These are my core beliefs upon which all my policies are constructed:
- Defense of the Constitution
- Smaller more effective Government
- Empower the individual
- Preserve freedom, choice and market mechanisms
- Strengthen the economy and improve competitiveness
- Put America and Americans first
- Support the Republican Party Platform
Issues:
- Social Security
- Taxes & the Economy
- Immigration
- Global Warming
- Health Care & Drugs from Canada
- Education
- War on Terror
- Energy Independence
- X-Prize Model for Invention and Innovation
- Tort reform
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Social Security:
A person that drops out of school at 16 and makes the Ohio
minimum wage of $6.55 for the rest of their lives and redirects
the 12.4% Social Security Tax into a private account that returns
an inflation adjusted 9% will retire at 67 with over $1 million that
can then be passed on to their children as an economy strengthening
asset. In comparison; the sum total Social Security benefits of an
average individual that passes away at 80 is less than $200,000, and
leaves our children an unmanageable liability.
I support Social Security choice and believe we should eliminate the separate and
unequal pension plans offered by our various governmental agencies.
Every American should be allowed to choose between the government
pension plans offered to our teachers, government workers, elected
officials, qualified union, IRA or corporation pension plans or stay
in the existing Social Security system. The facts are, the teacher's pension
plan is far better than current Social Security and we shouldn't allow the
government to segregate Americans into superior and inferior programs
with the majority of Americans(you)forced into the inferior program.
Estimates of the entitlement liability range from 40 to 70
trillion dollars. If left untouched it will bankrupt this Nation and
our children's future. Private pensions invest in America and leave our
children jobs, factories, inheritances and a more prosperous
economy. Social Security leaves them an unmanageable debt that has the
potential to bankrupt our Nation.
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Taxes / Economy:
I do not believe in taxing the productive behaviors of working and saving.
I believe we should have a national sales tax similar to the "Fair Tax." A
consumption tax would skyrocket our economy and make it far more competitive in the world
market, greatly increase efficiency, lower costs, bring jobs and companies back to America, empower the individual
to control their tax burden and best of all put the IRS out of business.
The "Fair Tax" is a voluntary tax which you only pay when you purchase an item or service.
My plan would be a "modified" Fair Tax that has a lower tax rate, but taxes
both new and used items, and taxes on big ticket items like homes and autos
would be paid on the principle portion of the monthly payment, spreading the
tax payment out over the life of the loan.
Leaving our children a brighter and more prosperous future hinges on creating a system that
rewards hard work and investments. Neither you nor your children should be penalized for your success.
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Immigration:
Absolutely no amnesty, 12 million new Social Security and Medicare
recipients is almost certain to bankrupt our entitlement system and our children's
futures. Strengthen and secure our borders, implement a system similar to the
highly selective Canadian "point system" for granting citizenship. Work visa
holders would pay three taxes: to cover their health care, a private social
security account that can only be accessed once they return to their home
country and the last to cover the cost of administering the program.
I support a NAFTA Tax/Tariff to cover the public service costs of illegal
immigration and shift the burden back on Mexico.
States that grant illegal immigrants drivers' licenses would lose the federal funding of their highways.
"Sanctuary cities" would also loss federal funding of their social programs.
Children born to illegal immigrants would not automatically gain U.S. citizenship.
Limit citizenship to spouses and children, not the entirety of extended families.
Lastly, the only real long-term solution is for Mexico to revive its economy
and create enough jobs to employ their population. The U.S. should work with the
Mexican government to reform their foreign land ownership and investment laws to
allow U.S. corporations and farms to safely expand into Mexico. With the 14th
largest oil reserves in the world Mexico can have a far stronger economy to support thier own people if
only managed correctly.
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Global Warming:
Global warming legislature, especially a carbon (coal) tax,
has the potential to be devastating to the Ohio and American economy.
Estimates place the cost of fighting greenhouse gas emissions at around
five percent of GDP, roughly $700 billion per year. That breaks down to
$2,333 for every man, woman and child in America each year and the
benefits are purely speculative and won't even be measurable. I
believe that if we are going to spend $700 billion per year on
anything it should be on developing an AIDS vaccine, shoring up
entitlements, paying down the debt, educating our children, caring
for our elderly, funding our military, cutting taxes or providing
job creating economic assistance to Mexico.
I vehemently oppose the
idea that the carbon tax will be paid to the Food-for-Oil UN to
compensate other countries for the damage obstensibly done by the U.S.
and its green house gas emissions. U.S. tax dollars should be used to
benefit Americans. I fail to see how America benefits from paying a
carbon tax where the benefits are speculative at best but the costs
are certain and substantial, especially to coal and auto producing regions like Ohio.
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Health Care:
The best way to ensure all Americans are covered with health
insurance isn't with a government mandated program (like Hillary Clinton's mandatory
coverage proposal) that forces everyone to buy coverage. A
tax credit system that encourages people to fund their own coverage is more economicall sound for everyone: a tax
credit reduces your tax burden dollar for dollar and provides a rebate
for any shortfall. A tax credit simply empowers every individual with
the ability to purchase their own health care insurance and preserves
the free market system and consumer choice.
