National Debt
America is being consumed by debt. When Congressman Ron Paul introduced House Bill 1207 to audit the Federal Reserve in early 2010, the national debt stood at $11 Trillion. Today, thanks in no small part to the Fed’s “Quantitative Easing,” the debt has risen to almost $20 Trillion—an 81% increase in under seven years. We still have not audited the Fed.
Our debt is now greater than America’s entire annual Gross Domestic Product, the total value of all goods and services produced in this country in a single year. With the Fed printing money, and the current administration spending away our grandchildren’s future, we are heading into a crisis that will make the 2008 Recession look like a day at the beach. The catastrophe that is occurring in Venezuela is a warning about where America could be in the next five to ten years.
We cannot spend or “stimulate” our way back to prosperity. We already know that no miraculous “shovel-ready jobs” were available back in 2009 to put Americans back to work, and we certainly have learned that government money doled out to special interests will not solve our financial problems.
Delaware needs a Congressman who is serious about reducing the size and scope of government. We have to eliminate wasteful bureaucracies like the US Department of Education, while at the same time getting government out of the way of the businesses who can put Americans back to work. Decreasing spending while growing the tax base is the only way to get out of this mess.
Taxation
The current tax code is not just expensive and impossible to understand; it is also immoral and manipulated to serve special interests. You have the right to ALL the fruits of your labor, and the government needs to quit picking your pocket. At the same time, the US Constitution gives Congress the power to tax in order to promote the “general welfare” and fund the “common defense.” This is most fairly achieved when American citizens are taxed when they consume, not when they earn.
The Federal income tax (along with the entire IRS) should be scrapped in favor of a national consumption tax. No more tax forms, no more withholding, everybody pays. Savings and investment are stimulated. The Government will continue to raise revenue from corporate and business taxes, as well as capital gains and excise taxes. This is the closest that America will ever get to a truly “fair tax.”
Education
Federal dollars normally pay for only about 6% to 8% of public education spending in Delaware, but dictatorial Federal programs like No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top and now Common Core have seriously damaged our schools instead of helping them. Regulatory compliance with US Department of Education programs sometimes costs more than the total amount awarded to the schools. Almost no Federal money reaches our classrooms without strings attached that remove authority from parents, teachers, and locally elected school boards.
Before 1979, Federal involvement in public education was controlled by a sub-section of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The US Department of Education has not materially improved student performance or school quality in thirty years, despite billions of dollars being poured into top-down initiatives every time a presidential administration changes. This has to stop.
The US Department of Education should be abolished, and the necessary funding and compliance services that constitute the Federal role in public education should be brought back under the Department of Health and Human Services. Except when prevented by statute law (e.g. special education funding), Federal funds for public education should be block-granted to the states, with a prohibition against the state departments of education taking more than 10% of the total as an administrative pass-through cost.
The best strategy for the Federal government to pursue in public education is to hand back as much authority and resources as possible to the school districts themselves.
Personal Privacy
The collection and storage your personal information without probable cause, or a warrant issued by a judge is a direct violation of your 4th Amendment Rights. The NSA’s collection of all Americans phone calls and emails is unacceptable. When the opportunity arose to shut down the NSA, Delaware’s current representatives chose to allow these violations to continue. We should not give up our rights for security. I pledge to vote for any legislation that reins in unconstitutional acts performed against the people by an over intrusive federal government.
Foreign Policy
Two million American men and women have fought in our wars during the last decade. Over 10,000 have been killed, more than 70,000 wounded, and about 400,000 are dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Military suicides are at their highest rate in history.
Our leaders’ obsession with playing global policeman is wasting resources and draining the Treasury. We need a foreign policy and a military structure that concentrates on defending America, not fighting unconstitutional wars, protecting poppy fields in Afghanistan, or propping up dictators around the globe.
Throughout American history, war was considered the last resort. Today, we seem to have forgotten that defending America does not require us to police the world. We need a foreign policy and a military structure that concentrates on defending America and taking care of our veterans when they return home, rather than on intervening in countries across the globe. I will vote to cut spending that benefits the military industrial complex, and redirect those funds to programs that support veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much for each and every American.
Health Care
The Supreme Court decision declaring the “individual mandate” of Obamacare to be constitutional as a tax has laid the groundwork for a complete government takeover of our healthcare system. Millions of Americans are now seeing their insurance cancelled and are being forced into exchanges where they pay much more for care, while receiving lower benefits. The increased costs to businesses is slowing economic growth. As the additional regulations, taxes and penalties continue to grow, the worse things are going to get.
I was the only candidate in 2012 that opposed Obamacare and history has proven me right. Millions of cancelled policies and skyrocketing costs are the direct result of government force imposed on individuals, doctors, and insurance providers. This legislation should be repealed immediately and replaced with a law that ensures people are not discriminated against because of past health problems; allows companies to compete in free national and international markets; and provides individuals the choice they deserve that keeps prices down. In Delaware, I’m your choice to make that happen.