Over the past few months we’ve seen an unprecedented escalation in oil prices, causing consumers to pay as much as $4.89 per gallon of gasoline on Long Island. While much of this rapid rise has been caused by supply and demand economics, it is also a direct result of our government’s inability to develop an effective, comprehensive, long-term energy policy. I believe we must enact legislation today to help decrease our dependency on foreign oil & reduce gas prices at the pump. As you congressman, I will work to:
- Increase domestic oil and gas exploration
- Start drilling in ANWR & off the coast of the U.S.
- Promote a cleaner environment by encouraging new technology & promoting the use of alternate power sources
- Promote more nuclear and hydropower production programs
- Prohibit price gouging by local gasoline retailers
We must continue to encourage investment in our economy, reduce the tax burden on hard-working Americans, and create an environment where people keep more of their hard earned money. It’s been proven time and time again, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, that when we reduce taxes, we create economic expansion, which ultimately brings in more revenue to the government treasury. I will work hard in Congress to promote pro-growth tax cuts and fight to:
- Make the Bush taxes cuts permanent for all Americans
- Reduce the capital gains tax from 15% to 10% to encourage saving
- Reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% to encourage investment in our economy
- Permanently eliminate the Estate “Death Tax”
- Replace our current income tax system with a simpler, Flat Tax.
As the father of an Iraq War veteran, I clearly understand the sacrifices made by our service veterans and believe we must never allow their service to our county to be forgotten. We must continue to support our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also ensure that we provide them with the proper benefits, support and compassion when they return from serving our country.
I believe we must continue to support the government of Iraq to become capable of governing itself and safeguarding its people. Helping to establish a stable, prosperous and democratic state in Iraq, is the best way to establish long-term peace and security in that region of the world. I am interested in bringing our troops home from Iraq, however, only when Iraqi forces can safeguard their own country.
Since the attacks on our country on September 11, 2001, we have not experienced another attack on our homeland. That is clearly a tribute to the fine work of the US intelligence agencies, our military service members and other law enforcement and Homeland Security organizations. We must continue to be vigilant and support ongoing security programs in the US to protect our citizens from those that wish to do us harm. As your Congressman I will push for continued investments in modern technology and the proper resources to enhance our Homeland Security efforts so that all Americans can live in a safe and secure environment.
Earmarks & Wasteful Government Spending
The U.S. government takes in billions of dollars in taxes and fees every year to support our government infrastructure and to fund on-going programs for the American people. I believe we a spending problem as opposed to a revenue problem in Congress. Much of that is the result of “earmarks”, commonly referred to as “pork-barrel” spending. Earmarks are specific spending items that are added to appropriation bills which have not been scrutinized like other spending in Congress, do not have any transparency, where there is no opportunity for debate or discussion and are generally granted to members based on seniority of the member of Congress.
In the $1.4T fiscal 2008 budget, there were 12,900 earmarks, worth $18.3B. Think about that... Congress approved $18.3B worth of spending without a hearing, without any oversight, without any public discussion as to how that money was going to be spent. Members of Congress simply submitted requests to their party leadership for pet projects and were successful in getting them added to upcoming appropriation bills. When Congress voted on the major bill, anything attached to it would also be approved.
As your Congressman, I will push for an immediate moratorium on all earmarks and work hard to permanently eliminate the process. Just like every other hard-working American family, the U.S. Congress must learn to live within budgets and stop spending money it doesn’t have.
I believe we’re a nation of immigrants and should continue to be a land of opportunity for people who are willing to come here legally, learn our language and obey our laws. But we must secure our borders, enforce the immigration laws we currently have on the books, deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes and not grant amnesty to people who have come here illegally, ignoring the laws of our land.
We need to make health care more affordable for all Americans but we also need to give Americans more individual control. Today, most health insurance is obtained through people’s employers and is chosen, owned and controlled by the employer, not the employee. We all know that we live in a very dynamic society and people constantly move from job to job throughout their working careers. Every time they move to a new job, they usually get new health insurance coverage. So, the first thing we need to do is make health care owned and controlled by the individual and not the corporations. We need to make it portable so that if you move to another job, your health care comes with you.
Second, we need to provide people with a choice, and not limit that choice to what their employer offers but provide a competitive environment where the insurance companies have to compete for business just like they do for home owners’ insurance, car insurance, etc. I’d push to establish Medical Savings Accounts and provide tax incentives for people that put money into these accounts to use for health care costs. I absolutely believe that if people have to make decisions on spending for medical care and have to scrutinize the way the money is spent, they will do a better job with their money than any insurance company or government agency would ever do.
I believe in the Sanctity of Life. I believe that our right to life comes from God our creator. The Declaration of Independence clearly spells out that “all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” In 1776, the framers of that historic document understood how precious each and every life is, and when I’m elected to Congress I will continue to fight for pro-life legislation.
I believe that when the founding fathers of our country created our Constitution and created Congress, their vision was to create a “citizen legislature”, not a retirement home for our representatives. They wanted people to go to Washington, serve their country for a period of time, and then return home and get back to their original careers. They never intended for Congressman to be in office for 20, 30 or even 50 years, which is what we see today. I truly believe that many of the abuses we see in Washington stem from the fact that we have a system in place that creates power for incumbents. And the longer you are in Congress, the more seniority you have, the more power you have.
I believe we need term limits of 6 terms maximum for Congress. You know, if you look at any well-run business, you’ll find that they will frequently move management people into new roles and bring up new executives in the top positions. The reason they do that is because new people bring new ideas, a different way of approaching issues and problems. If we always have the same people looking at the same issues, well, we’re always going to get the same results. It was Einstein who once said that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. We need terms limits in Congress and I’ll push for that when I get to Washington.