Drugs from Canada:
I believe re-importation of drugs is a de-facto way
to violate our U.S. drug patents which hurts American consumers and
drug manufacturers and the future viability of our drug industry and
pipeline of future drugs. The Federal Government should enforce our U.S.
patents and require Canada to pay market prices for any U.S. manufactured
drugs. I would also support starting the drug patent immediatly after FDA approval so that the drug company has
the maximum time period in which to recapture their investment and enabling them
to charge lower prices for their drugs. These are market friendly mechanisms
that benefit all Americans, preserve choice and protect the system that
continues to develop new and essential drugs for future generations.
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Education:
I believe education is the civil rights issue of our time and America
has betrayed our children. Democrats are proud to proclaim that
they are protecting the public school "system." Protecting the "system" may
get them elected but America's focus should be on protecting and educating
our children regardless of the "system." I believe in school choice and
competition. I believe each family should be given an $11,000 scholarship
per child to use at any school that they choose. Any savings would be divided
between the tax payer and the student. For example, assume a student decides
to attend Watterson High School whose tuition is around $5,000/yr resulting
in a $6,000/yr saving. One half, or $3,000, would be returned to the State to
reduce the burden on tax payers. The other half would be deposited into a 529
College Savings Account to help reduce the cost of college tuition for that specific child.
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War on Terror:
I believe you can't run from a fight you didn't start or want. Terrorists are
after us whether we like it or not and we need to take the threat seriously
regardless of which party inhabits the White House. I believe Americans prefer
victory over defeat. I believe Democracy in the Middle-East is essential
to our security and that of the Middle-East and World. I believe in
a post 911 world, where our leaders were sharply criticized for "not connecting
the dots," that it would have been irresponsible for President Bush to have
allowed Saddam Hussein to remain in power. He may not have had WMDs but he
sure was behaving as if he did, and those risks were no
longer acceptable. I believe President Bush executed the war exactly the way
it should be executed; he allowed the Generals, not politicians to fight the
war. Both Democrats and Republicans voted for the war but only the
Republicans stood by our troops once the going got tough. If Democrats had
held F.D.R. to the same standards that they are holding President Bush, we would
never have won WWII, and we would never have attacked Germany because they
never attacked us, nor would we have attacked the Taliban for that matter.
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Energy Independence:
While America bickers Cuba and Canada plan to drain our oil fields
dry. Cuba has teamed with India and China to drill off of the coast of Florida
and Canada already has wells on the Canadian side of our Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), possibly taping into our underground national resources. I believe we
should drill in ANWR and delegate the tax revenues for environmental preservation
and alternative energy research. 2000 acres of barren Alaskan tundra could be
used to fund the preservation of millions of acres of rain and old growth forests,
wetlands and development of the hydrogen powered car or other alternative energy sources.
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X-Prize Model for Invention and Innovation:
The Federal Government spent billions to put a man in space; the free market
did it for $20 million and cost the tax payers nothing. In fact, they paid taxes
in their efforts to do so. The Federal Government should no longer pick and
choose the research that they want to fund; they should simply set the objective/goal
and award the winner a tax free prize and a patent. Free markets have proven to
be far more efficient at solving problems and developing products than governmental
industrial policies and research labs. An example would be a contest offering a
$100 million tax free prize plus reimbursement of expenses and an iron-proof patent
to the first person/corporation to develop an FDA approved AIDs vaccine, commercially
viable hydrogen powered car, alternative energy source or adult stem-cell medical
breakthrough just to name a few. That way the free market, not the tax payer funds
the development of these items and the tax payers pay only for successful discoveries.
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Tort reform:
Before we ever think of socializing medicine we should first socialize
the legal industry. Outstanding legal services should not be limited to celebrities and the wealthy. Lack of quality legal representation has resulted in many innocent people
being sent to prison and some are sitting on death row. Compassion, truth and
justice should be the guiding principles of our legal system, not greed. The current
legal system is like an economic virus which spreads from one industry to another,
bankrupting companies and costing many Americans, especially in our heavily unionized
manufacturing base, their jobs.
And the legal tab will continue to escalate for years to come. Rand foresees an additional
500,000 to 2.4 million asbestos claims which will cost businesses up to $210 billion.
Asbestos-related litigation has already driven at least 70 companies into bankruptcy. That has cost
nearly 60,000 American workers their jobs and $200 million in lost wages according to a 2002
study by economist Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate. What's more, litigation costs represented
about 2 percent of the US Gross Domestic Product: over $250 billion. Of this, the manufacturing
sector bears a disproportionate share of that, at 4.5 percent.
The loss of 60,000 jobs is a huge price to pay so that a few lawyers can become rich
and the victims get less than what they deserve.
I support legal / tort reforms that compensate the victims, not the lawyers. Federalize all
class action lawsuits to ensure that the victims, not the lawyers, receive compensation.
Legal fees should be capped to end the practice of harassment or frivolous lawsuits. Lawsuits
are supposed to be about protection, not profit.
The bottom line is, we need to reform the legal system so that it is a benefit to the
economy and individual Americans and is based on honesty, compassion, truth and justice.
Greed and destruction have no place in our legal system.
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Newbaum Turk, Guest Contributor OSU Sentinel
"How Bob Wagner will better Ohio's 15th congressional district"
Ohio's 15th congressional district, which includes The Ohio State University, is up for grabs now that
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Chris Bournea, ThisWeek papers
Ohio State University economics instructor Robert Wagner has announced his candidacy for Ohio's 15th Congressional District.
"The main issue that got
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