We do not need insanely long laws that are intentionally crafted to be complicated and ambiguous.  Laws are written to protect and reward law-abiding people, and to punish law-breakers.  It would be a simple joy to read and understand the requirements we are held to for ourselves, rather than having to consult legal experts every time a legal issue or question confronts us.  I will cast our approving vote only for laws that are concise and straightforward enough to be read and understood by typical law-abiding Nevadans.

Immigration

Our country was founded by immigrants who risked their lives to settle this land of opportunity and promise we all enjoy.  We must remember that we are a melting pot of multitudes.  Federal laws explicitly express the requirements that must be met to legally inhabit and enjoy citizenship in this country.  We must insist that our Nation aggressively and consistently enforce these laws.  Otherwise, we will compromise our security and surrender our sovereignty.  We must make certain that all applicants to become naturalized citizens of the United States understand and pledge to uphold our Constitution before citizenship is granted.   The people of the United States have expressed loudly and clearly their desire for secure borders, and demand prosecution of those that violate our immigration laws.  I will cast our approving vote to aggressively and consistently enforce our immigration and naturalization laws, and to strike laws and regulations that hamper or block the rational implementation of those laws.

Environmental compliance

The United States likes to think it is the most environmentally conscientious nation on the planet.  Our ‘green’ policies often just move the environmental impacts of our consumption to another location.  Thus, we keep our yard clean by tossing our litter over the fence into other yards around the world.  We must think, stand up and speak against this practice.  We must take a rational, measured approach to environmental issues.  The usual phrase, ‘not in my back yard’ is easily expressed while viewing the small picture.  The big picture includes the world.  The United States is a very environmentally savvy country.  Therefore, as true environmentalists, we should NOT drive production across the border where the costs are lower simply because social and environmental requirements are less stringent, or non-existent.  If we want our environmental restrictions to have a worldwide effect, we must require that all goods SOLD here meet our ecological standards, regardless of where they are produced.  Implementing a stringent certification process to insure that all goods sold within the United States comply with our basic production standards would put our industries back on an even economic playing field with foreign companies, boosting employment here at home and simultaneously providing incentives for other countries to abandon poor environmental practices.  Redirecting our foreign trade policies in this manner would benefit our economy, better balance our trade deficit and once again make the United States the leader in identifying and implementing ecological enhancements on a truly global scale.  I will cast our approving vote for environmentally sound legislation that keeps the United States on a level economic playing field with the rest of the world and ensure that our planet remains habitable and productive for our progeny far into the future.

Marriage

The Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defines marriage as a “legal union between one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws, and provides that states need NOT recognize a marriage from another state if it is between persons of the same sex.”  The act passed with the support of nearly 85% of legislators in both houses, and was supported by a super-majority of the populace (in excess of 75%).  Thirty-seven states have enacted their own versions of the DOMA.  Efforts are underway to have the judicial branch of our federal government thwart the will of the people and declare the DOMA a violation of the United States Constitution under its “Equal Protection” and “Due Process” clauses, or other constitutional provisions.  To prevent the courts from overturning the will of the people which was clearly expressed by the pervasive support of the DOMA, I support passage of a constitutional amendment to clarify that no provision of the United States Constitution is to be construed or interpreted as establishing a right to, or granting the privileges of, marriage to any union other than the legal union between one man and one woman.  Thirty states have constitutional amendments protecting traditional marriage, including three states (Arizona, California, and Florida) that passed constitutional amendments in November 2008.  Marriage has had a universal definition for thousands of years.  That definition began with God’s statement that a man and a woman shall cleave together and become one flesh.  Research has shown that homes with a father (man) and mother (woman) that are married produce children that are more stable, productive, and successful in all aspects of life.  I will cast our approving vote to continue the traditional definition and practice of marriage as solely a legal union between one man and one woman, and will support a constitutional amendment to preclude any challenges to the tradition of marriage based on spurious constitutional claims.