Platform

“Let us give up our empire and become a republic again.” – Ron Paul

Foreign Policy/Iraq and Afghanistan

I do not support the current occupations of Iraq or Afghanistan, and neither do the majority of Americans. However we have been deceived time and again by both parties on this matter. The Republicans trick us into thinking the wars are necessary for our safety at home, and the Democrats pretend like they are the anti-war party, only to let the people down when they are in power. I would help Congressmen like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich in drafting legislation to end the wars, and use the remaining funding to bring our troops home immediately. We must also drastically cut our military budget, as it consumes half or our overall federal budget. We cannot afford these wars any longer, and when thousands of innocent civilians are killed with American weapons, we only make more terrorists. We must engage in non-intervention polices and honest diplomacy, and lower our enormous military spending, which is more than the next 15 military countries’ budgets combined.

Health Care

Since the government first began to get involved with healthcare in 1965, costs have only gone up to the point where now Americans go bankrupt due to medical bills. Free market principles had for years kept the cost of healthcare down, with most healthcare being provided through good charity, university or religious institutions. The American people must come up with a creative answer to this problem ourselves, and not leave this issue up to an already corrupt, inadequate government. Already, non-profit healthcare organizations are popping up all over the country and providing the beginning of a solution. The recent healthcare legislation, as well as the kind created by the Republicans in 2003, leaves healthcare corporations just as in control of healthcare costs as they were before. Americans should not have to be required to have insurance, but should be allowed to have better options, something that can be done by amending the McCarran-Ferguson Anti-trust Act of 1946, which keeps health insurance companies exempt of federal anti-monopoly laws. This would encourage greater competition and break the stranglehold insurers have in individual markets, reducing costs for consumers.

Why should the health insurance industry be exempt from the same antitrust laws as other industries? It is yet another corporate piece of legislation that keeps the big companies in control.

Federal Spending

I believe we need to drastically cut federal spending, especially within the military budget, but also in regards to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. I support Congressman Ron Paul's theory about slowly phasing out these programs while still supporting those who are on them for an appropriate period of time, allowing states to determine if they truly want to continue the services at the state level. The federal government should not be in the business of providing retirement benefits or healthcare, as we cannot afford it and it only makes people less independent. I will not raise taxes on behalf of a government that is already squandering people's tax dollars. In fact, when I become a Congressman, I will take a pay cut of $100,000.

Government Transparency/Civil Liberties

The United States government, in an effort to lead by example, should start opening its records up to the citizens who pay the bills with their taxes. We need to audit the Federal Reserve, which is allowed to keep secret records on secret books. We need to start forcing the intelligence community to stop holding our Congress hostage by keeping pertinent information from them and from the people, including information about what the government is gathering about our own citizens. We must restore habeas corpus, and stop illegal spying on American citizens.

Economy/Jobs

The economy can only improve by allowing free market economics and people to correct the problems, as they always have for many years. The government should not be in the business of regulating the economy or creating jobs, and should only be in charge of an adequate and appropriate monetary system. I will introduce legislation to drastically reduce the size and budget of the federal government, and allow Americans to keep more of their own tax dollars to improve their own lives in the way they see fit. I also believe we need to reduce restrictions on small businesses and those who are self-employed, as big corporate and company jobs are clearly no longer reliable, and people should start using their own skills to support themselves. This current economic crisis was not brought about because financial institutions needed more regulation -- in fact the government was already very involved. The big banks that engaged in questionable practices and brought about the crisis should have been allowed to fail as the free market determines, and not bailed out with taxpayer money. Furthermore, our government needs to stop employing Wall Street insiders from companies like Goldman Sachs as controllers of our economy within the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury, as it can only lead to abuse of power.

Environment

We should start our environmental policy by first eliminating all the billions of dollars in subsidies to oil and coal companies. If the government had not been providing these subsidies to these industries for the past few decades, the free market would have gotten us on green and clean energies a long time ago. The money saved from these subsidies could then be used to give tax incentives to new green energy industries in the areas impacted by the eventual decimation of coal and oil companies in the area. That would be a good way to avoid government force and fraud through limits and standards in eliminating carbon emissions – to simply stop funding the businesses that create so much carbon emission. I absolutely do not support the recent Cap and Trade legislation – it is just another piece of corporate propaganda that avoids addressing the actual problem and will only create another Wall Street bubble. If government must be involved to address Climate Change (I do not believe it has to be), a national Transparent Flat Carbon Tax while using the funds to bring down Payroll Taxes for businesses is an optimal solution. This solution would allow businesses to hire more people and create jobs while systematically training them to bring down their carbon levels in order to save money – thus not affecting their current taxes and even reducing them as the company becomes more environmentally friendly. Furthermore, tax incentives and credits should be provided to companies and individuals that meet environmental standards, which could be funded with the Transparent Flat Carbon Tax revenues.

Immigration

Essentially, we are all immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, so I am not going to simply close off our country to prevent immigration problems. Bringing new people into the country as good, decent, hard-working citizens is part of our national culture. I support measures for immigrants to responsibly become citizens of the United States, but am against giving amnesty to illegal aliens. We should not reward those who break the law and insult those who immigrate to this country in a responsible and legal fashion. Furthermore, to strengthen border control, we should bring our armed forces home from abroad so that we can employ them to do their real job– defend our country, not protect some global empire. I also support inexpensive, diplomatic efforts to help Mexico and Canada improve their economies so immigrants do not have to enter our country in such a dangerous fashion.